This blog post is meant to accompany our YouTube video about our daily Homeschool Routine. You will find that below is a modified version of the script from the YouTube video.
Welcome to Healing Home where we discuss all things homemaking, homesteading, and homeschooling, all through the scope of faith and gospel living. Recently I received a couple of comments wanting to know if I was going to be doing more homeschool videos and I decided that it would be fun to discuss and explore what our daily homeschool routine looks like this year. I hope you enjoy a look into our daily routine.
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An Overview of our Homeschool Week
I also am a full-time working mom, so our homeschool routine varies according to my workload and schedule for the week. Our two oldest boys will be attending a homeschool co-op on Mondays starting next week and our youngest two will be going to Oma and PeePaw’s (grandma and grandpa daycare).
My mom and dad have generously agreed to continue the boys’ lessons one other day a week, to allow me to go into the office for another day of work. Although I’m very grateful and blessed, it makes planning our week another level of complexity as I try to get materials to them and plan out the week in a way that makes sense.
We are home three days a week and that is where this homeschool routine comes into play. Wyatt is in 1st grade, West is in preschool, and honestly, our two year old Wylder refuses to be left out, so he comes along for the ride, but I don’t do anything formal with him. Regardless if you homeschool or not, I hope that this look into our homeschool week, which is more than just curriculum, will inspire and encourage you on your own homemaking journey.
Homeschool Background
We are in our 5th week of homeschooling and our goal is to be done homeschooling in early April 2025 when we will welcome our 5th baby into the world! It was a very unexpected pregnancy and we are still a little bit in shock. Baby Five will be an Irish twin to Waylin and should be born just a little more than 12 months after him.
Every life is a gift and although are overwhelmed in every way possible, we are looking forward to getting to know this little life and watching him grow.
Moving on from a little life update to back to the theme of this week which is our homeschool routine. Our 5th baby arrival will mean an adjustment to this year’s schedule, but that’s one of the nice things about homeschooling, we have a never-ending amount of flexibility based on life circumstances.
We have been homeschooling for three years, so most people would consider us newbies.
However, I am a teacher by trade and have taught in some capacity preK, elementary, middle school, and high school. By no means am I an education expert, but I will say I feel very comfortable in this realm. It doesn’t mean that I don’t seek out advice from more experienced homeschoolers. In fact, it’s just the opposite, my level of comfort means that I find great value in seeking out those who know more and are more experienced.
I say all of this to hopefully humbly admit that I don’t know everything and these are just our experiences and routines. They are unique to us and our family. There is no secret formula to homeschooling and there is no perfect homeschool schedule. Everyone does it in their own individual way.
Our Daily Homeschool Routine
We’re going to look at a typical homeschool day as we move throughout our morning.
A summary of our daily homeschool schedule:
Early Morning (3:00 am-9:00 am) – Chores, free play, breakfast
Mid-Morning (10:00 am- 12:00 pm) – Group Time, Independent Work (for the older kids), and Structured activities
Lunch (12:30 pm) – Wrap up learning, read-aloud, transition to quiet time, free play
Afternoon (12:30pm onward) – free play, audiobooks, field trips, family time
Although this is our typical homeschool schedule, we do vary it from time to time. There are specific times we like to get things done, especially in the morning, but when opportunities come, I often take them and adjust our schedule.
Find more sample homeschool schedules here.
Early Morning (3:00am-9:00am)
Our days at home start with me getting up around 2-3 am to work for at least 5 work hours between my normal job and business. This means that I typically end work between 8 and 9 am. During the morning time, my boys honestly have some screen time and then some additional free time to play and imagine. During the colder winter months, they often use this time as art or building time. Because of my work routine breakfast is very loosey-goosey and is honestly something I have struggled with forming a routine. I wish we had a peaceful breakfast scene, but it’s usually hard-boiled eggs, fruit, and cheese in full transparency.
After I clock out of work I head down to our guest room/workout room for a 25-minute job and workout. This time is a non-negotiable for me. It clears my brain from work, resets my body, and honestly is the way I decompress so I can focus on my kids again. Without this time, I can’t homeschool effectively. That’s just reality.
This is also the time when the boys complete their chore list, which is typically on the fridge. There morning chores consist of cleaning their rooms and picking up their clothes. \Then there are some more leveled-up chores that we go back and forth with getting them to take ownership of like feeding the animals, gathering eggs, and walking the dog. I consider this just as much a part of homeschooling and book learning because it teaches them to take ownership of being a part of our family.
Chores is a constant growth area for our stubborn boys, but we continue to make it a priority. I have found that our boys are much more likely to do their chores when I’m not hovering around them, which is why my workout is an ideal time for me to remind them to get those things done.
Mid Morning (10:00am-12:00pm)
We aim for about a 90-minute focused school day which includes group time, Bible time, workbook time, and planned activities. This is when most of our schoolwork for the older children takes place. 90 minutes is MORE than enough for a 1st grader and Westy gets a lot less. Maybe 45-60 minutes. My boys are just that. Boys. They are active, and physical, and get distracted a lot by bigger and better items.
We are not afraid to forgo book learning for practical life skills. Last year when we butchered our pigs, Wyatt was fascinated by the process and he spent two days with Dan learning how to butcher an animal. Honestly, that is a life skill that you can’t replicate in a classroom and I’ll never regret forgoing book learning for those two days.
Curriculum
I have a blog post on the curriculum we chose this year and why we chose it. I encourage you to check out the blog post if you are curious about more information on our specific curriculum choices. The main choices for curriculum this year are My Father’s World Learning God’s Story, which includes Singapore math, which is a huge part of our learning this year. We are also doing My Father’s World Voyage of Discovery, and All About Reading pre-reading level. All About Reading we used for both our 1st grader and preschooler.
It’s a great review for Wyatt and is helping to scale up some areas of growth like rhyming, which he just hadn’t understood until this program. They have excellent reading games that help understand reading. Our curriculum varies throughout the year as we reevaluate based on our kids’ growth, but those three are the main choices for this year currently.
If you click on our homeschool picks for 2024-2025 it includes a digital lesson plan planner for free! The lesson plans planner includes a daily block schedule, core subjects, a daily schedule, field trip planners, budget planners, and more.
Group Time
We start our homeschool day with group time. On days when I really feel like I have my act together, we start out with some active songs that use my ukelele. This is mainly to get wiggles out and hopefully help the boys sit still for about the 10-15 minutes it takes to do group time. We review our letter of the week, the number of the week, the calendar, and the weather. Then we read a devotional, do our Bible study, review our weekly Bible verse for memorizing, and then do a game or activity from the All About Reading program.
Group time really varies from week to week and day to day. On Fridays, I often forgo it completely so we can move through our essential materials quickly. I think it ends up being the boys’ favorite part of our homeschool routine, so it is something I prioritize if I can.
Individual Worktime
We typically start our table time with a quick letter art activity from the All About Reading curriculum. Wyatt really cruises through this and often Westy takes a little bit more time getting his artwork to his standards. Our biggest fight of the day is typically over who gets to do their individual work time first. Usually, each boy has 2-3 items that will need sit-down attention from a grown-up.
Individual work time varies throughout the year, but right now Wyatt’s focused time usually involves his Singapore math books and reading. I’m very mixed right now about Singapore math. I’ve honestly already chucked out the textbook and opted to just work through the teacher guide and more hands-on workbook, which still takes a lot of time and wears on Wyatt’s patience. I’m honestly evaluating right now if he is even ready for this level of math, I’m debating about if we need to take him a grade level down, I don’t have a conclusion yet, so right now we’re just doing a lot of helping and showing him the answers instead of expecting him to know it.
Reading and language arts are going much better for him, although he seems to be the kind of kid who would rather memorize how things work instead of learning how to learn it.
Westy’s pre-K curriculum is much more relaxed. We do a couple of worksheets every week to review letters and numbers. Besides that, it’s a lot of activities and reading books together. I really like how Voyage of Discover focuses on teaching virtues, manners, and life skills throughout the year.
Clean Up
One of the most time-consuming parts of my day is cleaning up the tidal wave of mess that comes from homeschooling. I’m a clean-as-I-go type of person, but I learned last year that is not how to do it with homeschooling. I have to let the mess accumulate to get through the lessons and materials in a time frame that hits the sweet spot of my boys’ attention span. Therefore by the time we are done, there is a lot of cleanup to do.
As I’ve talked about in my other videos household tasks like cleaning can be a pocket of peace for the homemaker as we refocus and maybe even take a moment to prayer and worship.
Lunch Time (12:30pm)
On this particular day, our Bible lesson focused on Esau and Jacob. Especially the story of Esau selling his birthright. Part of West’s lesson was to make a stew-like Jacob did, which is exactly what we did. We used as many fresh ingredients from our gardens as we could like the onions we finished hanging and preserving last week and fresh tomatoes. Both boys ended up helping out. I started them out with the kid-safe knives that I really liked but ended up letting them use ‘real kitchen’ knives in the end. They both are quite good at fine motor control and although we supervised them, they did quite well with the task.
My goal with lunchtime is that it signifies the switch from school time to free time and exploring individual interests. In an ideal world, this is also the time I would do our read-aloud book, which currently is still our Laura Ingalls book that we didn’t finish last school year. Although that has been in my plans, it hasn’t really practically worked out. Maybe we’ll get there eventually.
Extended Learning
Although lunchtime ends our formal educational time, the learning does not stop. The rest of the day is for free play, nap time (for the littles), independent work, and exploring individual interests, and as the boys get older those interests start to bloom.
There are so many areas in life where learning continues, like the example I gave earlier of butchering the pigs, learning to build a fire with dad, gardening with mom, cooking dinner together, attending our church Awana program, or going on field trips or camping adventure with grandpa and learning about the iron range in northern Minnesota. These examples are just a few examples of the extended learning and extracurricular activities that our boys do.
This is also the time period that Wyatt will take out his Yoto player and listen to an audio book.
There are benefits to every model of education homeschooling, public, private, or some other model that I’m forgetting. My personal belief is that educational choices should be in the hands of capable parents and that we should all be able to respect the choices of families.
We’ve chosen homeschooling for now and we love it. Every family is unique and because of that beautiful uniqueness, we all will choose to educate our families differently, what a privilege.
Thoughts from a Working Homeschool Mom
I know homeschooling can become a controversial subject for many people and I’m not here to shove a homeschool agenda. I have had many moms reach out to me saying that they want to homeschool, but they are working moms. I very much know and understand that my flexible work schedule is a blessing not everyone has, but I do hope that my working mom status helps others to realize that homeschooling and working is possible. It’s hard, but it is possible.
I’ll end this time of talking about our homeschool routine with this Bible verse which reminds me of our main reason for homeschooling.
2 Timothy 3:15
and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:15 ESV
I hope you have enjoyed this look into our homeschooling schedule!
