My alarm goes off. I typically wake up earlier and turn the sound off so it doesn’t wake up my husband. I sneak out of bed and grab the clothes I set out the night before, a necessary step to make a quiet morning easier. I head downstairs for coffee, devotionals, and to feed my starter. This has been my wintertime routine, I am curious how the warmer weather will change this! I try to tidy up our school area and prep some breakfast before the girls wake up if possible.

The girls wake up and we get ready for our day. Breakfast is begun and I typically read the Bible to them when they are almost done eating. Lately, there have been lots of distractions and the attention is not there. I wanted to try reading before we begin breakfast so we are still figuring this out. I’m thinking it’s a lack of interest in the book of Leviticus (which we are currently in) after the action pack stories of Genesis and Exodus. The kids are only 6 & 3 years old, who came blame them? After breakfast, A writes a Daily Journal Entry with the day’s date and a sentence or 2 about current life events. She loves drawing a little picture to go along with it too!

The next part of our day is not timed strictly. We follow a flow of subjects each day and keep each one pretty short and sweet. We follow along the schedule written on our white board. My oldest really appreciates being able to see where we are at in our day and what is coming next!

Sometime around 9 we begin our Math lesson for the day. We’re currently in RightStart Math Level B. We are either introducing new information or playing a game to solidify the skills we have already covered. My girl loves a worksheet, so I am actually considering looking for a math option that incorporates more independent worksheet time for practice as well. I sometimes pull out puzzles, counting dinosaurs, or another game for C to play with while I am focusing on the math lesson with A. If we are using manipulatives for the lesson (like an abacus, tiles, or the math balance) C loves to be included so I make sure she has some time with the materials while we are working with them.
Next comes Read Aloud, the girls’ favorite time of day! We usually have a bag full of library books sitting around and they like to choose books from there. We also have an abundance of books all around the house and they sometimes choose their tried and true favorites. We read 2 books at this time, often each girl will pick one. I find a lot of our favorite books come from the Read Aloud Revival monthly picture book lists!
After Read Aloud we flow right into Writing. We are using Primary Arts of Language from IEW this year. A will tell me back a summary of the story that we read and then choose a sentence to quote from the story for her copy work. The workbook we have had some basic sentences and words for her copy work but she was not liking that part of the program. I know she loves to write her own stories and I thought she would appreciate the opportunity to quote her favorite passage. Since we made this adjustment, she proudly shares her copy work binder with anyone who will listen!
Typically by this time, we all need a snack! I sometimes work in spelling while the girls are eating a snack. If it is a more hands on day, we will wait and do it afterwards. We are using All About Spelling Level 1 and I love the multi-sensory approach this curriculum takes. Some days she spells with tiles, some days verbally, others we do a written spelling test. While A is working on spelling, I practice letter recognition with C. We keep some letter magnets on our refrigerator and she will match them to a written letter on a piece of paper. She loves feeling like she’s doing school just like her big sis!
After Spelling we loop some subjects. Since we get Science in our co-op every Monday, we are typically doing History at home during the week. The girls will listen to an audio version of their chapter from Story of the World and color the activity sheet that corresponds. We occasionally do the extra activities, but with my kid’s young ages, we have not pushed this too much. I am just letting them soak in the stories and we get additional library resources on the topics that most interest them. This year we are doing Ancient History (Volume 1).
I also just added in Song School Spanish to our days, albeit inconsistently right now. A loves listening to the songs and I know enough conversational Spanish to teach her a few words here and there that we have not covered yet. I am hoping to use this throughout the summer to continue some learning without a heavy school load. A will have fun with that and I will feel accomplished!

That about covers our typical school day at home! They get art and sensory activities at our co-ops, they have dance and gymnastics during the week and we try to get out in nature at least once a week during these winter months. With young kids, my goal is 100% to foster the love of learning! If they have an interest I want to fan that flame, not douse it with requirements and expectations. I have loved our rhythm of school this year and I am excited to see how we finish it up! Both of our co-ops have a year-end presentation planned, we will be participating in a geography fair in April and I am hoping to wrap up our school year by the end of May!

I’m planning to share more about our co-ops!, our end of year presentations and geography fair projects soon!

Memory Capturer. Educator. Light Seeker.

A Day in the Life of Our Homeschool

— rachael turner —