A Typical Homeschooling Day? Part 1

The Lost FilesPrologue
What a Difference A Year Makes Part 1
Chapter 1: What a Difference A Year Makes Part 2
Chapter 2: Background Influences
Chapter 3: What Am I doing? Part 1
Chapter 3: What Am I doing? Part 2
Chapter 4: Best Laid Plans.... Part 1
Chapter 4: Best Laid Plans.... Part 2
Chapter 5: Socialization? Part 1
Chapter 5: Socialization? Part 2
Chapter 6 : I thought I already knew my children! Part 1
Chapter 6 : I thought I already knew my children! Part 2
Chapter 7 : Leaving the School System Part 1
Chapter 7 : Leaving the School System Part 2
Chapter 8: Choosing Curriculum Part 1
Chapter 8: Choosing Curriculum Part 2
Chapter 9: A Typical Homeschooling Day? Part 1

When people question me about homeschooling, the thing they ask most is "What is it like?" They want to know if having my children at home makes them better behaved, if we ever have bad days, how many hours a day we homeschool, and if we are able to stick to our schedules. Though there is no such thing as a typical homeschooling day, the following journal entries will give you a peek into our days:

Monday, August 11, 2003

Today is the day public school starts in my part of the country. Therefore, I am considering it our first OFFICIAL of day homeschool.

Here is my plan for the day. I made them go to bed early last night to be sure they will have enough rest. Right now, I am letting them still sleep in because it is going to be a very long day.

First, they will spend time on the Piano and then do three subjects at childu.com, which will only take about an hour. Next, we are having a Veteran homeschooling family come over in order to discuss curriculum and ChildU program. We are then we are going to Tae Kwon Do to get in some extra practice.

We are going to have lunch and do some household chores, including making dinner for tonights pot luck /belt ceremony. At 5 pm, we will be re-taking a section of our belt tests. I hope that at 6pm, we will have done well enough to participate in the belt ceremony.

So what am I doing here?

I have to go wake up the kiddies!

Of course, we did not follow that schedule to the letter; we had to adjust throughout the
day. Here is my post from the next day:

Our first official homeschooling day did not go exactly as planned. It actually went better. Here is what really happened:

Because they went to bed early, they got up in good moods. They played piano (30 minutes) and did their lessons (3 subjects each) without fussing. Because the guests we where planning to have over in the morning cancelled, we went straight to Tae Kwon Do for extra practice. After lunch, the kids continued to practice for their belt tests (as they had not passed the test the Friday before) while I cooked. The make up test was at 5pm, and they did well. The belt ceremony was at six. By the time it was over the kids were too excited from the day to go to bed, and did not fall asleep until 11:00.

They are still sleeping now at 8:30, on our second official day of homeschool, and I have no plans to bother them for the time being. This is an outside activities day with Tae Kwon Do at 11:00 and library either before or after with piano lessons at 3pm. We also plan squeeze in swimming (since our neighborhood pool is empty).

By the way, yesterday was the best day I had with my kids in ages. They behaved so well and were so intent on what they had to do that I had to wonder if I was really dealing with my own kids... I was able to praise them all day!

Homeschooling started with a bang! This "first day" had me very encouraged. The schedule worked well for us, for the most part, though on many days our best schedule is an amended schedule. Here is a day from one month later:

Monday, September 08, 2003

Today we over-slept but it was no big deal, as we were not going anywhere right away, we could deal with a wrinkle in our time schedule.

I lumbered into the shower while I went through our adjusted schedule in my head, when I got out of the shower I remembered it was also laundry day and so I just pulled on old clothes until it was time to leave the house.

I wandered into the hall and called for the children to get to their chores. They had already started. My son was out walking the dogs and my daughter was trying not to feed the cats as she had gotten food into their water last time and now the bowl was very disgusting. By then my son was happily plunking away at the piano keys. He has come a long way. It sounded great!

My daughter finally fed the cat, got breakfast and started on the rest of her chores (putting away shoes and straightening up the living room) as my son got started on his schoolwork, which consists of four Child U lessons of his choosing, the word of the day, and a daily online spelling bee quiz.
I got up from the computer to find my daughter who should have been finished with her chores by now, and found her watching TV. Dr Phil to be exact. I scolded her and turned off the TV. She was not happy but she finished her chores and got on the second computer, where I had been sitting, while my son finished his work on the other computer. She did her lessons and finished with her word of the day while my son and I hunted in the basement for a frame for his artwork for the county fair exhibition. Then they got dressed while I tagged all of the work we
were entering into the competition.

My daughter entered a beaded bracelet. She made the beads from clay.

My son entered a 3D watercolor of a rocket.

We got free fair tickets for entering our work! (Both children got second prize

medals and $4.00 prizes)

We got home from the fair grounds around 2:30 and the kids took the dogs out
while I made them a late lunch, and now after 3:30 I am finishing my lunch while
writing this. The kids are doing their quiet reading.

Our school day is done now unless something interesting comes up for us to
explore. As for right now, the washing machine has been going in the background
all day and I have a mountain of folding to do!


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