What's the routine in your house for your homeschool family?

Question

I have a 5 and 2 yr old. I'm just curious what a day in the life at other homes looks like. We've always had a pretty loose schedule, but I'm planning to start being more structured over the next few months to accomodate my daughters more structured learning needs. Thanks.

Answer 1

i sent you a email

Answer 2

Barb has some very good points.  

We use a routine instead of a schedule.  We get up, eat breakfast, feed the animals, read together, do individual seat work (math, handwriting, spelling, language stuff), practice instruments, do chores, lunch.  Afternoons are for productive play.  You can play games, sort laundry, bake, play in the sandbox, go for a nature walk, etc.

Read to your children each day.  You can read picture books or chapter books.  If they like listening to you read while they play Legos, that's fine as long as you can tell they are listening.

Use art for handwriting.  Have them title their pictures.  They might even like to put several pictures together to make a book.

You can do flashcards, count M&Ms or raisins, sing songs.

Hope these ideas help.  I'm working on a book on how to homeschool Kindergarten, but it's not quite ready yet.

Best wishes

Answer 3

It changes.

We get up depending on when we went to bed the night before and how much we need to get done on a given day. Monday is a big chore day for us, because we are out most of the weekend and people stop in on Monday afternoon. We hustle through chores in the morning, then my daughter studies whatever subject she chooses. Today was American history. She read about Teddy Roosevelt. Then I made lunch for us and two friends. After lunch my daughter jumped rope on the trampoline and practiced for her yellow belt test. We went for a walk. (We were outside so much because it was uncommonly sunny today.) When we came home the mail had come and she had a new Zoobook magazine. She read that, except for a short pause for a phone call, until it was time to go to Community Chorus. I had a meeting. When I got home she was doing her bedtime journeying.

That was today, tomorrow may be very different.

Answer 4

At ages 5 and 2 we spent most of our day in play.  I read aloud to mine when they were that age.  We played with toys and sorted things by color.  They learned letter names and shapes. But we didn't structure things.

I have a friend that starts her children out with "blanket time".  They have to sit on a blanket and play quietly while mommy reads.  They do this every day at the same time.  Eventually they turn it into "reading time" as the children get older.

Our schedule for academics for the youngers (5-10ish)included math flashcards for 20 minutes or so, practice handwriting (drawing pictures of letters) and then reading together and learning phonics..

As they become proficient readers and have all of the math-facts memorized then they start into a math book and do one lesson every day.  

So here's the outline:

One lesson of math -- with a goal of 95% accuracy

One page of handwriting practice or essay

2 to 4 hours of reading; including a lesson in vocabulary.

That's it.  And it is very solid.  The children become very good at learning and are able to study anything and everything that they could possibly want to know.

I'm not "guessing" that it will work. I know first hand that it works because this is what my children did for the past 10+ years. They are now adults and are doing very well at work and at college.

As the

Answer 5

Why does your daughter have to have more structured learning needs? So far she has not been structured, yet she has learned. You will kill her natural joy of learning if you get too structured. Live, love, laugh, learn, and enjoy each other.

Wait until she is older and her cgnitive skills are more developed before you begin to over-structure her life. Be open and available. If she asks how to read, then take the time to show her. If she asks to count, then count. This does not have to be during structured time. Learning is all the time. Make it fun and she will learn. I promise.

I have been living this philosophy for 15 years and I have two kids who have graduated from our homeschool, and one who will graduate this spring. All four of my homeschooled kids are articulate, intelligent, educated, but none were forced to be structured. And especially not when they were so young. And all of them are successful people in their own right. I am proud of who they have become and what they know.

Answer 6

Is there a typical day? LOL.

We usually do "seat work"-- math, language arts/writing for the 9 yr old or reading/phonics for the 7 yr old, for an hour to two, in the morning on Mondays, Tuesdays, sometimes Wednesday, Friday & Saturdays.

On Mon sometimes we work on independent projects/units, sometimes go to park day-- then Mon afternoons there is chess club & at night, karate class.  Tuesdays we always do big cleaning/chores, and they work more in independent projects. Wednesdays a lot of times we take field trips in the morning or afternoon, like nature hikes with our field guides or visiting museums or science centers. Fridays, usually work on independent projects/units till lunch.

Thursday is co-op day from 9-2 where they take classes. Then we go to the park or an indoor playground w/some of the kids and play for a while and unwind. Thurs nights is a flurry of activity, karate class, choir practice, etc...

Friday afternoons we either go to the park to meet friends or go to lego club at the library, alternating.

Saturdays there are wood shop once a month, yu-gi-oh, the other Saturdays we either go out as a family or the kids, weather permitting, go out & play w/friends or ride bikes or go to the park, etc.

Sundays we go to church, Sunday school, then usually visit with friends till about 6 pm alternating houses-- activity of choice is video games.  

I should also mention we homeschool year-round, and living in FL where there is less going on during the dog-days of Summer and many activities are on hiatus, we end up doing more structured work than activities.

Answer 7

Our schedule is pretty loose as well... like my mum says, "As long as you're caught up by the end of the week, grades are good, and the end of the year is successful, it's great."

We usually wake up around 8:00am, but it really depends on how late we stayed up and how good of a sleep we got. Then we'll eat breakfast, and get ready for the day. After that, we start school at around 9:00 - 9:30am.

At around noon we take a lunch break: this includes eating lunch, and maybe watching a television show before hitting the books again. We usually end school at around 3:00pm or 4:00pm... if we didn't get much done during the morning, we'll finish whatever was left after dinner.

We like to take advantage of homeschooling sometimes, so that we can get extra rest and time needed. It's also great for spending time with family.

And no offence to the public-schoolers, but homeschoolers learn just as much in a day as the kids in school do. =)

Good luck!