A Homeschool Day in Our Life
with teenage homeschoolers
Now that I have about a month under my belt with our new homeschool year, I thought it fitting to share a post about our homeschool day in our life. As many of you know, I am a homeschooling mama to four children (can I even call them children anymore…they’ve grown so much). My kids are in 11th, 10th, 8th, and 6th grade. Although our rhythms have stayed pretty much the same as they have in years past, this year definitely presented some new challenges which I have had to navigate and has resulted in a few adjustments. So let’s get into it.
Morning
I typically wake up by 6:30 AM and complete my skin routine and make bed before heading downstairs to let the dogs out. Then I grab a cup of coffee and look over my planner for the day and week to see if there is anything I need to prepare for that day. On work days, I’ll bring my coffee upstairs and do my makeup and hair. I shower and wash my hair the night before which allows me to get ready quickly in the morning. Before heading back downstairs I answer work emails, create IG posts and stories, and take care of any business tasks I need to do before school. I have a strict no phone rule during school time so I keep distractions at a minimum. Afterwards, I’ll head downstairs and make my breakfast. I like to focus on high protein meals to make sure I’m hitting my protein goals. After breakfast I’ll be sure to clean the kitchen before we start our homeschool day.
As I am going about my morning routine, my kids get up around 7:00 AM. They will spend time getting ready by tidying up their room, making their beds, doing their hair, brushing their teeth, and getting breakfast made. They will also complete their daily chores at this time before we sit down for our morning time together. For more on my kids’ chores and how they’ve changed this year, check out this video. Also, you can now find a Chore Ideas List at my shop here.
Homeschool Time
Before I break down our homeschool day, I want to share some of my heart about this homeschool year. I knew that it was going to be a demanding year. When I say demanding I don’t mean BAD. I just knew it was going to require a lot of me and my kids, When my children are taking on something new, it is my job to ensure that my children have my help to walk through any challenges they may face. This takes more time, patience, emailing tech support etc, especially with my oldest daughter who is entering new homeschool territory with dual enrollment that I am not 100% sure of how to navigate myself. So we are learning together. Also, my third child was starting his first classes with BJU, which involved a whole set of new responsibilities for him and a learning curve that requires my coaching to start off on the right foot.
Okay. Onto sharing about the homeschool day.
We have a strict 8:30 AM start time. This has been our typical start time since the beginning and this is what we shoot for. Let me be clear, I am not a drill sergeant about our start time. Sometimes we start a few minutes later. Ultimately 8:30 AM is the goal.
Let me share a bit about some changes we’ve made to our morning homeschool flow. This is the first year we have changed our morning basket time. In years past, we have enjoyed this time together as a family, doing our scripture studies, history, and science. But this year, we needed to make some changes with my kids being older. Morning Basket implies that you are going through a lot of things. But I was determined not to give up this morning with my kids. We just made adjustments. So instead of Morning Basket, we now have a Morning Meeting. The only difference is that it is more condensed. With my older kids doing more history and science on their own, we have cut those subjects out of our morning time.
In the past, I could've spent 2 hours or more just on the morning basket subjects, but I need to be very mindful of my older kids this time. None of us want to have lessons to finish at 3:00 PM. We use our time wisely so we still have time in the afternoons for free time, workouts, etc. So in an effort to keep our morning time together while also giving time for my older kids to complete their more demanding work, our morning meetings only last 60-80 minutes. Priority is given to getting into God’s word, then we try to fit in other things that we find important. Below is a list of subjects we typically work through on a weekly basis.
Morning Meeting:
World Watch News with some time for discussion if needed
Family Bible Study
Scripture Memorization
Daily Gratitude Journals
Read from a Biblical Book (we typically rotate through different ones - for more on this see my membership video)
Daily reading from catechism book
Quick reading of something
Patriots Almanac
Addiction Q&A book
Chapter in Facing the Facts
Read aloud
To learn more about the changes we’ve made to our morning basket check out my video:
Once we complete morning time together, everyone will grab a quick morning snack then move on to independent subjects. Two different things may happen. I will either go upstairs with my youngest two kids and read through their History curriculum while my older two complete their History independently downstairs. Or I will stay downstairs with my youngest to complete a TGTB science lesson while my older kids go upstairs to complete their independent school subjects.
My kids’ independent subjects include:
Math
Language Arts
History
Science
Handwriting
Elective
My kids will move through their independent work one subject at a time. We don’t time block each subject. We complete the lesson for the day then move to the next thing. I do have a daily rhythm for each child outlined. My youngest kids typically follow the flow as it is laid out while my older kids will work through subjects in an order of their choice. To see more specifically what my kids are using for their independent subjects check out these videos.
Another thing that has changed this year is when my children do their assigned reading. I’m not having anyone do assigned reading during school time. Instead, my children do their assigned reading during their free time before or after school or before bed. This is due to the fact that the assigned readers for my children are much longer than they were when they were younger. Noone wants to sit during school time and read a few chapters from one of their books for an hour then have to finish additional subjects afterwards. Giving this flexibility to my kids has freed up a lot of time during the school day.
Around 12:00 PM, we will take a lunch break. This break lasts about 30 minutes. If my kids have anything they need to finish for their school day, they will finish right after lunch. I don’t have a specific end time for our school day as each day can differ depending on the assignments my kids are completing. However, we shoot to be done just after lunch time, although with kids in middle school and high school this doesn’t always happen.
Afternoon and Evening
Once my kids finish their school, the kids are off to enjoy some free time. This has been looking different with my kids being older. My oldest daughter has been taking time to go to the gym and she has also started her first part-time job. So her schedule looks different day to day.
If I have nothing on my work schedule for the afternoon, I’ll sit down and enjoy some afternoon coffee with my husband before we start preparing for any evening activities. Also at this time, I’ll try to run any errands I need to run, prep dinner, etc.
After sports and activities, we will typically eat dinner as a family and then start our nighttime routines. With my oldest daughter being dual-enrolled, I have been utilizing time before bed to go over any college tasks and assignments she may need guidance on.
Around 7:45 PM, after the kitchen is clean, I begin setting the table for the next homeschool day. Once done, my husband and I will hang out for a bit before heading to bed.
To see my entire Daily Routine check out my latest YouTube video.
For more DITL content, check out these videos on my YouTube channel.
Well, that’s it friends. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how our new daily homeschool routines are going over on Instagram and my YouTube channel. Be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss out on new content.
Until next time!
