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This is the third post in my homeschool series. You can find part 1, Why We Gave up Public School and Started Homeschooling, HERE and part 2, Finding the Right Homeschool Curriculum HERE.
This post contains affiliate links. Full disclosure can be foundhere.
Morning Basket
Before I started homeschooling, I listened to a lot of podcasts about homeschooling to get ideas. One of the things that really stuck with me was an idea from Keep Calm and Homeschool On. She was talking about doing something called “Morning Basket”.
My version is quite different from hers but I loved the idea behind it. I wake up the kids and the first thing we do is pull out our “morning basket”. This has all the books for activities we do first thing in the morning.
Table of Contents
The kids all cozy up on the couch under blankets and they are sort of waking up. We are all in PJ’s still and it is before we eat breakfast. This is when I do our read aloud book. We read at least a chapter but sometimes if the book is good I’ve read five chapters in a day because the kids beg me to read more.
Next, we study scriptures. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and right now we are studying the Book of Mormon in homeschool. I bought study books from Red-Headed Hostess and each day we do a page of learning and discussion.
After scripture study, we take out our gratitude journals (a notebook with lined paper) and write at least three things we are grateful for. This is not just the kids but I do this too! I was listening to Brene Brown’s book, the Power of Vulnerability and felt taking time to express gratitude each day would be important to all of us and keeping good mental health.
Then we say a prayer together and go eat breakfast.
Side note: This method of waking up and starting the day is one of our favorite parts about homeschool. When the kids were in public school, we were always running and rushing to get ready and go so the kids didn’t miss the bus or the start of school. Everybody was grumpy and kids occasionally even skipped breakfast because they were so flustered, tired, and rushed. Inside of the rushing we are now all relaxed and happy. It is amazing!
Math, Literacy, Science, History, Geography, Art
After breakfast, we get ready for our day. Then start into school. Right now we do math five days a week. We usually begin with math because it requires the most mental effort. All the kids are on their own individual math.
I help my youngest with Kindergarten Math and then switch to helping my boys. Most days they are able to read the textbook and do the work independently. Sometimes they need my help and I rotate around helping each one.
After Math, the schedule changes based on the day. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we do the Good and the Beautiful Literacy (this also includes geography and art in the curriculum). Tuesday and Thursday we do science and history together as a family.
Occasionally, we add in foriegn language study. We’ve been watching my sister Suzy because she teaches Chinese for kids on Youtube. You can find her channel HERE.
I am an artist and even though The Good and the Beautiful teaches art in the literacy book, I teach the kids a separate lesson about twice a month. We will spend at least 2 hours working on it and creating a painting or drawing so I find it’s better to do it less often but allow more time for completion.
If we are taking a day to run errands, I will put on an audio book in the car. I’m always amazed at how many books we can get through this way. It is usually a book for learning history.
Physical Education
If it’s rainy or the kids have too much energy to sit still and do school work, we exercise. We choose an indoor exercise video for kids or they run around the yard or up and down the street. Right now we are still in our rental house and have a small yard.
Sometimes I have the kids run a certain number of laps around the house or up and down the street. It’s usually dual purpose, good for the body and good for calming down hyper kids. 🙂
On a regular day with good weather, I don’t find a set exercise time or workout necessary. The kids exercise when we go to our land in the afternoon and are feeding animals and working in the garden. This is natural physical activity.
Handwriting and Typing
We also do handwriting and typing but haven’t really been consistent about that. We plan on having this be our summer school activity. Even when the kids were in public school we always did school over the summer and will continue that.
Our summer school isn’t ever anything complicated but worksheets the kids do each day and then a required 30 minutes of reading. This year I am going to have the kids do a page in their handwriting book each day over summer and two typing lessons a week, then 30 minutes of reading.
We’ll take a break from the main course work.
Life Learning
As I mentioned before, curriculum books are half of what the kids learn each day. The other half is learning life skills. You can find the example list of these HERE. After lunch and main school work is done the kids are free to play, learn, and be creative.
Homeschool Schedule Summary
We follow the times on this loosely. The beauty of homeschool is that it doesn’t have to be exact!
- 6-8 am- Mom personal time (This is when I’m writing this blog or editing videos)
- 8am- Wake kids up and start morning basket
- 9am- Breakfast and get ready for the day
- 9:30 am- Math
- 10:30am or 11am-Literacy on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or History and/or Science if it’s a Tuesday or Thursday.
- 1pm- Finish school and eat lunch
- 2pm and on- Chores, then free play, and everyday life learning.
After School Schedule | How Homeschool and Homesteading Work Together
I’ve had a few requests for sharing how homeschooling and homesteading work together so I thought I would share how the rest of the day goes when school is happening.
At this point in time, we are still living in our rental as I mentioned above. We make a conscious effort every day to go to our land, check on and feed animals, and work in the garden.
After school, we usually pack up to go. We bring snacks, any plants that need planted, jackets, etc. If I’m thinking ahead I’ll put food in the crockpot or instant pot so we have dinner done or almost done by the time we get home.
From 2:30-5:30 (at least 5:30 on most days), I am working in the garden. It’s not a ton of time so I work really hard the whole time. I usually will ask the kids to do a task with me for a while. Sometimes it’s weeding, or grabbing tools from the barn, or planting.
I would say 90% of the time the chore I assign them takes less than a half hour and then they can run off and play.
At about 5:30 or 6 we are getting ready to head home. We eat dinner pretty late in Spring because of the increased time in the garden. Most nights it’s 7pm or later when we eat.
Then we clean up dinner, and kids like to play board games for a little bit if there is time. We read scriptures together and pray, shower, then it’s time for bed.
Rainy days
On rainy days we don’t say at our land for long. It’s usually just feed the animals and go home. The days we are stuck inside, I do the bulk of my housework. We clean, do laundry, and do a lot of cooking.
Regardless of the weather, the kids do a daily cleaning job each day. It’s something simple like, “Sweep kitchen and Dining Room Floor”. They also have an after dinner clean up job. After they finish, they will play chess or legos for a long time or go to a playdate.
Even though we do house cleaning and upkeep, I’ve never been super strict about a clean house. It just takes too much mental effort and time. I got burned out when my boys were little and would tornado through each room seconds after I cleaned it. It seemed a useless cause.
They are a bit better now and will at least help 🙂 We do still clean and I like a clean home.
Even though I consider my less than clean house somewhat of a failing of mine, being less anal about cleaning helps me to have more progress and joy in other areas of my life. So, in my mind it’s worth it.
