Our Typical Day
I’m often asked by homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers alike, “what does your typical day look like?”. I understand the question, because I’m always curious about what other HSers’ days look like. And I know that non-HSers are curious, too, whether stemming from their own interest in possibly HSing, or just out of plain human curiosity. I’ve read many a blog where a mom has graciously documented a typical day in their life, and now I’m going to do the same. The following could be called a typical HSing day in our lives, but keep in mind that this is an example of a “perfect” typical day. Many days are not “perfect”, and things have to be adjusted accordingly.
This year we’re using ABeka curriculum for both Arithmetic and Language arts (which consists of Phonics, Language, Reading and Spelling). I really like it and it’s good for G. It’s very thorough for giving a solid foundation in these subjects, which is what you want to focus on for the first 3-4 yrs, at least. It is SOLID, almost to a fault (lots of repitition to make sure the basic facts are drilled into their brains. I personally like this; it makes me confident that he’s learning well…and he is!). There are other good curriculum choices, but ABeka seemed to make it very easy, and that’s what I wanted for our first official year of HS. It consists of daily lessons followed by reinforcement worksheets for Mon-Thur, and tests on Fridays. This M-F schedule is nice in some ways, but restrictive in others (like if I need to take a day off)…it’s my only complaint about ABeka, but so far it’s been something I can overlook. I’ll be reassessing this summer whether or not I’ll continue with ABeka for 2nd grade, or try something else that isn’t so rigid on the strict M-F schedule.
Our Days Monday-Thursday look like this:
After breakfast, we start school with a devotion & prayer, the Pledge (some days we skip this), the calendar & weather, and we go over his memory verse for the week. We are at the dining table for this and for all the lesson work. I require him to sit still and pay attention during lesson time. He has to ask permission to get up, because at first, he was just getting up on a whim to do little things. It drove me crazy and disrupted his attention, so until he is older or learns to sit still on his own, he has to ask to get up.
After the opening activities, I start the lessons with G. (During lesson time, Des will sometimes play on his own, and sometimes I’ll sit him at the table and let him draw or color. I’ve started giving him sheets with a letter to color, to get him ready for his preschool lessons that will probably start this fall.)
I start with a short Bible lesson, similar to a Sunday School lesson, only much more brief.
Next, I do his math lesson.
Phonics lesson is next.
Then we go over his spelling list and do either oral combinations or flashcards to practice addition/subtraction.
Then we move from the table and go sit on the loveseat together, and he reads a story out loud from his reader…this is a nice together time.
All of this is his lesson time, the time where I’m either teaching or working with him (in other words, this is the time I have to spend teaching each day). The total time spent doing lessons is usually 1 hour to 1.5 hours.
After this, it’s G’s “seatwork” time. This is where my teaching responsibility is done for the day (other than helping him when he needs it). He goes back to the table and does his worksheets: one for Math, one for Phonics, one for Language, and also usually one for Spelling, and one for Bible. He also has to do a handwriting sheet, which varies from day to day; sometimes it’s copying his weekly memory verse, sometimes it’s spelling words 5x each, sometimes it’s sentences…whatever it is, it almost always fills up one handwriting sheet which is what I aim for. Usually this all takes him 1/2 hour to 1 hour. He has to be finished by lunchtime. If he’s not, then any leftover work is saved for after his nap/rest time, and it cuts into his afternoon free/play time. He’s usually finished by lunchtime with no problems; in fact, on many days, he finishes early enough to go play outside for half an hour before lunch.
(For Des: once G goes back to the table to do his seatwork, I spend a little while reading with Des on the loveseat. He loves it and is usually more than ready for the one-on-on attention at that point.)
After lunch, it’s quiet time from 1:00-3:30 while Des sleeps (and I have time to myself). Actually, once Des is in bed and G finishes lunch, I sometimes take a few minutes to read out loud to G from a more advanced chapter book…I’m aiming to do this daily. But by 1:00, G has to go lay in his bed and rest; he can either read or take a nap (he still naps on many days), but regardless, he has to stay quiet for the duration until 3:30. This Mama loves her chunk of quiet time during the days, and it’s been enforced here since G was just a little baby.
The only requirement for the rest of G’s day is that he reads independently from a book I approve of (i.e., not comics or silly things) for at least a 30-minute block. This is usually done during the aforementioned quiet time, but if not, then it’s done afterward.
Once Des is up at 3:30, quiet time is over (for sure! haha), they have a snack, and G is free for the rest of the day assuming all his seatwork got done, and assuming there are no chores for him to do—if there is seatwork or chores left after quiet time, then it gets done immediately after his snack. For instance, on days I’ve done laundry, G has to fold it all during the afternoon, but he gets it done quickly now that he’s learned that if he doesn’t, it cuts into his free time.
For G’s free time, usually he goes outside, but some days he stays in and draws, writes, or watches TV. If he watches TV, I let him watch whatever he wants, as long as it is young-kid-friendly (none of the Nick/Disney tweener shows are allowed, for example). Of course, he has to get his TV-watching in before Glenn Beck comes on at 4:00, because that is my TV time! 
I do make sure that on any day it’s not raining, he gets at least a half hour outside, even if he doesn’t really want to go out, because he needs the sunlight & exercise. Usually Philip is finished with his work by late afternoon, and he spends time outside with both G and Des, so that works out great.
Our schedule on Fridays is lighter:
There are no lessons on Fridays.
After breakfast, we do the usual opening activities, and then I give him his tests. First Math, then Phonics/Spelling. He also has to recite his memory verse for the week, plus all the other verses he’s learned already. All of this takes maybe up to 1/2 hour, but usually much less. Then he has easy review worksheets to do for Math & Phonics/Language, while I grade his tests. If he makes A’s on everything, he gets to go out with Daddy that evening or on Saturday morning and choose any sweet treat he wants at the store (usually an ice cream cone). This is a great incentive; he takes it very seriously and tries to make A’s every week—so far he’s only made 2 B’s and the rest have been A’s.
So as I said, we don’t do any lessons on Fridays, just tests and then he has three review worksheets. If he is going to do any structured art, this is the day we do it. The rest of the day goes the same as Monday-Thursday, just with a lot more free time since we only spend an hour max on schoolwork for Fridays.
On days where I have to be somewhere, or for whatever reason am not able to devote the usual time to lessons, I’m able to amend the day by jumping in and doing just the Math and Phonics lessons, and I can leave him to do the corresponding worksheets while I go get ready. These are days in which I choose to get the core subjects done, and the rest can be skipped. And if there is something going on where I don’t have time to devote to even those two core lessons on a particular morning, I’ll either skip it and try to get the lessons in during the afternoon after quiet time, or I’ll skip it altogether and catch up the next day by doubling up on lessons. Sometimes, I just skip a day and then make up the missed lessons by adding them after Friday’s tests, or, as we did a couple of weeks ago (due to my Granny’s funeral), I catch him up on Saturday (horror! Or so G said. lol!). Either way, it always gets done, and it’s not that hard to make sure that it does get done at some point, so as to keep us on the strict M-F schedule (now you see why I have issues with that).
He is not officially doing any other subjects this year. I felt slightly unsure about how to go about official homeschooling last summer, so I decided to just focus on the basic, core subjects this year for 1st grade. I wanted to feel my way through a year before adding other subjects.
With all that said, I do “unofficially” make sure he gets some science every week via his magazines and books. The same goes with history, either via books or his Bible lessons; also, sometimes his official readers have some history, or he gets it via studying whatever holiday is going on that month (I always add in a little lesson during weeks where there is a holiday. Sometimes we check out related books at the library, too).
For art, I will occasionally go through a huge art book that I have, letting him pick the paintings that catch his eye and we talk about them. I teach him some basic concepts (e.g., the difference between portraits, landscapes, and still life). Occasionally, I’ll give him an art assignment based on a concept we learn together, but nothing regular enough to consider it an official subject this year.
For music, we are waiting anxiously to get our piano from my parents. They are giving me their piano; we just have to get it moved from there to here. Once we have that, I’ll start giving him lessons. We’re both looking forward to that. In the meantime, he already listens to tons of good music—the kid has excellent musical tastes (need I mention that there is NO “kiddie” music in this house? Ugh).
Next year we’ll officially add science and history/social studies. It will likely be science one day a week and history two days a week; it will probably add a half hour of teaching time to my 1-1.5 hours per day. So I don’t expect to ever spend more than 2 hours per day on teaching, and most days I won’t even spend that long.
So in a nutshell, HSing is not a huge, all-consuming commitment, like many (most?) non-HSers erroneously think it is. I honestly probably spend the same amount of time teaching him each day as a public-school mom spends getting her kid(s) ready for school, fixing lunches, shuttling them to and from school, and working through homework (the left-over work that PS teachers don’t manage to get done in 6+ hours per day—not so much their fault, but the fault of the typical beaurocracy and heavy focus on social engineering that bog down the typical PS-system). And you know what? He’s learning, and he’s learning well. Truthfully, I believe he’s actually learning better than he would anywhere else, which is why I believe so much in HSing.
So with HSing, I’m able to get my “duty” done all at once in the morning, and by lunchtime, we’re both free to do as we please with the rest of the day. This is an amazing freedom for both of us! And all this doesn’t even touch on issues like not having to get up early (we get up between 8:00 and 8:30 each day), no one having to “get ready” beyond face-washing, teeth-brushing, and getting dressed, and not having to spend money on school clothes. G is able to have a very small wardrobe, which saves lots of money. I also don’t have to be sure G is in bed early since he doesn’t have to get up early. His bedtime is 8:30 each night, right after Des is in bed at 8:15. And I stay up as late as I feel like staying up, since I don’t have to be up early. I do spend around 10 minutes, on average, each night looking over his lessons for the next day, and making sure I have any special materials ready.
There you go. A day in our life. Plus a few good reasons to consider homeschooling your child(ren)! 
