Hey friends! We are so thankful for a new year and for this opportunity to share and grow in our homeschooling journeys alongside you. The Homeschool SWLA team had a super fun idea to share what our “Day in the Life” looks like as we homeschool our own families. Just as no two homes are the same, each of our schooling routines look different as well. If you can, please take some time to let us know if this series is helpful for you and your family by leaving a comment on this post!

First up in this series is Chelsea Tademy, our Media Coordinator. She is a mom of 6 who also works part-time running Tademy Photography, a photography and graphic design studio, with her husband Leroy. This is their 4th year homeschooling!

What Our Day Looks Like

Our Morning
I wake up 30 min – 1 hour before our sitter arrives and do my morning chores (change diapers, make breakfast, get myself ready, etc.) The sitter watches my kids for 4 hours while I work. My kids are able to wake up naturally, eat breakfast, and ease into their day, while I get 4 undistracted hours of work done a day.

Afternoon

By the time I finish work, my kids are all up and we can eat lunch together then get started on school work.

We have a dedicated school room that we do school in. Last year we tried doing school in the common areas of our home, and I did love cuddling up on the couch with my kiddos, but having all of our school stuff all over the house made it too easy for my littles to access. It was also hard for us to start and stop school since school was always within view. Thankfully we are now able to dedicate a specific area just to homeschool again!

When we get to our school room, my oldest two children usually go to their desk and start working on their school work, since their work takes longer. Three of my younger children head over to the toys/legos and start playing, while I start teaching my Kindergartener.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten Curriculum We Use: All About Reading Pre-Reading/Level 1 + Masterbooks: Math Lessons for a Living Education: Level K

My kindergartener just finished All About Reading: Pre-Reading and we are in our first few days of AAR Level 1. One of the things I enjoy about All About Reading is that we can do as little or as much as my children can handle each day. If they are excited about something they are learning we can decide to keep going, but if they get overwhelmed, we can bookmark our page and pickup there the next day. After reading we do math. Her school is short and sweet and we are usually done within 15-20 min. Then I send her to play and call over my 2nd grader.

2nd Grade

2nd Grade Curriculum We Use: All About Reading Level 2 + Masterbooks: Math Lessons for a Living Education: Level 2

My 2nd grader just finished up AAR Level 1 a few weeks ago, and we are easing into AAR Level 2. After reading, we do math (which she loves!) She takes about 20-30 minutes to do school depending on what we are doing in reading and what type of mood she is in. After I finish with my little girls my 5th grader usually slowly makes it across the room to ask me questions and have me help him with his work.

5th Grade

5th Grade Curriculum We Use: Language Lessons for a Living Education 5, Masterbooks: Math Lessons for a Living Education: Level 5, Fix It! Grammar Level 1, Masterbooks: God’s Design for Heaven & Earth (Science), and occasionally he practices cursive

We are a Masterbooks family! I love Masterbooks for three main reasons:
1 – It’s a wholly God centered curriculum. We aren’t just doing Bible verses for copy work – they point back to God’s Word in every subject! Our first year of school, my kids learned just as much following the Lord as they did their school subjects. It was a joy to watch!

2 – It is truly an “open-and-go” curriculum. This means I don’t have to spend long hours going over lessons, we can generally just pull out one book (per subject) each day and work on the next lesson without prep or pulling extra books and resources out.

3 – The lessons are short and sweet. I have mostly Elementary age children, and they do about 1-2 pages of each subject a day. Compared to public school this seems like nothing, but the way it is laid out they don’t get overwhelmed by so much work and still really get to practice and learn the new concepts!

My 5th grader can get most of his work done without my help, but I am there if he has questions and to help when new concepts are introduced.

7th Grade

7th Grade Curriculum We Use: BJU Press Literature 7, Fix It! Grammar Level 1, Teaching Textbooks Grade 7, and Masterbooks: God’s Design for Chemistry & Ecology (Science)

The 7-8th grade options from Masterbooks are quite different than the elementary options so I decided to try a few new curriculums this year. It’s been a rough process. We tried BJU Press for Grammar and Math, but ended up changing to Fix It! Grammar and a new for us online option for math – Teaching Textbooks (which helped both of our stress levels). She has a handwriting book that she enjoys working in, but it’s not high on our priority list. Like my oldest son, she can do most of her school work by herself, but I am there when she gets stuck or is learning new concepts. Her math takes about an hour, and her literature, grammar, and science (all together) take about another 30 minutes to an hour (depending on what she has to do that day and how much she procrastinates).

Group Lessons

We do history together 1-2 times a week. We just finished up Masterbooks: America’s Story 3 and started Masterbooks: The World’s Story 1. I LOVE doing lessons together (especially history and science), but it takes a big chunk of our day (about 30-40 minutes) so we don’t always get around to it. We read through a whole lesson in one sitting and discuss it. I don’t overwhelm our history lessons with activities since it is harder for us to work into our day, but we have great conversations and I try and make a few lessons a year include crafts, activities, or field trips. 

Evening

By the time we finish school (about 2.5 hours total) it’s nearing time to start getting ready for activities (ballet, jiu-jitsu, church, etc). If my oldest hasn’t finished all her school she brings it in the car so we can finish up on the go. After activities we head home to cook dinner (or pick up dinner on the way) and the kids relax and watch TV or play together. My “relaxing” usually includes jumping back on my computer to work if I can (running a business means I’m never really off).

After dinner we start evening routines and the kids all have chores. We try and do a Bible devotional together before I call it a night. We are currently going through The Biggest Story Bible Storybook and love watching the free videos for each story from The Biggest Story website!

While my kids have a general time to have chores done and head to their rooms, they don’t always get their work done on time. I have learned to give them (and myself) grace about specific timelines, as long as the work gets done and we get to bed at a decent hour – all is good!

Switching It Up

I thought it would also be fun to share that sometimes we load up all of our school and have “Starbucks School”, which I’m sure you guessed is school at Starbucks! Not surprisingly, school goes by much quicker when you have snacks. I honestly don’t try this much without having Dad join us to watch the littles. If we have really nice weather (a rare treat in Louisiana), we have been known to have a picnic lunch and do history together outside.

Overall, I think my favorite part about homeschooling is that we can do as little or as much as we feel like doing each day. We have our core list of things we want to make progress on, and then we adventure out from there.

That’s it! That a general weekday for us! If you have any questions or just want to let us know if you enjoy this type of post, feel free to comments below 🙂