Following on from my post last week about our homeschool rhythm I thought I’d unpack that a little further with a day in the life post that will hopefully help you to see how that rhythm flows in practice as well as give you a glimpse into what home educating young children can look like.
This day in the life is from a Wednesday earlier this month. Lets jump straight in.
7:10 – Today’s wake up call from Bubbles felt a little earlier than usual but it was in fact a pretty average time for her. I quickly snuck into the girls room where Bubbles had already made a spot in her bed for me, morning cuddles are a regular thing for us and it gives Blossom a bit more time to wake up.
7:30 – Bubbles couldn’t possibly wait for breakfast any longer so we girls headed downstairs in our pyjamas to start the day. I prepared breakfast whilst the girls squabbled over some random nonsense which continued on and off over breakfast. Apologies were necessary from both sides and bad attitudes looked set to persist.
8:20 – The Husby left for work whilst we got on with our morning chores. Blossom emptied the washing machine and sorted the laundry into piles whilst Bubbles helped me to unload the dishwasher.
8:40 – We finally finished chores and started table time but Blossom, who was still in a grump following the earlier squabbles was now feeling reluctant to do her maths. Rather than battle it out and force her to work under duress I suggested she complete just the one page of maths today instead of the usual two and that seemed to help.
(On a side note, we’re currently using Oxford International Primary Maths, just in case you’re interested. It’s the only workbook and curriculum we are currently using in our homeschool and it’s working well for Blossom who considers herself “a maths whizz”).
After maths Blossom moved on to her copy work (writing practice) which today was simply a list of words, but some days it’s a line from a poem, hymn or scripture we’re learning.
Whilst Blossom got on with her work Bubbles chose to play with the mathlink cubes for her table time activity and was busy laying them out and counting them with me, declaring “this is good mathing!”
Once Blossom finished her copy work she too joined in with the hands on maths and started to play with the math sticks, as we call them, making up her own sums.
9:20 – Once the essentials were done it was time for my workout. The girls headed upstairs to get dressed and then busied themselves playing for a bit before joining me in the lounge (Bubbles still in her pyjamas!) whilst I finished my exercise.
10:00 – I usually head straight upstairs to shower and dress after my workout but as the girls were both still grumpy and on the verge of another fall out I suggested we do our morning basket straight away which they were eager to do.
We did our morning basket snuggled up on the sofa in the lounge and today we covered:
We read the next chapter in The Jesus Storybook Bible (which we’re really enjoying), looked up a verse and song for our advent devotions, recorded some gratitudes in our gratitude journal and then said a short prayer.
Next up was our art enrichment slot which, as always I started with a poem. This term we’ve been familiarising ourselves with the work of A.A. Milne and today we read “The Old Sailor” from “Now We Are Six“.
Next up was composer study. This term we’ve been studying the work of Tchaikovsky, starting with his ballets, first Swan Lake, then Sleeping Beauty and today we started The Nutcracker. We watched a short youtube video of The Royal Opera House’s “The Waltz of the Snowflakes” discussing the music and story as we watched. The girls remarked that the snow most be getting heavier as the music was getting faster.
On Wednesdays our main lesson is usually history but we wrapped up our stone age studies last week ready to focus on advent readings and activities throughout December. So today we continued reading “How Winston Delivered Christmas” and also read today’s advent picture book, “Babushka.”
10:45 – I finally had the opportunity to get showered and dressed now that morning basket was over and the girls’ grumpy attitudes were gone. The snuggles and books seemed to do the trick and they then played happily together downstairs whilst I got myself ready upstairs.
11:30 – Most days of the week we head out mid to late morning for an outing or group, but not on a Wednesday. Wednesday is our catch up day and the day we have more time to work on crafts. With all the earlier squabbling we were running a little later this morning though and there was no longer time left to fit in the craft I had planned to do before lunch.
Instead I got on with some laundry and prepped lunch whilst the girls continued to play happily in the lounge, singing the Twelve Days of Christmas together as they did!
12:00 – I finally managed to convince Bubbles to actually get dressed in time for lunch and she kindly told us a “silly stone age story” whilst we ate.
12:20 – After lunch we quickly tidied up the lounge together and then snuggled up once more for our current read aloud, “Holly & Ivy” The girls are loving this book and would happily sit for me to finish the whole thing but today I cut it short so we could fit in that craft we didn’t get round to earlier.
12:45 – Time for some painting! As a neat freak I tend to steer away from messy crafts, but both the girls love to create and Bubbles in particular loves the sensory process of painting so I’m making a real effort to include it more often.
Today they painted some colourful skies (a moonlit one for Bubbles and a sunrise for Blossom). Next week they’ll add some black pieces of card to the picture to make some stone circle silhouettes.
13:30 – The girls usually join their grandparents for a playdate on their farm on a Wednesday afternoon but they were poorly this week so the girls joined me on a couple of errands instead for part of their afternoon activity.
First we popped into my office at work so I could collect a few things to work on from home and then we headed to Waitrose to stock up on a few groceries.
15:00 – Once home I prepared the girls a snack and allowed them a mid week movie in leu of their playdate so I could get some work done at the kitchen table. Brother Bear was chosen, one of the movies I recently introduced to help bring prehistoric history to life.
16:30 – The Husby returned from work and thankfully got on with making dinner so I could continue my work at the table.
17:30 – The girls had an early dinner together today and then joined the Husby in the lounge to read books and play whilst I snuck upstairs for a hot bath.
18:30 – Tired and grumpy yet again, Bubbles trudged up the stairs and we started her bedtime routine early whilst Blossom hid in my bedroom, unwinding from the day and getting herself changed for bed.
19:00 – Bubbles is tucked up early tonight with no bedtime call backs. I folded laundry with Blossom in my bedroom and then we did her reading practice together using The Complete Book of First Experiences from Usborne. I then read her a bedtime story from our beloved Milly-Molly-Mandy before tucking her up in bed around 19:45.
20:00 – The Husby and I finally sat down to dinner together and then chilled out in front of the TV to watch The Big Bang Theory for the zillionth time. Tomorrow is his day off so Wednesday is effectively our Friday night so we have that weekend feeling, so much so that I ended up falling asleep on the sofa before retreating to bed early.
So that’s what our homeschool rhythm looks like in practice.
What does your (home) school day look like?
