A typical school day

Typical Monday Homeschool Day

Several new homeschoolers have asked me what our typical school-day is like. No two days are alike, but I do have some “skeleton” of order and routine. First of all, my mantra from the beginning has always been, “we will do Bible time if we do nothing else!” And, some days that IS all we get done. But, at least we have done the most important thing!

Our homeschool days are never typical, but if ever we had a typical Monday, this might be close to it.

I like to get up at least an hour earlier than the rest of the family to have my coffee, prayer, and Bible reading time in peace. I also like to have 5 minutes to look over the calendar for the day and sort of make a plan for the day.

My 6 year old first grader gets up first. He needs less sleep than his younger brother, and his teenage sister. So that’s a very good time to spend that needed one on one time with him. I have a mental checksheet for my younger kids: reading, writing, and math every day. I also always have a focus subject for science and history that I squeeze in whenever I can. Right now it’s hurricanes, and American History.

This morning, I had him read from his reader Bible to me for ten minutes, then we worked on some addition facts for 5 minutes. He is memorizing the addition facts to sums of 5. After that, we go over penmanship practice. I watch him write each of the letters in alphabetical order and correct any mistakes while he is writing them. He has most of them down, now.

He just finished reading a new book, The Magic Treehouse, Dragon of the Red Dawn. So, I had him write the title on a list of books read. Then, we talked about the book (narration covered); about Ancient Japan, comparing it to modern day Japan (I don’t think they still believe in dragons, for instance). A couple of years ago we had 2 young ladies from Japan stay with us for a few weeks, so it was easy to talk about the girls that were here in the context of Japan.

In the book, they talked about the Japanese poetry, Haiku. At the end of the book, they challenged him to write his own Haiku, which he promptly did! Here is Michael’s first Haiku:

“When I watch Spongebob
I like to see him laugh
When he laughs, it makes me laugh, too!”

I know, it doesn’t really follow the rigid structural format of five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. But, not bad for a first poem, I thought. Now, poetry really wasn’t on my agenda for a couple more years, but am I going to squelch a young poet? No!

Now, I have checked off my mental checklist: reading, writing, and math - all done in less than an hour!

As soon as his little brother got up, he proudly told him that he was a poet and read him his first Haiku.

After feeding the boys and myself breakfast, I helped them brush their teeth, and get dressed. They were wound up a little, and daddy needed to sleep in because he has to work a 15 hour shift starting at 4 p.m., so we went outside to play in the back yard.

Before going out, I opened my daughter’s bedroom door and told her it was time to get up. A sleepy, “uh-huh” was heard. Being a teenager, I think she needs more rest, so I do let her sleep in when possible. But she knows she’d better get up when I tell her to, or I’ll send one or both of her little brothers into her (forbidden) space to convince her to get up.

Once outside, I let the boys run off some energy climbing in the treehouse and holly tree. I took a book with me to read at my oldest daughters request. I love that she is seeking my advice again! It’s about dating for the single young woman. She’s still searching for Mr. Right. At 23, she’s beginning to fear she’ll be an Old Maid. A few weeks ago, she asked me if she was being too picky. Absolutely not, I reassured her! I little thing like marriage till death do us part is not to be taken too lightly.

After a little while, JP wanted to be pushed on the swing. So, I pushed him and we counted the pushes (math done), and sang the ABC song a few times, then recited the days of the week and the months of the year. Then we played the rhyming game for a while. What rhymes with tree, sing, and dog, etc. (reading readiness – check!).

Michael found a locust shell. So, we talked about locusts, and how they shed their shells, and how it must be locust season when he found another one nearby. He wanted to take them in to look at them under the microscope (science done).

He then had another Haiku for me to write down for him:

“Once there was a frog
Hopping in the pond
Then he jumped into the pond for a swim.”

Now, big sister is dressed, breakfasted, and ready for Bible Time. We spend some time praying, working on our memory verses, and singing some hymns and children’s Bible songs. I’m reading to them from Golden Press Children’s Bible. Today’s reading was about the children of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. I try to impress upon them how long 40 years is, and also the reason for the wandering (their disbelief in the promise of God). We check the map to see where this took place. (Bible and geography done). A friend called during this time, but it wasn’t a good time to stop and answer the phone, so I let the answering machine get it. I’ll call them back later.

After Bible Time we have a 15 minute cleaning time. We set the timer and then all clean a designated area as fast as we can, to the best of our ability (I’ve been reading too many President books lately). Today we are dusting the family room. Of course, only Caitlin and I are really doing any real dusting, but the boys are with us, and they feel like they are doing their job. I put on the music from Louis Armstrong to make it more fun. The boys think it would be a more wonderful world if we didn’t have to do chores, but I try to remind them that no one likes living in, or even being in a dirty house. They don’t think it’s so bad! But we dust, to "What a wonderful world", anyway.

Daddy is up now, and checking on Hurricane Ike. We spent some time looking at the radar, reading the meteorologist discussion, watching the weather channel update, and discussing Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the West Indies, and looking them all up on a modern day map. We recently read the Magic School bus "Inside a Hurricane", so we reviewed different aspects of hurricanes and weather forecasting. (more science and geography done).

I have a work-from-home part-time job with some things I have to get done before noon. So, I let the boys watch “Ben and Me”, a Disney animated short about Ben Franklin (available at the library on a DVD called Disney rarities). I sent my daughter to get some of her Algebra done before she goes to babysit. In the younger grades you can get away with this informal school I've done with the boys, but by the time they're in middle and High school, they have to have a lot more structure to their day. Consquently, Caitlin has a lot of independent studies that she does on her own.

Time for lunch, and look how much we got done!! I have to drop off my daughter for babysitting and run some errands while I’m out, to save time and gas. To the library, the pet shop for crickets for our pet gecko, and to the bank and pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. Thankfully, all these places are within a few blocks from home!

Back home I find that daddy and the boys have out a tape measure and are guessing at the length of the sofa and then measuring it to see how close they were to their guess. Then, he starts telling them the length of the longest snake ever found and measuring out how long that would be in our hall. I definitely hope that snake does not find it’s way into our house!

While they are busy, I return the call to my friend, then I get on the internet and find some Haiku’s that I can read to my budding poet. After reading a few and discussing the rigid structural format of five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third, my son says, “those are nice, but mine is better”. He certainly doesn’t suffer from low self-esteem! Maybe I should plan in a review of being meek and humble, I think later.

He reads to me for 15 minutes, from a book about the American Revolution, The 18 Penny Goose, by Sally Walker.

I read to him some info I found about the Monroe Doctrine for our co-op on Wednesday. “Can’t you just write it for me to read?” he asks. “Sure, but I want you to understand what it is you are reading to the group”, I say. So, after more discussion, I feel like he has an elementary understanding of Foreign Policies. Next week I hope I choose a topic for him that is a little more on the level with what a 6 year old can really grasp.

Caitlin comes home, and I read to them all from "The Usborne Book of America", and "If you Lived at the Time of the American Revolution". After daddy goes to work, Caitlin goes off to do her independent studies, and I make the boys lay down and listen to a book on tape, an Adventure in Odyssey on the American Revolution.

While they’re resting, I check over my calendar to make sure I didn’t miss anything important, check emails, and then start taking the wallpaper off the bathroom wall. (It really was a planned activity, not just a whim or me loosing it!) When the boys tape is over, they come to help me. They’d rather rip wallpaper off the bathroom wall than play with legos, can you believe that? Well, if you’ve ever had two boys who were 4 and 6, you could!

The rest of the afternoon, we play in the bathroom until time for dinner. After dinner and a bath, I let them watch a taped recording of “Liberty Kids”, while I type this blog. I really wish I’d taken the time to get a picture of my bathroom with the wallpaper all over the floor, and two happy boys who just wanted to Help Me!