A Day In the Life Of...

As I promised yesterday, here is our average home school day:

Our typical home school day begins at 8:00 ~ 8:30 AM.  I fix Popsicle breakfast, and after she eats, she gets dressed, makes her bed, and makes sure her room is clean.  While she does her chores, I usually take a 3-1/2 mile walk with my BFF, Dana.

I can already hear the gasps.  Now, before you freak out, assuming that I've left my child alone, let me set your mind at ease. My husband's parents live in a basement apartment in our home.  When Popsicle is done with her chores, she usually goes downstairs to spend some quality time with Nana and Papa before school begins.  She is also allowed to watch one 30-minute educational program while I'm gone.

When I return, I shower and get dressed for the day.  We usually begin school between 10:00 ~ 10:30 AM. We begin each day with prayer, pledges, calendar time, and Bible.

I use Bob Jones' Bible curriculum ~ which I dearly love!  It is divided into 10 units, with special units for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.  It also has a book study that correlates with a missions unit.  For 1st grade, we will read a book about Adoniram Judson, a missionary to Burma. This will correlate with our study on the Apostle Paul and his missionary journeys.

I also like the fact that each unit has memory verses to work on, as well as a hymn to learn. So far, Popsicle has learned some beautiful old hymns and carols, such as "This is My Father's World," "Anywhere with Jesus", "Trust and Obey", "O Come, All Ye Faithful", "Follow On", and "A Child of the King".

It is such a joy to hear her sweet little voice ring with conviction:  "This is my Father's world.  The birds their carols raise.  The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker's praise.  This is my Father's world:  He shines in all that's fair.  In the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me ev'rywhere."  To this day, she still asks if we can sing every song, every verse she's learned.

After Bible, I teach the subjects in blocks.  First Block is Language Arts.  We begin with spelling, then phonics, English, writing, (not just handwriting, but actual writing assignments) and then reading.  I use all Bob Jones and implement another writing booklet from Spectrum.  I also look for writing tips on Pinterest.

For spelling, I add in some great teaching tools I've gleaned from other teachers ~ rainbow spelling ~ where you write each misspelled word 5 times in 5 different colors ~ and magnet spelling.  For magnet spelling, I simply bought 4 packs of alphabet magnets and a cookie sheet at the Dollar Store.  Popsicle dumps out the magnets and spells her words on the cookie sheet.  Still another is the use of the Internet ~ Spelling City!  It's free, and there are several games that use her spelling words.  She loves to do all three!

For phonics/English, my friend and awesome teacher Julie (Popsicle's kindergarten teacher) has a YouTube channel she's composed with all kinds of songs to help teach phonics/English rules.

For reading, I either have her read the story out loud (to check for accuracy and flow) or silently (to check for comprehension).  She completes the correlating worksheet each day.

By this time, Popsicle is hungry, so we break for an hour lunch.  We eat, then have half an hour of free time before we get into our next block.  Let me state that if I notice that she's getting fatigued or loosing her attention span at any time during the block, we'll take a quick 10~15 minute break to clear the cobwebs.

Second Block is Math and Science/History.  I've found that the break has refreshed my little one, and she's ready to rock out the math lesson!  We do a lesson of Bob Jones Math 1 as well as the correlating review sheet each day.  Since Bob Jones' Science and History are written for only one semester, we switch out each quarter.  This way, it's not just one semester of Science, one semester of History.  We have Science, History, Science, History.  This has worked out well for us.

She's learning how to carry in 2-digit addition.

Using Unifix Cubes to help out!

Popsicle applying Mod-Podge to her puzzle of the Lincoln Memorial

Third Block is after Science/History.  Popsicle logs time on the computer doing the computer program Typing Island, watches a couple of Julie's YouTube videos, or plays games with her spelling list on Spelling City.  However, 30 minutes is the maximum she can be on the computer.  After this, she practices her piano for 30 minutes.

Before her siblings come home, Popsicle reads stories from her Young Reader's Bible, plays Barbies in her room or shoots hoops for Upward basketball outside.  Her favorite program, My Little Pony ~ Friendship Is Magic, comes on at 3:00 PM.  She watches that, then her sister & brother arrive home at 3:30.  They do a combination of watching TV, playing outside or in their rooms until dinner, which is usually around 5:30 ~ 6:00 PM, depending on the day.

I also want to say that each day is different.  Sometimes we can zip through Language Arts block in 45 minutes.  Other days, it may take up to 1 ~ 1-1/2 hours.  There have been days when we're completely done with school by 12:30. Other days, we go until 3:00.  I keep my hours in a log book for each week.  I include piano lesson practice for her music, basketball practice/games and AWANA games for PE.  Sunday school and Jr. Church, as well as AWANA are counted for Bible. All in all, we log in around 18 hours of school each week.

I think it's important to note that in reality, most home-schoolers actually spend more time doing actual school work than most kids do in the traditional school setting!  For example, my son, who is in public school, has 2 1-hour sessions of "Tiger Time", a class that shows videos and they talk about issues. By the time you add in recess, lunch, music, art, PE and library, the day is more than halfway over ~ spending less than 4 hours in actual school work!  Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now!

Well, this is our day in a nutshell.  I hope you weren't too bored!