A typical day... wait..is there such a thing?!

I often get asked what a typical day looks like for us, or how I manage to homeschool 3 kids with a baby in tow. Even though no two days are alike, now 6 weeks into school  we have developed somewhat of a routine for each day. 

On a good morning  I start the day around 5:30 ( I'm still working on that!)  I spend that time having Quiet time and getting myself ready for the day.

Once the kids are up (around 7am) we start the day with Quiet Time. The kids do this with Joe and they use the Word of Life Quiet Time. Eli and Eden are on the Gopher level and Micaiah has an Challenger level Quiet time which is required for membership and levels at Olympian Club which he attends each Friday evening at our church.

Next comes breakfast and chores. Each child is responsible for making their bed and then have one or two additional chores for the day. This is all laid out on a chart so the can easily see what to do each day. The chores include feeding the rabbit, emptying trash cans, helping with meal prep, tidying the bathroom and helping with the laundry.

We aim to have all of that done in time to begin school at 9am.  We have gotten better at this over the past few weeks!

Our school time begins with circle time where we open with prayer and then recite our school verse, motto and cheer.  Here is a little look at them doing that earlier this week...

Circle time continues with our morning board. I'll explain more about that in another post.  We usually end this time with a little exercise time (jumping jacks, dancing, a jog around the yard) to help them get some wiggles out before we get to our workboxes.

By now it is about 9:45 and Marcus has usually gone in for his nap.  He is a great napper and will usually not get up until around lunch time making life easier for me in the classroom.  I am trying not to get too used to that because as he gets older I know that schedule will change!  But even the days that his schedule is off, he is happy to sit in his bouncer or in my lap as I work with the other kids. 

Micaiah and Eli start their workboxes.  The first few are filled with things they can do independantly or with little assistance.  I use that time to work one on one with Eden.  Working through her workboxes usually take about 30 minutes and I make her last couple activities ones she can do on her own so I can move on to work with Eli.  We stop for a fruit break once Eden has finished her "work with mommy" time.  When we start up again, Micaiah continues to work independantly, Eden gets back to her remaining work boxes or finds something else to play with on her own and I have concentrated time with Eli.  I usually spend about  45 minutes with Eli and then he is free to play with Eden or on his own until lunch. 

By now it is about 12 and I move on to work with Micaiah for about an hour.  We have lunch between 1 and 1:30 and then the kids go in for a rest time (a time when they are expected to read or lie quietly on their beds.)   If Micaiah and I have anything to finish from the morning he skips the rest time and we do it then.  Otherwise I use that time to play with and read to Marcus, do chores, get dinner ready, check emails and read blogs or whatever else I can fit in to my 30- 60 minutes of peace.  The length of rest time is determined by what afternoon activities we have so each day varies.  On afternoons that we are home we try to fit in science or catch up on any of our history curriclum we have missed othewise the kids do puzzles, play a game, watch a dvd etc, play on the computer, play outside etc.

The kids look forward to Daddy coming home and shortly after it its bath time, dinner time, read aloud/ evening devotions and then bedtime for the kids (my hallelujah moment!!)  And then we get ready to start all over the next day!

So there you have it...  a simplistic look at our day... in reality many a curveball is thrown in there and I am learning to go with the flow and not get too bent out of shape when my schedule doesn't go as planned!