Those of you who have read any of these great books about classical homeschooling have, if you’re anything like me, shut the book and said something like, “Yeah right.”
All of this sounds fabulous, but real people like me can’t possibly accomplish all that these books lay out.
And then, if you’re anything like me (stubborn, determined), you try anyway.
This is my try at actually making a classical education happen for my third grader, with 3 other littles in the house causing havoc whenever possible. So take this daily plan with that grain of salt. There are a lot of diaper changing, fit-throwing, snack-time interruptions to our school day around here.
Here are a few key points that make this workable:
1) This is a rhythm, NOT a strict schedule. This is my guideline everyday, but each day veers off course in one way or another.
2) Almost all my prep is before the school year starts. This means I have a master list for the year. That sounds good, but it’s nothing more than a list of the lessons in each book we’re working through. Sunday evenings I prep the upcoming school week, i.e. I make sure it’s all typed up in my Homeschool Skedtrack software. This takes about 15 min.
3) Our 9-noon school block always starts with math, but Bobby chooses the order in which he gets the rest of his stuff done.
4) Also, when the littles take me away from school with him, I tell him to work on something in his notebook that he can do without me. The order of lessons after math changes everyday, this section is super fluid with 3 littles!
5) We do this 4 days/week. Thursdays are for appointments and projects. I am not a project person because I strangely feel guilty about book work we could be doing instead. However, having a whole day dedicated to science, history, and cooking projects has been really freeing and fun for everyone!
6) I have an Everything Bag that keeps all our necessities in one place, no matter where we migrate in the house to do school work.
7) Some days, I throw in the towel. Just sayin’.
Our “Day in the Life” looks something like this:
7:30 Wake the two biggest kids up (babies sleep as long as possible), prep breakfast, I write Bobby’s assignments and chore for the day. On rare occasions I’ll already have this done from the night before. I use Sarah Mackenzie’s spiral notebook method and highly recommend it.
8:00 Breakfast. Each person is usually reading their Bibles at breakfast.
8:30 Bobby starts math independently if I’m not ready for morning time yet.
Morning Time with everyone: songs, catechism, Bible, poetry, Shakespeare. This is everyone’s favorite! I try to end MT with our read-aloud for that day while Bobby does his handwriting or drawing to keep occupied & listening quietly. Sam and LuLu will sometimes listen in while they draw with crayons or play with quiet toys. This prevents “listening to Mom read” while practicing ninja or Star Wars action moves in the living room.
9:00(ish)-12:00 Morning School Block: Finish math that he needs me for, then grammar, writing, history. These are short lessons that get very interrupted.
10:30 Put LuLu down for nap. Either wear the baby for her nap or put her down too.
12:00-1:00 Lunch & free reading
1:00-2:00 Mandatory play outside.I don’t care if it’s raining or not, the older two need to go spray energy at the world by this point. I re-gather sanity & do household admin (phone calls, pay bills, make more coffee).
2:00-4:00 Afternoon school block: finish anything that didn’t get done, usually grammar and either Latin or spelling. Sam takes a nap. Thank heavens she still does most days! Sometimes everyone will do quiet time in their respective rooms with an audiobook and quiet play with Legos or something similar.
3:00-5:00 Outside play, run errands
5:00-6:00 EHAP the downstairs (Everything Has A Place) and prepare dinner. Everyone helps pick up & we dance a LOT. Sometimes dinner is late because we dance. I’m cool with that.
6:00-7:00 Dinner
8:00-9:00 Family prayers, kids in bed, audiobooks
There you have it: A day in the life of our classical homeschool.
