When we first started homeschooling, we didn’t have a homeschool routine. The kids were both in primary grades. My Big Helper was transitioning home from two years in public school, and we were all trying to figure out what homeschooling should look like for us.
With both kids working at such similar levels, we ended up doing almost everything together. They did separate math and writing lessons, but everything else was basically the same – I just differentiated when necessary. It was loads of fun – and it also took lots of time, but that was okay, because I knew those days wouldn’t last forever, and the housework got done eventually.
Over the years, the kids have become more comfortable working on their own. While they continued to work as a team for years, last year they asked for more independent work – and with My Big Helper now in high school, they were ready to do different things.
Now, with My Big Helper beginning her sophomore year and and My Little Man in a mix of eighth-grade and high-school classes, they’re more ready than ever to work independently. BUT, since they are working at the same level in a few areas, they do still share the occasional unit or assignment. Plus, it’s just fun to do things together. We all really enjoy that.
With all of us having different assignments and responsibilities, it’s really important that we know when we’re working together and when we need to knock out individual assignments.
After much discussion and a bit of trial and error, we’ve found a homeschool routine that works for us. It’s not a schedule, because it’s not time-dependent; rather, we do things in a certain order and are flexible if one person needs more time for a certain thing than someone else. Basing our plan off of the order of events instead of by the clock makes for an easier workflow for us.
I think this is in large part because we like to work in projects. Worksheets are really rare here, and even though we’re solidly in high school, the kids still build things with blocks, bake and decorate things, and create art projects. Working with our hands and finding ways to transform themes or symbols from our studies into another medium keeps the kids engaged and thinking critically, as well as letting me see exactly what they know and understand. You can’t always predict how long it’s going to take to decorate that cake or recreate that structure in block form, though, which is why we go with a routine over a schedule.
So what does that look like? Usually, something like this.
My Big Helper and I get up really early. I go running and she exercises to a workout video. I run after my Bible-reading and prayer journaling time, and she reverses that. The three of us are reading through the entire Bible this year, and we each spend time with our Bibles daily. Once per month, then, we sit down with a friend and discuss what we’re learning (though it often becomes part of our meal discussion here). We each take showers, and then all three of us meet up at breakfast, where we play a game while we eat and discuss our plan for the day.
From there the kids move on to science and math. They do these subjects completely independently, and so it works for them to do this concurrently. They both use Teaching Textbooks for math – My Big Helper is taking geometry and My Little Man is studying Algebra 2. From there, My Big Helper breaks out her physics book, while My Little Man stays with his computer for online biology and coding classes. While the kids knock out these lessons, I get as much housework done as I can.
They try to finish these by lunchtime, when we eat as a family – my husband comes home from work on his lunch hour – and we eat together.
After lunch, we take time to read together. We’re always working our way through a book that lines up with our theme, so the kids find something creative to do while I read to them. This is often my favorite part of the day! I love reading with the kids, seeing how excited they still get over the plot and the characters, discussing the decisions made and the reasons behind them. Because these books always relate to our main theme – often a historical event or time period – this gives us a great chance to make this learning more personal. We take our analysis a bit deeper and talk about how it might feel if we were a part of it or how the events will affect people later or how these events compare with others that we’ve studied. What scripture says about the decisions being made by characters in the story or why they feel complicated.
From there, we move on to our lit and/or history work. Right now, we’re reading Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, so that means that we spend some time discussing the piece that we’ve read that day and then watching the corresponding scenes of a movie.
If the kids have anything else that they need to do, they go to that next. At this point, it’s usually time for me to finish some laundry and start working on dinner.
This homeschool routine works really well for us. We all get time to work on projects individually, as well as time to spend together. We have the opportunity to dig deep and discuss what we need to, as well as to explore our themes in more hands-on and fun ways. With My Big Helper hoping to take classes at the local community college next year, there’s not much time left for this sort of quality time with them both, and I’m going to miss it. Investing in them as people is just as important as investing time and effort into their education! This homeschool routine really helps to make sure that we get those most important things done.
What do your school days look like?
Do you have special traditions for the first day? Click here to find out how we make our first day of school special each year.
