A Homeschool Day in the Life of a Dozen

Last month I published a post documenting a typical day at our house. Since the older kids had not yet started their new homeschool year, I decided to write another one that included more of what my teenagers do so you’d get a more accurate picture of what homeschooling is actually like at our house. Thankfully, this day was not as crazy as the last time I did this. Phew! Remember that one?? Anyway… 

Welcome to Our Home!

 

4:15 am

I wake up because I hear my husband getting ready for work. I remember to ask him if he has a $1 bill because Bailey (9) has been waiting for a visit from the tooth fairy for three days. Blast my forgetfulness! He checks his pockets but doesn’t find anything. That’s the only bad thing about direct deposit…we never have cash! I make him go out to the truck to check for change. He finds a quarter. I rummage through my purse and find enough coins to make it $1. I put the dollar in place and go back to sleep.

6:45 am

The alarm goes off, and I wake Devin (17) up for work. I go back to sleep. 🙂

7:30  am

The second alarm goes off, and I get up for good this time. I go online and check my email and do some blog maintenance. I hear the pitter patter of lots of feet and soon the house is filled with kids’ voices.

7:45 am

I remind Devin to take her uncrustable PB & J out of the freezer for her lunch, and she leaves to go to work until 3. London (10) comes up to me and asks if the tooth fairy is real while Summer (5) and Kenzie (3) listen closely.

“Of course the tooth fairy is real! Why?”

“She left Bailey $1.05 instead of $1.”

Oops. In my defense, I did count it out at 4:20 am in the dark…

“Well, I’m sure the tooth fairy makes mistakes. She has a lot of money to count out everyday. She’s not perfect. Only God is perfect.”

She looks at me skeptically, and I quickly walk away.

8 am

I search online for something to read to the kids about Aristotle. Bailey asks if they can have chocolate ice cream for breakfast. Distracted, I tell him okay. I don’t realize until a moment later what I agreed to but figure it can’t be much worse than a bowl of sugary cereal.

8:30 am

Caollin (12) asks if they can go outside if they straighten up the living room and dining room now instead of at 9. I agree, and the kids quickly clean up and head outside to play for a while before we start our homeschool day.

8:32 am

I hear screaming outside. I go out back and London tells me that a grasshopper jumped into the tent with Ireland (6), and in her rush to escape, she couldn’t get out the opening. Ireland decides to come in the house and sits in the living room making play money.

 

9:15 am

I enjoy the peace and quiet while the kids are outside and finish cleaning the living room and dining room and start a load of laundry.

9:45 am

The kids come back inside. I take one look at the state of the yard and send them back out to clean it up. I wake Arianna (14) up to keep an eye on Kenzie because it’s her week to be my homeschool helper.

10 am

Time for school! London reads two books aloud to Luke (8), Ireland, and Summer. Afterwards I work individually on phonics and math with the three of them. Luke plays outside while the girls take their turns with me, but the girls decide to play at the table with my Shopkins as I work with Luke. Yes, I have my own Shopkins… I decide to use them as math manipulatives since they’re already on the table. My kids will pay attention to anything that has to do with them. 🙂

 

11:20 am

I finish up with the littles and start working with Caollin, London, and Bailey. We start with our memory verse and then move on to our read-aloud. I stop reading after every two pages so the kids can take turns narrating. Afterwards, I begin working one-on-one with them for math. While waiting for their turn, they do their silent reading and memory verse copywork. Bailey and Caollin both start getting frustrated with their math, so I take advantage of Khan Academy videos. They work like a charm. 😉

 

12:30 pm

Lunch break! I pop a pizza in the oven while the kids either watch TV or play outside. Arianna informs me that she’s going upstairs to take a nap. I swear all that girl does is sleep! Dillon (16) comes downstairs and tells me he’s already done his grammar, vocab., and silent reading for the day- I didn’t even know he was awake!– and asks if he and Caollin can go into the woods by my mom’s house for his science field work. I reluctantly agree- Nancy Grace has made me so paranoid! 20 minutes later I regret giving them permission to go and wake Arianna up to go look for them. She’s not too happy with me, but then realizes that if she takes her tablet she can play Pokemon Go. We text back and forth while she’s gone. She can’t find them. I tell her to come home because they’re supposed to be home in 45 minutes, anyway. I feed the kids and wait anxiously for Dillon and Caollin.

1:15 pm

Chore time!

1:30 pm

My husband arrives home. I tell him my concerns about letting Dillon and Caollin explore in the woods. He tells me to stop being paranoid.

2 pm

Dillon and Caollin get home and excitedly tell me about the animals and insects they saw. I tell them how paranoid I was while they were gone. They roll their eyes because they’re used to it. I finish up Caollin’s math with her, and then she, London, and Bailey start their unit study activities. They watch a video on YouTube about eclipses, and then we read about how Aristotle set science back for 2,000 years. They complete a notebooking page about this, and the school day (for them) is done.

3:30 pm

My husband walks up to me, hands me a dollar, and loudly says, “Give this to Bailey for the tooth fairy,” right. in. front. of. London. I make a face at him and motion in London’s direction with my head, but he just shrugs his shoulders and walks away. Men. I shove it in my pocket and ask Bailey if he wants to go get a slurpee with his dollar. Of course, he says yes. Kenzie also gets one because she was the good behavior winner for the week. Devin comes home from work, exhausted, and heads upstairs. The kids are scattered around the house, either playing on their phones (they’re only allowed on them on the weekends), watching TV, or playing outside.

Arianna carries my laptop into the living room and tells me she has five lessons of Italian to do. (She sets her own schedule.) She does her Italian followed by her vocab. modules. Afterwards, she goes to her room to read and complete a notebooking page.

Dillon tells me that he and Caollin are now going to walk to the creek. I’m more comfortable with this because the creek is out in the open. I remind him about his other school work. He rolls his eyes and says that he already knows.

4:45 pm

While the kids are still outside, I sit down and begin to write a skeleton lesson plan for the following week, and then go online to request library books we’ll be needing. London comes inside and asks me why my husband gave me a dollar for Bailey when he already got one. I chicken out and tell her that he didn’t know the tooth fairy came. I am such a coward. Lord, please forgive me. Fibbing shouldn’t come this easily.

5 pm

I start dinner- pot pie. I call the kids in, and we all eat.

6 pm

Chore time! Dillon and Caollin come home just in time to help. 🙂 They show me pictures of some butterflies and a painted turtle they saw. Dillon also shows me some pictures of a snake latched onto his hand. That kid scares me sometimes. Devin comes down and asks if she can do her school work over the weekend because she has to get up early for work the next day and is really tired. I agree. She’s a good kid and does far more work than she has to, anyway.

7 pm

Devin takes the cats upstairs to give them a flea bath. I’d like to know how inside cats get fleas… Summer runs into the living room to tell us that the ceiling in the kitchen is dripping. Apparently, the cats made quite a mess in the bathroom. My husband runs upstairs to clean it up while I read with Luke.

8 pm

Time for Summer and Ireland to go to bed. I contemplate letting them stay up a little later, but they keep running around the house screaming. Nope. Time for bed.

9 pm

Time for London, Bailey, and Luke to go to bed. Kenzie is already asleep on my lap. I decide to leave her there for awhile because it’s a good excuse for me to stay sitting. 🙂 I turn on a kid’s show on Netflix that I enjoy and begin to doze off. I decide to write my review post the next night. Arianna comes downstairs and asks if she should do her math now or over the weekend. Since I always help her with math, and I’m sleepy, I tell her to just do it on the weekend.

10 pm

Dillon approaches me and asks me why I didn’t remind him to do his algebra. Grrr… I tell him to just take my laptop up to his room and do it now. By now, Caollin has fallen asleep on the couch, and I decide it’s time for me to go to sleep, too. TGIF.

 

So there you have it. People always assume that having this many kids must make my life complete chaos, but, as you can see, there are days that are pretty calm…for us. Thanks for visiting!