I have had the request several times to lay out an average day in our homeschool/life. I can honestly say that with homeschooling there is NO typical day but I can outline about how our day works most of the time. However, your day will vary depending on the ages and grades of the children in your home.
8:00am- Generally I get up. Sometimes this can stretch to 8:30. I am not a morning person.
8-9am- Generally I do all my email checking or blogging or whatnot while I drink coffee. My kids get their own breakfast. They always have. Even Jillian. She likes her independence and will make peanut butter bread or waffles or cereal.
9:30- Usually we start work around 9:30. However, I mean this is when I am available to work with them. Some of my kids are very self motivated to get their independent work done early and will set alars for 6 or 7. They will do their math assignment (lecture and lesson are on the computer) and generally spelling or cursive (for the middle kids). Gabby will often do her history reading and notes. Maddy sleeps.
10:30-Around this time the kids will be finishing their independent work. Sometimes they will need help or I will administer a spelling test or something of the sort. After that I do grammar and writing lessons with Ginny and AJ. I also have Caleb sitting down working on his math, phonics and handwriting. If Jess is here she usually works on reading or math with Caleb and Jilly while I am with the middles.
Noon- We have lunch. Kids still make their own normally. Big kids help little kids. Sometimes I make lunch,
12:30- A few days a week I do science with the kids. This month there is a lot of science because we are preparing for science fair. Other times the kids silent read. By 1:00 the younger ones are often done. Sometimes they are done by 11:00 but that is if they did some of their work at 6 or 7.
1:00pm- The elder girls are still working at this point. Usually a writing assignment or on their history notes or health. They are self motivated most of the time so I just check over their work and do oral quizzes for history, literature and bible.
Evening: Elder girls study for tests, sometimes get a jump on the next days work, write papers or just work on art. We read (when I get my act together) aloud as a family around 7:30 or 8.
I probably missed some stuff because I am pulling this all off the top of my head. As far as planning goes I plan all year. I generally have some sort of idea what I am going to use for curriculum the next year but it will always change, sometimes even mid-year. If we hate something we switch. I do big planning around February. Budget is something that changes from family to family. In general I probably spend the most on math. About $400 for 5 students. But that is so I can use self graded computer programs. It frees me up from having to watch all the lectures and relearn everything. Although I am kind of auditing College Algebra this year so I can brush up and be a better teacher for the girls. For the older girls we use a history/bible/literature program. I probably spent about $450 on those types of programs this year. Spelling/grammar/handwriting I spent about $300. Health was $60 but I bought it used. I try to buy used as much as possible. Science I spent about $200.
Here is a link to the post with all the curriculum we bought this year.
I like to keep my budget around $1500. That is for 5 kids and of course doesn't always stick but I do my best. Information overload is inevitable. But it's best to know what your goals are, what you think is most important for your child to learn and wht you'd rather them not learn.
That's about it!
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