Homeschool Day with Ages 10, 9, 6, 2, and a Baby

Welcome to my annual recording of a somewhat average day in our homeschool! I love getting a peek into the many ways different families make homeschooling work for them. So I will be linking up and reading every single entry on Simple Homeschool's Day in the Life link up and I'm also linking up with Rosie. 

Things are hard this winter (every winter?!?!?). I feel like I emerged from postpartum recovery and baby blues to a busy Christmas followed by pandemic fatigue. And as much as I try to shield them from worries and cares, my kids are more stressed out too. And with so much indoor time and monotony, there has been more sibling conflict and acting out in other ways too.

So in the last month or so, we have really been doubling down on connection and good habits for everyone in the family. All this is just to say that as today unfolded I could see that it went well because of the work we have been putting in. Some other days this week and month did not go nearly as well! So if your days happen to be very difficult right now, I can relate and I hope you can get some relief soon. It isn't always easy to see a path to easier, harmonious days, but I believe it is usually possible to find some way to move forward. 

As for us, my husband and I are refocused on positive parenting and working through Dr. Laura Markham's Peaceful parenting course (not an affiliate link ;-)). It is helping all of us deal with big feelings during a difficult year.

This day finds us 4 days into our third 12-week term, just after a full week off which was preceded by an exam week, so we are getting back into the swing of things. 

This post contains affiliate links to Amazon and Reading Eggs. Read my full disclosure to learn more.

6:30 Wake Up

My husband and I get up later than usual because we went to bed late and his sleep was interrupted by 2-year-old Harry. Lately, he has been in a great habit of getting up at 6:10 for his own quiet reflection time. Sometimes I even get up and exercise . . . but usually I just rest in bed with or without the baby. Today, he gets the baby ready and starts breakfast while I shower. My (almost) nonnegotiable self-care practice is showering before breakfast. It really helps my mood, especially in the winter so I have been forcing myself to do it every day.

Breakfast

We gather around the table for breakfast made by my husband. He has been making my breakfast for over 10 years at this point, and I know how lucky I am! I do not like cooking first thing in the morning, especially if it means juggling a baby and getting a toddler ready . . . but he often does those things too. Today, I help Harry get ready while he finishes making breakfast. 

Eventually, we all settle in around the table and I read our weekly poem and a few books as part of our simple morning time. Today we read:

Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett (Story of Moses in the Bullrushes)

Amelia Earhart: Courage in the Sky by Mona Kirby

The Tree Book for Kids and Their Grown Ups [This is truly an amazing book, FYI! And I don't say that lightly...]

After Breakfast

We leave the table around 8am. The older boys do their cat care chores and then 10-year-old Peter gets right to work on his school work for the day. Much of the year, he would start working even before breakfast, but winter has even slowed him down! He has a list of subjects to do each day and week, but he has some flexibility on how to do them. He mainly works at a folding table in my bedroom that is only a few steps away from the kitchen. Today finds him:

• Reading, narrating to me via voxer, and doing an experiment from Blood and Guts by Linda Allison
• Completing a lesson in Intermediate Language Lessons
• Reading and narrating to me via voxer from A Place to Hide by Jane Pettit 
• Completing 30 minutes of work in The Art of Problem Solving: Prealgebra
• Reading, narrating to me via voxer, and labeling a map from Book of Marvels: The Occident by Richard Halliburton, then watching a related video
• Copying a sentence into his commonplace notebook

More of his books and lesson plans are here.

Similarly, 9-year-old John has been listening to audiobooks after breakfast when he used to prefer to get his "computer work" done first thing. Instead, he will wait until 9am when I tell him to get started.

Matt gets ready for the day and leaves for work, I do chores and check my email and get homeschool books to the table. Here is where I need to be honest and say that homeschooling 6-year-old Sylvia has been very challenging this year and hasn't really gone as planned. After taking some time off from requiring her to do set things at set times, we are trying to work out a predictable, gentle schedule that works for all of us. 

Lesson Time

I try to start with some connection time with Sylvia around 8:45. Today I offer to read a book or sing a song with her. She chooses There's A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea which is our current folksong so we sing that together and then move to the table where we work on the following:

• I read to her Now We Are Six, one of her two current recitation pieces
• One lesson in Kindergarten Math with Confidence, which we just started this week because I realized she needed something very short, sweet, and easy but more methodical.
• One page out of her Highlights handwriting book
• One chapter of Jenny Goes to Sea by Esther Averill, her current geography book

Sadly, homeschooling had become a power struggle with her in recent months and we are trying to overcome this with higher support and clearer expectations. Today went really well and I can see that what we are doing is working. Part of the math lesson was shopping with pennies at a pretend store and we had a great time. She did the handwriting while sitting in the baby's booster seat which was a perfectly fine accommodation that works for me.

At about 15 minutes in, I call John down from his audiobook so he can do his independent work:

• Xtramath subtraction practice
• Explode the Code Online
• cursive handwriting practice

Originally, I didn't want to include computer work for my young children. And my oldest never had to drill on any math or phonics facts. However, drilling in math and phonics on the computer has been a great fit for John. He likes being able to work independently so that he can wait until his mind is ready to focus. 

He has grown so much in maturity, ability to handle frustration, and ability to read this year . . . it is like night and day from even a year ago. And I think part of this is due to drilling on the computer where he can choose to hit start when he is ready and where he does not have to write anything.

After this work, he takes a few minutes break and Sylvia moves over to work on Reading Eggs. She really enjoys reading eggs and has been reading more and more on her own initiative. When she doesn't understand something, she gets VERY frustrated, but today she remembers to ask for help and I can help her figure it out. Progress!! Reading Eggs also interests 2-year-old Harry giving me time to focus on John. I don't love having my 2-year-old's eyeballs glued to a screen for 20 minutes but it really helps me meet John's needs.

Soon, I'm with John at the table for his table work time:

• I read The Passionate Shepherd to His Love one of his three current recitation pieces
• We read half a chapter from Our Country and Its People by Will Seymour Monroe and Ann Buckbee [free Google ebook] after looking at a relevant page from our atlas and he narrates.
• He works on Beast Academy 3C Division section for 20 minutes. 
• More of his books and lesson plans are here.

Today, there are some tears and frustrations involving math. This frequently happens when he doesn't instantly understand something. I help him calm down. He figures it out and all is well . . .until the next time this happens. He is so afraid of not being able to understand it. Often, if we end the lesson with confusion, all is well the next day when his mind is fresh. I am trying to help him remember this.

While John is at the table:

• The baby is extremely fussy and crying and cannot be soothed by normal means (nursing, toys, diaper change, changing position/location).
• Sylvia needs help with reading several times.
• Harry needs bathroom help.
• Peter is waiting for me to be available to do spelling with him so he is continuing work on a quilted placemat project and ironing in the kitchen at the counter.

John finishes his work and the baby finally is ready to lay down for his nap. Yay! I encourage everyone to play outside or in the basement and they all head downstairs, except Peter who is using the sewing machine upstairs. He is happy to come down with his first completed project from Sewing School Quilts.

Playtime

Everyone is occupied which doesn't happen often so I race around and strain the kefir and start prepping dinner (at 10:30 AM) and break to dictate some spelling sentences from All About Spelling level 5 to Peter. Then he watches CNN10 and heads down to the basement with his siblings who are busy building an odd contraption with a pogo stick and scrap wood. Normally John joins him for CNN10 but since he is playing so nicely in the basement, we don't remind him about it. 

The baby is still sleeping. I have not been great at getting this baby to be a good napper, so his naps are not predictable and sometimes are as short as 20 minutes. Today he takes a nice, long nap, so I am way more productive than usual and do my state taxes online . . . except that right before I submit them I realize I incorrectly entered my husband's W2 from 2019 and I need to call the kids up from the basement, pick up a crying baby, and nurse him on the couch while I put in the correct W2 and submit. Whew!

Piano and Reading Time

At 11:30ish, I get Peter and John onto their next thing which is alternating reading and piano practice with Hoffman Academy. Peter reads books of my choosing, alternating between a literature book and a biography, currently Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott and Gallileo and the Magic Numbers by Sidney Rosen. John is reading his first chapter book series, Dragon Masters.

Meanwhile, I snuggle up and read to Harry and Sylvia. Today Sylvia chooses to read some board books to me. Then I prep a simple lunch of homemade bread, cheese, bananas, and some leftovers. And I eat my lunch so I can read while they are eating.

This will be the last Thursday like this for a while. For the next 12 weeks, I will be packing up some or all of the kids at this time and driving 20 minutes to pick up Sylvia at her 1 morning a week forest school program. 

Lunch and After

Everyone makes a sandwich and eats while I read from our current books, The King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry and Alice's Farm: A Rabbit Tale by Maryrose Woods. 

After lunch, I get the dishwasher going and most kids move on to playing or projects in their free time. John is still hungry and decides to make an omelet for himself for the first time with advice from me and Peter, who made his first omelet on Tuesday. 

In the nick of time, Peter reminds me that his every other week ASL Zoom class (through a local library) just started, so I get him set up. On alternate Thursdays, we watch a live SQUILT class. I signed up for SQUILT this winter and we have been enjoying it and might renew it for another few months next year.

Baby George helps me work on my focaccia for dinner and Sylvia starts making some kind of house for herself out of cardboard and packing tape. Harry is building with magna-tiles and I get to read my book (North and South, one of the books on my 2021 Reading list) while supervising George trying to destroy Harry's buildings. John is upstairs building something from a kit. 

If we are home in the afternoons (as we have been a lot lately due to cold temps and frequent snow) the older kids know that they have to work on handicrafts or hands-on projects and complete some fun workbook pages (sticker books, mazes, dot to dots, brain puzzles . . . just something to keep them occupied and switch things up from just audiobooks and reading) if they want to take turns playing Roller Coaster Tycoon or some other older video game.

After tidying up the house, the kids take turns playing video games together. Currently, they are playing Roller Coaster Tycoon and Gorogoa. We used to limit video games to the weekends, but my standards have really relaxed during the pandemic. We even own a tv again after not having one for the last seven years. I can tell you that family movie night got A LOT nicer since we stopped hovering around my laptop. Hahahaha!!!!! I alternate watching with them, finishing dinner, baby care, talking to my mom on the phone, and my ebook. 

Matt walks home in the snow sometime after 5:30. He is back to teaching his college classes with some in-person students and the rest online as the students are slowly transitioning back to campus after winter break.

Dinner and Bedtimes

We eat dinner together. I eat fast and then take over baby duty while everyone else finishes. Then we help clean up. Daddy has a special time roughhousing with the kids while I wind down with the baby on the couch and finish my book. My husband gets Harry ready for bed at 7 because he could really use a nap, but doesn't take one. Very thankfully, he runs and unloads the dishwasher for the second time of the day.

Recently, Matt decided to reserve Thursday evenings for playing Dungeons & Dragons with Peter and John and tonight will be their first real session. And we just realized that it conflicts with our usual time for reading our Shakespeare play together, which we will move to another night going forward. So we start our new play Coriolanus earlier than usual and read for about 10 minutes. Then it is time for Sylvia to get ready for bed and Daddy reads her night book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. 

George is nursing down for the night and then I can read my book and zone out to some tv and a snack. As much as I would love to be someone who still has energy in the evenings for cleaning, online shopping, emails, blogging, or whatever, I am not that person! Except for throwing in some diaper laundry a few nights a week, I am reliably down for the count by 8pm . . . . and in bed by 10:30 . . . I always wish it were earlier, but I can't seem to let go of my precious quiet downtime.

Other days of the week

Every day is the same . . . almost. Next week, Sylvia will start forest school one morning a week. In a few weeks, I anticipate that we will start going to our year-round all-weather nature group again on Fridays. We stopped attending at Thanksgiving when my mom moved down the street and we chose to spend time with her over spending time with anyone outside our family. But after she gets her 2nd vaccine dose, I will feel better mingling with a handful of our nature-loving friends. Until then, we will continue our weird, and wearying, but not terrible, pandemic stay-at-home lifestyle.

Here is how our days have changed over the years:

• Homeschool Day with Ages 9, 8, 5, and 1-year-old
• Homeschool Day with Ages 8, 6, 4, and Baby
• Homeschool Day with Ages 7, 6, and 3-year-old