Homeschooling Day in the Life: Abby, Homeschooling Mom of Five Children, Ranging from Toddler to Teen
A homeschool day in the life looks different almost every day, right? Over on our Instagram page, we love to give you a peek into lots of homeschool days regardless of how they change day to day.
Today, we’re going to give you a peek into the homeschool day in the life of Abby, homeschooling mom of five children, ranging from toddler to teen.
We can all learn and be inspired by one another, regardless of our homeschool approach. It’s not about looking good for social media, it’s about the connection going on inside our homeschool walls and sharing with others what works for us.
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We might all homeschool a little differently, but we can always look for ideas from each other that inspire, encourage and equip us in our own homeschool days. So each week we create blog posts for you to access later of each of those “days in the life”. We hope you keep coming back for more inspiration. Keep going, mama! These days at home are so worth it!
Meet Abby
Abby @rootedinrest and her family live on the coast of sandy, sunny Florida. She and her husband are high school sweethearts, and they have 5 children – toddlers to teens! They have one not yet in school, two in elementary, one in middle, and one in high school.
She has been homeschooling since 2012 (if you count preschool) and she loves it MORE the older her kids get. Abby has found so much joy along the entire journey, and never expected the middle and high school years to be her FAVORITE, but they have quickly become just that.
Abby and her family travel frequently, enjoying the flexibility of home education coupled with business ownership. However, their older kids are very involved athletes, so it keeps them grounded to a strict schedule for the most part these days.
Follow along as Abby shares a typical day in their Charlotte Mason-ish homeschool!
Good Morning!
Good morning ☀️ I’m excited to be spending the day with you all. Thanks for having me!
My day runs in chunks of time, that’s how I can best tackle a wide age range and a lot of responsibilities. So welcome to my 5-8am shift! My weekday routines are quite predicable and always include coffee, a workout, some homemaking, breakfast for my crew, and some Bible time.
This morning I finally peeled myself (with the help of my early bird husband) out of bed around 5:35 and we got straight to our workout. It was arm day, and we finished it off the way we always do – a little sunrise jog. Some days we run a few miles, some days are weight days, and we always cap it off with some fresh air afterwards.
We have a lot of mouths to feed, so I spend a good deal of my mornings in my pantry with some sourdough. Omelets were on the agenda this morning, much to my toddler’s dismay. My kids have a laundry schedule, so if i want to get a load into the wash, I can sneak one in before they’re all up. Once breakfast is ready, my husband wakes the rest of the kids up (our teens alarms go off around 6:15), and I do my personal Bible study while they’re all slowly getting going for the morning. Now it’s 8-ish, and we’re heading into the next portion of our routine.
Bible Time, Chores, + Extras
The next part of our day runs from 8-10. Each of my kids have a schedule in their binders (and I also have it hanging in our school room). This schedule gives a rough idea of what I’d like them to do during each section of time. I like to encourage them to make their own decisions within those time boundaries, rather than breaking down the order of operations for each of them all day long. I’ve come to realize over the years that time management is a learned skill, and I’d really like my older ones to have as much practice as possible in this area. I will share more about our schedules in stories this afternoon!
Between the hours of 8 and 10 is when I ask that they complete their personal Bible time, their chores, and any extra practices (music, tumbling, running football drills outside) they may need before the pace of our day picks up. Beyond that, they’re usually playing outside, riding scooters, crafting, or just plain hanging out.
At this time, I am able to spend time with our toddler, catch up on housework, and put any final touches on our school prep for the day. Today I used this time to swing outside with my toddler, play play-doh with my 7 year old, clean out and do a mid-week restock on the snack bins, and tackle the laundry that was quite literally sitting in the chairs staring at me when I walked in the room 😂
It feels a little backwards, because when my kids were all young we absolutely had to capitalize on our mornings to get going with school before they got too distracted, but because my older kids have a demanding athletic schedule in the afternoons, this is where I can fit some margins of mental rest in for them, as well as building in some of the time I need to get things done before I’m driving around in the afternoons. It’s also when I shower, with 5 kids, I really do have to factor that into our schedule 😅
Lunch + Personal Checklists
The time leading up to lunch is when it’s all hands on deck. I create personal checklists for each child to accomplish each day (I write these out on Sundays) and while they chip away at that, I’ll pull them one by one (in no particular order) to work directly with me. My middle and high schoolers are totally free to work around what lists I give them, so long as it’s all done by Friday. Before we started our independent lists today, we all met together for our read aloud. Then:
- My 2nd grader got the bulk of my time, as all of her lessons are still parent-taught (Five in a Row, Reading, Elementary Arithmetic, etc). She sealed the deal on her work with some Osmo play time while she waited for lunch.
- My 5th grader worked on some Fix it Grammar, Teaching Textbooks, and Handwriting before I pulled him and we went over his work and finished off with an Apologia science lab.
- My 8th grader also worked on grammar and math before spending the majority of his time on his assigned reading (and follow up narrations). He and I didn’t work together today, but I plan to pull him first tomorrow, since he has a science test to take.
- My 10th grader is also quite independent, bringing me things to check over as she completes them. Today she worked on some Redefining School literature, economics, grammar, math, and a science lesson.
- My toddler spent time this morning snacking, playing with magnets, and then watching Fancy Nancy in my bed 😂 just keeping it real over here!!!
I typically cook a big dinner that leaves us with leftovers for lunch, but last night realized that my hungry crew didn’t leave much, hence the sandwich bread I had going this morning. Lunch today for the kids was grilled cheese, chips, veggies, and leftover potatoes for anyone who wanted them. Last year I packed lunches which worked out very well for us, and I may go back to that for my younger ones. I then heated up my boring mom lunch 😉 and everyone headed off (after cleanup) for some quiet free time while I worked on getting the little one down for a nap. Spoiler alert: we were not successful 😅
Family Subjects
After lunch break, we sit down for family subjects. This is the first year that we’ve ENDED the day with family subjects. We spend about an hour to an hour and a half together, and then my younger ones scoot along and I spend the last hour of our day on a middle and high school “power hour” which is like a middle and high school “morning basket” of its own.
We do a variety of things during this time, it’s different every day, but today our afternoon included:
- World Watch News (this got them to the table while I got Josephine settled with some coloring books)
- Hymns and catechism (We are using New City Catechism for the second full time through)
- Picture Study (Fra Angelico)
- A little 🦋 butterfly joined us for our composer Study (Chopin, first time for my younger ones, second time for my middle and high schoolers)
- History (Story of the World – I bulk this up for my older kids with assigned reading and writing so that history can remain a “family subject”)
- Not included today, but on my agenda for tomorrow, is geography, Spanish, habit study, etc. Like I said, we rotate subjects
- We also have a reward system for family subjects (a fun monthly raffle) so I handed out tickets after and dismissed the littles for the day
- My older two got changed for practice and then started their extra table time with me with their “Growth in the Word” study
- We moved on to Plutarch (this is our first year adding this in)
- I intended to go over some of their financial literacy reading, as well, but without a nap for my youngest, and watching the clock for football practice, we went out on top with Plutarch, before tensions rose. I know our (my) limits when there’s sensory overload!!
Afternoon + Evening
Our afternoons are all a bit different, but always include getting someone somewhere 🏈🥋💃📣🏅 so I have to be calculated in order to
- Have a healthy meal prepared and
- Have it ready at the right time so we can eat as a family
Someway, somehow, we are able to sit down to a family dinner six out of the seven days a week, if we are willing to adjust that time around (it’s a wide span of time). Family Bible time is of high value to my husband, so honoring that and preparing for a dinner together is my final physical push of the day.
That means that around 3:30, before I left for sports drop offs today, I milled some wheat for biscuits and chopped up some fruit. It also means that in order for that to be on the table AFTER football/cheer workouts and dance for one daughter but BEFORE dance team for my oldest daughter, my husband took the evening pickups and drop offs so that I could finish the cooking. This is our typical routine. I do the drop offs, he stays at the office until pickups.
Tonight was a simple meal, biscuit breakfast sandwiches with chicken sausage and fruit. I played outside with my two-year-old while the biscuits were in the oven. Then I sent a couple of kids off in the neighborhood after practice to play with friends (we have a LOT of homeschoolers on our block alone – so fun to be in a group chat with the other moms saying “my kids finished school early, who can play?!”). At this time I started shutting the house down because – let’s face it, I’m just about done by this time of day!! But, it’s the best kind of done–one where I know I gave it my all to the little ministry that has been set before me. I have the achy feet and messy table to show for it.
Thank you all for spending the day with me. It was honestly a joy to spend some time personally reflecting on the why and the how of our own homeschool!
Thank you so much to Abby for sharing your family’s day with us!
If you want to see more Day in the Life photos and videos, be sure to check out our Instagram profile. There are highlights of each takeover at the top.