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A Day in the Life of Homeschool Mama Alicia

Day in the Life Alicia

Here’s a look at the Day in the Life of Alicia, 12 year veteran homeschooling mama to four kids and creator of Learning Well Community! At Learning Well, we understand that homeschooling doesn’t look the same for all of us. We understand it doesn’t have to either for us to learn and glean good things from each other. Each Wednesday, on our Instagram feed, we feature a new homeschool mama to take over the feed and show us what her day looks like.

Some of us homeschool for religious reasons and that inspires our homeschool days. Some of us homeschool from the road and never do school in the same place twice. We might have been homeschooling for years and years. Or we may have just begun our journeys. We understand that those details don’t really matter though. The common thread that binds us all together is our desires to educate our children differently.

We might all homeschool 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!

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Meet Alicia

Day in the Life Alicia

Hey friend, it’s me, Alicia! If you’re new here, every Wednesday, we have a different homeschool parent take over the feed and show us their day in the life. It’s my turn to take over and show you ours!

I created Learning Well in 2016 to have a place to share what homeschooling really looks like from lots of different perspectives.

Get the 6 Secrets to a Simpler Mom Life

Our homeschool view is this: love to learn, do life together, enjoy the process.

I’m Alicia Hutchinson and I have four kids, ages 18, 14, 12, and almost 7. We’ve been homeschooling for 12 years and I love it with all my heart. I’d love for you to follow along on my personal feel @overatalicias ?

Good Morning!

Day in the Life Alicia

Good morning, friend!! I’m excited to walk you through what our days look like right now. It’s a little off-kilter than normal, but through all of the shutting down, THANK GOODNESS we already homeschooled and at least THAT stayed constant and steady.

We’re cutting back from our normal workload just because we’re all a little tired and I wanted to create some space to just let the kids play, create, and relax and not fill in the time with academics.

But, just like always, I like to get the school stuff out for the day before they’re awake. Ideally, I would do it the night before. I just fill in their assignment notebooks and look over my plan for the day. Takes about five minutes.

For a look at the planning method I’m currently using, click the link below!

How To Make Easy Homeschool Lesson Plans in a Challenging Time

Homeschooling is Forgiving

Homeschooling is Forgiving

Okay, homeschool real talk: I’m frustrated about some things in our home right now. It could be due to being at home for weeks on end now, making way to see things i was too busy to see before, but I’m realizing some things: my kids are lacking in some skills right now that I’m noticing. It’s frustrating because I thought we were past these things. I thought we were good, but we’re not.

I’m having to remind all my kids about chores they know they’re supposed to do every single day. It’s frustrating because I thought we were past these things. I thought we were good, but we’re not.

They need work on some life skills, organization, reading, typing, etc. But here’s what I know about homeschooling: it’s forgiving. And it’s forever efficient. You can’t beat 1-on-1 teaching. You just can’t. Or in our case 4-on-1 teaching, still really, really efficient.

They are not behind. They’re just at different stage in development and that is OK! I’m still developing skills too and I’m 37.

We will stick to it. I will continue to work with them and work on habits and it will all work out. The kids will be alright. It doesn’t all just work out, but if we continue working AT IT, it does. But I have to keep at it and so do they.

Just in case you’re feeling like youre behind or your kids are behind, we all feel like that sometimes. Stick with it.

Making Things Memorable

Making things memorable

It’s Noah’s senior year and ya, I’m kinda bummed about it. I was sad already because I like him a lot and I don’t want our family norm to change. But then when Covid-19 happened, it added a whole new layer of uncertainty and sadness for me.

For him, he just lets it roll off his back. I think he’s kind of pumped his college classes aren’t meeting anymore and it’s all online. 
But for me, the mom, it’s just not what I pictured our last year with four students being like and I’m disappointed.

But here’s what I know about homeschooling: they remember the weirdest things, and so do I. The unit study that I thought would be so lame—THAT’S what they remember. The year I had Vera and postpartum depression was killing me and we barely did anything but read Anne of Green Gables the whole year—they remember the hours they spent playing outdoors that year. I remember fondly things I never thought would be impacting.

My point is, it’s not what I pictured, but it will be memorable for sure—for Noah and for me. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll still get to celebrate this senior year in some way.

Everything is Not Okay, But Some Things Are

Day in the Life Alicia

I feel like maybe I was a bit negative here today. My tendency is to lean towards the cold, hard facts rather than the silver linings and this world-panic has certainly sidetracked us all. We’ve all been affected in one way or another. It’s unavoidable.

So if not all the silver linings, I hope I brought you the Real today. Because for as much as I’ve heard lately, “you already homeschool I bet nothing has changed for you guys,” you and I both know there is so much more to our days than sitting around the living room reading and never leaving our homes. Homeschoolers’ lives aren’t like that and we’re all just doing our best.

Lately I have felt so distracted, so foggy, so short-fused. It has felt like I’m not doing anything right through all this.

But tonight when I was picking up the kitchen after the kids went to bed, I glanced in the sink. And I saw:

A trinket from an excavation kit
Rinsed-out paintbrushes
Requested tin cans to make telephones with
A washed-out jar of lemon curd Sophia wanted me to save

It made me smile. Things are happening here that are good and sweet and simple and memorable.

Everything is not ok, but some things are. Going to focus on those and keep doing the best I can with what I have. And that’s all any of us can do. And in case no one has asked you lately, how are YOU doing through all of this?

Thank you for following along today. I’d love for you to join me on my personal page @overatalicias!

Day in the life Alicia

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.

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