Homeschooling Day in the Life: Kaycee, homeschooling mom in a Brazilian/American home

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 Kaycee, homeschooling mom to four children in a Brazilian/American home.

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.

Learning Well LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate links from Amazon or other programs are used on this website. For more info, please refer to our disclosure statement.

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 Kaycee

Kaycee @redbrickschoolhouse is a God loving, mom uniform wearing, homeschooling mom of four children, and wife to the love of her life. They are a Brazilian/American home, once public schoolers turned homeschoolers, and are currently in their fifth year of homeschooling. Kaycee shares about their homeschool journey with multiple kids, dyslexia, animals, recipes, and a little bit of this and that. Kaycee has a life motto that “Life is too short to fold laundry.”

How We Start Our Day

Hi friends. I’m Kaycee @redbrickschoolhouse here, and I am so excited to share a glimpse into our homeschool days with you.

My husband usually feeds our horse, Dolly, around sunrise. He is an early riser. I am usually up between 6-8am. I know that’s quite a range. I prefer to wake up before my kids so I can 1) appreciate nature 2) study scripture 3) get a workout in 4) get ready 5)get a head start on breakfast. I try and get as many of these things done before the kids wake up. Depending on how much time I have before the first child is up, I might get one of these things done, or a few done. The rest I will finish as soon as I am able. If my workout doesn’t happen before the kids wake up, then I usually make that happen during our toddler’s nap and after our one-on-one school lessons.

Sometimes my kids all sleep peacefully through the night, and sometimes they don’t. I’m grateful for the option to take advantage of a little extra rest when needed. No rushing to get kids up and off to school by a certain time. If we need a little extra shut eye, we take it. But rarely does anyone in the house sleep past 8am.

Weekly/Yearly Schedule

We are year-round homeschoolers. We prefer to maintain a steady schedule throughout the year with time off as needed. We school less days per week but more weeks per year and we have thoroughly enjoyed our four-day school weeks for years. Homeschooling is our lifestyle and our schedule is one of the ways I maintain consistency and avoid the homeschool burnout. We have independent tasks and extra curricular activities woven into our days but our core subjects are currently structured as follows:
Mondays: Math & LA
Tuesdays: Math & LA
Wednesdays: History, Science, & Portuguese
Thursdays: Math & LA
Fridays: Flex day

Fridays are our flexible days–we usually schedule appointments, run errands, clean the house, and tie up any loose ends from earlier in the week. I can easily swap Friday for another day of the week if need be. We are truly living our dream schedule and I am so grateful!

Routine Schedules

In each of my kids’ menu routine schedules you will find:

•Morning routine
•Evening routine
•Cleaning Job
•M-F daily schedules

When other charts failed us, I started making these for my kids and we’ve successfully used these for years. I customize their templates to change it up from time to time, and my kids always appreciate a design refresh.

This is how my kids are able to self-start their day. It provides them with clear expectations and consistency, while also allowing them just the right amount of control and flexibility.

It’s noteworthy though, that these weren’t effective with my kids until I started implementing what I call “meaningful motivators.” Weaving their motivators into our days has been key to keeping our homeschool peaceful and productive.

Signing Off

We’ve been homeschooling for years and no two days have looked exactly the same. I had a great time showing you what a day in the life looks like for us @redbrickschoolhouse (come find me there so we can stay connected 💕)

We finished up our night with a dance recital and visitors from our Brazilian side of the family and a second dinner.

Thank you for allowing me to do this takeover!

Thank you so much to Kaycee 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.