Homeschooling Day in the Life: Shelley, Homeschooling Mom Who Loves to Incorporate Simple Joys Into Everyday
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 Shelley, homeschooling mom who loves to incorporate simple joys into everyday.
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 Shelley
We are a Charlotte Mason inspired homeschool family of 5 living in West Michigan. Our 3 kids are 8, 6, and 4 and we love spending time reading together, being outside, taking our dog on hikes, and being in community with others. My desire is that our homeschool atmosphere is filled with open conversations, good books, and inspiring ideas. One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is getting to incorporate the simple joys in to our every day – a special baked treat at the school table, a spur of the moment park picnic, a good question that leads to a deep conversation, a field trip with friends, seeing my kids’ faces light up when they learn something new or make a connection, or a cold day spent piled under blankets with a good book.
Early Morning
I try to up before my kids, but either way I always start my morning with Bible study, reading, and coffee. I think I’m allergic to waking up too quickly. Around 8 am, the day starts moving as I unload the dishwasher, help with breakfast for my kids, and start getting everyone to where they need to be or guide them in what they should be doing. I also ideally will squeeze in my workout during this time.
School Block
This is our main school block of time 3 days a week. We take Fridays off and my older two go to a homeschool partnership program the other day of the week. We typically start with math and independent work, which means I bounce back and forth between them. From there we move to our shared subjects. We primarily use Ambleside Online and I have a Year 3 and a Year 1 student. Because they are close in age, I combine them in a lot of subjects including history, geography, and many of our literature readings. We do our group work together before I dismiss my 1st grader and finish up with my 3rd grader. He is starting to gain some independence so some days what is left for him he can read on his own.
Afternoons
Our afternoons have changed a lot in the last few months as my youngest dropped his nap. We no longer have any napping kids in the house! We try to still implement a quiet time some days, but other days we just take advantage of our newfound freedom and head to the park, browse the library, or go on some other fun adventure. I also intentionally schedule all our extra curricular activities for the afternoon like nature group, gymnastics, and guitar lessons. Being outside as much as possible will always be a priority. My older two have set chores during the week and this is the time I make sure they have completed what needs to be done and I also spend this time doing any housework I need to take care of.
Homeschool vs. House Management
One mindset I have adopted over the years is to view homeschooling as my job. This means I have to prepare for my work week in advance by meal planning, running errands, and cleaning the house outside of our school hours. When it’s our set school hours, you will not find me multi-tasking and I do my best to get most of a lot of these tasks accomplished on the weekends.
Evenings
Our evenings vary quite a bit depending on the time of year and what extracurriculars we have going at the time. In the summer you find us outside until bedtime enjoying the long daylight hours we have in Michigan. We might be at the baseball field, Wednesday evening church, or taking our dog on a walk as a family. We enjoy a family read aloud (my husband and I alternate who gets to read our “for fun” books) before getting everyone settled in bed.
