A day in the life of our (home)school

I know this might sound weird since I blog...but I really like my privacy.

It is actually really hard for me to think that complete strangers might be reading some of my innermost thoughts and struggles let alone my friends!(gasp) And of course I am always afraid of some creeper reading my blog.

Though I don't always go into detail about my personal life I try to be as real and transparent as I can without spilling my guts too much. I realize though that to have a blog and keep your readers, you really need to be personal.

People can relate to you more when you share the everyday goings on of your life. I know that some of the blogs I enjoy reading are very down to earth. Not only do they inspire me with their heart, faith and creativity but they share their mundane everyday, their highlights and their failures. I feel like if we met in person I wouldn't be intimidated by them because even though I look up to them and think they are so cool, they have shown again and again how human they are. They keep it personable and that's why I keep reading their blogs.

So I thought I would give it a stab to be more personal and share with you what a typical homeschool day looks like in our house.

Here goes!

Start the day right

After Josh and I had a couple of kids I realized that I had to start getting up earlier if I wanted to have any time to myself to think, pray, read my Bible and exercise.

Since I also desperately need sleep I have come to a compromise of getting up early(5 or 6) 3-4 times a week and sleeping in (7/7:30) the rest. Of course there are exceptions and I always err on the side of getting enough sleep over exercising. On the days when I do get up early I am way more prepared to face the day and less likely to start the day feeling overwhelmed. The kids wake up at 6:30/7:00 or when they hear me move a muscle.

We usually have breakfast at 7:30/8:00.

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day; my kids too. Some mornings we have cereal, oatmeal or yogurt but most mornings I like to make a big breakfast or have the boys make one. I love that they can help out now and cook. Israel's specialty is pancakes and Judah's is eggs.

Today I made a Beet/ berry/ kale smoothie. Yum! Three out of my five children will drink smoothies; I'm working on the other two.The kids also made breakfast sandwiches and I had eggs benedict. Don't be all impressed; I made the sauce last week so all I had to do was pour the sauce over my egg, bacon and tomato and I added arugula. I just discovered eggs benedict and have been a little obsessed with them. So good! If you have never made them you need to try them! Here is a great recipe.

Yeah, that's Luke making one of his daily, epic messes that I happened to catch as I walked in with my camera.

I like to start our school day reading the Bible and praying. We try to start at 9:00 but some days are negotiable;)  I used to rush right into school some days and skip Bible but I have made it a priority now and it's my favorite part of our homeschool day.

It can be very difficult some days to gather all the kids together, let alone get them to sit still. That blur  you see in the first picture is Simeon who tends to take on the form of a dinosaur for most of the day. I have the boys each read a portion and I read the rest. Then we talk about what we read and pray.

I love how God always speaks to me during this time, through his word and through my kids. We just finished Mark and have now started Genesis by the kids request. Kid's prayers are the best! Right now they are praying for a house with a swimming pool. Me not, so much though I would love a pool, they just scare me with little ones. But who knows, maybe God will answer their prayers when they are older;)

School time

Today we started with math. It has been so nice in the mornings, so I took them outside and we had a math race. It didn't go as well as I would of liked because they started fighting over who went first.

 Yeah, our school days usually include a lot of fighting, bickering, crying and whining. I try to take those opportunities to train them in their character and God is working on mine at the same time as I am learning to refrain from screaming my head off and losing control of my patience.

We are all learning valuable lessons. We eventually came in and did math speed drills. The boys really seem to excel when they know the timer is going.

I try to get the boys working on independent work while I do some crafts and kindergarten with Ellie.

She loves doing crafts and often cries when we don't do more than one but this girl has got to learn that I can not do a million crafts with her even though I wish I could.When she wants to do more than I can do with her I let her find something to create on her own. Simeon will join in with us and then disappear when he needs to get moving.

I can say without partiality that my children are very gifted artists. I could not draw the things that draw even though I like to draw as well. Since they love anything to do with art, I try to incorporate it as much as I can in all our subjects.

I am so thankful that we have a school room in our 2 bedroom house, but I find myself on the couch a lot with the kids when I am reading to them or need to do individual work. The kitchen table is great too when I need to multitask. 

When I am focused on doing school with Israel and Judah the three younger ones play and occupy themselves...most of the time but that means lots and lots of messes. I have been trying to back off from cleaning throughout the day so much and clean up when we are done with school or else I just wear myself out and get frustrated at the kids.

 Our day would not be complete without a picture of somebody crying. Nap time doesn't come soon enough for this little guy. He is proving to be my most high maintenance child yet. I can't turn around without finding him getting into something and making a huge mess. But boy is he cute and he brings so much joy to this home. I have to say he is the biggest distraction from school. Not only for myself but for the boys. They are always getting up from their school work to go kiss him or play with him. They love their baby brother!

We break for lunch around 11:30/12:00 and start school back up at 1:00 or sooner depending on  how long we take to eat and clean up. I like to get math, spelling, language, reading and writing done before lunch and finish science and history after lunch. Though we don't do every subject each day.

Today we combined history and science as we are learning about inventors and today was the Wright brothers. So obviously we studied flight. We watched a Bill Nye the Science guy episode about flight and then made paper helicopters and airplanes. Science is definitely the kids favorite subject and mine also so we tend to spend a little more time on it.

My ideal time to be finished with school is 2:00 but some days we finish later and some days we finish sooner. The biggest thing that has helped me maintain my cool during hard days, is to be flexible. Since I want to stay sane I have had to learn to roll with the punches and just do what works best for us, not putting pressure on myself to get everything done.

I was so impressed by their airplane making skills. They have really perfected them. I think Israel might grow up to be an engineer.

After School

                                  This is what our school desk looks like at the end of the day! Scary, I know! I am trying to get more organized but for the most part I have found that no matter how much I try to keep things clean or organized; with 5 kids there are going to be messes. So after school the kids and I clean up and get the school room back to order so it will be ready for tomorrow. 

                                   After school the kids go outside, watch t.v., draw or play legos. I love when I find them huddled all together looking at a book or playing legos together. But I always strongly  force encourage them to go outside if we have been inside most of the day and they are starting to drive me crazy!

I consider learning how to help and cook a part of my children's education. It makes me so happy to see them want to pitch in and lend a hand instead of having to nag them. They love to help make meals, so much so that they end up fighting over who gets to pour and mix.

If I am making a time consuming meal I try to start cooking at 4:00 and have dinner on the table no later than 6:00. 

 Tonight we made our own pita bread and gyros. It was so much fun and so good! I try to make at least one new recipe a week since I know Josh loves eating new meals and of course I do too! I want to introduce the kids to new foods also.  Here is the recipe from half baked harvest. I used venison that my husband brought home from hunting. It turned out great!

However, the next day I am burnt out from all that cooking and cleaning. I make something a little less complicated or I don't even  feel like cooking at all and I rummage around the fridge for leftovers.

After the kids have cleaned up dinner and then I go in and finish up cleaning, it's bath time; though by now this is Luke's third bath, then bed time! My husband and I are exhausted by the end of the day and so ready to get these kiddos to bed so we can have some time alone in peace and quiet.

 This was actually a really good school day for us but most of our days do not go as planned. There is a lot of frustration and craziness mixed in with moments of pure joy, sweetness and thankfulness. But Jesus is the source of our strength and fills this home with his love overflowing; as we figure out this life of school at home while trying to keep our sanity.

What does your homeschooling day look like?

Linking up with hip homeschooling, mama moments monday, mom 2 mom, titus 2sday and The homeschool mother's journal, Homeschool Blog and Tell