A day in the life

So in case anyone is wondering what a day in the life of a home educator is like, I thought I'd describe ours. This is what our days are like when we're at home, but of course weekends are different and so are Tuesdays (drama, gym and piano lessons) and Thursdays (swimming) and of course any day that we have a special trip planned.

We mostly get up around 6.30 and all have breakfast together so we can spend some time with Firstborn before he catches the schoolbus at 7.30. Then before the others can escape from the table I get them to write in their diaries and do some maths. Sometimes Husband does Pozz's maths with him (which Pozz loves), other days I bring out the laptops and put them on mathletics.com. Then each child reads to me for about ten minutes and I figure that's about enough schoolwork for a 9yo and a 7yo, so we stop around 9am.

Then we have morning chores for about half an hour and I love the fact that when that's done, we know we have no more chores until about 5.30pm. Pozz often bakes something around this time too. We like to bake early in the day because we're always keen to get eating. We normally save something for Firstborn though.

So around ten a.m. we sit down with a cup of tea and our current read (Lord of the Rings, Book 3). We read for about an hour, and I often knit as well. Daughter draws or colours in while we read. Pozz mostly just listens. So around 11, we've kind of done most of the things we need to do for the day. In the afternoon, if we're not going out, then we might go next door for a swim in the neighbour's heated pool (joy!) or garden or hang out with the chickens or invite friends over or throw ourselves into some project. Often the kids just play while I get on with my own stuff. They play a lot of lego and a lot of fantasy play. Daughter practises piano at some point and Firstborn practises when he gets home.

At 5.30, one kid helps me cook while the other two fold the washing. We've recently switched from having no screen time on weekdays, to having "The Simpsons" every night (in exchange for less weekend screen time).

It probably sounds dead boring but actually I quite like our life at the mo.

Occasionally I remember that I'm meant to be teaching my kids "as regularly" as at school and I think about whether I'm doing that. It's true they only do 90 minutes of "school" in the morning (albeit lots of tailored, one-on-one instruction). But you've got to add to that an hour of reading aloud (literature), piano practice (music lessons), baking and cooking (home ec), lots and lots of conversations about anything and everything (science, history, geography, politics) and running around outside (PE). I think we cover it, and then some.