Day in the Life 2018 (with a 12, 10, 7, 5, and 2 year old)

Day in the Life with a 12, 10, 7, 5, and 2 year old

I’m excited to link up with Simple Homeschool today for their “Day in the Life” series!  I’ve enjoyed reading this series for years, and it is fun to add a little peek into our not-so-normal normal life today!

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5:00 am

I quickly turn off my alarm and hop out of bed, groping around in the dark for my exercise gear.  My Monday morning cycle classes at the YMCA have been a tortuous, but also motivating, way to start off my week for the past few months.

Normally my husband is also awake, ready to leave for work the second I return home.  Today, however, he’s getting a little extra rest after our wonderful weekend trip to see family and celebrate his dad’s upcoming birthday.  He had originally intended to take today off, but instead still has to go to work.  He decided to still sleep in a bit and stick around to join us for our morningtime routine.

My coffee is freshly ground and brewed.  Coffee makers with timers are my best friend.

I head out in the drizzly dark and get to class.  An hour later, I’m sweaty and sore, but awake and ready to take on what may be a difficult day.  The kids didn’t sleep much this weekend, we’re all tired and a bit grumpy, and we’ve got lots of stuff on our calendar for the week.  Thankfully there’s still coffee remaining in the pot when I get home.

Grind and Brew coffee Day in the Life
Need More Coffee!

Everyone gets their own breakfast as they wake up, and I run upstairs to print out the weekly assignment checkoff sheets for the older three children.  I also quickly read through my emails, and try to delete as many as I can.  I always feel less stressed if my inbox is as clear as possible!  Since John is still home I am able to take a shower and get dressed without interruptions.  It feels so decadent!

8:00 am

All of us pile in the living room for our morningtime.  It’s exciting to share our reading, memory work, and prayer time with Daddy; this is a rare treat.  The 2 year old attempts to scale the shelves in the pantry to get to the cough drops.  There are a few moments of tears or grumpiness.  But it all goes fairly smoothly this morning.

Then Dad is off to work, my oldest son heads upstairs to work on his Algebra 2, and the girls grab their drawing supplies.  I drink a bit of my (now cold) coffee before reading 2 chapters from our Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation.

My 10 year old daughter peels off for independent work, heading to her room to tackle her math and Writing and Rhetoric.  I sit on the sofa between the Kindergartener and the 2nd grader to focus on reading and narration from our Cottage Press Language Lessons.  Then the 5 year old and I do a phonics reading lesson while the 7 year old takes her copywork to the kitchen table.

Post-trip necessities kick in.  We switch the laundry around, then head out for a quick grocery store run that cannot be put off.  Soon we’re home, and I’m putting away the groceries.  I finally escape the clutches of the toddler through the assistance of Daniel Tiger on the Kindle.

While I’m putting away the cold stuff, I’m also fielding questions on multiplying multiple digit numbers from the 7 year old, reading aloud word problems for the 5 year old, soothing 3rd and 4th conjugation Latin woes for the 10 year old, and helping the 12 year old learn how to write a list of priorities for his week.  His work load is pretty heavy this week, he’s dealing with some intense environmental allergies, and growing up is just hard all on its own.

He takes some time to pray for wisdom and peace, then I direct him to make a list of his top 5 priorities for the week as well as some second-tier priorities.  He writes these on the back of his weekly assignment sheet.  Hopefully this will help him “do the next thing” when decision freeze hits.

He heads to the computer to listen to a Dr. Grant lecture while my older daughter finishes her Latin video and begins her assigned history reading.  My 7 year old daughter works on her assigned history reading, and the 5 year old hangs out with the 2 year old.  I tackle the mounds of laundry while enjoying a podcast.  I also renew all our family’s library books on the library’s website.  Unfortunately, some of the books don’t renew, so I write out a list to gather up later today.

Elementary Lessons Day in the Life 2018

At one point, going to check on the 2 younger children, I discover a nail is coming out of the boxspring by painfully puncturing the bottom of my foot.  Slight delay in the day due to blood clean-up out of the carpet and the application of a band-aid.  I find a hammer and knock that nail back in so no one else gets injured!

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12:20 I quickly make some sandwiches for the younger 3 (the older kids aren’t quite ready yet).  They want to play outside (in the drizzle), so I take their plates to the backyard.  They are already having fun with a cardboard box and scissors.

Creative Play Day in the Life
Who needs toys when there are cardboard boxes in the world?

12:45 A bit more free time for the children while I take time to do some writing.  One daughter heads to the piano to practice.

By 1:15 I start rounding up the younger 2 for rest time.  My daughter doesn’t sleep, but enjoys having an opportunity to listen to an audiobook alone in the room she normally shares with her sister. Today she chooses The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (even though our family just finished reading it together yesterday!).

After getting the younger 2 set up for rest time, I hand the simple reading journal sheet I created to my 7 year old for her independent reading time.  She’s chosen to read book 2 of the Harry Potter series, since we read book 1 aloud together last year.  Her older siblings keep reading journals, and she is very excited to have a place to copy out her own key words as she reads.  Since reading with concentration is still something she is developing, having a piece of paper beside her to write out a few key words she notices has really helped her stay focused and enjoy her reading time.  I much prefer this model to any kind of reading comprehension worksheet!

My older son heads to the piano for practice.  The Minecraft piano book he got for Christmas is helping his motivation to play.

My 5th grade daughter and I buckle down to do the next lesson in All About Spelling.  It has been transformative, helping her really excel in her most difficult subject.  A recent purchase, recommended by my friend Lynna, of the All About Spelling app is making me so happy.  No more magnetic board and small pieces to deal with!  I am much less likely to skip the lessons now that set up and clean up isn’t such a chore.

2:00 My 7 year old daughter is finished with her assignments for the day, and gets the Kindle for an “I Love Lucy” episode.  The 2 older children have some independent work remaining, but my 10 year old daughter is still feeling the effects of late nights with cousins.  I encourage her to drink some water and take a short nap.  I love that homeschooling means we can learn diligence and perseverance, while also listening to the day to day changes in our children’s needs in body and soul.

My younger 2 are still resting, so I sneak to the computer for some writing time, hoping for a few uninterrupted minutes.

I write for a while, then head downstairs to brown the meat for dinner (which doubles as a bit more podcast time!).  Some bills needs to be paid, and the budget needs to be updated.  Oh, and I almost forgot about those library books I have to gather!  They’re due tomorrow and I really don’t want to pay any fines.  I just did the budget, after all!

I check in with each child through the afternoon.  Mondays are my oldest children’s most independent days; later on in the week we will spend much more time discussing the work they’ve done and checking their assignments.

Post-rest-time is free time: to play, be bored, grumble, fight with siblings and learn how to work things out, put away laundry, and do several rounds of timed Cleaning Blasts to get our post-trip and post-Monday disasters at least somewhat under control.  Some cuddle time and read alouds with the littles will definitely find their place, too.  I think I’ve read Roxaboxen 27 times in the past week!

We’re expecting John home for dinner tonight around 5:30, which is extra special during this season of his busy work schedule.  We will have a low-key evening eating together, worshipping together, and likely going down for early bedtimes.  That probably means lights out even for parents not too long after the oldest kids go to bed at 9:00.  Kind of boring, but sleepy parents are grumpy parents.

This week still holds choir, homeschool moms’ meeting, writing class, pickleball, coding class, middle school winter camp, and Dr. Seuss’s birthday, among other things…plus all the normal ebbs and flows of life in family and community!  Each week, we try to faithfully persevere by God’s grace through our routines with consistency, although strict scheduling does not work well for our daily life.

Our life is full and wonderful.  It is an odd mix of the mundane and the crazy.  My husband and I joke that it is pretty much like “Just Another Day in Paradise.”  While every “day in the life” looks rather different, each day we seek to approach in humility and repentance, looking to Jesus with hearts full of praise.

I’d love it if you’d also join me at the Humility and Doxology facebook page.  Today we’re discussing the very serious matter of “Book Pairings.” 🙂

 

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8 thoughts on “Day in the Life 2018 (with a 12, 10, 7, 5, and 2 year old)”

  1. It’s so lovely to “meet” you and your family through this post! I always love hearing how other homeschoolers frame their days, and especially encouraging to see that I’m not alone in my use of Daniel Tiger on Kindle to allow me some quieter time for more intense study with my older children. 🙂

    1. I’m glad you were able to get to know our family a bit through this post. 🙂 And, yes. Reality sometimes looks a lot like Daniel Tiger or Shaun the Sheep so I can get to some focused time with the older children. 🙂

  2. Second generation homeschoolers here too! We have 7 kids and also live in NC 🙂 Funny that the thing I noticed is that you said your coffee was cold by the time you got to it. I’m a tea drinker, but I was always leaving cold mugs of tea around the house. Then I got a Yeti. It’s totally worth the investment. My tea stays warm for hours and I almost never dump any out or reheat it. Seriously life-changing 🙂

    1. Hi fellow NC 2nd generation homeschooler! 🙂 That is such a good point…I have permanently borrowed a nice thermos from my husband that I take out and about. Why have I never thought about just using it for my daily coffee. Because when it grows cold it is just so sad. Which is pretty much all the time, right? 😉 Not as lovely as a mug, but it would get the job done!

  3. Oh my goodness! Today was library day, and I forgot!!! Thank you for mentioning the library!

    As I read your post I felt a kinship in how we’re both training our kids to be as independent as possible while still guiding and participating in their learning. I enjoyed reading your post. 🙂

  4. Pingback: Roadschooling and Relationships – Humility and Doxology

  5. Pingback: Day in the Life 2019 (with a 13, 11, 8, 6, and 3 year old) – Humility and Doxology

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