throwback Thursday

 

Happy Thursday, friends! I thought I'd share an oldie but goodie today. This was a typical day in the life of one of our normal, at-home, homeschooling days. The year was 2014, which means that Graham was in 10th grade, Drew was in 9th, Jonah and Noah were in sixth. Yowza. Now that I write it out like that, what the heck was I thinking?! I was homeschooling two high schoolers and two middle schoolers! I honestly don't know I would have done that, if not for the grace of the good Lord Jesus. I say that with all sincerity! And honestly? Sometimes I really miss these days, but I'm so thankful to be right where I am today, at this present stage of life. Grab a cup of coffee and settle back to read one of our normal days in the year of 2014. I'll see you back here tomorrow for Friday Favorites! Thanks for reading, friends. Love to all. 

P.s. I am linking up with Joanne at Encouraging Hearts and Home for her blog party today.

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You might find this boring.  If so, then keep scrolling.  I've been documenting their  school work schedule in my journal this year—the past couple years I have not been that great at documentation, but this year, I am finally on top of things.  (It's about time.)  I also plan out their days in my journal...usually I write things down as I remember them, and often times, that happens in the early morning quiet.

I thought I would share that on here.  I know some people are just naturally curious about what we do, and that's understandable.  If you're like me, and you homeschool, you just like to know what other people are doing, just in case you might be missing something really spectacular.

Or you might just wonder if we really have school each day.

:)  We do.  I assure you.

Consider this kind of a 'day in the life' style post of a typical day around here.

I wake up and have quiet time.  I read in my Bible, I pray, I journal, and I drink at least one cup of coffee.

I wake the boys up about thirty minutes to an hour later.  They have breakfast, I start laundry, we pray and go over their work for the week.

They head upstairs to have their quiet time, make their beds, and brush their teeth, then they get started.

While they are getting started, I clean up from breakfast and fold laundry and start another load.  If the load is huge, then I make them help me.  I use this time to do Bible study or homework for what we're doing at our homeschool group.  This stretch of time is usually at least two hours long, but more like three.  They work solidly for three hours every morning~we all share in the fact that this is our most productive time of day.

I start making lunch and we usually eat between noon and noon thirty.  ;)  And lunch never is just sandwiches.  It's usually hot and requires the stove top and/or oven.  I love this part of homeschooling, especially when the days are dreary and cool, like today.  My kids love a hot lunch and I love making it for them.

Sometimes we eat lunch at the kitchen table, sometimes we eat in front of the television.  Today we ate in the living room and watched Dancing With The Stars and The Voice battle round one from last night.

We all clean up after lunch and they use this time to put away any folded laundry from the morning.

After lunch, they finish any work they've not completed yet.  If we don't have anywhere to go, they stay in their pajamas or comfy clothes until after their work is done.  (I know~it's rough.)

All in all, Jonah and Noah are usually done in about three hours.  That's with their written work.  To make that time stretch, I tack on reading time, art, music, and life skills.  They help me with laundry, the preparation of meal times, loading and unloading the dishwasher and animal upkeep.  They walk the dogs, brush them, bathe them and keep their water bowl filled.  They keep their living quarters totally clean~they are each responsible for their rooms, so that means straightening up, making beds, pulling their sheets/blankets/pillow cases off when they need washing and putting them back on afterward, they dust, they vacuum, they are totally responsible for Buddy, the leopard gecko.

It usually ends up being about four and a half to five hours of work each day, still much shorter than the average brick-and-mortar school day.

Graham and Drew, on the other hand, have work that is longer and more tedious and difficult.  Their work takes longer, and with just written work alone, they each put in about five hours a day.

If you would like to know what subjects they take, I will tell you.

Each of them do math, grammar, science, history and Bible.  Those are their "main" subjects.  There is also current events, literature, vocabulary, spelling, creative writing, etymology, Spanish, geography, typing and their classes they take at our homeschool group.

So, I would say that our days are full.  We do lots, and I feel like I am constantly adding to their work load.  If anything looks interesting enough, we try it.  We might not always like it and we'll stop, and we don't do every single subject on every single day, but that's basically what we do.  There are guidelines for me to follow that are required by the state of Tennessee, and especially now that the older two are in high school, I have to be more meticulous.

There are days that are highly frustrating and there are days that are not.  Each day is rewarding, in its own special way.  I love, love, love every part of homeschooling my boys.  I am so thankful that I get to do this everyday, and I pray that our rights are always kept safe.  My kids love it and are always telling me thank you for what we do.  I would say that those words are confirmation enough that this is something we will do until they graduate high school.  And yes, they will actually have a high school graduation.  It'll be at Bellevue.
 
Thanks for reading this and for humoring my love of sharing my life.  And hopefully, I inspired someone to think about homeschooling their kids~it's not always easy, but it's nowhere near as difficult as you would think.  I have people on back up I call for help, when it's needed.

I will leave you with a couple pictures from our day today.

After the work is finished, they find time to construct things on their own that people have given us.  They also get their tool boxes out to make minor repairs around our home.  Thanks to my hubby, for getting them each their own tool box last year for Christmas.  I'm also trying to be more "fun" at homeschooling and do more science experiments.  Experiments are the best way they learn.  Today we made it "rain".

Well, my friends, I have to run.  Thanks for reading!