What Does a Typical Homeschool Day Look Like?
- Science Experiment Time!
People have wildly different ideas about what a typical homeschool day looks like and there’s a good reason for this. No two homeschool days are just alike, and homeschooling families teach in vastly different ways. When I started researching homeschooling, I found that reading about how other home educators filled their days was extremely helpful. To make it simple, I’ll just list Alexandria’s activities since she’s the only one officially of school age. Here’s what first grade looks like on an average Monday in the Melville home:
8:00-9:00- Free play time
9:00-9:15- Memory Work
School starts with Classical Conversations memory work. I put the CD in the X-box and Alex dances while she practices Week 3′s new memory work. We also have them printed out on cards. This week she’s memorizing the names of the Greek and Roman gods (history), Latin noun endings 1st declension (Latin), the parts of an animal cell (science), the parts of the Hebrew Empire (geography, prepositions al-at (grammar), and counting by 5’s and 6’s.
We love the Classical Conversations memory work. Some weeks are harder than others, but Alex loves learning new things and proudly recites them. We review the CD in the car too and she still tells me the facts she learned weeks ago. The purpose is to help her develop knowledge pegs from which to further her education as she progresses through school. When’s it’s all set to music, it’s hard not to memorize the “songs” and have fun!
9:15-9:30: Piano practice.
9:30-10:00: French
Today we completed Unit Two of our French for Kids program, learning to answer questions with “oui” or “non” and then advancing to using “j’aime” and “je n’aime pas” to answer questions. The CD is fun to listen to and the workbook is bright and colorful.
Next, Alex practiced her French color flashcards we made a few weeks ago. She has them absolutely mastered now and is very proud of herself. We finished up with lots of time to spare, so we brought out the iPad. She spent the rest of French time reviewing the alphabet, colors, shapes, numbers, and body parts in French on the iPad. I’m loving her ever-expanding French vocabulary!
10:00-10:40- English (phonics, writing, spelling, reading).
Alex began this period by working on her new spelling words, writing each word four times on her worksheet. We’ll review them lightly throughout the week and then test on Friday.
For Phonics, we use Horizons Phonics and Reading. Today we covered Lessons 27 and 28 and their accompanying reading comprehension material. Next she watched Hooked on Phonics Second Grade Lesson 8 on DVD and read the accompanying workbook material. This lesson ended with her reading “The Puppy Look,” which was quite wordy and challenging. She did awesome.
10:45-11:15- Story Circle
This is a fun time where we explore books, songs, nursery rhymes, and music. Circle time! All of the kids take part. They each choose books and we form a circle on the living room carpet. We put some fun, light music on and read each child’s selection. Today we read “The Ants Come Marching,” “Green Eggs and Ham,” and “Oliver.”
Next, we cracked open “What Your Preschooler Needs to Know” (Derek’s favorite) and practiced singing some favorite nursery rhymes. We got out the drums, maracas, and other small instruments and each child had a blast playing and singing. Then, each got to choose one to perform for everyone else. The others gave lots of applause. When they got to “Ring around the Rosie” they all held hands and skipped around the carpet (besides the baby of course) and keeled over with laughter.
11:15-12:00- Math!
Alex chose to do math via Time4Learning.com today. She has a choice between that and our Horizons Curriculum every day. We love Time4Learning.com because the lessons are so engaging. It’s an awesome supplement. Today she finished her section on fractions and entirely completed a new section on the principles of addition and subtraction. She finished up just in time for lunch.
12:00-1:00- Lunch and play time
1:00-2:00- Social Studies
The little kids go down for naps at 1, so that gives Alex and I lots of one-on-one time. We curled up in the chaise lounge and cracked open The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. This is another text we absolutely love. Year one covers Ancient Times, from the earliest nomads to the last Roman Emperor. We love the easy-to-read-aloud stories that bring history alive in fun and interesting ways. Today we read about Ancient Africa (Ancient Peoples of West Africa, Anansi and Turtle, Anansi and the Make-Believe Food), The Middle Kingdom of Egypt (Egypt Invades Nubia, The Hyksos Invade Egypt), and The New Kingdom of Egypt (The General and the Woman Pharaoh, Amenhotep and King Tut). Since we did an in-depth unit study on Ancient Egypt in July, Alex loved this section and enjoyed hearing stories about some of the Pharaohs we studied. King Tut is her definite favorite.
2:00-2:30- Science
Today we did an experiment about making air do work. We got a plastic sailboat and a long plastic bin, which we filled with water. How could she make the boat move without touching it? Alex experimented by blowing the sailboat to move it across the water. She wanted to find out if it would move faster if she blew it harder and how it would sail if she loaded it up with a little doll and then later some coins. How many coins could we load into the boat and still make it float? How many pennies? How many nickels? We did an accompanying worksheet and also recorded all of our observations.
2:30-3:00- Alex’s Free Learning Time
Alex and Derek are still busily playing with the bin of water. It has become an entirely different experiment now. They’re seeing what floats and what doesn’t float and roaring with laughter. They’re all wet and the table is a disaster, but it’s awesome to watch and they’re really learning so much! I’ll let them continue as long as they like (until they lose interest or I need to set the table for dinner, whichever comes first 
.
Today was an awesome and productive day. Some days we accomplish less, some days more. Some days we have outings, other days are purely academic. The best part is that while we do meet my pre-set goals each week, how we reach those goals is largely child directed. If Alex is totally into piano, I let her extend her practice time. If we’re on a unit study, she could spend hours on a project if she so desires (like Egypt! ). We just shift things around a bit, and it all works out well. We are having so much fun and Alex is learning more than I ever thought possible.
