Our Homeschool Routine: A Day in the Life

We don’t have a homeschool schedule, a schedule would be too rigid and drive me insane to try to keep. Instead, we have a general routine that we try to follow. Each day has a flow to it so that way no matter what time we start we just flow through our routine and no one ever feels rushed or behind.

Follow along The Waldock Way for a homeschool day in the life. See what our homeschool days look like first hand.

Start of the Homeschool Day

I am not a morning person, if you have been around here anytime at all you already know that about me. I need to wake up as quietly and peacefully as possible in order to have a good day. If I do not get that time I am cranky and crabby.

To ensure I get that time as many mornings as possible I strew. IThe night before, I leave something out for Emily to discover and explore in the mornings. This normally keeps her occupied for 30 minutes to an hour. Long enough for me to wake up in peace, get dressed, and start the day.

I don’t require that she interact with any of the things I strew but I do require that she give me my quiet in the mornings. So, if she doesn’t interact with what I’ve left out she has to find another way to entertain herself.

First Grade Day in the Life

Morning Basket

Once I have made breakfast for her (I have normally already scarfed down a quick muffin or piece of toast) we sit down to our morning basket together.

She eats her breakfast while I begin reading aloud. If she finishes her breakfast before we are done there’s a stack of quiet activities included in our morning basket that she can do while I read.

The four main catergories of things that we include in our morning basket each month are read alouds, madlibs and/or trivia, hands-on activities, and games. The main reason we include these are because they are Emilyโ€™s favorite things and I find I like to start our day by connecting and filling her love tank.

First Grade Day in the Life

Table Time

After we have finished our morning basket time we move to the table to do whatever curriculum we will be working through that day. We refer to this as table time.

This is the time when we do pretty much anything that involves her writing. On a typical day this will look like some kind of language arts, math, and some piece of our current unit study.

While we use curriculum we tend to be dabblers so no two days every look exactly the same. One day we may do a worksheet while another day we bake a cake.

I make a list of concepts I want us to master in math and language arts each year and I just chip away at those with different activities all year long. For all other subjects other than language arts and math we use interest based unit studies.

First Grade Day in the Life

Learning Lunchtime

We have what I like to call a learning lunch time. She eats lunch while watching an educational show or listening to a podcast of her choice.

We don’t each lunch together. This is a sacred rule that I keep at all costs. When you’re homeschooling an only you are on all day long and as an introvert I need my space. I have found taking 20-30 minutes apart at lunch time really helps recharge me for the rest of our day.

While she eats lunch I take this time to do the dishes, fold laundry, while listening to a podcast or watching a YouTube video.

Podcasts for Learning

Afternoon Activity

After lunch we do an afternoon activity of some kind. While these activities are always educational in some form they aer not normally planned. We just kind of rotate through some fun enrichment activites based on what our mood is that day.

Some of our favorite afternoon activities:

  • Online Classes
  • Poetry Teatime
  • STEM Challenges
  • Science Experiements
  • Nature Study or Walk
  • Bake or Cook a Recipe
  • Play a Stack of Games
  • Subscription Letters or Boxes
First Grade Day in the Life

Evening Time

We spend our evenings together as a family. We have dinner together and then afterwards we either watch a movie, play a game, or compete in some Wii Sports.

After we have done our bedtime basket and Emily is in bed Kevin and I stay up to work. We typically stay up until normally about 1am working then I prep stuff for homeschool including strewing for the next day and head to bed.

First Grade Day in the Life

Check out our full homeschool day in the life videos