So many families across the country are, or will be soon, facing many days at home, and possibly many days of homeschool. We’ve been homeschooling for three years, and we love it. I thought I would share out homeschool basics: the curriculum we use, our routines and schedules, or “homeschool happiness rules”, the resources that have been essential and encouraging to me, and the best advice I’ve gotten from my go-to homeschool mom, who has far more experience than I do.
My daughters are in first and third grade, respectively, and my son is preschool age. The girls follow a pretty structured curriculum and my three year old has a selection of coloring books, etc. while we’re doing our work – mostly he just plays with his toy cars.
If your child’s school is “only” closed for two weeks, I personally would encourage you to not put any pressure on yourself to come up with lessons or a curriculum. Read as much as you can with your kids! There are so many great resources for crafts and projects! My good friend, Amanda, has some wonderful ideas on her blog. (I’ll highlight some specifics below.)
Also, now is a great time if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with access, to spend time outside. Fresh air, social distancing, vitamin D. Nature heals so much and offers so much “scope for the imagination” as Anne of Green Gables would say. As hard as it is we try to limit screen-time as much as possible – this goes in phases for us, but as of right now we are only having screen time after 5 pm. It makes our kids so grumpy so it ends up backfiring. We LOVE the Overdrive/Libby app which allows you to check out kindle or audiobooks via your local library.
I know many of you will be needing to work from home, and I too have times I need to work and my husband also works from home. It can be really challenging and honestly we find that having clear boundaries, “I am working right now,” is helpful and after a bit they find their own thing to do.
Finally, one thing I can’t recommend enough is getting up early. I set my alarm for 5-5:30 in the morning so I can wake up, have a cup of tea, do some writing or reading in silence. Doing this is not easy for me, but it has become an essential part of my routine (which I’ll include below too). Sometimes I ignore my alarm and opt for that extra hour of sleep, but I really try to get up every weekday morning before the kids. I am such a better version of myself: more patient, more cheerful, more… everything, and our days together go so much better.
CURRICULUM WE USE:
Handwriting and Typing: Learning Without Tears
Math: MATH-U-SEE
History: Story of the World by A Well Trained Mind (can also be found on Amazon)
Language Arts: The Good and The Beautiful
Nature Study: Exploring Nature with Children by Raising Little Shoots
Reading and Spelling: All About Learning
Women’s Studies: Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls Vol.1 and Vol. 2
Workbook: Scholastic Workbooks (for the appropriate grade)
Our Homeschool Routing and Schedule have changed over time, adapting to what works best for us. Mainly what I have found is that if we are frustrated (myself or the kids) then something in the routine needs to change! Our routine includes chores for which I mostly use resources from my friend Amanda (again, will link below). I try to follow an “inhale/exhale” rhythm in our days. Inhale activities fill us up, exhale activities feel a bit more… draining of out energy. For every “exhale” activity or lesson, I try to follow it with an “inhale” activity like reading aloud, a quiet chore, Cosmic Kids Yoga (for the kids) or Yoga with Adriene for me! On a side note I have always loved the Tracy Anderson Method for a challenging workout – I’ve been doing her method on and off for the past ten years and never tire of it… and it never gets easy. Her original Mat Workout is a great place to start!
Right now our routine works as follows:
MONDAY
morning tasks: get dressed, brush hair, brush teeth, make bed, quick tidy
read aloud
*
activity**
lunch
handwriting (4 pages)
history
reading
spelling
clean school table, chore wheel
FREE TIME
evening tasks: fold and put away laundry, put away bin, quick tidy, pajamas on, brush and floss teeth
TUESDAY
morning tasks: get dressed, brush hair, brush teeth, make bed, quick tidy
read aloud*
math (1/2 lesson)
poetry
art***
language arts
clean school table, chore wheel
lunch
activity**
FREE TIME
evening tasks: fold and put away laundry, put away bin, quick tidy, pajamas on, brush and floss teeth
WEDNESDAY
morning tasks: get dressed, brush hair, brush teeth, make bed, quick tidy
read aloud*
handwriting (4 pages)
reading
spelling
lunch
history
science
clean school table, chore wheel
FREE TIME
evening tasks: fold and put away laundry, put away bin, quick tidy, pajamas on, brush and floss teeth
THURSDAY
morning tasks: get dressed, brush hair, brush teeth, make bed, quick tidy
read aloud*
math (1/2 lesson)
activity**
lunch
language arts
clean school table, chore wheel
FREE TIME
evening tasks: fold and put away laundry, put away bin, quick tidy, pajamas on, brush and floss teeth
FRIDAY
morning tasks: get dressed, brush hair, brush teeth, make bed, quick tidy
read aloud*
make up work
scholastic workbook (6 pages)
math test page
clean school table
chores: clean room, clean bathroom, pick one chore from chore jar
evening tasks: fold and put away laundry, put away bin, quick tidy, pajamas on, brush and floss teeth
OUR ROUTINES:
Kids Version: HOMESCHOOL ROUTINE
My/Mom Version: HOMESCHOOL ROUTINE – PARENT
* Each morning we read aloud a few chapters from a book. I like doing series like The Redwall Series or the Little House on the Prairie Series, etc.
** Where I have put activity is normally when we have an class with others or community activity which we will not be doing for the time being. We also do one day a week with our nature study group, which is why I leave our Friday so light. We also won’t be doing that for now.
*** For art we love to use this book called 30 Days of Watercolor (we just do lessons as we go, not following 30 days), or we pick one artist like Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh, or Georgia O’Keeffe, learn all about them and do paintings like theirs, watch videos about them, etc. It’s so much fun! (Below is a photo of the girls’ self portraits a lá Frida.
The chore wheel I refer to is here!
OUR HOMESCHOOL HAPPINESS RULES:
HOMESCHOOL HAPPINESS RULES!
RESOURCES:
1. You probably already follow my good friend Amanda (@mamawatters on Instagram), but her blog, HOMESONG, has SO many great crafts, home projects, nurturing routines, and so much more. I use her Weekly Cleaning Rhythm PDFs to keep our home care routine going.
Original: CleaningPrintableHS(1)
Customizable Version: PDFCustomWeeklyCleaningRhythm(1)
2. My other friend, Bethany (@cloisteredaway on Instagram), has a GREAT homeschool blog! Bethany has been a guiding source to me both through her blog and through our friendship offline over the years as I’ve navigated the homeschool world. She has incredible ideas, resources, and experience! I can’t recommend her blog enough!
Final thoughts as you being this journey whether it be for the next two weeks, the next six weeks, the rest of this academic year, or for the foreseeable future: relax, take breaks as needed, take the day off, you’re doing a great job, you’re doing enough, there’s a lot of time, give yourself grace, be kind to yourself, your kids are capable of more than you imagine, breathe in, breathe out.
With love,
Kacie
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