A Typical Day at Our House

I used to record an average day in our life once a month on my old blog. I always like to read what other people do with their day, and it keeps me on schedule, since I know I have to write about it!

7:40 a.m. I stayed up too late watching the Oscars. Doesn't make much sense, considering I don't support most of what Hollywood stands for, but there it is. It was nice to see women in dresses at least! :) I'm late from the start. My schedule says I should get up a little after 7:00 a.m. That way, I can check my e-mail, pray and basically do things by myself before the kids wake up at 8:00 a.m.

I've never been much of a schedule person. My creativity encourages me to live in the moment. Got an idea? Follow it. Got another one? Let's switch paths and chase that rabbit trail. Important things get done along the way, but rarely in a logical order. Every day is completely different. A jagged criss-cross through life rather than a winding spiral around a grounded center. Works well some of the time. My life has been too chaotic to make room for all the randomness lately. The cracks are starting to show. I'm seeing more and more that sticking to the schedule is obedience, and that word means a lot to me.

So, with prayer I made the schedule. Asking God to be the priority in my day. Ordering my life in the way most productive for the salvation of all of our souls. Rushing from here to there; missing prayer times; living in general swings from laziness to high-energy scatteredness. None of that is conducive to prayer, meditation and simplicity. Virtues are cultured in a garden. They must be tended and given consistant attention. My garden has become the place I pass through on my way to the next thing. Not enough time in a life filled with spontaneity to stop and watch anything bloom. That is not the example I want to set for the kids.

Being obedient to the schedule is just as important as being obedient to my rule of prayer, the fast, the headcovering, or the other spiritual tools I've chosen to utilize. Following a schedule does not make me a slave to time. Rather it frees me from being a slave to my own desires and whims. The schedule sets a boundary around my day. Reminding me to pray. Making sure my priorities are centered. Teaching my kids that life is not something we do by the seat of our pants. A Godly life is deliberate and purposeful. A Godly life has a schedule. Ask the monastics. They seem to have figured this all out a long time ago.

8:00 a.m. Kids wake up--- also reluctantly. Everyone gets dressed and eats breakfast. Hilary, the three year old, is overjoyed to see that my husband took a personal day today. His long hours at work seem to affect her the most. She crawls into our bed with him. Lonna, Jared and I meet back together for Morning Prayers.

9:00 a.m. Grammar. We use Rod & Staff. I love this curriculum. It's rigorous and has given my kids a deep grasp of the English language. I love that they diagram sentences and approach Grammar old school style. It makes them better writers and readers. It's a Mennonite curriculum, so they do tend to roll their eyes at the repeated sentence examples referring to Brother John and his farm tools or the like. I appreciate the Scripture use, though. We review the previous lesson and introduce the next one. They have just a few minutes to work on the assignment. The rest will be completed in the afternoon.

Before you begin to think that our homeschool morning is an idyllic love fest around the kitchen table, please know that it absolutely is NOT. My children don't run to me each morning begging for lessons. They aren't always excited about what I'm excited about or doing extra homework on the side. That's O.K. They're human just like me.

I do not see homeschooling as our family educational choice. It's our family life choice. We've made the choice to learn together, about loving God, working out our salvation, and growing up, along with the secondary topics of English, Math and Science. There's no point in filling my kids' heads full of facts if they have no way to apply them. So, we've learned how history tells us about God and the journey of mankind rather than a list of dates. We've learned how science tells us about the awesomeness of creation and the omnipotence of God rather than a set of vocabulary words. We've learned how math tells us about the intricacies and capabilities of the human mind through time and space, rather than a set of flashcards. We've learned how literature and language tell us about the value of communicating with other people and the freedom of imagination rather than summarizing a theme. We've learned that we are not islands, shuffling along behind a hundred different people our own age day after day. We've learned that we are part of a community of all sizes, shapes and ages.

My job is not to raise children. My job is to raise adults. I want to give them the skills they need to work and live with others as Christian human beings. I raise them not for a mere lifetime here on Earth, but an eternity with God. In our school there is academics, but there is so much more. They're not always in the mood to do school, and that's helpful. It teaches them perseverance. The lessons in responsibility and diligence aren't written in the teacher's manual, but they're just as valuable as the rest.

9:30 a.m. We switch to Science. We're using Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science. We read the lesson out loud together and do the experiment for the day. A couple days a week, we do additional work for science. We study the biographies of different scientists throughout the year, so we may read a book, watch a movie about his/her life and write about them. We go on nature walks every few weeks when the weather allows. We also read other science-related books. Today, it was just the basic text.

10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. The older ones move into independent work. One does Math using Teaching Textbooks, which is a computer-based math program. This is by far the best math curriculum I've ever found and probably the best homeschool curriculum for any subject period. I answer the occasional question, but other than that, the kids teach themselves through the program. Teaching Textbooks put the fun back in math for us. While one child does math, the other reads. The material changes from day to day. History and literature. Maybe something for Science or Art. At 10:30 a.m., they switch. Meanwhile, I do "school" with little Hilary. We read books, play games, and color. She loves doing workbooks like the big kids, so she eats up any I get for her. Basically, I'm giving her my undivided attention for an hour.

11:00 a.m. French. We are using a curriculum from Bob Jones University Press. We've learned Latin the last couple years, but they never bonded with any of the curricula I tried. I was disappointed, because Latin was my first love. We'll come back to it in later years. For now, we've moved on to French. I also took French in high school, and I definitely need it with this curriculum! This is not a choice for parents who don't know the language. There is major teacher involvement here. It's turning out to be way more work than I anticipated, but it's getting us to the place we want to be.

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Lunch. Lonna and Jared make their own lunch. I call it Life Skills class. :) I'm trying to teach them not just how to cook, but how to make good food choices. We all have issues in that area in this family. They like a long lunch, so we relax. Lonna reads one of the historical fiction novels she loves. Jared plays, reads comic books, or draws. Hilary plays. I usually read or do school research on the computer.

12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m. The rest of the school day. Sometimes we do art, music, typing or another subject. We always wrap up loose ends. Today, they finish Grammar and the French homework I assigned. They read a book about Elizabethan England and the poetry of our poet of the month, Ogden Nash. Jared reads the book Mary, Bloody Mary to supplement History. Lonna reads Julie of the Wolves for Literature. They finish up their study guide questions for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

I design my own curriculum. Does that mean I personally write every lesson? Does that mean I'm a genius who knows everything there is to know about every subject? No, that means I'm a manager of my children's education. I look around and collect the necessary resources to help them reach their goals. I use textbooks for some subjects and teaching guides for others. Some lessons I do compile all on my own from library books, conversation and Elmer's glue. There is no school out of a box at our house. We choose the best possible option each year for each subject.

I consider homeschooling a profound responsibility. Noboby is making me do this. I made the choice to teach my children. Therefore, I take it very seriously. It is my job. If I worked outside the home, I would not show up late, not pay attention, do a crappy job and then expect to still get paid. Same goes for homeschooling. I have to earn it. I can't put my own personal interests in front of my time commitment to schooling. The stakes are high. It's my children's lives I'm talking about. Homeschooling isn't for wimps.

Hilary plays for a little bit longer, and then we read a book. Naptime begins. I read Scripture and doze off on the couch saying the Jesus Prayer. My day is so much better when I pray the Hours. Even if I'm just marking the hour with a quick remembrance and "Lord have mercy!".

Life is distracting. That is why me must pray continually. I'm easily distracted, so I especially need a rule of prayer. Back to that schedule again! My precious husband has been cleaning out the garage and doing laundry. How kind and thoughtful he is to use his day off to make my life easier! He switches to some well-deserved time with the Playstation.

When school time is over, Lonna and Jared can stop and take a break if they like. If there's homework, it can be done later in the evening. Or they can just keep working until it's done. The older they get, the more I try to give them choices and encourage them to take ownership of their education. My job is not to teach them a mindless list of facts to be spewed back out on a test and forgotten the next day. My job is to teach them how to learn and to love learning. To seek out answers and see how those answers always, always lead us back to God. Learning is life, and it does not fit in neat time compartments.

3:00 p.m. My nap lasts about 20 minutes. No time for more. It's shopping day, so I run down to the bakery outlet to reload our freezer with bread. When I return, I gather my coupons and make my list for the trip to the grocery store. Lonna and Jared do their chores, and I sneek back to my room for the 9th hour prayers.

4:00 p.m. We pile in my husband's car to go to swim team practice. My car is in the shop. Sigh... Even though my husband took a day off work to relax, we're having our own personal recession around here, so he's been working a second job for awhile. He stocks shelves at a local grocery/discount store most evenings. We drop Lonna and Jared off at swimming and head to his store. They have good prices on most things, and we get an extra 10% off employee discount. I pick out what I need, but I don't want to do all my shopping there. Hilary and I tell Daddy goodbye and head across the street to the store with the double coupons. Hilary plays in their play area while I shop.

6:00 p.m. Shopping is over just in time to pick Lonna and Jared up from practice. We come back home, and I make dinner (vegetable lo mein). Everyone is starving. Should have made something in the crock pot so it would have been ready.

7:30 p.m. We go to the library. Lonna and Jared look for their books first while I watch Hilary play with the toys. Then, they watch her while I search for school books.

8:45 p.m. Back home and pooped. I hit a point each day where I just don't have anymore energy. Hilary watches a video she picked out at the library, and I zone out on the couch in front of the other T.V.

10:15 p.m. Time to pick my husband up from work. Theoretically, everyone is supposed to get ready for bed while I'm gone. I give into Hilary's pleas and let her wait up for Daddy.

10:45 p.m. We're back and Jared is still in the shower. I don't know if he was playing with his Star Wars figures or searching for chest hair, but he was a long time. Sure enough, all the hot water is gone. I flop down on the bed and watch the news while I wait for the water heater. My eyes are barely open. Kirk irons his clothes for the next day. Finally, I take a shower.

11:30 p.m. I kiss my icons and pray for forgiveness. God grants me a peaceful sleep.