People who are interested in homeschooling often wonder what to expect and wonder “what is a typical homeschool day?” Yesterday as we were going about our morning activities it struck me that is was a very typical morning for us.
The younger girls are playing card and board games. This can go on for a long time. If the weather is fine, they are usually in the garden playing with their animals and other games. Later, if it suits everyone, they will spend some time at the table doing some book work (phonics, maths, religious education etc).
The older two are at the table, working fairly independently on work I have planned for the previous night. Sometimes they need my active participation, other times they just work at it themselves with me as “consultant”.
And you will often find me in the kitchen preparing for later. I’ll be making bread, planning for lunch or dinner, baking, cleaning. It’s a good place for me to be because of the open plan of our home I am readily accessible to all the children.
We only ever do book work until lunch time and often enough we don’t do any at all. Sometimes we would rather go out, sometimes games are just too much fun to be interrupted and sometimes the weather is just too nice to sit at a table and study.
Our afternoons are spent however we want to spend them. There is always plenty of art making and crafts. Gardening, reading, games, story writing, bike riding, baking – there are so many ways to spend an afternoon!
I know homeschoolers who put in a regular school day with regular school books and regular school rules. They have tests and formality. It’s not for me. It’s not for us. We have such a unique and wonderful opportunity to pursue interests and passions and really live life and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
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