Winter came back for us last week.
Hopefully this will be the last time he stomps around, pitching a fit.
The Irises are just trying to mind their own business and do their thing.
He is very bossy to poor little Spring, and seems to always demand the final word every April.
But the daffodils are standing up to him.
"Excuse us, please. You've had your turn. Out of the way!" they seem to say.
We all know they will eventually win...
~ "Oh, the green things growing
The green things growing,
The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!" ~
- Dinah Mulock Craik
I can't wait!!! Can you?
Speaking of you, how have you been?
I think about you all often and pray you are happy and well.
SO many of you have been so kind to me over the years I've been blogging...
Some of you text me, some of you comment here, and some of you tell me in person that you read this blog and enjoy it.
It always makes my heart burst with joy!
I never expected much to come from creating this blog.
I've never cared about gaining followers or becoming popular.
I just wanted to write about my experiences with home living.
Then the next thing I knew you were telling me my blog encourages you, and when there's a lull in my writing you text me to ask when there will be a new post up!
I love it!
I've even made a few friends because of this blog!
In fact, I was chatting with a friend recently about the daily schedule I shared in one of my last posts about homeschooling.
She said, "I didn't know you were a runner!"
"What?!" I exclaimed. "I'm no runner!" I corrected her.
She said, "But you have 'morning run' on your schedule!"
"OH!" I laughed. "That's my children's schedule! I send them out for a morning run. I do not run."
She laughed at me and said, "I can just picture you sitting in your house drinking coffee while your children are outside running."
We laughed together and I realized, I should really share MY daily schedule with you!
I haven't done that since my kids were babies and toddlers, and you know how life can change!
This is my daily at-home schedule...
It is comfortable and low-key, yet I still feel like I work hard in my home.
I guess over the years I've settled into a routine that feels good to me.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00 I wake up.
I do not set an alarm, so it's a bit different everyday.
After splashing some water on my face and brushing my teeth, I shuffle down to the kitchen for coffee.
My children are almost always up. Elsa is under my feet, wanting to be everywhere I am, doing everything I'm doing. Roman is usually at the kitchen table doing his arithmetic, and the others like to watch PBS kids.
I have my morning quiet time, reading my Bible and sipping coffee up in my front room.
It's a cheerful room that receives morning sunlight, so sitting up there is a lovely way to start the day.
I like to have several things accomplished by the time I start breakfast. So I take my coffee mug around with me and do the following chores...
~ Open blinds
~ Skincare regimen
~ Get dressed
~ Make bed
~ Start a load of laundry
At 8:00 I am in my kitchen ready to begin our first meal of the day.
I freshen up my coffee and turn on some uplifting music.
Elsa helps me unload the dishwasher and put the clean dishes away.
Usually by the time I start cooking, Roman or Nola is coming up the kitchen stairs with fresh brown eggs from the coop.
I make some combination of eggs, toast, and fruit every morning. Sometimes I will make sausage, too, which my kids think is a real treat!
After breakfast, I excuse everyone and holler out the same instructions...
"Morning routine! Morning chores!" I yell. And they all scatter about, taking to their "Posts".
They all have different jobs to accomplish, (chores like sweeping the kitchen, taking the trash out, switching the laundry over to the dryer, etc.) and I am busy doing the breakfast dishes at this time.
I do not leave until the kitchen is perfect.
(Fresh towels, counters wiped clean, dishwasher happily humming.)
Then I go up to my bathroom to do hair and makeup.
Nola has emptied the washer of the first load I had started earlier, so I start up my second load at this time.
I also like to go around and do "room inspections", making sure the kids have stayed on track with their morning routine.
Once everything looks good, (all beds are made, no laundry is on the floor, etc) and I'm ready for the day, we officially start school.
It's usually close to 10:00 by this point.
"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."
- Charlotte Mason
The kids have already squeezed in a few assignments by this time. They like to work independently in the mornings while I'm doing my own thing. I typically consider 10:00 - 12 noon our formal school day. Meaning we begin with the Pledge of Allegiance, then I sit and work with each of them on their lessons.
I go over fractions, the difference between adverbs and adjectives, root words and suffixes, carrying over to the tens' place in addition problems, and whatever else needs to be talked about. I answer questions and I correct completed work.
I have three children on Abeka curriculum this year. This is the time of my day that I go through their lessons with a fine-toothed comb, making sure everyone's up to speed and their work is getting done.
(Nola's cursive)
We take a more "Charlotte Mason" approach to our homeschool life, so outside of this 10-12 time frame, our day is not rigid.
"Our aim in education is to give a full life... We must bear in mind that growth, physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the sole end of education,"
- Charlotte Mason
Lunch is at noon.
We never do anything real fancy.
I will usually make sandwiches and cut up fresh fruit and vegetables.
While the children eat, I read to them a chapter from a book.
We've done Aesop's fables, fairytales, and stories about the lives of past Presidents. But lately we've been reading through a book series called, In Grandma's Attic, by Arleta Richardson.
(It's adorable! There's a good moral and lesson in every chapter.)
Once the kitchen is cleaned up from lunch, I like to do the following...
~ I make sure all my laundry is done, folded or hung up, and ready to be put away. (The kids put away their own laundry in the afternoon.)
~ I work on housekeeping. (I may iron a few garments, sweep out the mudroom, or clean a bathroom.)
~ I tell Soren and Elsa (who are not fluent readers yet) that I will read a book to them, whatever they pick out. Soren will always manage to find a book about dinosaurs, and Elsa loves books like Caps for Sale or Corduroy.
~ I have the kids play their piano pieces for me.
In the summertime we all go outside everyday after lunch. So I guess what I'm sharing here is what we've done through the winter months.
Roman has health and history textbooks he reads a little from each afternoon, as well as a chapter from a book he chooses. He writes one-page essays on what he's reading. He just completed Swiss Family Robinson and is looking into a Hardy Boys Mystery for his next read.
Because of this, I may sit down one last time for the day and look through what he's written and talk to him about what he's reading in health and in history. It also never seems to fail that I have some arithmetic worksheets still waiting to be corrected, or some spelling test that we couldn't get to during our morning session.
I finish it all up at this time, and put school away.
This is usually around 3:00.
After this we have have some free time until supper.
I may bake something, clean something, or set the table for dinner.
"No pains should be spared to make the hours of meeting round the family table the brightest hours of the day."
- Charlotte Mason
My evenings are spent cooking supper, cleaning up the kitchen, and just enjoying my home and family.
Micah is much more hands-on with the bedtime routine than I am.
I have been with the children all day long, he hasn't. So he likes to put them to bed.
I back off a little and let him enjoy the kids. He hasn't seen them all day!
If I'm not curled up on the couch watching some interesting documentary or going through the house tiding up, I will help wrangle the kids upstairs.
Micah reads to the kids every night before bed.
He's done this for years.
He has read books like C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, and Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Once the kids are in bed for the night I take a relaxing shower, and get myself ready for bed.
This is usually around 8:30.
In the winter I will make some hot bedtime tea and Micah and I will sit in the living room. Although this past winter I read through a few novels and one autobiography. They would call to me to go to bed earlier. So, I would sit up in bed reading until falling asleep around 10:30 or 11:00.
In the summer I like to go back outside to my gardens after the kids go to bed.
It's peaceful at twilight.
It's my time to dead-head the roses or go for a walk on the trails with Micah.
I really look forward to that again!
(My roses in June)
"Let us consider where and what the little being is who is entrusted to the care of human parents. A tablet to be written upon? A twig to be bent? Wax to be moulded? Very likely; but he is much more- a being belonging to an altogether higher estate than ours."
- Charlotte Mason
As you can see, my days mainly revolve around my children and my home.
I protect our schedule so that we do not overcommit to out-of-the-house activities.
Of course we get out for groceries, church, and other commitments, but this is what my schedule looks like on days were are home.
I figure it will only last 20 or so years, and then I can pursue other interests.
I wasn't sure I'd enjoy homeschooling.
But I have developed a love for it.
What I thought was going to be a sacrifice and self-denial has actually become a very enjoyable life for me.
What about you?
Do you homeschool or are you thinking of homeschooling?
What does your daily schedule look like?
I love getting ideas from other moms! So you are welcome to leave a comment!
I hope to hear from you!
xo,
~ Courtney ~
(The quotes in this post were taken from Home Education by Charlotte M. Mason. I would highly recommend this book!)
