Schedules change as kids grow, and I have three previous posts about our daily routines:
I also talk about the set up of our week here.
As the kids are all now in elementary school, life has become unimaginably easier. They can all feed themselves, go potty, buckle themselves in and out car seats, and dress themselves. I can take a shower any time that I need to without worrying about what’s going to happen in the ten minutes that I’m gone. Honestly, this is such a fun stage.
Each day we have three priorities as a family
- Homeschool – this can look like finishing all our subjects or deep diving into a project that follows current interest or something unlike either of these
- Free Play – I want the kids to have a few hours together of free play both indoors and outdoors. This is when the connections in their learning really happen.
- Serving – We want to spend each day meeting a need for someone else.
4:30am Mommy Time
As it has been for years, this is a foundational part of my day. Without these two hours in the morning, my entire day feels splintered. Four days a week I run from 4:30-5:30, and three days a week I write. This helps me work out all my anxious thoughts so that when I sit down to have my quiet time around 5:30, I can fully focus.
My quiet time takes about an hour, and I sign in for work at 6:30.
6:30am Prep for the Day
I sign in for work, respond to any messages that require immediate attention, and plan my work tasks for the day. I unload the dishwasher, pack Afa’s lunch, fill the kids water bottles, and set up for school. Fin will help with these tasks if he is awake, and I listen to podcasts during this time.
7:30am Kids Wake Up and Have Breakfast
The kids are usually coming out of their rooms around this time. If Afa is still home, he will help with breakfast and any morning clashes. Slow mornings are one of the homeschool privileges I fully embrace. They can wake up when they want and take their time lounging around the living room and eating when they are ready.
After everyone has had breakfast, the kids brush their teeth and do “tooth cream.” The kids are prone to cavities, so our (absolutely fabulous) recommended that we use Carifree toothpaste. They cannot eat or drink for 30 minutes after they use it, so we wait until after breakfast to put it on. The dentist told me that because it’s so much more expensive than regular toothpaste to let them actually brush their teeth with the cheap kind and then they come to me, and I can use a pea-sized amount to apply to their teeth afterward.
8:30am Start School
We start somewhere around 8:30am, which in reality is anywhere from 8am to 10:30am. We start the day with Memory Scriptures, Language Arts, and Math.
10:30am Break
The kids take a long break after our first chunk of school is over. This gives me time to do meetings, a few hours to work on my real world job, and the kids will have lunch. Ana Lia has online classes that happen here too.
1:30pm Second School
We start with listening to our current read aloud, which I get on audiobook if at all possible. This way I can continue working while we listen to the story. The older two have to find a silent activity, usually some type of handicraft, and Finiasi has to lay on the couch while we listen to our story for 30 minutes. If he’s tired, he will take a nap; otherwise, he is welcome to get up when I turn the story off.
This is also when we complete all our “riches,” subjects that are specific to Charlotte Mason that aren’t often included in a regular curriculum. These include: picture study, composer study, Shakespeare, brush drawing, foreign language, poetry tea time, nature study, and music. We will also do Science and History if we did not get to those earlier in the day.
3:30pm Outside Time
Getting the kids outside is one of my daily priorities. Because we live in an apartment building in Los Angeles, it takes more intentionality than it did when we lived in San Francisco with a nice backyard. We head to a park or to the pool so that they can work out all the energy they have been building up through the day. If Afa gets home in time, he will often take them for this part of the day to allow me some time to decompress before we go out for the evening.
This is the time that I make phone calls and return messages from the day. Between school and work, trying to get back to everyone throughout the day does not work very well; so this is a designated time for me to do that.
6pm Evening Activities
These change depending on the day of the week, but we often head out to people’s houses, have someone over for dinner, or go to church. Right now, most of these outings are almost an hour from our house, so we also take the time during the drive to talk through the day and to listen to another audiobook.
8pm TV Time
Understanding this is a relatively controversial time to allow kids time to watch TV, it works really well for us. It gives Afa and I time each evening to connect with one another and do some preparation for the next day. The kids all have to brush their teeth, calm down from the evening, and hang out with each other.
9:30pm Bed Time
We used to keep the kids up late because they would sleep later in the morning, but as we have more work to get through for school, it is easier if they wake up a little earlier. So we have slowly shifted bedtime from 11 to about 9:30pm. I turn on Stories to Grow By or The Enchanted Library. The kids like to go to sleep with the light on, so Afa returns in about 30 minutes to turn off the story and the lights. He and I usually head to bed around 10pm.