It’s that time of year again, all the kiddos are going back to school, but for us, they don’t have to travel far. If you didn’t already know, I homeschool all of my kids and have been for about four years now. Klai is the only exception because she attends college now. Rykel is going into eleventh grade, Shae is going into ninth, Wyatt is going into seventh, Evee is going into fifth, and Cora is going into third grade. I love homeschooling the kids, and I get a lot of questions about how it’s done, so I wanted to walk you through what a normal first day of school looked like at our house.
Waking Up and Breakfast
Fila and Shaw are always eager to help me wake the kids up. Most of the kids are fairly early birds already, but sometimes they need a little motivation to get up. In this case, motivation equals breakfast. Generally, the kids will each have their own cooking day of the week, but the first day of school is a special occasion, so I prepare breakfast while the kids prepare for school. Once The kids hear that breakfast is on the way and they receive a few licks from the dogs they’ll mosey out of bed and start getting ready.
Group Classes
It’s easiest to complete the group classes first thing in the morning following breakfast. This way all of the kids are still together in one place. The classes that I teach to multiple kids at the same time usually take place in the living room, while physical education and recess are completed in the gym or outdoors. The classes that are best to do together include history, science, and physical education. I’ll be sharing a curriculum haul soon, so don’t miss that!
Brake for Lunch
As I mentioned before, the kids all take turns preparing meals for a day, for the first day of school Rykel made lunch for us. She laid out tortillas, cheese, lunch meat, condiments, and sandwich fixings. She also set out peanut butter, jam, honey, and bread as an alternative option. We go for easy lunches around here. You can see how we meal plan here with our 6 kids.
Individual Classes
The majority of the classes are completed on their own, and I’m available whenever they need help. We just did a makeover to our classroom/desk areas in an attempt to make things more organized, we got a lot of all the necessary school supplies, and set aside a designated place for each child to complete their school work. Rykel’s desk is in her bedroom, Shae’s desk is in his and Wyatt’s room, Wyatt and Cora’s desks are both in the upstairs classroom area, and Evee’s is in her and Cora’s bedroom. The individual classes include math, spelling, language arts, etc.
Extracurricular
Many of the extracurricular activities that the kids enjoy doing in their free time can be included in their schooling. Evee and Shae both take piano lessons outside of school, so part of their school days involves them practicing their piano. Whereas Wyatt is learning how to play guitar, so he practices playing guitar. Shae also really enjoys doing animation, so that is also a small portion of his schooling. On the other hand, Rykel loves drawing and doing art, and Cora loves doing crafts, so for a portion of their schooling, they’ll do arts and/or crafts. Evee, along with Rykel, is definitely the reader of the family, if she could spend her whole day of school reading she would, so reading is what she chooses to do for her extracurricular.
The Best Way to End the Day
We ended the day with a reward of a movie night. We made sure not to stay up too late because school is in full swing now, and it’s time to get off of our Summer clocks and into the school year schedule. We are so excited for what this next school year has in store for us.
What classes or fun things do you have planned for this year? Comment and lets chat, thanks for hanging out
-Rachel
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