Special Guest Edition: How We Homeschooled Today by Diana Cantu
Homeschooling and home-management in Arizona
Some housekeeping before we begin…
You can now find all the Special Guest Editions in one place—in the navigation bar on the How We Homeschool page. Here are some of my favourites that new subscribers might have missed:
sharing a day with her four girls in Vermont. showing us consent-based learning in action. pairing academic rigour with a strong community. on what homeschool looks like when everyone’s ill.If you’d like to be next, get in touch. All styles of home education are welcome, and all kinds of children and families. You don’t need to be a writer on Substack to share a post. If you feel your family isn’t represented by the guest posts already shared, come and fill the gap!
A day in our life...
…unless it all spirals out of control and nothing goes as I planned.
A few disclaimers: sometimes, it’s nothing like this. If someone wakes up sick or horribly grumpy (present company included), we might call it a movie day. Some people are very much against screen time, and I am not one of them. I commend you if you don’t have a TV and can keep your house in order. I cannot do that, so we have screen time in various forms every day.
5:00am Wake up
This was not my idea, but our 3-year-old’s, and if he’s up, usually everyone else follows. He’s loud. Thank God for my sweet, heroic husband, who gets up with them and gives them a snack. Depending on a few things, like how we slept the night before or if another child is still asleep, we might turn on a show to keep the little ones quiet for the sake of the older ones. If they are all up, often we just have calm, quiet music, and they play and entertain themselves.
6.00am First (Continental) Breakfast
Walther usually gives them cereal, toast, or yogurt. Sometimes, fruit or oatmeal is also on the menu.
7:00am I get up... finally
My coffee usually awaits me (again, I really struck gold with my husband). We often have snuggle time, read books, or the kids go outside to wake all our neighbors with their gleeful screaming as they play. Walther and I usually chat about the day and pick up the kitchen from the first breakfast. He will unload the dishwasher, and I will get a load of laundry going. I do laundry every day except Sunday. This helps immensely in keeping the laundry under control. I alternate between a load of our clothes and a load of the children’s clothes. It accumulates quickly.
8:00am Second breakfast prep
We have a hot breakfast every day. I realized early on that if they don’t have a big brekky with plenty of protein, I will have four angry and ravenous children on my hands. It will spiral out of control quickly.
9:00am Second Breakfast
We gather, pray, and feast! I take the opportunity to eat breakfast myself because nobody wants a grumpy mom.
10:00am Get Out!
It takes about an hour to eat, break up morning fights, ensure everyone has clean clothes on, and clean up the dishes and dining table. At this point, the kids usually go outside to get the wiggles out for about 30 minutes. This gives me time to load and run the dishwasher, change the laundry, and clean up the kitchen. Our oldest is eight and often chooses to listen to an audiobook at this time.
10:30 School/Nap/Adventure time
Our 3-year-old is (thankfully) still napping, so I usually get him down for a nap at this point. I will make myself a cup of tea and have the three older kids get their school books. Depending on age and motivation, each kid works at their own pace. I sit at the table, sip tea, and answer questions as needed. I also have to stay on top of them because they are easily distracted. Our 1st and 2nd-grade boys work on their math fairly independently, but we work on writing, reading, and phonics together. I can combine subjects, and it is a lifesaver. This works well for us because our oldest is taking his time learning how to read, and our second son is learning to read quickly. They sort of match up so that’s nice for me. Our daily subjects are reading aloud, math, phonics, art, writing, and grammar. Weekly, we rotate between science, geology, and history. For math and reading comprehension we use Abeka, and for phonics and writing we like Lakeshore. Favourite read-alouds are Magic Treehouse, Boxcar Children, and the Wingfeather series.
Some days, we leave the toddler napping at home with my husband (he works from home) and go on an adventure. We go to the library once a week or go to a park, the children’s museum, a farmers market, or a play date. I typically don’t take the toddler because he is like Houdini and can disappear quickly, and I’m too young to have a heart attack. Some days, it’s necessary that our 3-year-old comes along, and on those days, we always choose an indoor activity to keep him semi-contained.
12 noon Tablet time
Once the kids finish their school work, they are allowed time on our tablet using the PBS Kids app. This is my favorite app because it incorporates math, reading, science, and art. They can choose the game they play and learn while playing. Once their timer goes off, the next person gets their turn. They are pretty good at sharing.
During this time, I’m usually prepping lunch and cleaning up.
12:30pm Lunch and TV time
After lunch, we will clean the whole house and put it into a bit of order. Then, they can pick a show or a movie. Sometimes they watch old X-Men cartoons, sometimes it’s a show on PBS, and sometimes it’s (surprisingly) Jurassic Park. They have a list of approved shows and movies they can watch and know what they are. Our 3-year-old usually wakes up around this time and joins them. I will fold and put away all the laundry from the morning. I often start meal prep for dinner if necessary.
2pm Recess
We live in Arizona and have perfect weather about eight months out of the year. The other four months are spent at our community pool or backyard with the sprinklers on. The children are outside multiple times throughout the day. Our oldest might stay inside to listen to his audiobook or play with Legos. Sometimes, one of the kids will ask to do a craft; we will pull out paint, beads, pipe cleaners, glue, paper, and whatever they want. I recently got our oldest a woodworking set, which he loves building. This is also when I will read, write, or spend some intentional time with a child I see that needs extra love and attention.
4pm Dinner prep and Extracurriculars
Depending on the day, the two older boys will prepare for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or religious education classes at our parish. If the fighting during recess gets out of control, I’ll prep dinner and settle the kids with a show.
5pm Dinner
We sit down together to have dinner at roughly the same time every night. On nights with religious education, we eat in shifts because some kids are gone until 7. Those nights are jam-packed, and we eat really simple meals. We clean up and get everyone in their pajamas. If they need baths, we do that, too. It’s a very chaotic time between 5 and 7pm, but I think this is every home with little kids.
7pm Bedtime
I get really shocked looks from people when I tell them we put our kids to bed around 7pm every night, with a few exceptions as mentioned above. Our bedtime routine has been in place for about five years, and I won’t change it until I have to. These kids play HARD every day. They need a lot of sleep. I need time at the end of the night to decompress. Those precious hours after they are asleep help Walther and I reconnect, spend time with friends, or have quiet time reading and writing. Our 8 year old takes his time falling asleep, so sometimes he won’t fall asleep until 7:30. The others fall asleep almost instantly.
9pm I go to bed and get ready for the next day
Of course, some days, this varies because we cannot control how our day will go. But having a bit of a routine and plan can really help us enter the day with less stress and anxiety. I also sweep a few times a day because our kids are crumb monsters. Some days, when we go out, everything shifts in time slots. But overall, this is the rhythm of our life. I hope it gives you a little hope and insight.
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It’s a relief to see other parents use screen time (in moderation, of course) to keep life with wonderful, rowdy kids under some semblance of control! Sometimes I get in my own head about it when I see other people’s seemingly screen-free child-rearing. 😬
Nice mug! And, if they’re getting up at around 5 am and playing hard, it makes sense they would need to go to bed around 7.