Special guest edition: How we homeschooled today by Susie Wales
Calm and clamour in Florida
We’re back with another glimpse into how homeschooling looks for other families around the world. Susie and her husband Ben live in Florida with their three sons (7, 5 1/2, and 3 1/2). Susie sent me this a few weeks ago as they were just wrapping up their formal schooling. She writes, “our supplies are dwindling and we are reaching a stopping point in our ‘seat work’ (writing and math workbooks completed at the kitchen table). In some cases, our various curriculums have reached a clean stopping place (for example, we just finished our history study for the year, Story of the World). In most cases, we are earmarking our place in the material so we can pick it up a bit over the summer, and then dive in headlong when we start our formal schedule again in September.”
When Susie sent me her day I expressed my awe at how calm and ordered her family life is. Before you start to feel the same inadequacy, I’m pleased to say that Susie followed up with this:
Most of the time, our home is impossibly noisy. Our boys crash into furniture, toys, and one another. They regularly thunder up and down stairs. They daily tear through the house, yelping and yelling, often with our pointer/heeler mix, Duke, barking along. Of course, there are also the squeals of delight and the cries of distress and the indignant shouts that pepper our sonic landscape.
Enjoy stepping into Susie’s day, and if you’d like to contribute to a future special guest edition, please get in touch!
On most weeks, there are 2-3 days that look like the ‘typical’ day I write about below. On the other 2-3 days, we get after our morning work with more industriousness (taking shorter breaks between each task) and simplicity (trimming down my read aloud time) so we can prepare to host or go out of the house. This last year, we met weekly with another homeschool family and I led a one-hour ‘Arts Enrichment’ lesson, which involved me leading our class of five in reading aloud, art study, music appreciation, and poetry reading. Then the children played for an hour. On other days, I planned outings with my boys (beach, library, museum, etc) or met up with friends.
I also do phonics work with my first grader and math flashcards with my 5 and 7 year olds, and I often ask all the boys to recite back facts we’ve learned throughout the year (geography, grammar, math, etc) but these are done organically and not every day. Also, some days we need to reset the home after a busy time or we are all in a funk and need to get outside, so our schedule is always subject to change depending on what’s needed.
Without further caveat, here is our ‘typical’ homeschool day.
6:30 I wake, exercise, pray, read, light a candle, and ready myself for the day
7:30 The 5 and 7-year-olds wake and come downstairs, I offer them milk or water then send them back to their room (which also doubles as our “play room”) to get dressed and play until breakfast.
8:25 I get the 3-year-old from his bed and help him get dressed for the day (my 7-year-old has started to help with this)
8:30 Breakfast is served / I read a portion of our Bible reading for the day and our history reading (since I finished our daily history reading a couple of weeks ago, I now read from a book like this or this during this time)
9:00 Dismissed to do ‘Morning Routine’ (personal hygiene, take care of clothing and bedding, prepare any projects they hope to return to throughout the day (lego creations, for example)
Meanwhile, I clear the breakfast table, put on some zippy music, continue to sip my coffee, and lay out each older boy’s math and writing work (with little colored tabs on the page(s) they are to do for the day)
9:20 ‘Seat work’ (work to be done at a table) begins. When we studied Story of the World history, we’d usually color a corresponding coloring page or make a drawing. But in absence of that, boys begin with their individual handwriting or math (each boy takes short breaks to dash upstairs, work on a project, play with our dog, etc between each task)
I usually read a picture book with my 3-year-old during this time (today it was Cowardly Clyde by Bill Peet). It helps to have that one-on-one time early on, since I need to ask him to “go play”, “go build something”, “use your imagination” either outside or upstairs for the next 1+ hours.
I help each older boy with their writing or math as needed.
I work one-on-one with each boy for reading (the oldest is reading short easy readers and nearing the end of these readers, the 5-year-old is five lessons shy of completing 100 Easy Lessons reading book, and the 3-year-old is working to master his letters and sounds (we use these alphabet flashcards). The other two boys need to busy themselves elsewhere and out of earshot during that one-on-one reading time.
During ‘seat work’ time, the 3-year-old sometimes joins the older boys at the table and draws freehand on paper or the big white board or uses dry erase books to trace letters and numbers, but I don’t have prescribed work for him.
By 11:00/11:30 our formal school time wraps up and the boys play or put away laundry, etc while I turnover the kitchen table from schoolroom to eatery.
12:00 Lunch is served / I typically read a couple chapters of a chapter book during this time (this year we read Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Miracles on Maple Hill, Starry River of the Sky, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass)
12:30-2:00 Free play time, usually outside
2:00 Afternoon snack (I usually read a couple of picture books during this time)
2:30-5:00 Afternoon quiet time. Each boy is in a designated area to work, play, and rest independently. I also use this time to reflect, regroup, and prepare for the rest of the day.
5:00 Quiet time ends and the boys play and/or help me in the kitchen as I prepare the evening meal
6:00 Evening meal is served / Dad is home and we do Family Worship at the table after everyone has finished eating (this includes Bible reading, Catechism, Scripture Memory, and a spiritual song)
(Today we were here: Matthew 20:20-28, Question 31 “What Do We Believe by True Faith?”, Revelation 3:20 memory verse, and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot)
6:30/7:00 Play time (usually with Dad outside)
8:00 Ready for bed, the boys read a chapter book with Dad before bed (some books they’ve read this school year at this time include Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby Age 8, Matilda, The Clubhouse Mysteries, and Little Britches).
8:30/8:45 Goodnight, Ben and I pray together
Susie writes her own beautiful monthly newsletter, The Roundup, where she shares bits of her day to day life including food, music, books, homeschooling and more.
If you’ve missed previous special guest editions, check them out:
Rachael Ringenberg’s thoughtful glimpse into her life with four girls in Vermont.
Joel Bowman’s ‘away schooling’, travelling around the classical world with an eight year old.
And if you’d like to be next, let me know! All homeschooling styles welcome.
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