A Day in the Life of Our Homeschool: Our Family's Daily Rhythm
I am excited to walk you through our current “Day in the Life” homeschool schedule. For reference, we are about to complete our 7th year of homeschooling, which is hard to believe! Our kids are currently finishing 6th grade, 4th grade, 2nd grade, and Kindergarten.
7:30 am - The Day Begins
7:30 am—Good morning! Our homeschool day begins when our kids come downstairs at 7:30 am. This has been our long-established house rule, allowing me and my husband to wake up, have breakfast, enjoy quiet time reading the Bible and praying, and sometimes grab a quick workout. Our two older kids (ages 10 and 12) use the time before 7:30 am to get dressed and have their personal prayer and Bible reading time. (You can read more about the Bibles and resources they use in this post.) Our younger two sons (ages 6 and 7) usually sleep past 7:30 am.
The kids are responsible for making their own breakfasts, which might include eggs, oatmeal, toast with almond butter and honey, and fruit. My husband often makes a big pot of oatmeal with raisins, pecans, and chopped apples that we scoop out from a big bowl in the fridge and heat as needed for our little guys.
8:15 am - Independent Work
8:15 am—The kids begin their independent homeschool work at their grade levels. For Liam (12), this includes an online Latin course (Visual Latin 1) through Compass Classroom, an online Creation Science course through Compass Classroom, and online math (Beast Academy online), along with Language Arts through Literature (the Green book). Lanie (10) and Bear (7) work on Learning Language Arts through Literature (they use the Orange and Red books, respectively) and Apologia Math (levels 4 and 2). Beckham (age 6) and I read picture books together or work on a reading lesson using Happy Cheetah. I assist each child as needed. To help the kids stay on track with their independent work, I created these independent checklists that I print out for them every week.
10:00 am - Community Work/Morning Time
10:00 am—We gather for “Community Work,” which is what we call our morning time. We’ve found that starting and finishing independent work before gathering for morning time keeps our kids more engaged during morning time.
Community Work/Morning Time consists of Bible reading, praying together, singing two hymns from this hymnal (which Liam will often accompany on the piano), practicing a few questions from The New City Catechism together, and working on our Bible verse or passage that we’re memorizing. Then, we read a chapter of Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall for history (and discuss what we read), and read a page or two from a children’s adaptation of Shakespeare (we’re currently enjoying this one and this one). We conclude by reading aloud from our read-aloud, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The kids like to draw during these readings. At the end of Community Work, we watch a 10-minute news show (with a biblical worldview) called World Watch News.
New to Morning Time?
If you’re brand new to the idea of Morning Time, we’ve created three volumes of Morning Time plans that are perfect for families who want a rich feast of subjects in a convenient open-and-go guide! These resources include Bible reading plans, prayer prompts, Scripture memory, hymn study, composer and artist study, poetry, and more! You can find them here:
You only need one Morning Time guide per family per year. They do not have to be done in order, and you can also add in Copywork if you’re wanting some handwriting practice.
Community Work makes up the bulk of our homeschooling and lasts around 90 minutes, though we started with just 20-30 minutes each day when the kids were younger. We finish with a 10-minute cleanup, as the living room where we homeschool tends to be a bit of a mess by the end.
Past Curriculum Choices
If you’re curious about what we’ve used for curriculum in the past, I’ve listed out our first five years of curriculum choices in this post, and I shared what we used for this past school year in this post. I’ll be sharing soon about our curriculum plans for the upcoming year!
Planning in Reverse
I like to have a good idea of what we’re going to do and study, but I only write down what we’ve done in my homeschool planner. It’s called “planning in reverse.” We now offer beautiful hardcover homeschool planners for the 2025-2026 year!
*Occasionally, we take a 10-minute break after independent work and before Community Work to run outside or grab a snack. In the past, it was challenging to get the kids back on track after a break; however, they’re a bit older now, so it’s easier!
11:45 am - Lunch Time!
11:45 am - 12:30 pm—Time for lunch! We keep it simple, usually opting for leftovers. For years, I repeated a handful of lunch options on a simple weekly menu that you can find here. After cleaning up, the kids head to rest time.
12:30 pm - Rest Time
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm—Rest time for everyone. The kids go to separate spaces in the house to read or listen to audiobooks. I use this time to catch up on work, prep dinner, or just read.
2:00 pm - Free Time
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm—The kids come bolting downstairs and typically head outside to play for the rest of the afternoon. We are fortunate to have wonderful neighbors who also homeschool who visit several days a week. We spend a lot of time outdoors. The kids also participate in soccer practice and piano lessons on certain days, and use the other days to practice piano, bake in the kitchen, or take walks or bike rides around our property.
4:00 pm - Quick Clean-Up
4:00 pm—Before prepping dinner, we try to do a quick cleanup of the house. We aren’t perfect at this, but it sure is helpful when we do it!
5:00 - 6:30 pm - Dinner
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm—This time is dedicated to dinner preparation, eating, and cleaning up afterward.
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm - Winding Down
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm—We do one more house pickup, if needed. Then we either hang out outside—sometimes building a fire—where the kids put on their pajamas and brush their teeth. Occasionally, we watch an episode of All Creatures Great and Small together, which is our favorite show.
8:30 pm - Bedtime
8:00 pm to 8:30 pm—Around this time, we all sing the Doxology as a bedtime prayer. The kids have book lights and read before bed, aiming to turn lights off around 9:00 pm.
FAQ
How many days a week do you homeschool? We typically homeschool on 4 days a week and take Fridays off. However, if we know we’re going into a season of travel that won’t allow us to homeschool for as many days, we’ll throw in some Fridays to make up for that. In the state of South Carolina, we’re required to homeschool for 180 days per year. We can do this pretty easily by homeschooling year round. On our “off” days, the kids still read independently quite a bit and practice piano.
When do you work? As you know, my husband and I own and run a small business. Shawn and I split the homeschooling responsibilities, so we each homeschool for two days each week. On the days when we’re not homeschooling, we’re in the office working. I also often work in the margins: early in the morning or during the kids’ rest time in the afternoons.
