I am Rachelle of Texas.

Dad (PhD student) and Mom (part-time math teacher) take turns doing school with Abby (2.5-year-old rascal). Her cousin Aria (2-year-old sweetie) and Aria’s mom (small business owner) sometimes join in as well. Our 2 dogs have eaten the girls’ toys before so they are not allowed in the school room 🙂

Our Morning:

On Thursdays, we all wake up at 7:00 am. Dad goes to school after walking the dogs, and Abby has Mom for the day!

Abby eats greek yogurt, avocado, bread, and sometimes fruit and cheese. Mom eats oatmeal with an egg and spinach, and empties the dishwasher.

Then we do school for about an hour (Custom Timberdoodle Preschool curriculum, with favorites from the Baby curriculum. We started at the beginning of summer but have been slowly “opening” each part one at a time since they are so much fun!

Then we go to the park playground for half an hour before Toddler Time at the library.

Our Afternoon:

Abby eats chicken, veggies, and rich for lunch, while Mom eats leftovers from dinner.

After Abby’s nap, we walk the dogs together, then read books and do crafts. Abby loves the scissors.

We go to the grocery store and the dog park once a week.

Our Evening:

Dad is the best cook!

Mom does chores before dinner, bath, and bed.

We read a children’s Bible to Abby before bed.

Dad walks the dogs before he goes to bed, but Mom usually falls asleep with Abby. Haha.

Just for Fun:

Other than play-dates and Sunday School and the swimming pool, Abby doesn’t have any extracurricular activities. She will start one-day-a-week at Gymboree “School Skills” soon though!

Hi! My name is Marcia and I am a homeschooling mom of 4 beautiful girls: Zoe, almost 7; Olivia, almost 5; Ivy, 3; and Aryn, 15 months.

My husband Marcus and I are blessed to have a poultry farm that allows me to be home with them. He works full time at the local hospital as CT supervisor. In addition to our two chicken houses and his job at the hospital, we also have an apiary. His parents have a farm also, so if we are not chasing our chickens, chasing the kids, or checking our bees, we are on their farm helping them with any of their chores. It is a busy busy life indeed. But we wouldn’t change it for anything!

Our Morning:

Today it is Monday and I started the day with a pot of coffee. Aryn was up all night sick so neither of us got any sleep. Marcus has someone out with a broken foot so he had to fill in from 7:00 pm until midnight last night and then go back in for his normal shift at 7:00 am this morning. While he gets ready for work, we chat through Aryn’s cries. Her crying woke up Zoe and Ivy so we all have an early start. At least they get to see Marcus off to work. (Olivia got to stay the night with her grandparents last night. They take turns.) My plan was to make pancakes for breakfast but Aryn is miserable and only wants to snuggle. It’s the only thing that comforts her right now. And that means cereal again. I can do that with only one arm. 🙂 At least the kids don’t mind. They all ASK for cereal.

Since I got no sleep, it’s off to check on our two chicken houses and the chickens. I really don’t like taking the kiddos with me, especially with one of them sick, but everyone was up so early I didn’t get to do this before they woke up and Marcus left, which is what I normally do. But the kiddos are great! They help me turn on the feed and check the water lines to make sure everything is running properly. With Aryn in her backpack carrier on my chest, they are a huge help.

After breakfast I bathe the two littlest ones while Zoe takes a math test–100%. Great job, kiddo!

Aryn is out of the bath fast. Usually this helps her feel better when she is sick, but not today. While I help the babies get dressed, Zoe does spelling.

Today is free day–my favorite day because Zoe enjoys it so much–and I always like seeing her drawings. With Ivy dressed and playing her her dolls and Aryn snuggled on my chest again, snotting all over me, Zoe and I talk about Attila the Hun in history and then we discuss the North Star and how it can be used to navigate as part of our science lesson. She doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to this part so we may need to go over it again tomorrow.

Our Afternoon:

Ivy gets hungry so we stop for lunch–sandwiches and Veggie Straws, my kids favorite. While they eat, with Aryn munching away safe in her chair (and happy for the moment) I load the dishwasher and start a load of laundry. Then I make myself a nice salad and sit down while the kids have their dessert-chocolate pudding. Zoe is reading at the table again, a sight I love to see, but I know I will be cleaning pudding off that book later. Aryn is putting cheese in her hair, so I know she’s done.

Zoe and I start Language Lessons, discussing The Three Little Kittens, identifying nouns, pronouns, and verbs in the poem, while I clean Aryn up and give her something to help her fever come down. Zoe does great so we move on to reading, her favorite part of the day. She reads while I rock Aryn, who is getting drowsy, finally. The poor girl needs some rest.

Once Aryn is snuggled in bed, I switch the laundry, unclog the toilet and clean the flooded floor. Ivy and I talk about what is appropriate to put in the potty and what is not,and then we settle on the living room floor. Zoe is reading a book at her desk while Ivy and I talk about colors and shapes. She stacks her Tobbles from big to small for me and then identifies small to big. We do puzzles, at which point Zoe joins us, helping Ivy to see which pieces have edges and which do not. I love moments like this, with big sister teaching little sister. I must be doing something right.

I have time before Marcus gets home, and I feel pretty good, so I hop on the elliptical for 30 minutes, watching both girls and listening to Aryn’s monitor and K-love at the same time. After I cool down with some water Zoe and I go over her summer reading chart, marking down the books she has read.

Marcus comes home but has to leave again because our neighbor needs help baling his hay. Kiddos will have to come to work with me again this evening.

Our Evening:

After we walk the chicken houses again (my girls are AWESOME today!) Zoe takes a shower. Ivy and Aryn (she must be feeling a little bit better now) play on the floor and I start dinner.

Di and Terry (Marcus’s parents) are bringing Olivia home and staying for dinner. I make meatloaf, roasted potatoes, and corn. It’s a good dinner, with good conversation. Everyone talks about the long vacation weekend Di and Terry are taking in just a few days. They will be taking Zoe and Olivia with them and they are all so excited. Zoe reads us the Sunday Comics before we leave the table. Di and Terry leave after a bit of TV but the kiddos snuggle with Marcus and I until bedtime. Aryn falls asleep in my lap. She finally feels like she’s cooled down. Hopefully she will get a good night’s sleep and feel better tomorrow.

The other three kids go pee and brush teeth and then it’s off to bed. We say prayers, give hugs and kisses, and then it’s computer time for me before 30 minutes of reading before I go to sleep myself. It’s been a busy day, but I feel content and happy.

Just for Fun:

Oh my goodness, we do so much! All three girls are in the church youth choir, and they love it. Practice is every Thursday evening at 6:00. Things can get hectic on those days, trying to have all the work done and have dinner before practice, but it’s worth it.

Zoe is a Cloverbud in 4-H this year. She loves making the crafts and can’t wait to enter them in the state fair. She absolutely loved our club’s overnighter. The club got together for two days of activities, including a campfire, and slept in tents. She still sings some of the songs she learned there.

We do 5k’s at least one Saturday every month, but sometimes more. Zoe and Olivia both run sometimes with Dad and sometimes with me, keeping me company while I push the double stroller with the two youngest girls. We all have fun on those days. Olivia is competitive and loves beating her sister, which she does often!

In the spring and summer things get super-busy because of our apiary. We have hive inspections to do, swarms to catch (Marcus is on our state call list to pick up swarms so they won’t be exterminated) and honey to harvest. And the kids love that too. We have two juvenile bee suits for them and the three older ones argue over whose turn it is to wear it and help. They love looking inside the hives. It’s wonderful. Marcus grew up on a farm and I love the values it’s instilling in our children having our own.

Zoe’s Day

Hi! My name is Zoe and I am 6.

Mom cooks food that is delicious. Dad goes to the hospital during the day to work. My sister Olivia is 4. My sister Ivy is 3. My sister Aryn is 1.

Moose and Natasha are our dogs. They bark at EVERYTHING.

My grandparents are a big part of our family too. They live 15 minutes away on a poultry farm. I like helping them sometimes.

We have a chicken farm too. My grandparents have 4 chicken houses. We have 2 chicken houses. Mom takes care of them.

Our Morning:

I woke up early because Aryn was crying. She is sick today. I had cereal for breakfast. Honey Nut Cheerios is my favorite.

After breakfast I went out to help Mom in the chicken houses because Aryn is sick and she didn’t get to it before I woke up. Usually she does.

After work, I took a math test and got 100%! Then I did spelling. Today was free day so I got to draw a picture. In science we talked about stars. Some are dim and some are bright. We talked about the North Star too. My favorite part of the day is reading. I love to read. Today I read Runaway Ponies and Splat the Cat Sings Flat, and then we had lunch.

Our Afternoon:

After lunch, Aryn took a nap and Mom did a workout on the elliptical. I did IQ Fit. I like IQ Fit. Ivy did a puzzle. Olivia was with Di and Terry (our grandparents). She stayed the night there.

Next, Ivy and I helped Mom again with work because Dad had to bale hay with our neighbor, Grier.

Our Evening:

We had meatloaf for dinner with Di and Terry. They brought Olivia home.

After dinner we watched TV. Dad likes the science channel, but sometimes he lets us watch kids TV. I like Shimmer and Shine. We always brush our teeth before bed, and say prayers.

Just for Fun:

I am in 4-H. My favorite part this year was the club overnighter. I really liked sitting around the campfire and singing songs.

I like making crafts. I am excited for the state fair.

I am also in the church youth choir. I like to sing.

Have you ever met a homeschool educator who never originally intended to teach her kids at home?

I’m Brandy, and although I was adamantly opposed to homeschooling at first, thanks to direction from my husband and the Lord, I have been blessedly homeschooling my two kids, T (age 10) and S (age 7) for the past four years!

We have a wonderful dog, a hysterical senior cat who “adopted us” when he was 11 years old, and we all fit snugly in our 800-square-foot beach cottage.

T, S, and my husband love to golf, so we spend a lot of time exploring fairways, greens, and the occasional bunker.

We love the freedom homeschooling gives us to pursue a lifelong love of learning, grow together emotionally and spiritually, and enjoy all that our beautiful outhern California community has to offer!

Our Morning:

Recently, we went on a spectacular field trip with our school group to Riley’s Farm for an American Revolutionary War reenactment. The drive there was roughly 1.5 hours, so we got up with the sun, packed lunches, and headed for the hills! The kids used the drive time to read some fun books about the American Revolution. By the time we got there, they were ready to dive head-first into colonial times!

Our Afternoon:

We spent the day in the 1700s, with hands-on activities including livestock, a mock trial, etiquette, weaving, games, infantry training and a mock battle. The kids had a blast and learned so much in the process!

Our Evening:

All the way home, T and S talked excitedly about what they had experienced. At home that evening, and for days to follow, they played “Revolutionary War!”

Just for Fun:

We are blessed to be part of a dynamic school group, through which we participate in class days and field trips.

Golf keeps us quite busy, with weekly classes for each of the kids, practice rounds, and weekend competitions.

We also attend a homeschool gymnastics class, and both kids play the recorder.

We enjoy volunteering at a local retirement home, where we have “adopted” a “grandma.”

Hi! My name is Amanda and I’m a stay-at-home mom. My husband Will does I.T. work.

Our sons are William, age 6, and Carter, age 4. William likes science and American Ninja Warrior. Carter loves cars and building with Legos.

Our Morning:

On Monday morning Will gets up around 7:00 to get ready for work. William and Carter also get up at 7:00 and play Legos until breakfast.

I get up at 7:20 to get William’s school work ready and make oatmeal for breakfast.

We start school work at 9:00. We are using Timberdoodle’s 1st Grade Secular kit. We start with Math-U-See and after that use Phonics Pathways, First Language Lessons 1, Spelling You See, Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 1, and Daily Geography Practice Grade 1.

Our Afternoon:

We had chili and fresh fruit for lunch.

We don’t usually do school work in the afternoon. We spend time outside in the garden and doing chores like laundry and vacuuming.

We also spend time building with Legos and doing art in the afternoon.

Our Evening:

We had chicken, potatoes, and green beans for dinner.

After dinner we go outside to play on our play set in our back yard and pick strawberries.

At 6:45 we come inside for showers and brushing teeth.

Carter goes to bed at 7:00 after a bedtime story and William goes to bed at 8:00 after he reads.

Just for Fun:

William goes to a ninja gym once a week for a mini warriors class. They do stretches and run a obstacle course. He is working towards running up an eight foot warped wall.

We have 5 people in our family: Mom, Dad, Daughter (13), Son (9), and Son (6).

Dad is a carpenter/builder and spends as much time as he can taking his family on adventures.

Mom likes to sew and read, but enjoys staying home and schooling her kids the most.

Daughter is going to be a wildlife biologist and had a great time on our trip to Yellowstone last year seeing all the animals.

Middle son is a kind-hearted kid, always putting others before himself. He loves Minecraft.

The youngest loves all things Transformers and is a very charming boy. Both boys love and are very creative with Legos.

We have two dogs: one Golden-doodle and a Scottish Terrier mix who is a pound rescue. We like to hike, camp, and go bouldering all together. The dogs even climb the rocks with us.

Our Morning:

This is a typical day for our past school year. We all wake up around 7:00 and eat breakfast. We usually eat eggs, toast, smoothies, waffles, or muffins.

We go to ‘school’ at 8:00 am. Our school room is at Nana’s house just down the road. We ride our bikes, the four-wheelers, or take the car if the weather is bad or it’s too snowy.

We use a bunch of different curriculums including: Saxon, Math U See, All About Reading, All About Spelling, Story of the World, and some critical thinking books.

We usually have set chores for set days of the week. Monday is the bathroom, Tuesday the kitchen, etc. Everyone pitches in (usually)

Our Afternoon:

We typically do leftovers or sandwiches or salads for lunch.

We try to be done with school by noon, but science and art sometimes get pushed to the afternoon.

We have one day a week we ‘go into town’ (45 minutes away) to get groceries and mom has an exercise class.

My daughter will spend time in the afternoons sometimes looking up wildlife webcams online. The boys play Legos. We usually watch a show or play on Kindles for a bit as ‘downtime’.

Our Evening:

Dinner varies. I have an app that gives me meal ideas and a grocery list. That helps a lot.

High points of the day are getting our chores done and having outside time.

Low points would be fit throwing because of school and chores. 🙂

We end the day with showers, or reading, or watching a show all together.

Just for Fun:

This year we weren’t involved in extra activities. We had done shared school in the past and wanted a ‘break’ year. The only days that get cut short are the days we go to town for my exercise class and groceries. We don’t get chores done that day.

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Hello. My name is Coraly. My husband and I have 3 gorgeous girls. Our 13-year-old loves art and volleyball. Our 12-year-old loves drama and basketball. Our 8-year-old loves math and swim team. We have a family dog who loves long walks and playing with the kids in the backyard.

We are also a licensed foster family and are in the beginning stages of reunifying our little guy with his family. Yes, this is hard, but golly, what a joy to see another family reunited!

Our Morning:

We are finishing up our school year. Our morning began at 7:00 with getting the little kids up and fed.

We walked out the door to the pool for first swim team practice.

We arrived back home and got our little guy fed and down for his morning nap.

The big girls settled down at the table and began the first of their standardized test. Our 8-year-old crawled into her fort and did her 1 hour of daily reading.

Our Afternoon:

We had lunch and now off to the park to burn off our frustration from the testing!

We typically don’t have more than just math in the afternoon. We spend our afternoon pursuing our interest hobbies such as bike riding, reading, visiting friends.

Our Evening:

The high point of my day was watching my daughter rock the dolphin kick on swim team. The low was seeing my kids show such anxiety and stress over their test.

Just for Fun:

Each of our girls participates in sports. We are involved in our homeschool co-op. And we love our Monday night BSF Bible study.

Hello, my name is Amanda! I’m wife to Andrew, an engineer, and Momma to 3-year-old Elliana and 3-month-old Hanna Ivy.

We stay busy renovating our house (we’re in the process of replacing siding and windows-ourselves!), looking for wildlife in the field behind our home, growing relationships with our neighbors and friends, and learning! Elliana asks me every day to “play school,” which encourages me that we’re onto something.

Our Morning:

It’s Monday morning. We’ve had a full weekend, and having a routine to guide today supports our family in moving forward, when we could just lounge all day (which does happen!), becoming restless and start annoying one another.

Elliana gets up at 6:45, right after Daddy is dressed. When I’m up to nurse the baby (like last night), I need a few extra minutes to sleep in the morning, and we get up at 7:00 am. Andrew has his lunch and bag ready, and they’ve already started breakfast.

The mantra every morning from our 3-year-old, who thrives on routine, is “Cereal, juice, vitamin!” Granola, rice cereal with jam, and some dried fruit and lots of water make a quick, easy meal for us to get up and at ’em while I nurse (again).

Daddy leaves, we (so slowly!) get dressed, make beds, and after getting Hanna to sleep I run around the house getting some things checked off that mental list I’ve been writing. “We need to wash diapers! The floor is a mess! The sticky chairs call my name and laugh!” I call Elliana over to spray chairs with her water bottle with me and wipe them with a rag, which makes cleaning fun for us both.

Then we pull out our schedule for the day and corresponding activities. We’re using My Father’s World curriculum, which gives us a story from the Bible (we use the Jesus Storybook Bible). I’ve shifted to many activities from Timberdoodle to supplement, but appreciate the theme given in MFW. Today’s story was about the Tower of Babel, and learning about different languages and cultures. We talked about how much God loves all the people He has created as we cut and glued pictures of different people from a magazine to a poster; read Snow White in French; and put together a GeoPuzzle of the world. We are also learning about shapes and the letter “C” using different manipulative from Timberdoodle.

But now Hanna is hungry and Elliana can’t do more sitting, so we take a walk. Elliana learns how to make friends with neighborhood kids and adults as they join us. A summer goal we have is to meet all our neighbors!

Our Afternoon:

We spent as long as we could outside, chatting with the woman who delivers our mail and has become our friend, chatting and playing with neighbors.

It’s past lunch time, so I pull out quick items- applesauce, dried kiwi, precooked sausage, spinach.

After that my mom comes by. They live a few minutes away, but were traveling over the weekend, and it’s fun to catch up with her in-between Elliana’s conversation and distractions.

Then it’s nap time. Hanna fuels up, then sleeps soundly for a few hours; Elliana needs some time to unwind and plays in her room for about 20 minutes until I wake up and remind her to nap.

Now I get some time to be by myself. I want to read my Bible, since I didn’t earlier, but I have to do so before being distracted by social media, and I’m better at this some days than others! I will probably pull out my journaling Bible and see if Elliana will help me decorate around the verse our family is memorizing, 2 Peter 1:3. The game is that whenever someone remembers, we all stop and shout the words.

Our Evening:

By the time the girls are up, it’s nearly dinner time. The hardest time of the day, for sure. I try to pull out an activity for Elliana, like Floof, kinetic sand, or her “science kit,” which consists of a huge dropper, some test tubes, and water I color with food coloring.

Tonight we’re having hamburgers and salad.

Andrew will give hugs, change into different clothes, and work on siding for a little while before we all sit down to eat together.

Then we’ll clean up, get our girls ready for sleep, and pile onto our bed to read another section of Little House in the Big Woods.

Once the girls are asleep Andrew and I usually run around a little more, preparing for the girls and me to leave early tomorrow for errands (strawberry picking!) and visiting, before getting snacks, decompressing and dreaming together, maybe watching Fixer Upper on the iPad (we don’t have a TV). Moments make up our lives, and we want them to be good ones.

Just for Fun:

Elliana is just starting extracurriculars, and is thrilled to go to dance class in two weeks! We have a few groups we’re part of through our church, as well.

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I am Jen of Orlando. My family is a family of 4: 3 humans, 1 dog. The 3 humans are my husband, my son and myself.

The dog is Polly, a rescue lab/hound mix.

My husband works as an actor at Walt Disney World.

My son is 14 , a smart, funny, Aspergers teen, who is homeschooled after some rough days in public school.

I am the mom, trying to homeschool and also working part-time as an actor at Disney.

Our Morning:

Mornings are varied. My husband goes to work about 8:00 a.m., but my son can be up at 7:00 a.m. or sleeping in until 11:00 a.m. He often wakes up in the night- sometimes for hours at a time- so sleep is prized and respected.

Once he is up, he eats breakfast, gets dressed and starts school. Usually math comes first because it is his favorite. He does more and more learning on his own as he gets older, which feels both great and scary.

Our Afternoon:

After lunch, we usually do science and social studies.

In the summer, we spend the afternoon arguing about how much time he can be on the computer and running errands.

He loves researching videos on YouTube about airports and subways- he will watch them over and over- so we use that preferred activity to entice him to complete other things.

Our Evening:

Our son will play outside with neighborhood kids, my husband and I will try to stay awake (older parents are good but often tired…), and then we gather for some movie time. We love watching movies as a family. It used to be Disney movies, but now it is DVDs of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or something on Turner Classics.

Just for Fun:

My son loves singing , so ensemble rehearsal is frequent.

He takes classes and camps, and sometimes he does Special Olympics.

He is still searching for who he is, so we try a lot of things.

I wish we were more involved in church, but the youth group there is not a great fit for our son, so we need to keep looking.

My name is Gretchen and I’m a homeschooling Mom. I am teaching my seven-year-old first grader named Calvin.

Calvin’s dad is an environmental manager at a mining company. He teaches Calvin and me about history after he gets home from work each night. We have a dog named Brewster and a bunny named Bunnyrat. Calvin loves anything and everything to do with animals and their habitats.

Our Morning:

We are on a partial break from school right now. We still have schoolwork, but we are doing less while Calvin is in summer classes with our city recreation programs.

We had to get up this morning and get dressed and ready for Calvin’s tennis class.

After tennis we came home for breakfast and we read a few chapters from the book we are reading right now, The Chocolate Touch.

Calvin then had swimming lessons. Summers are so busy and filled with such fun activities!

Our Afternoon:

After lunch, we started to do some school work. We did our own curriculum this year, but are set up with Timberdoodle’s secular homeschool package for second grade this fall. We have heard great things about their curriculum packs from a homeschool magazine and other homeschool moms I have met.

Today, we did math, language, and analogies. Also we did science and geography. Lastly, Calvin had an art project he wanted to do on his own, so I helped him collect the things he needed and he got to work.

During the school year, we usually try to start and finish school in the morning. It seems Calvin has a harder time staying focused in the afternoon, so working in the mornings lessen the frustrations for both of us.

Our Evening:

When Calvin’s dad gets home, we sit down to have dinner.

After dinner his dad reads a chapter from The Story of the World, Book One. We will discuss the chapter, look at the maps and pictures in the project book and maybe do a project. We love The Story of the World book so far. It is a fun read and a great way to learn history.

Before bath and bed time, Calvin usually goes outside to play with the neighborhood kids.

Just for Fun:

We just moved to Minnesota, so I haven’t been able to find a homeschool co-op like the ones we had in northern Nevada. Because of this, Calvin and I usually go out on adventures alone during the school week. Most days we walk to the local park to play with the kids in the after-school program.

If it was too cold out, we would go to the local kids museum or library. Calvin also loves taking extracurricular classes offered by our school district and city recreation office. His favorite classes are STEAM or STEM classes.