Adventures in Homeschooling - Starting Out

 We did it! Our first two weeks are over, and I'd say we were pretty successful. Once we got into it the routine became very natural. I kind of based it around our meals and the baby's naptimes. (Thankfully he is still taking 2 naps a day!). We start the day with family worship together, then my husband leaves for work. I make breakfast and as we sit at the table there is a morning Bible/Theology lesson. When the baby goes down for his first nap, we do a reading lesson. Afterwards, the boys play while I pump. The baby gets up from his nap and I do some morning chores. The next big thing is lunch. When lunch is done, they play a bit more until I read to them before nap/quiet time. While they nap, I usually relax for a while. Then I pump again, and the boys get up. I begin dinner prep while they play again. (Occasionally we do a bit of screen time during this time). Once we eat dinner, we go over catechisms and memory verses. As I clean up dinner, they clean up their toys. Before bed I read aloud to them again. Once my husband comes home the boys love to romp around the house. When they settle down and get it out of their system, we do evening worship, and then put them to bed.

I have to build in time to go to the library and the grocery store, so the schedule looks a bit different day to day. Especially true because things happen throughout the day that throw us off schedule. It's nice to have the flexibility to move things around as we need. It's also nice, because the load is not heavy. The curriculum contains a chapter of one book here and a chapter of another book there. We're usually not sitting for longer than 10 minutes at a time. Sometimes it does take longer if he wants to ask questions or talk. The subject that takes the longest is learning to read. Mostly it just depends upon his attitude and cooperation with me. He's capable and usually very motivated but sometimes he just gets in a funk. (So do I, so I get it!). Most of his school is listening, so when he actually has to participate, our speed and success is dependent on his attitude at the time.