I hesitate to share a post like this because it reveals so much. In this case, I’ve had this sitting in my draft box for about four months. But I’m going to share it because I’ve been victim to comments by people that assume stay-at-home moms lead a life of luxury. Once a non-homeschool mom told me she imagined our life to be so relaxing because we could do whatever we wanted all day. Hmmm. No, we can’t do whatever we want all day. There’s a lot of work to do!

There are also folks who think that people who work from home have it easy too. My husband works from home, and he gets this a lot. I don’t feature him so much in his timeline because he’s upstairs working most of the day, but he’s also very involved in the boys’ homeschool, particularly their music education, so he doesn’t get much free time either. I’m sure both of us could think of many other things to do with our time, if we didn’t have kids! But we love our kids, and we love being with them and giving them the best education we can muster.

What is nice about homeschooling is the flexibility. Yes, we have a lot of work to do, but we can decide when and how to do it. It takes a lot of self-discipline to lead this lifestyle, but a byproduct of that is raising kids with a lot of self-discipline. (Because you model it for them and also they see first-hand why you need it.)

Our daily schedule has evolved over the years from life with babies to life with busy, homeschooled boys. We have tweaked it occasionally when it seemed like the right thing to do, but it’s still similar to when they were infants. Keep in mind this schedule doesn’t include several weekly appointments, occasional play dates, errands, or day trips. We can get quite busy with other activities, but this is my day in the life when we’re home all day.

• 7:30ish a.m. I drag myself out of bed. Stretch/yoga. Check email.
• 8:15ish. I wake up my twelve-year-old. We eat breakfast together. I prepare lessons for him.
• 9:00ish. The twelve-year-old will start his lessons. During this year we somehow transitioned from me sitting with him the whole morning to him doing lessons mostly by himself. Yay! But this will fluctuate as I introduce new topics of study to him next year. Of course, I am still needed frequently, and I check over his lessons when he’s finished.
• 9:15ish. I wake up my nine-year-old. While he’s eating breakfast and getting dressed, I do dishes and laundry and other house chores. After breakfast, my nine-year-old will read silently to himself.
• 10:30ish. I start lessons that include both boys around this time. Usually we work on foreign language lessons, history, or more language arts, but we don’t do everything everyday. (Science is on Saturday mornings.)
• 12:00p.m. Lunch time. Boys play while I make lunch. The whole family watches a documentary together during lunch. (We watch about 30 minutes total, pausing frequently to chat or get more food.)
• 1:30ish. While my twelve-year-old practices piano with his dad as an audience, I go upstairs to do one-on-one lessons with my nine-year-old. We do math, writing, grammar, handwriting, a read aloud, etc.
• 3:00ish. Whew. We’re all ready for free time now. The boys watch a 20 minute kids’ program and then play digital games for about an hour. Then they play outside. During this break, I do “administration” for our homeschool, i.e. clean-up, lesson planning, (looking up books at library, reading about new curriculums), check e-mail (making appointments) etc. If it’s a nice weather day, I take a walk and tend the garden.
• 4:00ish. While the boys are still playing, I will continue with the laundry or whatever needs doing, take a shower and start dinner.
• 5:30ish. Dinner. This is our time to teach our kids about pop culture. Lately we’ve been watching Star Trek and Northern Exposure. (Again, usually 30 minutes of a show.) We might watch a short YouTube video too.
• 6:15ish. I do the dishes. Boys help clean up and play.
• 6:30ish. My twelve-year-old practices piano again for another hour and a half. My husband is his audience while I go upstairs to be an audience for my nine-year-old who practices cello for about an hour.
• 8:00ish. Boys take showers & get ready for bed.
• 8:45ish. Boys watch gaming YouTube videos. Eat snacks. I get ready for bed. I usually curl up in bed and watch something on Masterpiece Theatre.
• 9:45ish. Boys clean up and go upstairs. The twelve-year-old reads before bed. I still read a book to the nine-year-old. Daddy talks with them about their day.
• 10:15~10:30ish. Lights out for the boys. I retreat to my bed to read a book.
• 11:00 p.m. Lights out for me!