A Day in the Life: Ashley

Written by CHEBWA member Ashley Pease

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Every homeschooling family is different! We hope that these peeks into the daily lives of some of our CHEBWA homeschool families will both encourage and inspire you on your own journey!

As I sit down to “teach my children up” I am daily reminded that I am by word and action showing my children how to live in more than just a community of people.  Our journey of learning and of growth consists of not just our home but in addition our church, our neighborhood and our physical community that requires us to keep God’s standards of living while having to be in the world but not of it. Christ reminds me that above academics, his glory must be taught and character installed into the hearts of my children so that He is visible when we leave the home and so that my family can stand firm in truth. I can’t do this by focusing alone on an academic day.   

For many of us there is a great desire to teach our children “to be the best that they can be”. There is nothing wrong with that however what my Bible tells me is that I am to help them also recognize that even though I want them to have their own personality, God wants them to develop their personalities while to recognize also that He gave them that specific personality. He wants them to understand that which he created them to be.  To know that they were made for a time such as this.  Though academics are important in our home, it is far more important that my children understand that we are a part of God’s ever growing kingdom and should rather or more so desire that than what is academically acceptable or expected by our social surrounding and academic neighbors. 

Do I encourage my children to do their best? Yes. Do allow them to slack? No, not usually. We often say in our home, “It’s okay to not know, it’s not okay to not try”.  But the cold hard truth is, we do fail. We cry. We’ve even been caught in that place of yelling. When in a box all day long, we can certainly be in each other’s space.  Our days consistently lean on learning how to speak to each other in love and somehow get all the work that is in front of us finished. In home-schooling families I have learned that there is not one home that is exactly alike. Though we all have common areas we also have individual needs and commitments that vary from black to white.  In coming to this understanding and concluding I can’t be “Mrs. White” or “Mrs. Black”, I am indeed “Mrs. Pease” ( and that is whom God created me to be!).

My home is different from yours in many ways but joyfully with encouragement from many of you and my Heavenly father, our home knows laughter, tears of joy and  now triumph. Hallelujah.  

Ephesians 6:2-4 “Honor your Father and Mother which is the first commandment- with a promise so that it may go well with you and so that you may enjoy long life on earth.  Fathers, do not exasperate your children, instead, bring them up in training and instruction of the Lord.”

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Triston is currently in 3rd grade and
Wyatt is my very rambunctious Kindergartner!

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Mondays are our “Run and Get Er Done” day. We usually sleep in a little, if you call 7 sleeping in. I am not a morning person. Have you ever seen that cup on Pinterest that layers out the acceptance of one speaking to you whilst holding the cup of coffee? It’s pretty much a danger zone until you get to the last drop. I m not going to lie. That most certainly covers the bear in me in the mornings. I do not wake up with a gleeful hop in my step. I leach to the kitchen and get my bowl of oatmeal and cup of coffee, grunt “good morning” to my boys and flop into my big, coral couch that swallows me in comfort. It’s a good place to be in the morning.

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After routine of coffee (for me), breakfast, hygiene and morning chores we are usually beginning Bible class by 8:30am. Since Triston is almost nine, he is required to read alone and answer some questions quietly from our Alpha & Omega series pacs while I am helping Wyatt (5) with his. My husband does not like to miss out on this portion of reading for the day so when he tucks the boys in at night, he is generally  ready to read from a very awesome series of children’s bible comics that are quite accurate called Manga Melech. Triston enjoys them so much that he will routinely go back and read them again. That’s a SCORE in my book!  

Mondays are busy but pretty relaxed, if that makes sense. After we have finished with Bible the boys are required to work on spelling, writing and math. We don’t make them do any other subjects on Mondays. Currently we use Aplha and Omega for all of those subjects and add in Sequential Spelling on DVD for Triston. Soon after, we are on our way to open gym for all home school friends at the FLAMES gym on Lapeer. If you do not take your children to this, may I suggest that having time to get their wiggles out is a delight for them and the parent. Coach Joe is creative and keeps a structured classroom.

We also have jumped aboard the music train and both children have piano every Monday afternoon which fortunately for me, my mom gives. It also allows me time to work with each of my children privately on any area of academics or attitude that need to be addressed.

We usually play a board game while learning for this hour. I try to make it as appealing as possible since we’re getting to the end of our longest day of “Run and Get Er Done”.

Every other Monday evening we have been so blessed to host a boys only club (both home schooled and not) rightfully called “Contenders of the Faith.”  Boys growing and learning together in character for God’s kingdom. That’s a big cup of awesomeness in my book. We are finished with school by 4 on Mondays and by 2 most other days.

Here is a picture of Daniel is teaching the boys to read a compass properly. (Dads are encouraged to participate in ALL the fun at our Contenders meetings.)

Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday are pretty similar to each other. Our morning wake up routine then we dive into Math, Language, Geography, and science. Science is a huge undertaking in my home but it is worth it. Trstion adores anything science related and loves to find the difference between what man says and God says. I encourage this because some day he’ll have to stand on is own two feet, as we all do.  He and Wyatt are currently learning life cycles of plants and animals while Triston continues his love of Astronomy from Apologia  and his every day pac from Alpha and Omega.

We reach out to Pinterest on many of these studies since there are so many free resources out there. Both of my boys thoroughly enjoy lap books and I enjoy going back through them to see what they’ve come up with.

Thursdays we attend Excel at Griswold with so many other wonderful families that are just as unique as my family but pull together to teach our children in a structured classroom setting .

We still start our days the same however I only ask my children to accomplish Bible before we leave the house on Thursdays. I use Thursday mornings to run my errands and get groceries.  I am a fan of routine but value flexibility.  Let’s face it, kids mean that routines get broken as does life in general. Some weeks we accomplish NOTHING before we go out the door to Excel. Those days are hard but they can be used for some needed character building lessons both for mom and boys.

As uniquely as God created each of us to be, our routines and children are just the same. Remembering not to compare households but to value friendship, encouragement and lessons learned from one home to another isn’t always the easiest path but it is a path that I would hope we all strive for.  I am one lucky girl. God has placed me in a community of fellow believers that cheer on my children, that teach my children, love them and encourage me when I feel like a failure. I hope that I can be that woman of God to you and yours. 

Oh, while it’s on my mind….it’s “free time” in our home right now. Don’t forget to give yourself a slice of quiet with the Lord and doing something to keep your wits while letting the kids, well, be kids! Have fun!