A Day in the Life: Dina

Written by CHEBWA member Dina L.

---

Welcome to our new blog series entitled "A Day in the Life of a Homeschooling Family". 

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.

---

Like a lot of homeschool families, our days are varied and eclectic. We do and use what seems to work for us at the time, knowing full well that it will change.  I will do my best to give you a peek into what constitutes a "typical" day in our household.

We currently homeschool four kids ages 15, 13 year old twins, and an 11 year old.  Our day starts with breakfast between 9-9:30.  It is serve-yourself style most of the time unless mom makes waffles or oatmeal.  The other day a few kids made themselves egg rolls for breakfast, so anything goes!

At 10:00 we start with Bible study and prayer.  I like to start the day focused on what is truly important, our relationship with God.  At 10:30 I read aloud from our current book which might be a biography of a missionary, a fiction book that goes along with what we are studying in history,  or something I think the kids would enjoy listening to.  Between 11:00 and 11:30 the kids start their math lessons. It just depends on how long we spent reading together.  Each person has their own math book and level they are working on independently.  A video instructor does this with me helping where needed.

Now it is noon and mom reminds everyone that their lunch needs to be ready to eat by 1:00 pm.  Some, including mom, choose to start cooking now.  Others choose to wait and eat something that cooks up quick or requires no cooking.  Those not cooking are working on independent projects or practicing their instruments, or still working on their math.  

After lunch and chores we get back to schoolwork.  Each week they have a topic they are researching and learning about.  They pick a way that they want to share what they have learned and present it each Friday.  We have had 3D models, reports, diagrams, copy work, and even a game created called "Escape the Cell".  You never know what they will think of!

---

At 4:30 the kids finish any schoolwork they need to, or work on various projects they have going, or complete any homework they have from the homeschool co-op that we attend.

At 5:00 we consider the school day done!

Here are some books we are reading for school:

At 3:00 we do writing and spelling.  Writing may be doing grammar exercises, dictation, journal writing, or playing a board game to enhance our writing, spelling, or vocabulary skills.  Some favorites are Blurt, Scrabble, and Balderdash.  For spelling we do spelling tests each day from the Spelling Power curriculum, which has served us since I started it with my oldest who is now 21!

At 4:00 we work on geography. For this we might do map work or play games that teach geography.  We have been working on United States geography for awhile now, we have a large map on the wall of our dining room and a Michigan road map on the side of our fridge.

Notice the Kindle? Two kids enjoy using it to check out e-books from the library too.

Here are some pictures of kids working on various projects.

Thanks for visiting today!