A Day in the Life: The Butterfield 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!

Written by Lori Butterfield.

Something you should know about homeschoolers: we tend to be an independent, do-things-our-own-way sort of people. Naturally, this also applies to how we school our children.  So when I was asked to type up “A Day in the Life...” on THURSDAY, well, we had a problem. I host a book club that day. We needed to do a grocery pick-up, clean up the house, prepare and bake the food, and get everyone ready for visitors. School would *not* be happening – at least not in the traditional sense. So, I decided to record our FRIDAY instead. Except....we normally have our small group co-op that day, but we are currently on a break. Therefore, our Friday schedule is pretty darn light. So... This story is about Friday – not Thursday – but with Wednesday’s school schedule. See? Do things our own way, buck the system kind of people. Darn homeschoolers. Anyway, let’s get on with the story.

​Friday.

​8:30am (ish) – I wake up to my husband typing at the computer in our bedroom. He’s been working from home for months due to Covid restrictions. He is now my alarm clock, as he types away or has a morning meeting. I get dressed in some comfy clothes and head into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. I am greeted by my three youngest boys. Gideon (8) helps me make coffee by discussing how to multiply 2Tbl per cup to figure out how much coffee grounds we need. I am NOT awake enough for this yet, but he’s excited to be learning multiplication. You go, little man! Micah (11) is busy making a fire in our woodstove, while Elijah (13) is grabbing some breakfast. Their oldest brother, Isaac (19), is upstairs getting ready to start his online college classes. My two girls, Talitha (15) and Selah (17), are dog-sitting with a friend, so they will not be here for most of the day. This means it's basically just me and my three youngest boys today!

10:30am - Now that we are now appropriately caffeinated, we get out our Morning Time materials. While I usually come up with our own books & songs, today we are using a free resource I discovered called “Advent Morning Time Plans”. We start with a prayer, a bible memory verse, and some poetry. Then we listen to part of Handel’s Messiah, discussing when he lived and the life of a composer in the early 1700’s. We also do a quick picture study of The Visit of the Angel to Zechariah, which leads to a quick review of the story of Zechariah in the Bible. All in all, we spend about an hour on our Morning Time subjects. I could spend all day on these types of subjects, but we really *should* move on...

12:00pm - After a quick break, the boys make their own lunch, while I do some reading aloud. We are slowly working our way through Streams to the River, River to the Sea by Scott O’Dell. We also just started a new book, Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John. I then run through a few questions from our catechism booklet with my youngest two boys, while Elijah completes his own Bible journal entry for the day. Isaac also makes a quick appearance in the kitchen during his lunch break, so we get to hear about something called a “flex box”, from the software engineering world.   

12:45pm - After lunch, we begin our “Independent Learning” time. The boys can work through their independent subjects at their own pace, asking me questions as needed. These subjects may include: handwriting/cursive, copywork, math, Xtra math practice, typing, and read aloud books with mom. I am able to work with each child as they have questions or need me to check their work. I work with Gideon first, using the Life of Fred curriculum we borrow from the library. At one point, there’s some arguing about who is next in line to talk to Mom, so we take a quick break and I test my skills on our typing program. I am currently at 46wpm. Not bad! Behavior crisis averted, and the boys continue their independent work without me having to lose my mind. Excellent!

3:15pm - Most of our official schooling is done at this point. If the girls were home, we would still need to watch our history DVD lecture or read through our government textbook. I would check their answers in chemistry or geography, depending on the day. High school work just takes a bit more time.    Instead, the boys pick up their school stuff and quickly straighten up the house. They will need to do some personal reading later in the evening, but for now it’s time to head outside while we still have some daylight. We tried to find anything “green” for our nature journals, as we walked our property. Once Isaac is done with his classes for the day, he joins the boys outside so they can finish stacking the split wood onto our wood pile.  Ahhhh....I enjoy the last of my coffee while watching the boys work together to get the job done.   

​
​5:00pm As the younger boys finish up, I drive into town to run some errands, dropping Isaac off at the library for his janitor job. Once my husband is done with his job for the day, he picks up our girls and grabs some pizza for dinner. Fridays are usually our Pizza & Movie nights – a nice reward for everyone, after a long week of schooling and working!

While we did get most of our planned schoolwork done for today, there are plenty of days when we just get a couple subjects done – and then learning takes place in other ways. The kids might take a book to read while running errands with me, or we will head to a park to get some much-needed fresh air. We might have a field trip planned, or decide to go somewhere totally spur of the moment! We can take time for baking, cleaning, private lessons, a special YouTube video release about the Space Force, or a million other things that make up our days. This is NOT wasted time. Kids are learning all day long, in a million different ways. We have a basic outline for how our week will run, but many days God has plans for us that have nothing to do with that outline.

​It is truly an incredible journey!

---

Originally published on December 7, 2020 in our online community.