A Day At Our House

We are a homeschooling from Fauquier County, Virginia, a rural exurb of Washington, D. C. Mom, Kanoa, has a degree in architecture but decided to stay home to raise her children after the birth of her oldest son. In addition to homeschooling, she also is busy volunteering in the community with multiple roles at our church and with Cub Scouts and networking with other homeschoolers. Dad, David, has a degree in civil engineering but works in the systems engineering field at a large defense contractor located in one of the closer in suburbs. Our children are Preston, 13, and Ian, 9. We have been homeschooling since 2001.

Although each day at our house is different, I will do my best to give you a glimpse of what our family's homeschool is like.

4:45 In order to have more time with the family and to avoid the notoriously bad D. C. rush hour, David gets up well before the rest of the family.

5:15 David is out the door and headed to his job. He usually arrives at his office between 6:00 and 6:30, depending on how bad traffic already is.

7:30 Kanoa's alarm goes off, and on a good day she will get up immediately. She takes her shower and begins the day's chores which, at a minimum, include making the bed and starting some laundry. It may also include cleaning one of the bathrooms and folding laundry.

8:30 David usually calls home to check what's on the schedule for the day and how things are going. Preston and Ian usually get up. They are responsible for getting dressed and making their beds at this time.

9:00 Time to start breakfast. Ian is supposed to practice piano for 15 minutes during this time. Sometimes while we eat breakfast we will watch or listen to our Spanish lesson for the day. This year we are using La Clase Divertida for Spanish. Both boys are participating, and Kanoa is watching it as review since she has a minor in Spanish.

10:00 The school day officially starts with Bible reading and devotions. We say our pledges, sing a patriotic song, read a devotion, read a chapter from the Bible, sing a hymn, practice a Bible verse, and pray. For devotions we are using Fresh from the Word, and this fall we are focusing on 2 Kings for our Bible readings. After that is done Kanoa gets the computer ready to check e-mail and news during brief breaks while both boys are working.

10:45 Preston gets his assignments for Grammar and Composition II and his reading from Of Places, both are components of A Beka's 8th grade curriculum. Kanoa works with Ian on A Beka's Language 3 curriculum. After finishing the workbook, we read from an A Beka reader or a chapter book. Currently, we are reading All Kinds of Animals.

11:45 We review Preston's assignment to make sure that he understood it. For vocabulary both Preston and Ian are working through English from the Roots Up. Currently we are reviewing the first half of the book to make sure that they have retained the various Latin and Greek roots that have already been introduced.

Noon Ian is given his writing practice sheet to work on while I review spelling words with Preston. Preston is then given written work to practice his spelling words while I review spelling words with Ian. Ian then does a written assignment using his spelling words.

12:30 Preston moves on to his history assignment from A Beka's History of the World. Ian is ready for his math assignment from Singapore's Primary Mathematics 2B.

12:45 Preston is ready for science and health. This year we will be using Chemistry Level II from Real Science 4 Kids and A Beka's Matter & Motion in God's Universe for science. For Health we are using A Beka's A Healthier You.

1:00 On Mondays and Wednesdays we leave for Ian's swimming lessons. He just moved up to Red Cross Level IV at a local indoor pool. Ian eats lunch on the half hour drive to the pool, and Kanoa packs something or stops for fast food to eat during Ian's 40 minute lesson. Preston broke his wrist playing football with some friends in August, and we didn't know whether his arm would be healed enough for him to take lessons this session. If he did, he would be in Level VI which meets at the same time as Level IV. We're blessed that the pool is so committed to offering homeschool swimming lessons and has a couple of different instructors in order to offer multiple levels at the same time. On our drive to and from swimming we usually listen to a book on tape or cd. We recently finished listening to all 13 books in the A Series of Unfortunate Events series. Currently, we are listening to Anne's House of Dreams from the Anne of Green Gables series, which we started as preparation for our recent trip to Canada's Maritime Provinces.

1:00 On Tuesdays, we break for lunch so that we can leave at 1:30 for music lessons. Preston's piano lesson begins at 2:00, and guitar follows at 2:30. Ian's piano lesson follows Preston's at 2:30.

Between 3:00 and 3:30 we return home to finish Ian's work. Typically all he should have left is science. We are using A Beka's Exploring God's World. When we finish that we will begin history with A Beka's Our American Heritage. Preston still has math to do. He just began working from Singapore's New Elementary Mathematics 1.

Every other Tuesday we leave from music and go directly to our church. At 4:00 there is a class for 1st through 3rd graders. They are using a program from PRAY Publishing called God & Me. At the completion of the program, the Cub Scouts will be eligible for an award that can be worn on their uniforms.

4:00 David usually arrives home from work unless there is a late meeting. Preston practices piano and guitar during this time.

5:00 If something hasn't been started in the slow cooker earlier in the day, it is now time to get dinner started because our day is far from over.

5:45 We all sit down in the dining room to eat as a family.

6:15 On Mondays it is time to leave for Preston's Boy Scout meeting. He is a Star Scout and is hoping to have a board of review for the Life rank this fall. He is just finishing up a merit badge or two. He was also elected Assistant Senior Patrol Leader for this year. On the first and third Wednesdays of each month, it is time to leave for Cub Scouts. Ian is a Bear this year, Kanoa is the den leader, and Preston is helping out as the den chief. (On Thursdays we would have been long gone by now because Ian has soccer practice from 6:00 to 7:00. During the winter both boys play basketball, and in the spring Preston plays baseball. During the summer, they both swim on a swim team.)

Boy Scout meetings are from 7:00 to 8:30, and Cub Scout meetings are from 6:30 to 7:30.

9:00 Time to get ready for bed after another busy day.

9:30 Usually we gather in the big bed to read at the end of the day.

10:00 Lights out.