A Week in the Life of Christian Unschoolers (Ages 14 and 17)
This is the first year I am documenting WITHOUT Big Bro! He’s 19 now and is living his own young adult life – diligently working while he simultaneously invests his free time on his different business ventures.
And, since our rhythm this year is so different, I’m not doing a DAY in the life post but a WEEK in the life post.
If you follow me on Instagram, which is where I share more often about our family’s lifeschooling days, you’ll know that both Baby Sis (11th grade equivalent) and Big Sis (8th equivalent) enrolled at one of the classical Christian homeschool co-ops in our town. I explain more about why here – basically, my girls were in desperate need of solid community outside of church/youth group and we have limited options where we live for their age group!
However, since the school year started, we saw that it ultimately was not a good fit for Big Sis, despite how sweet the community is. She stuck it out for 4 months (praying for wisdom the entire time) and during Christmas break, we pulled her out and she is now doing the Mentorship Accountability Program with the Dennings of World School Family. As well, we have decided this will be her last year homeschooling and will be graduating her this spring!
Baby Sis is continuing with the co-op which she attends all day, 2 days a week.
On the days both girls are home together, we still have our Collective Time (which I explain more below).
So, keep reading if you’re curious about how lifeschooling has looked like this year for our girls this year!
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BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT WHAT A DAY LOOKS LIKE FOR US
- You can read more about our overall homeschool journey here. Since then, we’ve moved away from scopes and sequences and embraced a self-directed learning life.
- I actually time block our days. Yes, even as unschoolers. You can read more about why that has worked for our fam here.
- Obviously, not every single week looks like what I will share here (ALL homeschoolers can relate, I’m sure)! Hubs has a very unconventional shift schedule so when he is off, we often treat it like a weekend and go with the flow plus all three work now (Big Bro and Big Sis work at a coffee shop and Baby Sis is babysits consistently).
A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF LIFESCHOOLERS
Mondays and Wednesdays
7:00 AM – 8:00 AM:
Big Sis and I are up getting ready for the day. We start off with our own quiet times. LOL, Baby Sis typically sleeps in until later.
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM:
Big Sis has her mentorship Zoom calls Mon-Thu at 8:00 am for an hour, then she reads the book(s) that are part of the program, followed by knocking out one of her Teaching Textbooks math lessons.
Baby Sis is still sleeping, LOL.
I work on my business (either creating social media content, blog posts, working on my digital products, or creating Amazon reviews).
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM:
Brunch time. Baby Sis is up and ready to go by this time. The girls usually fix their own meals but sometimes I’ll put my mom hat on and make them something like breakfast burritos. This teen season of life is so different!
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM:
Collective Time! This is something we’ve done for years – a time when the kids and I convene for a variety of things.
In the past, it served sort of like a family board meeting where we assessed where everyone was at and discuss how to move forward.
It also served as a special time for me to present a “buffet of ideas” to them: things I’d come across that I thought they may be interested in or would challenge them in growing as a person (things like news from current events, inspirational quotes or cool videos I personally come across in my own learning that I think they might appreciate, resources they may not have heard of, etc.).
But this year, Collective Time is simply the time I read aloud to the girls from a couple picks that I feel will edify them where they are at in life. Currently, we are reading from Sally Clarkson’s, Own Your Life, and Brother Andrew’s/Sherrill’s, God’s Smuggler.
11:30 AM – EVENING:
Big Sis gets ready and then heads out for work.
Baby Sis works on any co-op assignments she may have as well as tackles any of her household chores. This is when she will spend time on her interest-led pursuits and, on occasion, fit a workout in as well.
I go between working on my business and household chores. I have not been consistent at this at all, but this is also when I’ll hop on the treadmill or do some strength training.
Tuesdays and Thursdays
6:00 AM – 7:00 AM:
These are earlier days for Baby Sis because she has to eat breakfast and pack her lunch for co-op.
7:00 AM – 8:00 AM:
Baby Sis and I are commuting to co-op, where she will be until the afternoon. I also teach the Kinder Bible/History class there!
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM:
Again, Big Sis has her mentorship Zoom calls for an hour, then reads and does math. On these days, she spends time on her interest-led pursuits plus tackles her household chores before she heads to work in the afternoon.
AFTERNOON/EVENING:
Co-op is out by 2:30 pm. We regroup at home for a just minute because most Tuesday evenings and every Thursday evening, Baby Sis babysits! She is really wanting to launch one of her business ideas by spring of next year, so she has been babysitting quite a bit to save up for the capital she needs to get that up and running.
Fridays
Honestly, these have been free-for-all days this year.
The girls can sleep in if they want, which they mostly do on Fridays.
They are usually up by about 10:00-10:30 AM and they keep themselves busy with their own tasks, from working on their goals/interest-led pursuits, any assignments for each of their programs, doing their laundry, cleaning their rooms, etc. The other day, Big Sis decided to bake a coffee protein cheesecake!
At this stage of raising them/homeschooling them, I try to give them plenty of autonomy to practice agency. Because we’ve raised them with a stewardship mindset, they do a pretty decent job at this, however there are definitely days where I have to remind them to invest their time wisely instead of wasting it away!
Fridays are also days I get to continue growing my business and invest in my own education in the areas of faith, motherhood, and digital entrepreneurship.
MY GIRLS’ CURRENT LIFESCHOOL “CURRICULUM”
I get asked what my girls are working on right now (besides the mentorship program for Big Sis and the co-op for Baby Sis), so for those who are curious:
Big Sis
She has goals to move down to Los Angeles to further pursue a career in the entertainment industry after she turns 18. She’s modeled since she was 4 years old and started acting around 10 years old. … and absolutely loves it. But the market up here in the PNW is limited, mostly working for brands like Amazon, Costco, Adidas, T-Mobile, Microsoft, indy films, etc. She wants to do more fashion/entertainment work – whether that is in front of the camera or behind-the-scenes (like as a hair & makeup artist or as wardrobe stylist or even as a director) and knows that she has a better shot at achieving those goals down in L.A. With that said, she’s been researching and putting together a game plan for that big move, doing things now to prepare herself, not just for living down in L.A., but for being able to hit the ground running when she does. In fact, we enrolled her in the mentorship program she is in precisely to help her with mindset/habit/leadership skills that she will inevitably need and use when she moves!
Baby Sis
She has always been entrepreneurial like her Big Bro. She’s always dabbled in some sort of business venture, from making crafts or jewelry to sell at kids markets, to writing her own teen devotional digital product, to starting a treats business with her bestie. One summer a few years back – inspired by Ryan Trahan (LOL) – she asked me to take her to Costco so she could buy water bottles and snacks, she loaded up her wagon, and started slingin’ her goods to people at the park. This year, she decided she wants to start a “real” business and has diligently been studying things like growing and nurturing an audience, growing an email list and setting up automations, how to market on social media, what is required to set up an online storefront, creating designs for a hoodie line, and more. She hopes to be able to launch sometime next year!
PREVIOUS DAY IN THE LIFE POSTS
Thank you for reading our “week in the life” post for this year! If you’ve read through our previous ones, you’ll see that it has really simplified in this bittersweet season of raising teens/young adults.
If you haven’t already, here are other previous DITL posts I’ve shared over the years:
Day in the Life – Ages 7, 10, and 12
Day in the Life – Ages 8, 11, and 13
Day in the Life – Ages 9, 12, and 14
We didn’t do one when the kids were 10, 11, and 15 because we were in the middle of building our home ourselves! Literally our days were consumed with all things related to home construction, peppered with reading aloud and teaching Big Bro to drive!
Day in the Life – Ages 11, 14, and 16