A Day in the Life of Christian Unschoolers (Ages 13, 16, 18)
Guys. This is Big Bro’s SENIOR year (stay tuned for a post I’m working on for his homeschool graduation!). Technically and legally, he’s been done homeschooling here in WA state when he turned 18 in the fall. And he opted to enroll in our church’s bible college for his “senior” year. However, I still consider him as part of our homeschool because of all the intentional, non-academic lessons he has still been learning under our roof this year.
With all that said – coupled with Big Sis driving now and pretty much as independent as her Big Bro, Baby Sis a full-blown teenager, and me growing my digital business – our “day in the life” snapshot for this year looks a lot different than it ever has.
If you’ve followed our fam for years, you know that I typically shared our “day in the life” post sometime in the middle of the school year because I feel like it is a more accurate depiction of our real life rhythm; by then, we’ve worked out kinks and have been in that groove for months (instead of sharing ideal plans formed in late summer and then end up scratching by the end of September, LOL).
This year, it’s closer towards the end of the school year (though we don’t really have an “end” as year-round lifeschoolers; we just transition our learning, so I guess this would mean more towards the “end” of this current season of home education).
So, here’s what homeschooling/unschooling/lifeschooling has looked like this year for our crew. My kids are 13 (7th grade), 16 (10th grade), and 18 (12th grade).
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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.
- Big Bro is out of the house every morning for his bible college classes, sometimes comes home for lunch or a nap, then heads back out to work (at Dutch Bros). On days he comes home for lunch, the girls and I love asking about what he learned in the morning and just talking about life lately.
- Both Big Sis and Baby Sis started out the school year taking classes at two different alternative learning programs in town but for various reasons, end up opting out by the middle of the school year to stick with learning at home.
- Obviously, not every single day 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 so we can do things together as a crew. And of course, with budding young adults, things come up for them as well (picking up shifts or extra babysitting jobs) that requires us to pivot accordingly.
But this is a little snap of what our typical day look like right now:
EARLY MORNING BLOCK (7 am – 9 am):
We used to do Breakfast & Bible as a family, but those days are sadly over. 🙁
Again, Big Bro is gone before us girls get up. This year, I’ve let the girls sleep in because I believe in the need for teenagers to have ample rest. If you do a little research online, you’ll find that lack of sleep is a major contributing factor to poor mental health and increased stress on our youth!
While they sleep, I am up working on my pursuits as a digital entrepreneur. That may look like working on a blog post, creating a digital product, doing Amazon reviews, prepping for a workshop, etc.
TODAY: I spent a couple hours working on a variety of things from putting up an Amazon review, updating my email automations, and continuing to work on content for a course I’m putting together.
MID-MORNING BLOCK (9 am – 11 am):
The girls are usually up by 9 am depending on how late they went to bed the night before (Big Sis is often covers later shifts, Baby Sis babysits one night a week plus typically stays up to wait for her older siblings to get home from work, and both girls have youth group every Wednesday night).
At this point they or I will get breakfast together (which they eat pretty quickly), then move directly to getting ready for the day, followed by either doing their chores. If they do get up earlier than this, they’ll also start doing some interest-led activities (which I’ll share down below under the Afternoon-Evening Block).
TODAY: Baby Sis made ube mochi waffles!
COLLECTIVE TIME (11 am – 12:30 pm):
This is our hard-set time for the girls and I to convene together during the day and has looked different for each season.
It can serve sort of like a family board meeting where we assess where everyone is at and discuss how to move forward.
But it is also a special time for me as mom to present a “buffet of ideas” from which the kids can leave or run with, and are usually things I’ve come across that I think 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 may appreciate, resources they may not have heard of, etc.
We used to have a dedicated family read aloud time (separate from Collective Time), something that had been a staple our entire homeschool journey and was my absolute favorite part of the day. Sadly, this isn’t happening anymore now that Big Bro and Big Sis are moving towards their own paths. I will still read aloud to Baby Sis throughout the week, when she isn’t busy doing her own things or on slow days like on the weekends. But it really isn’t the same as when she had her two older sibs listening in with her.
Collective Time has included these types of things:
While my kids mostly read their bibles/devotionals on their own, we’ll often pick up the bible and read straight from scripture, particularly when we are struggling with a specific issue or if our kids may have questions or lack of clarity over the Sunday sermon from church or if we are sensing we need wisdom straight from God’s word.
- We are currently going through various scripture about stewarding our time and resources well.
Learning subjects together that they expressed wanting to study (in the past, the kids – as a group – wanted to cover things like U.S. government, history, psychology, logic, entrepreneurship, etc. together).
- We are actually going through logic again (Introductory Logic … we previously went through The Fallacy Detective and The Thinking Toolbox) because the girls decided to join a co-op this coming fall where students their age will have already studied it in depth, so they wanted to be prepared to be able to maximize their time/participation in their new classes.
Read aloud from books that are either related to their interests or that I, as a mom, am discerning is important to read to them from.
- Our current reads are The Art of Self-Directed Learning (great stories of different self-directed learners) and No Time to Be Dumb (which I’m disappointed by and torn about; it’s got lots of solid biblical info but it’s weaved into off-putting and condescending writing … let’s just say it seems heavy-handed on performance/righteousness than on grace/the Gospel and Christian young ladies should beware and discerning; if anything, it is giving my girls and I LOTS of fodder for deep conversations and practice for plucking out what is merely the author’s somewhat pharisaical opinion and what is actually biblically supported … and unless you are utterly intrigued to go through this yourself, I actually would NOT recommend this book!).
Other: Discuss what we’ve got going on our plate for the day or next few days, discuss how they are doing with their personal objectives, share anything else they want with the rest of the crew (like dreams or airing out frustrations, LOL), take time to pray for specific situations and people in our life, etc.
TODAY: We plugged along covering a chapter each in the resources below. Also discussed and did copywork for James 4:14 and 1 Peter 4:10.
AFTERNOON/EVENING BLOCK (12 pm – ???):
After Collective Time, we all move in our own directions!
And lunch is no longer together as well (cue my sad face and even sadder heart), as they just eat pretty much whenever they get hungry (they typically eat dinner leftovers, or “snack lunch” of a hodge podge of food, or make protein smoothies).
Big Sis’ current interests/learning activities:
- Reading about different fashion designers’ lives and journey towards success
- Studying French via Duolingo
- Doing her Teaching Textbooks math lessons
- Working out (like Big Bro, she’s into health/fitness)
- Most days she has work in the afternoons
Baby Sis’ current interests/learning activities:
- She signed up for this website and does different lessons from it
- Learning about and practicing nail design
- Preparing for this summer’s kid maker markets
- Playing with the dogs
- Since most days she’s home in the afternoons without her older sibs, she’ll watch different shows (currently bingeing on Young Sheldon and Lost, LOL), when she isn’t working on something else.
Mom’s current interests/learning activities (yes, I have them too!):
- Learning and implementing what I’m learning as I grow my digital ventures
- Re-studying French (I took 2 years in high school and was inspired by Big Sis to pick it back up)
- Reading books (currently going through Practicing the Way with several girlfriends)
Sometimes (like I mentioned above), Big Bro will make an appearance – which we all love – and usually we spend time catching up with him (if he isn’t trying to get a cat nap in or trying to make a quick turnaround to head back into town for work).
We all try to pick up around the house before heading out for work, babysitting, youth group, or other late afternoon/evening outings. We also still try to sit down as a family to eat together, even if one or more members are missing, but that’s getting more and more challenging with kids coming and going with their different schedules.
TODAY: Big Bro actually came home for a little before heading back out for work! So, we spent quite a bit of time just hanging out with him talking about his morning; he shared his most recent essay on the theme of gardens in the bible. Big Sis was not really feeling well all day, so mostly rested. However, after spending time with Big Bro, she felt a little better and decided to do a light workout. Meanwhile, Baby Sis worked on some digital and pencil drawings/coloring pages while watching Young Sheldon. Us girls will be getting ready soon to head out for youth group (where I also serve as a small group leader).
And that’s it! Lifeschooling is sooo different these days; our family rhythm has changed significantly due to working teens on top of a husband who works a shift schedule. I sorely miss our “wonder” years of homeschooling and am still navigating this season of homeschool mom motherhood … so for the mamas in the trenches, S A V O R what you have even if it’s hard and exhausting. It goes waaayyy too fast.
NOT TIME BLOCKED: ORGANIC DISCIPLESHIP OPPORTUNITES
I’ve written this before but: Real life means real mess! And sprinkled all throughout our days is the effect of sinners doing life with other sinners. Even though we don’t have as much contact time as before, we still have days where someone is frustrated with another. But the kids are growing and maturing, and we are seeing the fruit of both years AND tears invested in raising kids with Jesus at the center. Self-control is being exercised more and more. Repentance is quicker, forgiveness is quicker, and restoration is quicker (praise God alone).
For those raising young ones:
Everyday, we can choose which battles to fight as a parent. Contentious moments are the ones I picked; where I sensed deep-rooted issues affecting outward behavior (not run-of-the-mill behavior that just comes with being a kid, like forgetting to put stuff away).
This is when I chose to stop whatever I was doing and talk through the kids’ in-the-moment struggle, intentionally pouring energy into the issue at hand, helping them (and myself!) remember how the gospel should inform how we respond and deal with each other in any given situation.
It was often inconvenient, known to have even cancelled pre-scheduled activities with others in order to work through things. But let me tell ya – as a mom of teens, this laying down of agendas has borne so much fruit now that they are adolescents.
Oftentimes, it took minutes. But sometimes, addressing heart issues made up our entire homeschool day.
However long it takes, remember – THAT is the real curriculum.
THAT’S IT!
Thanks for taking a peek at this year’s “day in the life” with a house of ALL teens who are pursuing their own self-directed learning journey!
Here are other previous DITL posts:
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!