A Day in the Life of a Lifeschooling Family (Ages 7, 10, and 12)
Interested in what a day looks like for our lifeschooling family? It’s almost been a year since adopting more of a natural learning lifestyle, so I figure it’s a perfect time to pen my thoughts about this journey so far, as well as share what a typical day looks like for our tribe right now. My kids are currently in the equivalent of 1st, 4th, and 6th grades.
Becoming a Christian Unschooling/Lifeschooling Mom
First, I want to mention that acclimating to life where my kids are primarily leading their education took a while. Going cold turkey from our previous curriculum and the alternative learning program we had been part was equally refreshing and terrifying. To appease the Type-A planner in me, I still take time to loosely map out our days on paper with a wish list of sorts for what I personally hope to accomplish with my peeps, based on what I noticed have piqued their interest in recent days or weeks.
In fact, becoming an Christian unschooling/lifeschooling mom has been different than I envisioned. I’m not necessarily sitting around waiting for my kids to need me. Instead, I’m constantly observing and taking note of what drives my kiddos’s appetite for consuming knowledge.
I use this information to seek out resources (books, videos) and opportunities (field trips, demonstrations, people) to enhance their learning. I actually feel like I am on my toes more than before, because I no longer have a teacher’s guide to tell me what to do. But you know what? I actually love it.
Becoming Lifeschooling Kids
Before, a good portion of our school day was dictated by our curriculum’s teacher’s guide. We did have ample unstructured time, but they were accustomed to me letting them know they were “free” to go off and do their own thing.
When we decided to embark on this Christian unschooling/lifeschooling journey at the beginning of the year, I’d often hear “I’m bored!” and “I don’t know what to do!” As frustrating as it was initially, I realized these instances provided plenty of opportunity for our family to discuss – at length – the ideas of initiative, responsibility, and stewardship of time. Frankly, I value that more than math drills and writing exercises!
It’s been about 10 months since we shifted to a natural, self-directed approach and we are all loving this way of learning and doing life. I have witnessed that the freedom in our days to pursue knowledge how and when we desire (myself included) have allowed our whole tribe to bloom differently than before.
So, with all that said, here’s a glimpse of what a typical day looks like now as a lifeschooling family. I use the Leadership Education model of structuring time, not content:
A Typical Day as a Lifeschooling Family
8:00 WAKE UP & EAT BREAKFAST
Typically, breakfast is something simple, like toast with peanut butter or yogurt with granola. Sometimes, if I’m ambitious, I’ll make a heartier breakfast like protein pancakes or scrambled eggs.
My kids love to share about their dreams (if any) or talk about what they want to do during the day.
8:45 MORNING ROUTINE
We clean up from breakfast, empty the dishwasher from the night before, take out garbage/recyclables, make beds, get dressed for the day, etc.
We are pretty leisurely as we get our blood going and I love that we don’t have to rush just so we can be somewhere or start checking off a rigid checklist of subjects.
9:30 MATH
This is still one area I don’t know how to completely unschool yet. I’ve incorporated more math games into our rhythm and try to be organic as possible with teaching them math concepts. For example, when my kids are trying to save for something, I help them make budgets and a plan to accomplish their financial goals. They make their own personal purchases at the store so are learning how to handle money (as well as the value of it!). When they want to divide the last two cookies between the three of them, I step in and teach them the concepts of division and fractions.
Often, they spend time in their Math-U-See program, so I just plan for this time first thing in our day. We’ve always used this curriculum in our homeschool and since Max and Gracie enjoy it so much, I’ve kept it in their rhythm (unschooling doesn’t mean you don’t use curriculum, especially if that is what your kids want!). In fact, they’ll even ask if they can do their Math-U-See! They are Lego lovers so I think the manipulative blocks are what keep them happy, LOL.
My little just roams around the house like a lost soul. JK. More like a Tazmanian Devil.
10:00 ONE-ON-ONE TIME WITH THE LITTLE
The Bigs are done with math and it’s time to hang out with the (neglected) 7-year old. She usually shows me theĀ mess creations she’s worked on while I was preoccupied with her older siblings.
Then we spend time learning how to read. Not because I’m wanting her to, but because she can’t get enough of it! No joke, she learned how to read on her own with very little help from me.
With the older two, I was like, “Dude, you guys have to read by age 5 or else you’re gonna end up on the streets when you’re older.” But by the time she rolled around, I was too busy with her big bro and big sis and the poor girl would literally take what she learned from her time at preschool (letter sounds) and practice all by her sad self.
Now that she’s past basic phonics, she’s been begging me to teach her more, so that’s what we are doing!
The big kids are free to do whatever they want as long as it’s not watching a show or playing video games. Their time may initially start off with wandering around the house aimless, including the outbursts I mentioned above. But it’s not long before they are head first in some kind of project or activity. For this season, it may look like the following:
- Gracie: sewing, crafting, writing a story, reading ficton, making up a play, or pulling out her cookbooks to try new recipes.
- Max: playing with Legos and/or Fortnite action figures (he usually fabricates elaborate stories in his mind this way), reading non-fiction, practicing piano, playing basketball or soccer outside, or working out.
10:30 BIG KIDS TIME
After working with Baby Sis, I focus my attention on the Bigs. I check in to see how they are doing and if they need any help. This is when I take actual or mental notes about their interests, learning styles, preferences, etc. so that I can later find resources to supplement their learning.
Baby Sis either rolls with me or goes back to Tazmanian Devil mode.
11:30 MOM TIME
As an INFJ, I need plenty of mommy down time, especially since my life is basically hanging out with miniature-sized human beings 24/7. I’ve learned over the years to carve little breaks more often into my day so that I’m not burnt out by evening.
The kids know this is my dedicated “alone time” and try to respect it. I drink coffee, read, vegge out in social media (not the best, I know), or stare at the ceiling. You know, whatever floats my boat that day.
Often, they are still immersed in whatever it is they are doing.
12:00 LUNCH
Time to feed the crew. I love cooking extra (note: not cooking, period) so that we can reheat food for lunch. If there are no leftovers, we starve. JK again. No, I’m not that cruel. But I am lazy, so it’s usually snack lunch when that happens. “Kids, you guys have legs and feet and brains and there’s a kitchen there full of food, so figure it out. Oh, and bring me some. Chop chop.”
This is also when I also read aloud. With my mouth full. And then we get all weird – like typical, unsocialized homeschoolers – and start engaging in inapproprate table manners.
1:00 GET OUTSIDE
Time to clean up from lunch and do something outside. We signed up for the Wild Explorers Club early this year and have really been digging it! I’m not a natural outdoorsy person (I grew up in L.A. and am a former Professional Mall Rat), so this program has really helped with giving us ideas for exploring nature. Sometimes it’s just our little tribe, sometimes we hook up with another homeschool family. Sometimes it’s venturing out around our area, sometimes it’s exploring a corner of our backyard.
If we aren’t adventuring outside, we are home doing whatever. At this point, the kids can start watching shows on Netflix or playing video games. Or they can continue the project or activity they started from the morning.
3:00 AFTERNOON ROUTINE
The afternoons are set mostly set aside for housework. We pick up around the house from our day, do laundry (each kid has an assigned day to do their own), and rotate between different chores. We also use this time for occasional playdates with friends who go to regular school, appointments, or errands. Once a week, we have Tea Time which is when we read poetry or more chapters from our read-alouds.
That’s pretty much it for what a typical day looks like for our lifeschooling family! The biggest sanity-saver for me is still keeping a rhythm to our days and structuring our time, not our content.