A Day in the Life of Lifeschoolers (8, 11, and 13 Years Old)
Ever wonder what a day looks like for Christian unschoolers aka lifeschoolers? Today, I’m sharing how our family cultivates a love for learning by giving our kids ample time and space to pursue their passions. Currently, my kids are ages 8 (2nd grade), 11 (5th grade), and 13 (7th grade).
This year, the kids are enrolled one day a week at the local Alternative Learning Experience program, which has certain requirements in order to participate. As with all our years of home education, we strive to implement the Leadership Education model in our Christian unschooling days.
TO READ MORE ABOUT OUR CURRENT LEARNING PLAN AND RESOURCES WE USE, HEAD HERE.
8:00 BREAKFAST & BIBLE
We all roll slowly out of bed and head to the kitchen for brekky. Life with not-so-little kids comes with benefits – they prepare their own food now!
When they were younger, they ate more simply – toast with peanut bitter, yogurt & granola, etc. But these are growing kids and so they usually cook up heartier breakfast involving eggs and cheese.
When we are all sitting down at the table and the kids are munching away, I read from a devotional or the bible, and we discuss real-life application of the part of scripture we are chewing on. Lots of sharing about dreams and random story telling occurs right in here.
8:45 MORNING ROUTINE
This is where diligence and work ethic comes into play. Many people think that an unschooling life comes at the risk of raising irresponsible heathens who go at life willy-nilly. I can’t speak for other families, but this is NOT the case in our home!
As lifeschoolers, our family philosophy is that we want to be thoughtful and helpful contributors of society; we believe it is part of being a good steward of the life God’s given us.
For our family, fostering those values come in the form of chores and habits. In the morning, these three get to the tasks of cleaning up from breakfast, emptying the dishwasher from the night before, taking out garbage/recyclables, making beds, getting dressed for the day, etc.
I’ll be honest. The work is rarely completed perfectly. Often, they move from one task to another without being thorough, rushing so they can get on with things they want to do before we gather together for our Morning Collective. LOL, these interest-led kids get distracted easily (dancing, singing, snuggling with our dog) so it takes us time to get through our morning routine. It isn’t uncommon to hear me barking at them with, “Hurry up!”
9:30 MORNING COLLECTIVE
When we are finally ready to roll, we usually gather at the dining table to cover specific subjects, as required by the Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) program we are part of.
And really, this is what the spirit of unschooling really is – that the kids lead the way in their learning that is meaningful for them. It doesn’t mean NO learning, it means kids get CHOICE in their learning. It was the kids who wanted to participate in the ALE program this year, and valued its inclusion in our rhythm enough to pick up a more structured morning so they could do so!
MATH
We personally like to eat our frog, which happens to be math (we are a very creative, linguistic family and much prefer to do activities along those lines). The curriculum we use is Math-U-See, which is what we have used our entire homeschool journey. All three kids pull out their blocks and workbooks, and start tackling a worksheet (or two, or even three, because they enjoy this curriculum!).
I’m usually at the table with them doing administrative work like familiarizing myself with the day’s agenda, checking e-mails, etc. but am available so they can ask me questions when they need help.
LANGUAGE ARTS
After they’ve wrapped up with math, we become Brave Writers (which, is seriously THE BEST curriculum for interest-led learners)!
During this block of time we discuss the mechanics and elements of select passages from our current read-aloud(s). Specific tasks may include copywork, narration, spelling contests (contests are more fun than quizzes), writing assignments, free writing, etc. Many times my kids just plain talk, which in my book totally counts as language arts.
10:15 SNACK BREAK
I know my kids literally just ate breakfast, but we love food. They talk some more, LOL.
10:30 HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES
Again, another subject we report on to be part of the ALE program. While I may have an agenda (and certain teacher resources) for what topics we will be covering (i.e. Early American history or Chinese culture), I implement our interest-led values by letting the kids choose which activities they would like to engage after we’ve done some learning.
So depending on the day, learning may be back at the dining table for some art or crafting, on the comfy couches in our living room for some picture books or watching a vid, in the kitchen trying out recipes from a time period or culture, etc.
11:00 INDEPENDENT LEARNING TIME
At this point, we are usually done with “formal” activities. These lifeschoolers are now free to do whatever they want.
Sometimes that looks like doing more math, if someone is really diggin’ that lesson. Sometimes they are intrigued by what I offered them in history and embark on their own research to dive deep. Sometimes they pick up some other project they have been working on for some time. Sometimes they head outside to kick around the soccer ball or explore our own backyard.
I get to regroup, reheat my coffee, and do my own interest-led learning (which, right now, is learning how to blog and write better!).
12:30 LUNCH & LITERATURE
Time to feed ourselves again. Often, lunch is leftovers from dinner or – my fave – what we call snack lunch: some cheese, some fruit or veggie, and some crackers or popcorn. We try to keep it simple and not make a mess in the kitchen again.
I like to take advantage of seated kids as they stuff their faces with food, so this is when I read aloud. Depending on the season, we may have 1-3 different chapters books we read aloud from.
At some point during this block of time, we quickly pause to clean up from lunch, then convene in the living room to snuggle up and finish reading. This is – hands down – my favorite part of our homeschool day.
1:30 AFTERNOON ROUTINE
This is our “blessing hour” time, when we start picking up around the house, doing laundry (the kids are assigned their own day), and rotate between different household chores (like cleaning bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming, etc.). Sometimes this is when we get together with other homeschool families, schedule appointments, or run out to tackle errands. As lifeschoolers, we value life skills just as much as academics.
3:00 FREE TIME
We’re done with our official school day! It’s weird to write that, because our family views learning as something that happens all the time, in any place.
But for the purpose of practically sharing our daily rhythm with you, this is when we wrap up specific tasks that I’d like to accomplish each day. The kids are free to keep diving deep in their interest-led pursuits, play Fortnite or watch Netflix, or anything else they want to do (that is legal, LOL) before dinner and evening extra-curriculars.
For the most part, this is what our at-home days look like. Many times, we mix it up depending on how we are feeling or if there are outside activities we need to be at. It is a priority for me to foster the kids’ love for learning so if they are fully immersed in a personal project, I will forego math and language arts for the day (or even a few!). Thankfully, the ALE program we are part of is more concerned about overall progress and not necessarily hung up on hours!
ON ALE DAYS
As I mentioned, one day a week the kids are at the Alternative Learning Experience program they begged to be part of. It is a welcome break to our week as they get to take classes in art, science, woodworking, phys ed, etc. with all their friends and I get to have much needed time alone to read, write, or just stare at the ceiling (as an INFJ, this day has been a true gift to me!). Occasionally, I will meet up with another mama for coffee and catching up.
When I pick the kids up from their one day of classes at the ALE program, we have our beloved Tea Time. Before the kids started at the ALE program, we selected more poems or literature to read from, but now it has morphed into a special time of sharing with each other about our day!
Thanks for reading about our day as Christian unschoolers/lifeschoolers in this season of learning!