Written by contributor Sarah Small of SmallWorld at Home
The sky is just starting to lighten. From my regular perch I watch a new day come, wait for the riot of color as the sun pops up over the mountains. The next few hours are mine. This is the “me” time that stay-at-home moms crave: my creative time, productive time, devotion time, exercise time. I write, pray, run, plan, catch-up, check things off—and add things to—my to-do list. I shower quietly, without my ears tuned to the cries of “Mommy!”
You with little ones don’t have this—I know. Your little ones are your alarm clock.
But one of these days, you’ll have middle and high schoolers who sleep in late—and you won’t.
My kids often sleep as late as 10:15; in fact, I have to awaken my 12-year-old most of the time. I have heard variations on this statement more than once: “They’ll need to wake up early in the real world! You’d do better to prepare them for that now!” Indeed they will. Possibly for the rest of their lives, our children will have to awaken by 7 a.m. or earlier. This is a luxury I can give them as teens, when they need sleep even more than they did as children.
My kids’ school day begins roughly at 10:30 or 11.
Studying WWII
My goal is to get two hours’ worth of school in with my seventh-grader before we break for lunch. On Mondays we have a full day of co-op classes, so we follow the same schedule Tuesday-Friday.
- Bible. He’s currently working through various reading plans on youversion.com.
- Math. Teaching Textbooks (algebra).
- Language Arts. Easy Grammar, Spelling Power (Wednesdays), basic essay writing (my materials), reading comprehension workbook (for ACT prep).
- Independent reading. My 12-year-old does not love reading independently, so we have to actually schedule this in.
- History. We are studying World War II in depth this year, so we’ll read together from a history book and our novel du jour. (See my 2012 curriculum fair post to read more about our specifics.)
My daughter, a sophomore, completely sets her own schedule. She takes all her classes through our co-op (my husband and I each teach one of hers): American literature, U.S. history, U.S. government, ecology, and geometry. She knows what she needs to get done and when. I check in with her periodically throughout the week, but she is a responsible, well-organized, and self-motivated girl. She gets it done and asks for help if she needs it.
I am protective of our mornings at home, keeping appointments and activities to the late afternoon hours as much as possible.
About once each week we have a golden day spent entirely at home. Those are days that we’ll do a week’s worth of science in a couple of hours, work on a Boy Scout merit badge, or just spend some time playing a board game with my parents.
But normally, once afternoon hits, my day is most often spent being a chauffeur. We have something different every day, from regular activities like guitar lessons and geometry class, to bi-weekly orthodontist appointments and teen outings with our homeschooling group. We also have regular evening activities like Boy Scouts, youth group, dance lessons, and government class. Our schooling is by no means limited to daylight hours or weekdays.
At this point in our homeschooling career, our focus is on:
- Working independently
- College prep
- Self-discipline
- Clear thinking
- Thoughtfulness
- Service to others
- Deliberate academic, social and spiritual maturity
If you are a parent, you know it: learning happens all the time, not just in the traditional school hours of 8-3, and certainly not just between the pages of a textbook.
A look back on Sarah’s homeschool day:
Do you find that your determination to “get things done” in a certain time frame ever undermines your homeschooling vision?
About SarahS
Sarah,
Love this post. Our days are slightly different with a 11 year old as my oldest, but I can so relate to many of your thoughts and philosophies!
Hope we can keep this up long enough to be in your shoes one day!
Blessings!
Megan
http://www.growingagardenofgirls.blogspot.com
I’ve never understood the thinking that we have to train our kids as children to get up early in case they have to as adults. My kids naturally sleep late. So does their Daddy. Yet everyone can get up early with an alarm clock as needed!
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What a refreshing reminder to me to not stress over my 13 year-old’s hours. He’s still in bed, and I can go take my shower now and school him when he gets up. I’ve been home schooling 21 years, and I’m always still trying to find the balance that I am comfortable with. :sigh:
Thanks for your post. I am often finding that what I had hoped to get done gets in the way of the learning my son wants to focus on.
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I love hearing how you let them sleep. I get that comment about waking up & the real world, too. It makes me crazy. It sounds like people can not adjust to changes in their lives. Just because I always slept until 10:30a does not mean I can’t adjust and get up at 5a. And if I can do it, so can my kids. So lovely to read someone on the same page as myself.
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My 12 year old daughter has been known to awaken closer to lunch. She’s one of those people who is just picking up steam as I’m ready to crash. I’m happy that we homeschool and she is able to work at her own rhythm – she gets a ton of things accomplished on her own schedule and I expect that in the “real world” she’ll pick a vocation that allows her to do the same.
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Thanks for your perspective on mornings. Our mornings start pretty late too, but I don’t feel it’s intentional.
Do you mind answering the following questions:
What time do your kids go to sleep? Is this acceptable to you?
My 12-year-old goes to bed between 9:30 and 10, but he probably doesn’t fall asleep right away. My 15-year-old goes to bed at 11 and usually reads for a short time.
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Hi Sarah,
Often I too hear about waking up and the real world, but it’s me saying it. I have a 15 year old and a 10 year old and left on their own my son (15) would wake up at 12 or 1pm and my daughter (10) would wake up at 11. They both go to bed at reasonable hours, 11 and 9:30 respectively. And honestly I would let my son sleep in and wake up on his own if I thought he’d get enough work done, but he works on his own slow and steady pace. He’d be working into the evening if I didn’t wake him up at 7:30 so that he can start around 9:30. My daughter is more focused and would probably get the work done at a decent hour. Any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas for me? My children don’t give me a hard time about waking up at the hour they do, but I know they’d love it if they could get up later.
Thanks,
Sylvia
AaaaahhH! Your family uses TT! I’m *this* close to ordering it. I’m at my wits end with Saxon for my 7th grader. I know you must be so busy, but if you have a moment to email me, I would be SO grateful to hear what you think about it. (I mean, obviously, you like it, or you wouldn’t use it…) but I’d love to hear more.
On a different note- I am the late sleeper- my son is up at 6:30am! My daughter gets up around 7:30am…Oh, how I’d love to have late sleepers.
Thank you so much for the reminder that someday my 2 and 6 year old girls will be teens… Sometimes we get bogged down in the day-to-day moments and forget the long view. I really enjoyed reading your post and gaining some perspective on my own future. Blessings to you!
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I love that you just let your teenagers SLEEP. So many teens desperately need extra sleep, and most of them don’t get it. Kudos for recognizing this need and respecting it!
Diane… if I can jump in with some advice here… Lose the Saxon. Doesn’t even matter what you replace it with, just get rid of that curriculum if it’s not working for you. I used it for several years as a teen, as did several other girls in my homeschooling group, and every last one of us has struggled with math ever since. The books aren’t good at explaining concepts or providing a solid foundation of the basics — and the basics are SO important, especially once you hit algebra and upper-level math.
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Our experience with Saxon is different. My two older kids have used and excelled with it. I’m sure it boils down to learnining styles or personal preference.
I’ve heard “the real world” comment a lot too in homeschooling in general but “the real world” isn’t mon-fri 9-5 for a lot of people anymore so it seems like a silly argument. I’m a nurse and work mostly nights….before kids I slept in all the time!
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My “real world” job sometimes starts at 8am. And sometimes at 2pm. When I’m not working, I tend to get up around 9 or 10am. Yep, sometimes I have to get up early, and that’s why alarm clocks were invented. I’m not sure why teenagers need to “train” for potential schedule changes later in life….surely it can’t take them more than a few minutes to figure out how to set an alarm! Better for them to get the sleep they need while they can.
Thank you so much for this post. I have a 12 year old daughter and she likes to sleep in sometimes so I let her. It also sounds like your son gets everything done in a short amount of time each day. My daughter usually gets all of her stuff done in 2 to 3 hours. At first it really stressed me out but I am beginning to realize that it is ok and she is excelling at her subjects. She was previously in public school so this has been a big change for the both of us.
So glad to see that other people understand about teens needing to sleep in & that it doesn’t take 6 or more hours a day to educate a child.
I’ve hosted a homeschool co-op in New York for 8 years and I would love to hear what others are doing, and how their group or co-op is structured. We are in the midst of revamping our co-op, how it’s structured and the workshops we offer and I am looking for ideas. If you’d rather contact me directly my email address is syldiaz@optonline.net
Thanks,
Sylvia