Written by Jamie Martin of Simple Homeschool
Welcome to the 7th annual homeschool day in the life series here on Simple Homeschool!
Seven! Can you believe it? After seven years, it continues to be a favorite part of the year for contributors and readers. It’s so fun to get a peek inside the homes of other families doing this homeschool thing too.
The first time we did this, back in 2011, my kids were five, six, and seven–I feel as though I can relive their growing up just by rereading these posts!
I’m also amazed at just how much our lives have changed since then.
So join us this year as we share a glimpse into the average day of real-life homeschooling families:
But as you read, do us a favor – look at these posts not as benchmarks for success or how it “should” be done. We don’t like shoulds around here.
Instead, grab ideas that seem like they might fit in your home, or just read to remember that not loving math every day is normal, and not every child has mastered four languages by the age of six.
One of the best things about homeschooling is that we are each able to do it in our own way – these posts are meant to illustrate that, not get you caught up in comparing or worrying.
This year my incredible contributors and I will be sharing our days, and we’ve also chosen a handful of guest posters so that we have a wide range of age ranges and homeschooling philosophies represented! (And if you’re looking for anything that doesn’t appear to be below, I guarantee we’ve covered it in years past–so search the archives.)
I’ve also listed below the planned date for each post to publish, so you can make sure you don’t miss the ones that interest you most. And please make a note of the date March 6th, which is when you can come link up with your own day in the life post right here!
This post will serve as a landing page for the series – feel free to bookmark it to refer back to as we go along. I will update it with links to each post as they publish.
And if you just can’t wait to get started? Go head to the archives of this series, where you’ll find plenty of past day in the life posts to read!
This series is going to get us through winter, and land us safely on the horizon of spring, folks–let’s do it!
Simple Homeschool’s 7th Annual
Homeschool Day in the Life Series
- Kris’s homeschool day in the life (with 15-, 17- & 21-year-old)
- Kari’s homeschool day in the life (with a 7- & 10-year-old)
- Mystie’s homeschool day in the life (with 4-, 7-, 9, 11- & 13-year-old)
- Shawna’s homeschool day in the life (with a 11- & 14-year-old)
- Melissa’s homeschool day in the life (with a 3-, 6-, 9-, 10-, 13 & 16-year-old)
- Purva’s homeschool day in the life (with a 4-, 7- & 8-year-old)
- Alicia’s homeschool day in the life (with a 3-, 8-, 11- & 14-year-old)
- Kara A’s homeschool day in the life (with an 10- & 13-year-old)
- Jamie’s homeschool day in the life (with a 11-, 12-, & 13-year-old)
- Cait’s homeschool day in the life (with a 5-, 7- & 8-year-old)
- Heather’s homeschool day in the life (with a 4-, 6- and 8-year-old)
- Kara F’s homeschool day in the life (with a 5-, 8-, 10- & 15-year-old)
- Come share YOUR homeschool day in the life!
“There is just one life for each of us: our own.” ~Euripides
Weekend homeschool links
Your contributors’ kids are growing up. No one has a baby or toddler to complicate/bless their home school days.
That’s true, Anne, though we tried to bring in guest posters with younger kiddos. But we’ve all been there, so if that is something that would be helpful to you to read just head to the archives to read all about that phase of life and how to make it work!
I agree. There isn’t a family with a older sibling starting homeschool with younger toddlers and babies. This demographic is in great need to some support and the worst thing we can do is to compare ourselves to these families listed above! I have a 7, 4 and 2 year old and we have been homeschooling for 2 years now. Our days are focused on play and in the earlier years with a newborn, 2.5 year old and kindergartener our homeschool time was always interrupted with a poopy diaper, potty accident, or crazy distractions. It seems like my reality was and still is so different from the perspectives you have listed here.
I remember reading this series last January as we had just started on our homeschooling journey. It was soothing to see the ups and down of veteran homeschooling mamas and how there was no right way (just the right way for us) to do it. I’m looking forward to this year’s series. Thank you!
So glad that was your takeaway from it, Tina–I hope you enjoy this one as well.
This is always fun!! Looking forward to it!
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Thanks, Erin!
Love reading these real-life excerpts. Thank you for continuing the series.
I’m so glad you guys still enjoy it, Becky! We’ll do it as long as it continues to be helpful!
OH I love this series! Every year I look forward to reading all the different ways people homeschool.
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Good, I hope you enjoy it, Joanne!
I’ve been looking forward to this again! One of my favorite parts of the new year ????
Oh yay ! these are my favourite. I think because we are ‘Home alone’ all day, its nice to know that there are other families all over the world doing this homeschool thing too. A little different for each family for sure, but still wrangling the day in and day out of educating our kids at home. I am starting my 7th year of home school this January ( I am in New Zealand so our school year starts at the beginning of the year ) so the timing of this series is a lovely way for me to start the year. I still need to be reminded that everyone does it differently, and that we are not doing it wrong, we are just doing it our way.
Looking forward to it! Last year, all of my kids were sick with some weird adenovirus that made them act like they’d been dusting with sleeping dust . Hopefully this year will be more indicative of our actual homeschool life. 🙂
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This series always comes at a good time-looking forward to it 🙂
Thank you for doing this each year, Jamie! I love the glimpse into how others spend their days and the invitation to think about ours.
Yay!! I can not wait. Seriously love this series. I will be sharing all the working mom posts in my FB group to encourage them. Thank you, I can’t wait to read them all and hope to contribute to the end link up 🙂
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Fun to read the different programs, curriculums and just the different ways people homeschool.
So Fun! Can’t wait to see different homeschool days! This is such a helpful resource to new homeschoolers also. I just sent someone that had no clue what homeschool even looked like to your site!
Danielle Huddleston’s latest post: Our Homeschool Day 2015-2016
If you ever want to share a day in the life of a family with one medically complex non-verbal child and one typically developing child, I would love to share a day in our homeschool lives. Dianna
I hope you’ll document your day on your own blog or elsewhere online, Dianna, and come back to link it up on March 6th so we can all benefit from it!
Could you please consider getting a guest poster with twins? My girls are almost 4 and we plan to homeschool. One issue I already have is that they are not synchronous learners. It’s difficult with them being the same age and developmental level but they learn completely different and at different rates. One I have to keep constantly challenged and the other is not interested in anything but what she wants at that moment. The first one is usually 1-4 months ahead of her sister. It makes planning any activity quite challenging. I would love to see how other twin families handle this.
Such a fun series!! I love getting a glimpse of other families’ homeschools. Finding inspiration and sharing the ups and downs. Alicia, thanks for keeping it real! Beautiful.
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