Purva’s Homeschool Day in the Life (With a 12-, 11- and 8-year-old)

Purva’s Homeschool Day in the Life ~
Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

The only constant is change. Who said that? It’s true. Now that my older two children are fully “tweenagers,” I feel that sentiment in my bones. My life – my family’s life – is changing beyond measure.

In some ways, I feel like with all the changes we have already undergone in the last 4 years (5 houses, 4 cities, 2 states) the one constant and the best thing that we have had going for us is our homeschooling.

The children have been excited to see new place and meet new people, but the one thing we have not excessively worried about is their education.

This is what it currently looks like.

Purva’s Homeschool Day

Mornings

Our mornings are very relaxed. Now that the older two are, well, older, they enjoy sleeping in. My husband leaves for work early before I’m awake most days, so I wake up, get some coffee and let the children wake up on their own while I tinker around on my blog and online. This is the best time for writing for me.

After I am sufficiently caffeinated and showered, we meet for “school” at 10 am. This is very hands-on only for the youngest (8) one who is currently working on double digit multiplication and division.

We use Kumon workbooks a lot for math practice at this age and also homemade basic flashcards. All I focus on at this stage is reading and math.

The older children follow a basic agenda that I have written. They come downstairs, sometimes still in their pajamas, and settle down to get their work done. I have long given up on them being dressed “for school.”

A decade of homeschooling has taught me not to sweat the small stuff. Most of the agenda I want to cover is dealt with through workbooks. However, knowing my aversion to sticking to a prescribed curriculum, I feel free to hop around and choose what I want them to work on or where they need extra practice.

My role is shifting, as I said, from making them do the work to simply giving them work and ensuring it gets done. It sounds like a subtle shift, but it’s actually mentally very freeing.

Not physically, however. I do still have to sit with them, occasionally glare at them, catch my middle child day-dreaming and sometimes even break up fights and banter.

Not that I’m complaining (much).

Afternoons

Right after “school” is done, I head out for a short walk. I like this. It clears my mind and shifts my focus to the other to-dos on my list.

The afternoon is typically my time to myself and the kids’ time to themselves. They have recently made friends with kids in the neighborhood, so one in particular shows up at the dot of noon. My kids do have afternoon chores, so he has to wait for a bit until those get done.

The chores are simple – washing and drying dishes, putting them away, sweeping, vacuuming, taking the trash out, feeding the cats, cleaning the litter box. Besides this, the children also make their own lunch. When they were very little, we taught them to cook basic food. They’re actually quite skilled at it now.

Afternoon is when I will catch up on social media, reading, finish up a blog post or just take a nap if I need one. The children usually play video games or watch YouTube or chat with their cousins and friends online.

Evenings & Weekends

4 o’ clock is the outside / play hour. Some evenings, depending on the day, my husband and I head to the basement gym to lift weights. The children have a strict rule of going outside to play for an hour. We have a local park, not too far from the house. It is not uncommon to find the kids there often.

Just because it’s the evening or the weekend doesn’t mean learning stops. In the evenings, we will occasionally find something to watch that interests us or that can segue into a good conversation. For example, as I mentioned on my blog, we recently watched Vikings and used that as a jumping off point into history.

Weekends can be an intense time. Most of their education is covered between home improvement projects, reading I prescribe them, our board/role playing games together, cooking and baking.

Of course, there are always good conversations to be had as well.

Our approach has always been fairly hands off after a fairly intense dive into basic skills.

So far, it seems to be working. Quite well, actually.

My, how the days have changed:

• 2020: Purva’s day (with a 7-, 10-, and 11-year-old)
• 2019: Purva’s homeschool day in the life (with a 6-, 9-, & 10-year-old)
• 2018: Purva’s homeschool day in the life (with a 5-, 8-, & 9-year-old)
• 2017: Purva’s homeschool day in the life (with a 4-, 7-, & 8-year-old)

Tell us in the comments- how has your role shifted since starting to homeschool?

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