At a Halloween party last year, a friend asked me what our homeschool day looks like. “You don’t have to take roll or things like that, so how do you get started?” (To be candid, I was horrible at taking roll even when I was teaching public school–I did a cursory check and had students sign their names to a sign-in sheet just in case.)
We don’t have a set schedule in our home. My husband leaves for work between 7:30 and 8:00. Sometimes my children and I are up after 8:00, sometimes after 9:00. My alarm is set for 10:00. We have breakfast, we tidy, we clean, and then we work.
At least one of my children is neurodivergent, and I’ve learned through exceptional student education classes and then through practice that placing preferred activities after non-preferred is the best way to structure our day. In general, my kids do their school activities subject by subject. When they finish an assignment in a subject area, they can get 20 minutes of device time–Nintendo Switch, iPad, or computer. Then they must step away from the screen and move to another academic task. These are the subject areas and general descriptions of our activities:
- Math: We use CTC Math for both kids. I supplement CTC Math with Singapore Math Standards Edition books for my younger child. My kids have to complete at least one unit per week. My older child has to attain a score of 95 or above (gold level); my younger child, 90 or above (silver level). I’ll note my children are different kids with different abilities and different needs, and that is why their requirements differ. I have explained why to both children.
- Science: My older child attends a science class virtually on Outschool every week for about 36 weeks per year. During the summer, we review the Sciencesaurus textbook used for that school year, and she takes a quick quiz. My husband, who enjoys science far more than I do, does experiments with my kids every week.
- Geography: We do geography daily. My kids do quizzes on the Seterra app, and we play various geography games like Guess in 10 (Countries of the World and states). We also play games with our globe ball, and my younger child has Play-Doh mats for various continents and countries. We are slowly working through LEGO Architecture sets for cities such as Tokyo, London, Paris, and landmarks like the White House and Capitol.
- Handwriting: My younger child is currently working on his motor skills daily so that he can improve his handwriting. In the near future, we will progress to Handwriting without Tears. My older child, who has “graduated” from the Handwriting without Tears curriculum, is required to write in both print and cursive once per week, typically a noted literary passage since she intends to major in English. When she was little, I had her copy George Washington’s Rules of Civility.
- Vocabulary: We study Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day every day. I like that it includes notes about etymology and related words. I like the brief podcast. We are also working through vocabulary builder units I am building. I will eventually post those on this site.
- History/Civics/Government: My kids are exposed to a lot of historical fiction and non-fiction, including the Dear America series, the Magic Tree House series, Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, and miscellaneous other books. In addition, we cover a new event in history in some depth every day, and those explorations frequently cover civics and government as well. You can check out the calendar of details here. We also regularly play timeline games such as Timeline and Chronology as well as Professor Noggin’s cards, which are available in topics ranging from ancient civilizations to the history of Canada.
- French: Once upon a time we used Duolingo, but after the CEO’s remarks about teachers, we deleted the apps and requested deletion of our data. Now we use Mango, which is free through one of the local libraries. (But since that library is in adjacent county, I do pay $25 per year for the card just to have access to more resources like Mango and different books both in print and on the Libby app.) Each person in our household does one lesson per day.
- Writing: I have endless amounts of paper and plenty of writing utensil available for my kids to write at will. My older child has written her first book and is working on her second. My older child and I do writing assignments associated with our daily history explorations, but typically I use those to model good writing. Next year (2026-2027 school year), we will begin working on five-paragraph essays. I believe cultivating a love of writing is more important than a five-paragraph essay for elementary and early middle school. She and I did have a journal we passed back and forth for a year or so, and she has the Diarly app on her iPad to journal her daily thoughts and other snippets, and she does so daily. I’m still working with my younger child on imagination play. He enjoys writing mini-books on ABCYa Storymaker.
- Spelling: My kids are both good spellers, perhaps partially because they read a lot. (Reading is also how I became a good speller when I was a child.) Nonetheless, I am currently developing spelling units based on actual rules. I will eventually post those on this site.
- Reading: Both of my kids were hyperlexic. I did not have to teach either one to read. My daughter was reading by age 3. My son was reading at age 1. I did tutor elementary students with reading when I was teaching high school students, and I used the Hooked on Phonics system. I still recommend Hooked on Phonics today; I bought it for my children and ended up not using it for either. (Here is a link to the product I purchased.) We have a lot of books gifted by family (books are our preferred gifts) and purchased used from library stores, used book stores, and eBay. We have a subject-area library downstairs in our basement, and each child has his and her own library in separate bedrooms. We encourage reading, and our kids do read a lot.
Typically these segments are 20-30 minutes each. We are typically done with our day around 4:00, but the 6-7 hours of the day includes household tasks, meals, and several periods of playing on devices. In the evenings, the kids play downstairs in our unfinished basement, and they also play active games on the Nex Playground system while I go for my evening walk.
A final note: We are very child-led. If my son wants to play with marble runs for hours, he can. My daughter has spent an entire day writing and illustrating her book. I just try to ensure that we stay on track with subject-area knowledge–and I try to make sure device time is limited to 20-minute segments for vision and other purposes.
I’ll gladly answer questions posted below!
Never stop learning,
Erin
