A Day in the Life of a Homeschooling Mom–It’s all about Perspective

A Day in the Life of a Homeschooling Mom with a Fresh Perspective by Joesette from Learning Curve

So many times we read about perfect days in some OTHER homeschool family and we come away feeling discouraged. We look at our list of accomplishments for the day (or maybe failures) and question if we really are cut out for this lifestyle at all. In the interest of the mythological perfect homeschool day, I’m writing about one of those near perfect days here, it really did happen. However, hang on to the end of the post, and you’ll get a little better perspective.

7:00 am: I’m awake before the alarm clock, go me! By 7:30 I’ve brushed my teeth, put dinner in the crockpot and am heading out the door to go on my one hour walk. The husband and children are still sleeping when I leave. During my walk I take some lovely photos so that I can get a “journal” type post ready for my other blog, S.A.H.M

8:30 am: I’m home from my walk. The kids have had breakfast and are getting washed and dressed for the day. I eat a quick bowl of cereal and then jump in the shower.

9:00am: I’ve collected all of the color coded laundry baskets from the house and I begin to sort laundry. Lindsey (the 7 year old) is on the sun porch working on her independent work. Olivia (the 9 year old) begins her independent study list while I get the first load of laundry in the machine and check email.

9:30am: Olivia and I start her daily work. We do math and language arts together. By the time she’s working through her worksheets, Lindsey has joined us and I start working with her on math and language arts. I break sporadically to swap loads of laundry.

Noon: Both girls are working on their independent studies. I fold laundry and catch up on emails, Facebook and blogs I follow. Around 12:30 I head to the kitchen and add the remaining dinner items to the crockpot and tidy up the house while dinner finishes.

1:00pm: We all sit down to a hot, home cooked meal of beef stroganoff. YUM!! After dinner ends Olivia practices her piano while Lindsey and my husband work on a jigsaw puzzle together. The husband and children then migrate outside to ride scooters and enjoy the beautiful fall day. I clean the kitchen, finish working on the laundry and work on a blog post.

3:00pm: My husband leaves for work. The girls have about 20 minutes to watch a video. Then we get everyone dressed, hair up in a bun and we head out the door to ballet.

4:15-6:00pm: The girls have tap and ballet back to back. I have an hour and forty-five minutes to read on a book for a review.

6:30pm: We get back home. I fix dinner then the girls take turns with their baths. By 7:30 we’re working on our read aloud, Pilgrim’s Progress.

8:30pm: The girls go to bed and I do my devotions, have a cup of tea and relax. I then spend some time looking up resources online, jotting down ideas for lessons and crafts.

10:00 pm: I’m in bed and the day is finished.

Ok, so you’ve read my day and now you’re thinking that there is no way you can have that perfect of a day, right? Here, let me add some additional information to add a little clarity to my day, and to help you see that really it’s all about perspective.

Yes, I really DID go on a walk. What you don’t know is that I’m obese, and that the one pair of exercise pants I own rubbed blisters on the inside of my thighs, making it hard to walk through the house, much less to the park the following day. You also don’t know that as I was returning home from my walk the neighborhood busybody spotted me and said “Oh, so you’re walking, now?” “Yes, ma’am.” “Well, its about time.” “Yes ma’am.” What I wanted to say was “How about a little encouragement instead of your snotty attitude for once.”

The husband really DID feed the girls breakfast while I was gone. It consisted of 2 cups of chocolate milk each. That’s it…. I really DID eat cereal for breakfast, but it was a stale off brand that I bought at a discount grocery store. I really DID get into the shower. But our shower has been broken for a week, so I use a plastic bowl to pour water over myself while I stand in the shower stall.

I really DID get the laundry all done…but it was a weeks worth of laundry, and it was still sitting in the basement, in those nice color coded laundry baskets at the end of the day. The laundry did make it to the correct rooms the next morning.

I really DID make a delicious meal in the crockpot. But “stroganoff” might be a stretch. It was cream of mushroom soup, beef broth and beef tips with egg noodles added at the end. It really was good, but one child didn’t like it.

I really DID get to read my book during ballet. However with several toddlers and preschoolers tearing around like maniacs and their mother’s constant screeching of “no no” while texting on their cell phones I was ready to pull my hair out. So I have NO clue what the book is about, but I do know that next week I’ll be sitting in the van or maybe taking a walk during that hour and forty-five minutes.

I really DID fix dinner for the girls when we got home. Lindsey had cottage cheese with jelly and an apple. Olivia had a peanut butter & fluff sandwich and an apple.

I really DID get to bed by 10:00pm. Sleep didn’t come easy as I laid there and thought about some crazy family issues, my weight, finances and a plethora of other things that ran through my mind.

So see, your day is no different than that of any other homeschool family. You just know all the little not so perfect things that happened in your house that day. Maybe that’s the problem, we focus on all those little not so perfect things too much? I’m not saying you should turn a blind eye to blatant issues that need correcting. However, might I suggest we all spend a little more time enjoying the small moments of near perfection in each day?

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What is your day like?

Would you like to contribute to A Day in the Life of Another Mom? We’d love to read about your day! This series will be ongoing as long as there are people willing to give us all a glimpse into their lives. If you would like to share A Day in Your Life please email me your day to livinglifeintentionallyblog (at) gmail.com. Feel free to include picture (s). I will let you know promptly when it will be posted. (If you have a blog please let me know as I will include a link to your blog in the post.)