Our homeschooling days are amazing so far with our new homeschool routine! I changed a few things up this year, and kept a few things that worked well from last year.

If you’ve been homeschooling, you’ve come to know that there are so many benefits to homeschooling, including flexibility and doing what works best for your family.

How I determined our homeschool routine

When are my kids most focused?

I determined our homeschool routine by my kids and their mental and emotional capacity to stay focused. And this is what I know:

1. My kids are more focused in the morning – they are slower and fresher.
2. The afternoons are a challenge for my kids – they’re a little tired after lunch and need to get their wiggles out.

What subjects when?

The core subjects, such as reading, spelling and math need the most focus, so the morning is necessary to tackle them.

Then in the afternoon, the more easy-going, relaxed subjects are best, like social studies, science, grammar, writing, handwriting, etc.

Our homeschool routine

I wake up earlier (with my husband) to enjoy quiet time doing my devotional with breakfast, and then move on to work on the blog or in the house.

My children are usually awake by 8:00-8:30am. We begin our mornings slow and gentle, and when we’re all fueled up from breakfast, we begin. I try not to base anything we do on particular times and schedules. With my children in the grades that they are, the ages that they are, and where I’m at in this homeschool journey, scheduling times to subjects brings too much pressure for me, and in turn, I tend to pressurize my children and things don’t end up well.

TIP: Embrace what works best for you and your children – homeschooling provides this freedom along with these other benefits.

My Kindergartener has handwriting, reading and math just for his age, otherwise, he participates in everything else that my Grade 2 daughter does. This approach, last year, was amazing to help him advance his learning without any pressure.

Our typical homeschool routine:

• Breakfast
• Bible
• Reading/Spelling (looped)
• Math
• Lunch (before or in the middle of the afternoon basket loop)
• Afternoon Basket Loop
  • Brave Writer Lifestyle Loop (Rebecca from Homeschool On does a great job of explaining it here)
    • Read-alouds
    • Grammar
    • Copywork
    • Poems
    • Art
    • Music
    • Nature journal
  • Social studies
  • Science
• Clean-up/Free time
• Dance lessons, piano lessons, swim lessons
• Supper

We try to aim being done at 3:00pm each day. This leaves room for supper prep, music lessons (which I still teach), and sports activities.

It hardly feels like homeschool with a routine like this for our family.

What has worked best for your family’s homeschool routine? Let me know by sharing in the comments below!

Anchored in Jesus,
Melanie