Thanks to reader suggestions, today I’m sharing a day-in-the-life post of what our homeschool looks like.

I so appreciate the outpouring of support and likes from my recent post Life of a Ranch Wife, that was a therapeutic and hard post to share and I really appreciate your positive reactions. This post is a continuation of that look into my everyday life. Enjoy!

Typical Tuesday at our house:

6:00-6:30 I get up and grudgingly dress in my running gear. Mr. rancher joins me. He has agreed to run with me so long as we’re done before seven and he can leave for work. Also, it’s dark and no one can see how slow we are.

7 Home from run. Shower and dress, if I don’t have any intense cleaning to do otherwise I’ll stay in my workout clothes and get that done before lunch then shower during naps. Henley is usually up now. She gets dressed and does basic chores–make bed, sort laundry, empty trash cans–then we sit down to do school.

7:30-8:30 School time. I read a chapter from Charlotte’s Web while Henley does a coloring worksheet.

Next we do a reading lesson from The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise. So far we’ve really enjoyed this book and its individual lessons for each letter. We’re on N. This takes maybe 3 minutes and we do a lesson each day. Afterwards we get our blend book from Abeka and practice blending the consonants we’ve learned with all the vowels. Sometimes we go through our whole stack of alphabet flash cards. Honestly, I’m not consistent with this since she flies through the cards.

Next we do one or two pages from our Abeka arithmetic and language arts books. Right now H is learning how to write her numbers, practicing counting into the teens, completing patterns, listening for the letters used in words, and following directions.

If Becca still isn’t awake we do one page of cursive and one page of print handwriting practice. Not to worry, if B is awake by this point we’ll pack up our books and start with handwriting tomorrow.

8:30 Everyone is awake. Girls drink their chocolate milk and watch a show while I make breakfast. Or H makes breakfast while I dress Becca. She can make toast and scrambled eggs herself.

9 I start laundry and clean up the kitchen. Girls play with toys or go outside.

9:30 Girls get out the bikes and we set off on a ride for them, walk for me. We go one or two miles and watch for the deer, neighbors’ dogs, and any other animals around. We always stop at the wheat field to play in the dirt and the creek to throw rocks.

10:30/11 I hang out the laundry when we get home (dryer is broken-ugh). Girls get a drink and small snack depending on when we get back. If lunch is within the hour, they don’t get a snack.

I grab the morning time basket and either tote it outside or bring the girls in and we sit in the living room. We begin with a song–typically one of the Primary songs Henley needs to know for her program in a few weeks–I play the piano and the girls sing along. Then we say a prayer and read a passage of scripture–we’re working our way through the New Testament this year.

After our devotional we do our calendar. I print a simple calendar from Excel and have the girls take turns marking off the days. We have a brief family planning meeting on Sundays to fill in the events of the week then mark off the days–this helps my girls mark the passage of time. We have a Days of the Week song we sing–today H and B spin in circles with their arms outstretched the whole time we’re singing.

Next is memory work. We memorize silly songs, poems, our family mission statement, phone numbers, and nursery rhymes. Today we’re working on Daddy’s phone number–girls clap for every number–and our family mission statement.

Then we sing again. Mostly silly songs like Skidamarink, Sally the Camel, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc. this is Becca’s favorite part.

Finally, we read from something slightly advanced and/or inspiring. Currently we’re reading through our collection of Beatrix Potter.

This all takes 30 minutes or so then we’re back to playing and switching laundry around. We generate a LOT of dirty clothes in our house.

12 Lunch Time. On Tuesdays we eat peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. H makes these and I get a salad or leftovers ready for me. We sit down to eat, pray, and chit chat. During the summer, hummingbirds and butterflies are usually flitting about the pots of flowers just outside the window and we spend most of lunch searching for them.

After lunch girls can play and I try to tidy the kitchen again.

1 Nap Time. Nap time is sacred in our household. I can’t make it through a day without this break in the afternoon. B usually falls right to sleep, H sings to herself or gets an extra story for me then typically falls asleep easily too. They’re pretty much pooped after our long bike ride and all their time outside. Plus, my children don’t sleep super well at night….

I read today and do a Sudoku puzzle. I wash dishes ever so quietly and switch laundry again. I scroll social media and write a blog post…duh. I also check and respond to email and texts and do prep for church work. I deposit a check and work on my grocery list. And I lay if the couch like a bum for at least 30 minutes.

3:30 Everyone is awake again. H usually wakes up before Becca and is allowed 15-30 minutes on the iPad to play ABCmouse or PBSkids.

We have a snack and the girls can watch one more show. I start prepping dinner. When the show is over we tidy the toys and go outside again. We play in the sand, jump on the trampoline, swing in the swings, or monkey across the monkey bars. I pull weeds, collect flower heads for next year’s flower crop, throw a tennis ball for Bo, push swings, and follow along with the storyline of whatever game we’re playing.

5:30/6 Past this point in our day there is no typical. It’s been raining so tonight Ty was home for dinner and we all watched a movie together before bed. We keep up our other activities like playing outside, bike riding, dish washing, reading, and playing with toys through the evening and try to have the girls in bed by 9.

8:30 If we’re home, this is my cue to have the girls get in the shower. They shower for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes and each have their own bar of soap to play with. They have a blast in the shower and it gives me and Ty a few minutes to chat.

9 Move towards bed. Girls have a last minute snack–egg or cheese or yogurt, something with protein–jammies, brush teeth and hair, last minute room cleaning, prayers, and rocking/singing/bedtime stories then on go the fans, off go the lights, and hopefully they fall right asleep.

9-10:30 Ty and I clean, shower, chat, maybe watch a show, put the kids back to bed after requests for water, potty or more rocking then go to bed ourselves. I sometimes use this time for storytime prep, bookkeeping–to keep Ty in the loop–church-related texts and emails, or homeschool prep.

And that’s it!!!

I tried to make that as typical as possible, days vary greatly though, especially after nap time. We’re often out and about in the evening at church or ball games or get together with friends or family. We also tend to go out to the farm a lot during those late afternoon or evening hours. On days like that I try to have dinner in the crock pot or we might stop in at my in-laws to eat with them. More often than not, we come home and cook for ourselves though.

As we’re only in pre-school and kindergarten, school really doesn’t take that much time. I read aloud every single day and any time we’re in the car we listen to audiobooks. I try to have H practice writing and counting and reading every single day as well. But sometimes it’s only for a few minutes.

She is also taking sewing lessons from Ty’s grandma and we try to have a play date once a week.

Mostly we try to live a very full and rich life filled with other people, time outside, work, books, and providing for ourselves. We cook at home, we pick and preserve our own food, and we tend to make our own fun as often as possible.

I’m a big believer that education doesn’t have to be hard or boring. It can look like taking part in a life bursting with good things and experiences.

Let me know what questions you have about our homeschool or life, and I’ll do my best to answer them. Thanks for reading!