For those of us with more scheduled school days, what time do you start? We've always started at 9:30, but things will be more difficult this year for us with Bryce doing his developmental program and school work. I think we need to start earlier. I'm curious about what time everyone else starts...

Okay, so I'm an unschooler, but my kids don't even get up until 10:30 or 11 :)

Okay, so I'm an unschooler, but my kids don't even get up until 10:30 or 11 :)

umm... yeah. that. :D

We're generally up early (between 6:30 and 7:30), so we do breakfast from about 7 till 7:30, then get dressed/cleaned up (7:30-7:45), and then spend about an hour taking care of all our morning duties and chores. We plan to start with informal reading in the car around 9am while I drive my ds and another child that I babysit to preschool. Then we'll come home and spend about 2 hours on schoolwork (9:30-11:30 or so), take a break for lunch/cleaning up,etc. Then some more reading/recitation in the car (1:00-1:45) while we pick ds and other child up from preschool. Then we'll do about 2 more hours of work in the afternoon (2:00-4:00) while all the "little ones" take their afternoon naps.

I want to do something in the am and then in the pm and then my children are free to do whatever...

It's 7:49am and only my 7 1/2 yo is up! (My children are 2, 5 1/2, 7 1/2, and 8 1/2). They don't sleep past 8:30am usually.

My ds will go to school and we will get home about 9:15 or so. We will probably start then and go til 12:30. Not sure yet, I'll play it by ear!!

6.30 til 8 for worship and Bhagavad Gita study

9.30 til 11.30 for "school"

2-3 for yoga and pe

rest of the day: cooking , chores, arts and crafts, play play and more play

We do all of our social activities in the morning, so we don't do any "school" type stuff until after lunch, around 1:00. My kids are still very little, though, so "school" consists of reading, playing a game, and doing some sort of art or open ended craft project, then usually they need a bath, LOL. We are very laid back, and I can't see us having a regimented schedule or an official "starting time" for several years at least. :)

DD starts at 10 am, breaks for an hour for lunch around noon. She continues to about 4 pm. If we have gymnastics, art class, etc of course we have to be more flexible. :happy:

We start school after our morning routine is finished, which winds up being anywhere between 8:15-9:15am. I don't have a set time because the kids occasionaly sleep in or breakfast takes longer than anticipated, so starting after our morning routine works better for us.

Okay, so I'm an unschooler, but my kids don't even get up until 10:30 or 11 :)


yep i 3rd that

We're unschoolers too.
We're up and around by about 8:30 or so.

ok, those whose children sleep til late - I don't like you anymore. It's official! lol

I am so not a morning person. However - all but Nathan are usually up and into everything by 7. Sometimes Austin can keep the kids corraled in the livingroom - but not often. I am NOT a pleasant person in the morning - but these kids just don't seem to 'get' that.

We have always started with math right away as soon as we are fed. When I was trying ot get into a time schedule more, that was about 8-8:30. Then we just kind of flowed from one thing to the next. Austin is needing more structure time-wise, so we'll be doing that with him again when we start back up. Because of just flowing from one thing to the next, he has decided to not really pay attention to what he is doing - just do it fast and get it over with. Sooo... for him, I think I need to set a timer and say, ok, you will do math for 45 minutes - do your best work. Right now I would get math out and he would race through and get frustrated because he just wanted to get it done.

In my perfect world, I would have a very very relaxed homeschool and really do a lot more unschooling type activities. However, I think that we have made some compromises and have found what will be flexible enough for me, and structured enough for Austin. I thought the kids would NOT like reading about history, but I've been pleasantly surprised - and they have wanted to learn more about certain aspects as we have read through Story of the World and now Sonlight Early Am. History. I don't think I would have exposed them to those topics on my own... but they are really interested in them.

Now, if i could get my kids to sleep in until 8:30-9.... THAT would be an answer to prayer.

I wish Whitley would sleep that late! I am a night owl. She is up usually around 6:30 or 7, although occasionally she'll sleep in. This morning she slept until almost 9! I was in heaven. Melody sleeps until 10:30 or 11.

Anyway, my child is only barely 4 so "school" consists of about 30 minutes to an hour a few days a week. I don't know what I'll do when we have a more scheduled routine. I don't like mornings.

We don't have a set time. I tried doing that when we first started homeschooling and it just stressed me out.

We get up, eat, clean up the kitchen and read a book together.

Then we'll start researching things together (right now it's penguins. We're going to see March of the Penguins tomorrow:). Whatever she's interested in at the moment.

Then we do 'school' work (math, spelling words, history). She's not fond of this time period but we're only at it about an hour so it's not a big deal.

The rest of the day we incorportate more reading and writing. She writes the grocery lists with me, we make the meal plan together, she sometimes even helps me when I'm writing out the bills (we talk about money, checkbooks, etc).

I guess we're a mixture of unschooling/schooling. I hate time restraints. If I want to go to the library in the middle of the morning, I'm going. If I want to do school after dinner, that's when we'll do it. If Sabreena doesn't feel like doing spelling one day, fine..skip it. If she doesn't want to read a book, cool. I know she gets her reading in during other parts of the day.

We aren't naturally early birds, but we get up early so that the boys are ready for bed around 8-8:30. DH feels the need to have a little child-free time each evening. Right now the boys get up atround 6:45, plus a few minutes for snuggling.

Even though we aren't unschoolers, I think of the entire day as a learning experience. Last year we just fit in a few lessons here and there. This year we are planning a more focused learning time each morning and afternoon.

Here is an example of how we expect our Mondays to flow:

Wake up and meditate
Check email and update Quicken
Shower
Get dressed, wake boys and have them dress
Breakfast – make it, eat it, and clean up
Everyone brushes teeth
Morning walk with boys (this is the official start of our morning homeschooling, and will happen around 7:45)
Circle time
Morning main lesson (over by 10 a.m.)
Snack
Bake together
Boys play while I do some household tasks
Lunch – make it (boys still playing), eat it, and clean up
Quiet time
Afternoon lesson – practice and games (about an hour)
Boys play while I exercise and do early dinner prep (can assist if they want to)
Tea and story time
Recorder
Dinner – make it (boys play or help), eat it, and clean up
Help boys clean room
Go for a family walk
PJs, story time, brush teeth, sing, bedtime for boys
Make bread (breadmaker)
Financial planning
Get ready for bed, read, lights out for mama

Kimberly