The new school year will be starting soon. So, I’m writing this blog post to give new homeschoolers an idea and a view of how we do things in our homeschool.

Before I share our homeschool routine, let me say first that the best homeschool schedule for any family is one that considered the needs, preferences, schedules, family dynamics, and the lifestyle of the family involved. What may work for our family may not work for other families because this routine that I will share with you is based on the unique characteristics and situation of our family as a whole and each member of our family.

I also want to say that this routine works well with us because of the approach in homeschooling that we do. We practice eclectic homeschooling. We did not bring the school set-up in our home. We do not have rigid schedules. We don’t operate our homeschool like a school. Learning is our lifestyle. Thus, our children learn throughout the day, even outside of our planned and structured lessons. We follow some textbooks for a few subjects like English grammar and Math. For the rest of the subjects, we unschool. (When we prepared for the PEPT, we used textbooks in Araling Panlipunan or Social Studies, Filipino, and Science. You may read about our PEPT preparation and accreditation story here.) We do not follow a set or boxed curriculum or textbook. We also do not discuss subjects on their own only. Most subjects are combined in unit studies and projects just like in the real world.

I used to homeschool one child only. That was my eldest. I had been homeschooling him for almost 12 years now. He was homeschooled since birth. He was a very eager learner from the very start. He loved books since infancy. When he was a 2-year-old toddler, we found out that he is gifted. The developmental pediatrician advised me to give him more advanced lessons because his intelligence was twice his biological age. So, I started giving him Kinder materials at 2.5 years old. He is now in Grade 6 but he reads books that are way above his current level.

I now have two more younger children. The second is in Grade 3 and the youngest is in Kinder. Although they are enrolled in these grade levels, we had been working at advanced levels in some areas last school year. This is one of the advantages of homeschooling. We can move forward when the kids are ready to learn more advanced lessons. They do not need to wait for classmates to learn to move to the next lesson. They learn at their own pace.

Having said that, let me now share our daily routine.

We wake up naturally. We don’t use alarm clocks. That’s our norm. We only use the alarm when we have scheduled classes or appointments (even pre-pandemic). I had been working from home since I got pregnant with my eldest so this works for me. My husband works as an employee. He uses an alarm to wake him up. But the kids and I wake up using our body clocks.

The kids fix their beds, say their morning prayers, and use the bathroom upon waking up.

Then, we eat breakfast together, read the Bible, and discuss the Gospel or the reading for the day. This covers vocabulary, English grammar, reading aloud, reading comprehension, religion, Christian living, values, and sometimes foreign language and geography if I introduce the root words of some words in the Bible in Latin or Greek and discuss the location and terrain of the place in the Bible that is mentioned.

I previously wrote a blog post discussing why the Bible is the most important book in our homeschool. You may read it here.

I had been trained in various Bible study methods including the Joy of Discovery Method. I had been teaching and facilitating Bible studies since my teenage years. I used to attend Bible studies with Fr. Jun Lingad, S.D.B., a Bible scholar, in the past years. I’m delighted to use my skills in helping my own children become familiar with the Bible,understand it, and apply it in their lives.

After breakfast, the kids write their goals and dreams and their first blessings for the day in their notebooks. Then, we proceed with our lesson for the day. It can be a unit study wherein we have a common time first then each child is given an appropriate worksheet or activity for his level. Sometimes, I already print out the worksheets in advance, and in the morning, I simply distribute them to the kids. Some days, I print the activity or worksheets before they wake up. The kids work on their respective lessons in the same area. All of them are near me so when someone has a question, I can easily provide answers or assistance.

If a child gets hungry or thirsty, the child is free to eat or drink but is asked to go back right away after eating or drinking. If the child is done with a specific lesson or set of worksheets and is hungry, that child can have a snack break for 10-15 minutes.

The youngest, usually, is the first to finish because he only has short structured lessons. The longest for him would be 30 minutes and that is only if he is in the mood. He is free to play with educational toys or any toys as long as he does not disturb his big brothers and make a lot of noise.

If a child is done with a set of worksheets or a lesson and wants to have a play break, I let the child have a break before proceeding with the next lesson.

If the child is done early and I have checked the child’s work and it’s not yet lunchtime, the child is free to play or do whatever pleases him as long as he will not distract the other kids still working on their lessons.

My second child is the second to finish most of the time. That’s partly because he has shorter and less difficult lessons also.

We cover more material and more difficult topics with my eldest. Many times, my eldest likes to dive deep into the topics he is most interested in. A lot of times, this could mean reading a more advanced book on the topic. He can read a book in one sitting. To check what he learned, I ask him questions or I ask him to share with me or us what he learned from the book he has read. Sometimes, I ask him to draw or write something based on the book he finished.

I prepare our lunch usually around an hour before we eat.

We have regular routines and rules for mealtimes. All kids help out in setting up the table and in cleaning up after each meal. They have their own set of chores, including the youngest. That is part of their life skills training and home economics.

There are days when I ask them to help me prepare the food for lunch or dinner or some of our desserts. But if the kids are still doing their lessons or when I am in a hurry, I don’t let them help me anymore.

After cleaning up the dining area and the kitchen, the kids take their baths.

After taking a bath, we have our read-aloud time before naptime. My kids seldom nap already. Their usual naptime has been replaced supposedly by quiet time. Although, it’s a struggle to keep my boys quiet during their supposed quiet time. During this time, they are free to read books on their own or draw.

If they did not finish their lessons in the morning, they need to finish them after lunch.

When the kids are done with their lesson or quiet time, they are free to play or pursue their hobbies during the afternoon. But they should also practice piano (for my eldest), chess and karate (for both).

I work from home in my businesses during the kids’ quiet time. (Oh, that’s why they need to be quiet! hahaha)

When I am not rushing for any deadlines, we eat a snack together and play during my brain breaks.

I cook a large batch for our viand and rice, usually, so that we only need to reheat the food in the evening for dinner. That enables me to save time and energy.

We eat dinner together and follow our mealtime rules and chores.

Prior to the pandemic and lockdown/quarantine, we go to church for daily Mass after dinner. My eldest serves as the pianist in the daily evening Masses in our parish. Thus, he practices the piano daily. If he is preparing for an exam or a performance, my eldest practices the piano twice a day.

After the Mass or dinner, the kids write more blessings in their notebooks. They need to write at least five each day. Even our youngest does this exercise. This exercise covers many areas. It helps them practice their English, composition, and spelling skills. It teaches them to remember their activities during the day and be grateful for the good and happy moments and blessings. It helps them be reminded of their goals and dreams and what they need to do to achieve them.

Some of their goals and dreams have been moved from the goals and dreams section to the blessings or answered prayers section of their notebooks already.

At night, we also have our night rituals or routine.

We share our high and low points with each other. That is communication practice for the kids. Each one is asked to stand in front and share or speak. After that, we pray as a family.

Since we are practicing and devout Catholics, we pray throughout the day. My kids learn the prayers by praying these prayers with us or during our daily times of prayer. They learn by hearing them from those who lead the prayers and by participating. We pray the Angelus, the 3 o’clock prayer, and prayer before meals together aside from our night prayers which include the rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. We also pray the Oration Imperata during our night prayers when we had this COVID-19 pandemic.

Household chores are part of our children’s training. They were trained to put their clothes in the hamper, help sort the clothes to be put in the washing machine, help hang their clothes after these are washed in the washing machine, fold them, and pack them away in their respective closets. My eldest already knows how to operate our washing machine and is sometimes asked to lead his brothers in doing their laundry. As the kids grow older, they get more involved in household chores. This is our way of ensuring they have life skills so that in case my husband and I get sick, they know how to do things on their own at home. We had been doing this even before the pandemic. But I realized that this has become even more important now that the chances of people getting sick is higher because of the virus going around.

The two older boys were already taught how to cook rice. I also taught them how to cook and prepare some of the common food that they eat. In other words, part of their training was ensuring that they will not go hungry even if I get sick and cannot cook food for them. This kind of training becomes helpful when I am not feeling well. I can rely on my kids to take over temporarily.

You may read my previous blog post on our home economics lessons here.

Screen time is usually scheduled on Friday afternoons after their lessons and chores.

When the kids are able to do well in their lessons and had been exhibiting good behavior, they are sometimes allowed screen time (playing online chess or word games or coding) for some time on a weekday afternoon. Not more than 30 minutes, usually. But if they are preparing for a chess tournament (pre-pandemic), they are allowed to play online chess more often during the weekdays leading to the tournament after they are done with their usual homeschool lessons, chores, and playing chess over the board.

Since we are active and devout Catholics, we also follow and live the Liturgical Calendar of the Catholic Church. We observe and celebrate the seasons, memorials, feast days, and solemnities. These are also part of our lessons, especially since my eldest son is a pianist in our parish and my second child also sings with the choir. The songs that are chosen in the Mass follow these seasons.

Thus, our weekdays and weekends are sometimes used to study a Catholic Saint, feast day, or solemnity.

But most weekends are devoted to family time and unstructured play. We play board games a lot on weekends. We also watch movies at home during weekends even before the lockdown. I try to choose movies with moral lessons and we try to help the kids realize or see the lessons from these movies. This is one way we homeschool through play. Before the quarantine or lockdown happened, we serve in our parish during Masses or events organized in our parish on some weekends.

On Saturdays, my husband does STEM classes with our boys but not every Saturday.

Lately, since I had been teaching the two older kids Filipino more, Tuesdays and Thursdays are assigned as Tagalog or Filipino days. We also cover Araling Panlipunan or Social Studies, History, and Geography during this day. We read books in Filipino and the boys have short Filipino lessons. As of this writing, even my youngest who is in Kinder knows how to read some Filipino words. I had to make an extra effort in teaching reading to my two younger children. My eldest child decoded Filipino on his own. He taught himself how to read Filipino in the same way he taught himself how to read English. That is one area where he is gifted — language.

Math and English are done Mondays, Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays. Science is integrated into English and home economics lessons a lot of times. We love to read. My kids are bookworms like me. They learn Science most of the time through reading. My kids have good retention skills or memory, particularly my eldest. Remembering facts is as natural as breathing to him. Music is done almost every day in our house but with emphasis on Mondays. My kids draw every single day, many times a day. Sometimes, they color and paint. These are mostly not scheduled but inspired.

This kind of routine or schedule works for us because I am an artist and a night owl. My kids are likely me in many ways.

Surprisingly, even with our very relaxed homeschool approach and routine, we are able to cover a lot and the kids learn and retain a lot from what we discuss. Maybe because we follow the interest-led, child-led, play-based, and literature approach aside from unschooling. I put a lot of emphasis on hands-on activities and real-life applications. And since there is repetition because of integration in daily routines, learning happens naturally and the kids have more opportunities to master what they learn. They also remember the lessons because most of the time, they are the ones who initiated these topics. I followed their lead.

We are able to enjoy this kind of schedule or routine also because we had been independent homeschoolers for many years before shifting to homeschooling with a provider that allows an open curriculum and that does not require me to submit a lot of requirements or written tests.

Therefore, your decision on whether to have a homeschool provider and which provider to choose will impact your schedule or routine. Your homeschool approach or philosophy will also be a factor in how you will structure or organize your days.

I hope that by sharing our typical homeschool day on a weekday and on a weekend, you gained some insight into how you will craft one that will work for your family as well.

If you want to learn more about homeschooling from me, I invite you to join the Homeschooling Parents Support Group PH group on Facebook.

You can also watch my recorded talk on How to Find the Time to Homeschool While Working if you think that this is something that can help you better organize your schedule. Click here.