As a former classroom teacher and currently a stay at home mom with five young children (Ruby-5th grade, Elliot-3rd grade, Ophelia-1st grade, Julian-Pre-K, and Jack-3 years old), I wanted to share what’s working for us as we adjust to a homeschooling schedule for the rest of the year. We live in Michigan, one of 15 states who have decided to end face to face school for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, and so we are now settling into the new normal.

I tried homeschooling all of my children a few years ago, and made the mistake of setting too high of expectations for both my children and myself. This time around, I focused on the routine before the content, and I’m happy to say that things are going really really well. Through trial and error, we figured out what worked for all of us and what didn’t, and I’m pleased to see that my children are engaged, motivated, and most importantly happy. It took an attitude adjustment from me, however, seeing as how before this, I was putting out my application and looking to go back to work, but now I am so content and so happy in my role here, I will definitely not be looking for work anytime soon.

None of us chose to be here in this quarantined and forced homeschool routine, but that doesn’t mean we have to hate it. I actually see all of this as an incredible opportunity to bond with my family and really connect with each other. If you’re struggling or feeling overwhelmed, just know we’ve all felt or are feeling that way. Things felt really overwhelming to me at first as I tried to figure out what my kids needed and balance that with what would be possible to achieve. This routine that we settled on has been my saving grace, and it really helps the day to run itself.

Setting Up a Homeschool Routine

First of all, do not stress yourself out thinking you need to create in depth lessons right out of the gate. In the beginning, the focus should be on settling into a routine that works for you and your family in a way that leaves everyone still smiling at the end of the day. Start with a few paper/pencil things, reading books, and online resources that you KNOW your child will love. For example, my son who is in 3rd grade loves Star Wars, so I got him a Star Wars workbook. My preschooler who has always been very reluctant to try anything new loves mazes, so he starts his work day tracing mazes with his finger. When the routine is new, the work needs to be easy and fun. I had to go through a ton of resources until I found ones that worked for my children, and I will share all of those resources a bit later.

Morning Routine

I’d say my favorite thing about the school cancellation has been the later start time we’ve settled into. Getting everyone off to school in the morning before 7:30 a.m. used to be the most stressful part of my day BY FAR, and now it is so pleasant. I wake up at 6:30 a.m., shower, get dressed, have coffee with my husband, and prepare breakfast. The boys are usually up around 8 a.m., and they get to pick a movie to watch while I’m opening up the house for the day and finishing breakfast preparations. Ruby sets her alarm for 7:30 a.m., showers, and reads until breakfast is ready. When I’m out of pancakes, she always helps me make more. Ophelia has always had a really difficult time both falling asleep (melatonin is currently helping with that) and getting up in the morning. On school days in the past, I would have to physically dress her and carry her downstairs just about every day. Now, I start rousing her at about 9:00 a.m. and with a few encouragements, she gets dressed and comes downstairs on her own as chipper as can be for breakfast time.

When the kids were younger, I would have a checklist for our morning routine to make sure they got dressed, made their beds, ate breakfast, and brushed their teeth. I would list each of these things and then to the right have a row with each child’s initial and a checkbox underneath. We did this for so long that they don’t need the check boxes anymore, but if you’re just starting out, I think it would be a good idea.

Breakfast 9:30

Every morning I serve pancakes, two kinds of bacon, sausage, fried eggs, and toast. While eating, the kids take turns picking YouTube videos to watch. You’ll notice on the top left corner of my whiteboard, I have the days of the week listed and their initials in a rotating schedule underneath. Once their video starts, each child uses our Google Home Mini to set a timer for five minutes, and when the timer runs out it’s the next person’s turn and so on until everyone has had a turn.

After breakfast, we turn the videos off and talk about the date, the weather, any special activities for the day (lots of Zoom meetings these days), and any other expectations. When they’re done eating, they bring their plates to the sink, brush their teeth, and move to our designated homeschool table in the other room. I really like having a separate table so that I can keep all books, materials, and supplies set up and ready to go. They each have a spot where they normally sit, and I have the work that they need to do ready to go in front of their chair before they get started. While they’re brushing their teeth, I try to clear the rest of the table and get the dishes in the dishwasher as much as I can.

Paper/Pencil and Reading Time 10:00

It’s rare for us to all sit down at the same time to do our paper/pencil activities. I usually have to stagger it so I can give one on one attention during this time. Jack, my 3 year old, is usually playing with cars when we get started, but whenever I see that he is eager to join, I say, “Are you ready for your homeschool?” and try to make the most of every teachable moment we have! Julian, my preschooler, can do about 15-20 minutes of work with my help, and then we read. He also always poops during this time (and takes a long time because we let him have his iPad – long story short…he needs the motivation), so that works out well for me to give the other kids attention.

Ruby likes to start her day with Khan Academy lessons and does her paper/pencil activities afterwards. Ophelia has Zoom chats with her teacher and classmates 3x/week, and she will do her paper/pencil activities afterwards. I set my expectations pretty low and make sure I’m only assigning what each child can handle. Ophelia likes a little more of a challenge and can work independently, so I expect her to do about 7-8 pages of work per day. Elliot struggles with writing and won’t really work done unless I’m sitting right next to him, so I only assign him about 4 pages. Usually I just tell them what pages they have to do on a daily basis, but sometimes they like me to write individual checklists on a little white board.

I try to encourage everyone to get as much pencil/paper work done as they can, and then we read. All of my kids LOVE reading and are excellent readers, so this is a really fun part of our day. I have lots of books around the house and they can read whatever they choose. In the past, I struggled to get Ophelia and Elliot to read chapter books, but with all of the extra time we’ve had at home, they are both finding many chapter books to enjoy. In the picture below, you’ll see Ruby is reading a book on her iPad.

I think the best thing you can do is to help your child develop a love of reading by first of all teaching them the skills necessary to read and then helping them to find books they enjoy reading on their own (while of course finding lots of time to read together as well). I have found that the best way to make sure children have reading comprehension is to ask them questions about the books they are reading. (“What is your book about? Why do you like it? What was the moral of the story? Can you relate to the main character? Would you read another book by the same author? Why or why not?”)

Sometimes I read to Jack and Julian together and sometimes I read to them one on one. This is always a special time where we cuddle up somewhere comfy, get under a blanket, and enjoy reading together. They both really like the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Williams, and I also have a basket full of Usborne books that are great for early readers. Of course Dr. Seuss books are a favorite too. It’s very sweet because Elliot and Ophelia will often come over and listen to the stories and will also help me read. Julian is an excellent reader, but he prefers that I read to him, and that’s just fine with me!

Educational Choice Time (Technology) 11:00

There are sooooo many excellent educational websites and apps out there which can actually be kind of overwhelming. We have been trying all of the recommendations from the kids’ teachers, the ones we have enjoyed over the years, and even some old school ones that I enjoyed when I was a kid! If you could only pick one online resource to use with your child pre-K through 2nd grade, I would say use Starfall, and if you could only pick one online resource for the upper grades, I would say Khan Academy. Try out as many sites as you’d like and then pick your favorite ones to have your kids focus on. If you have them on too many sites, you’ll lose track of what they’re doing and they won’t make as much progress as they could if you’d just stick to a few or do a few for awhile and then rotate if or when they lose interest.

• Khan Academy: I actually used Khan Academy for myself years ago when I was curious to know more about biology and chemistry, and my husband took the computer programming classes to prepare him for his computer science degree. Now, they feature math lessons for kids ages 2-18 and reading lessons from 2nd – 9th grade. What I love about Khan Academy is that they provide short, simple, and engaging videos to explain new content and then provide repeated practice and an assessment at the end of each module. If your child has an account through school, then their teacher can assign them lessons. If not, you’ll need to create a parent account, then create an account with a username and password for each child. From there, you can assign courses based on subject and grade level. The best thing about Khan Academy is that it’s completely free and there are no ads. They also have a free app for kids ages 2-7 called Khan Academy Kids designed to teach early math and literacy skills. This has been an excellent resource for my 3rd and 5th graders.
• Starfall: The Starfall website has fun, engaging, and high quality literacy and math content for Pre-K through 3rd grade, and is BY FAR my favorite online resource for all of my young children. A lot of the content is free, but I highly suggest getting a home membership for $35/year. (FYI: You can login on many devices simultaneously.) I have used this website and the many amazing Starfall apps (many of which are free) to help me teach all of my children how to read at a very young age. I usually introduce the content before the age of 2 and when they are about 3, they are able to do the activities on their own using a touch screen. The three younger ones use Starfall every day. For now, I’m letting them choose whatever they want to do, but in the future, I will probably encourage them to do certain lessons.
  

  Jack and Ophelia Playing Starfall

  

  Julian Using Starfall on a Computer

• Mario Teaches Typing: This came out in 1992, and I actually used it to learn how to type! I’ve never seen anything better, and Elliot LOVES it. There’s also a Mario Teaches Typing 2, but you need to be a bit techy to figure out how to get it on your computer.
• Prodigy: Julian, Ophelia, and Elliot LOVE prodigy! Kids enter a magical world where they choose an avatar to explore worlds and battle other online players. In order to get power for their battles, they have to answer math questions. I’m not too fond of just having random math questions with no instruction and often children will just guess the answers, but they really really love it, and so I let them play as a reward for completing their other educational choice time. The math content is for grades 1st – 8th, but my preschooler enjoys it. Ruby used to love it, but she’s in the 5th grade and she finds it too childish now. It’s free to create an account for your child, just make sure to keep the login information written and posted somewhere if you’re using a tablet because it doesn’t save. You can pay to have an upgraded account, but it’s quite expensive and not worth it in my opinion.
• MobyMax: Both my 1st and 5th graders’ teachers are having them do MobyMax. We haven’t been using it long enough for me to really have an opinion, but it seems like a good resource so far. Students first take placement tests to see where their instructional level is, then teachers assign lessons based on learning gaps. It’s free to create an account.
• Raz-Kids: This is my favorite online reading program. It’s simple, easy to use, and engaging. They have great content, and I like the comprehension questions at the end. If your child’s school has access to this site, I would definitely take advantage of it. If not, you can get a free trial, but the subscription is very expensive, like $115/yr. Get Epic is another great online reading program that your child’s school might have access to, but my opinion is that if kids are going to read, I’d rather have them read real books.

Lunch and Recess 12:00

I try to start lunch at 12:00, but sometimes if we really get into our lessons we won’t eat until 12:30 or 12:45. I try to be really consistent about starting choice time at 1:00 because the kids work really hard all morning, and if I don’t do my part to follow through, I’m sure it would make them feel like I’m not holding up my end of the bargain.

If the weather is nice, we’ll go outside for recess after lunch, and they LOVE jumping on the trampoline, but lately the weather has been HORRIBLE, and we’ve been stuck inside. During these dreary days, we’ll either do a yoga video, some shared workouts (my son Elliot loves leading the kids in jumping jacks, push ups, etc.), or play hide and seek or tag. Basically, I want them to do something to get their energy out. Also, my husband usually joins us for lunch and is able to help the kids if they have a math or computer questions which is really nice.

Choice Time 1:00

Choice time means they can do whatever they want (which is typically something with iPads, video games, or computers). Right now, Minecraft and Roblox are their favorite games because they can join each others’ worlds. They also like to do this weird thing where they watch other people playing video games while talking about it. Anyone else mystified as to how this is entertainment???

Once the kids start choice time, they are pretty independent, so I use this time to work on my projects. I work really hard from the moment I wake up until now taking care of others, so it’s really nice to be able to carve out some time for me. I spend a lot of this time cleaning, doing laundry, and preparing dinner because having a clean and tidy environment always helps me to keep my anxiety under control (that and a cup of Valarian root tea if I’m really stressed out). But if I’m really lucky and manage my time appropriately, I might be able to spend some time working in the office, reading a book, or doing some yoga. I also really enjoy putting on one of my favorite programs in the kitchen with preparing food, and that’s really fun too. Right now I’m really enjoying Outlander on Netflix, and I just finished The Tiger King which was not something I intended to watch, but couldn’t stop once I started!

Free Time (Specials) 3:00

During this time, I like to encourage activities that foster creativity and togetherness, so we’ll do art together, play music, build with Legos, play a board game, get dressed up and play imagination games, jump on the trampoline, play outside, etc. My routine oriented daughter Ophelia has requested that we incorporate the same special’s schedule she had at school during this time, so on Mondays we’ll do something with computers, Tuesdays-music, Wednesdays-art, Thursdays-PE, and Fridays-fun Fridays (watch a movie together). When we do art projects, I like to find YouTube videos to teach them a new skill or idea. Ruby and Elliot are really into this, but the others just like to draw their own ideas. I’m actually quite surprised how much my kids enjoy watching Rob Ross. He is very soothing. We also really like watching Mo Williams doodle and seeing his thought process for creating books.

During this time, I like to make being present and interacting or playing with the kids a priority. Yes, there’s always a mountain of work I could be doing, but when I fill their tanks with attention and love, they have far better attitudes and behaviors.

Harry Potter Clue is our favorite board game right now.

Dinner 5:00-6:00

My husband gets home from work a little after 4:30, and we’ll typically eat dinner between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. Afterwards, we enjoy some family time. If it’s nice outside, we’ll jump on the trampoline, play frisbee, have a fire, or work on yard projects. If it’s crummy outside, then we’ll play music together, do something creative, play a board game, and sometimes we’ll even play a Jack Box game like Drawful.

Pajamas and Choice Time 6:30

Before the kids can have their evening choice time, we all work together to make sure the house is clean. When the kids have their choice time, my husband likes to play video games with them (usually something like Zelda, Minecraft, or some Mario game), and I get a little more me time. Usually I spend this time to make sure all of their workbooks are set up for the next day, get the kitchen tidied up, make sure beds are all ready for tuck in, and if I’m lucky a little more office time. At 7:30ish, we hang out in our bedroom, watch some videos, wrestle, eat snacks, and then brush teeth and do the rest of our bedtime routine.

Summer Routine

Every summer I create a routine with my kids so that they stay productive and don’t ask for choice time all day. If you’re looking for a more relaxed routine, you may want to try a schedule like this.

My Favorite Pencil/Paper Resources

When we started our homeschool routine, the kids’ teachers gave them packets of work to do. These were an excellent resource to bridge the gap between home and school. Once they completed those packets, I set learning goals for each child based on their strengths and weaknesses and found or created resources to help them achieve those goals. I’ll share a little bit about each child, their learning goals, and the resources I’m using. Also, right now I’m keeping the instruction focused on core foundational skills of reading, writing, math, and electives, but as we progress, I want to include more science and social studies lessons. This may be something we focus on more during the summer.

I feel like often times the tendency is to teach things an inch deep and a mile wide. I’d rather my children know their basic skills really really really well so that they can use this foundation to pursue whatever they are passionate about. I think the most important gift we can give our children is to know the joy of learning and guide them to seek it independently for their own pleasure and not just for a sticker or a grade. In this section, I’ll share a mini profile for each child, their learning goals, and my favorite pencil/paper resources.

Ruby: 5th Grade, 10 Years Old

Profile and Learning Goals: Ruby reads at a 13th grade level, is a total bookworm, and loves reading more than anything. She can sometimes isolate herself in her own world of books, so we encourage her as much as possible to be part of the group. She is a self starter, very motivated, and quite independent. She’s at the age and stage of her life where she wants to do things on her own without me hovering. She can have messy handwriting and struggles with organization at times. When she learns a new concept in math and doesn’t get it right away, she gets frustrated and gives up, but Scott is very patient explaining things to her.

Pencil/Paper Activities: Ruby finished all of the writing assignments from her teacher long ago (although we’re going to the school to get more tomorrow), so I’m having her work on this cursive handwriting book and write in her journal. I let each child choose if they wanted a cursive or print handwriting book, and the three older ones chose cursive because they think it’s fun. Ruby is an excellent writer with a vivid imagination, so I let her write about whatever she wants. She is currently writing an outline for a book series she wants to write. She’s also an excellent artist and loves to doodle, paint, and she especially loves drawing characters and creating profiles for them so that is something she does during writing time too.

Elliot: 3rd Grade, 9 Years Old

Profile and Learning Goals: Elliot is very bright, reads at a 6th grade level, and loves learning about nonfiction topics. He struggles with handwriting, spelling, staying still, and completing assignments that take concentration like writing a paragraph. When he was at school, he was on medication for ADD, but now that he’s home, I just give him a cup of coffee when he needs to concentrate and it really helps. Whenever he is writing, I sit by him and have him tell me what he wants to write, I write it on a white board, and then he writes it. I know that with scaffolding and practice he’ll become more and more independent with this.

Pencil/Paper Activities: I want Elliot to become proficient at writing a single paragraph in one sitting, so each day we do something to work on this. On the first day, we only brainstormed ideas for a topic (I write down what he says), the next day we came up with a topic sentence, and today he wrote the detail sentences and conclusion. Tomorrow we’ll either revise, edit, and publish or simply start a new paragraph. Kumon makes EXCELLENT resources that teach children basic skills in progressively challenging lessons that build off from each other. Every day, I have him do 1-2 pages of his 3rd Grade Multiplication workbook, one page of his Handwriting Without Tears Cursive Handwriting workbook, and 1-2 pages of his Star Wars 3rd Grade Reading and Writing workbook. They have these Star Wars books for every grade level and subject. We recently picked up packets of work from