Day in the Life 2019 (with a 13, 11, 8, 6, and 3 year old)

Day in the Life 2019 large family homeschool Humility and Doxology


The Day in the Life series on Simple Homeschool is an annual delight, and I enjoyed participating for the first time last year.  Afterwards, I set a reminder on my calendar to take notes of our schedule on a particular day a few weeks ago.  I didn’t give up, even when the day turned out to be not-exactly-perfect.   But it is in those moments of lows and highs and all the ordinary in between that God continues to show us His faithfulness!

What does your day in the life look like these days? 

Day in the Life 2019 large family homeschool Humility and Doxology

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5:00 am is way too early for this achy morning, so I hit the snooze until 5:08.  Somehow this makes me feel a little better.

I quickly get on my exercise clothes and trudge groggily to the kitchen.  Nothing like pre-programmed coffee fully brewed to greet me after a painful night of disrupted sleep!

I savor my first mug of the day, fill up my water bottle, and head to the gym for a cycle class.

Some days I feel like I could keep going for hours during class, but not this morning.  Every push of the pedal feels a bit like slogging through mud.  But even though I don’t always enjoy myself *during* class, I’m always glad *after* class that I pushed through.

I head home and kiss my husband goodbye (he normally leaves around 6:30 or 6:45, but on gym mornings he waits until I get home by 7).  It’s time for another mug of coffee.

Grace (6) is awake and I greet her with a hug and a kiss.

I fry eggs for my breakfast while she unloads the dishwasher (we have a dishwasher rotation in our house, and today is her day).  She listens to The Princess and the Goblins audiobook on the echo dot (her 10th time thru, apparently; this is one of her favorites!).

More coffee for Mom.  (Don’t judge)

 

 

I take my eggs and mug upstairs to do a bit of online work before morning time, but am interrupted a few minutes later with Grace and a bleeding thumb.  A quick bandaid and hug and I’m back to work, only to be interrupted by a series of other knocks with questions like, “can we get the chicken bones out of the fridge to see if they’re soft yet?”.  (Sophia (8) and Grace are studying Human Anatomy this spring, and have been soaking bones in vinegar as their latest experiment.)

Alas, the work isn’t quite done, but I desperately need a shower.  I get clean and dressed and dash down for morning time at 8:00 am.

Morning time is one of our favorite parts of the day…usually.  We have lots of difficult parenting moments today, however, with various children.  We keep persevering by grace!

This week I’m introducing a new poem for our memory work: “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes.  I love this poem, and enjoy reading a couple picture books aloud to the children about the poet as well.  (You can see me reciting this poem here.)

After morning time, I read our current history read-aloud to Emma (11), Sophia, and Grace while Joshua (13) is hard at work on his independent assignments upstairs.  Isaac (3) plays with legos and interrupts us as often as possible.

A bit after 9:00 am the girls are scattering to do their independent work, and I come upstairs to renew our library books online.  The process takes a while because I’m interrupted with multiple math questions and 1 sibling argument.  Homeschooling multiple children in many grade levels looks a lot like pinging from person to person, assisting each of them in completion of their assignments.  Some days things run smoothly; other days everyone seems to be in crisis mode.  Today is somewhat in the middle.

10:45 am finds me heading out the door for an emergency library and grocery store run with the littles, while the older 2 work at home.

I come home from the grocery store having exercised, read aloud, and facilitated morning time. I’ve navigated sibling squabbles and math tears. I’ve even returned the library books that couldn’t be renewed online and picked up extra milk and bread and oats at the store. But when I get home and see my insanely cluttered kitchen counter, I feel like a complete failure.

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Homeschool Day in the Life with many children Humility and Doxology

I have to STOP. Reframe. Remember truth. Rest in humility, accepting my finite creaturehood. It is true: I cannot “do it all,” but Jesus has done all that is necessary on my behalf, so that I may rest as one completely beloved by God.

Low blood sugar probably doesn’t help, so I eat a snack. Repent. Pray.  Then get back to doing the next thing…pressing on by grace alone.  Looks like loading the dishwasher is first on my list!

I get the lunch food out while the girls read. We eat lunch while finishing a Ken Burns documentary about the Lewis and Clark expedition.  Documentaries or other educational tv are pretty common during lunch time around here.  Easy hack to prevent carpet spills: use a vinyl tablecloth for your indoor picnic.

homeschool Day in the Life 2019 documentaries at lunch
Here’s a picture of us watching the documentary on a different day

After lunch, I cuddle up with my 3-year-old and read aloud a new dog book from the library.  Preschool is very gentle in our home, and full of good books!

I finish putting Isaac down for his rest time while the older kids are supposedly cleaning up the kitchen from lunch (and, let’s be honest, breakfast).

When I come downstairs, however…um, nope.  Not clean.  Time to encourage/exhort everyone to finish cleaning the table/counters so we can move to something exciting!

homeschool day in the life large family humility and doxology

Now that we have finished our cleaning blast, we get to pull out the pin-it map supplies! We all enjoy an hour of hands-on history and geography fun.  We’re studying Early American History this year, and Pin-It Maps come with various map posters and flags representing important places and events.

By the end of the hour we’re starting to experience a few meltdowns, including one of my own (“we’re having FUN here, why can’t y’all get along?!”).

More repenting. Praying. Hugging.

The girls now have time to read while I teach Joshua his piano lesson.  Starting Bach’s Prelude in C this week with him feels like a huge accomplishment!  Sometimes I get super grumpy thinking how piano lessons with my children are not anything like I’d dreamed they would be.  Times like this remind me to focus on what we have accomplished, not just the ways in which we fall short.

It’s only 2:15 pm and I already feel like it’s midnight.

How much longer until bedtime?!

Time to facilitate a bit of a cleaning blast!  We fit various “blasts” into our days.  Sometimes everyone is blasting at the same time, sometimes I just assign a blast to a particular child.  I set the timer for random amounts of time (13 minutes! Go!) and we see how much we can pick up in that amount of time.

I need a bit of Mama thinking time, so I work on the PEACE journal I didn’t quite get to this morning.

The rest of the afternoon is spent with household chores, screen time, and free time.

I get some of my virtual assisting work in and comfort a crying child.

Some children watch Ninjago, some watch Dude Perfect.  At some point, Sophia and Grace ask me to get out the Kirsten doll.  This is my American Girl doll from when I was little, so I do not keep it out with our usual toys!

Finally, it’s time for dinner.  While the children eat, I read aloud from The Twenty-One Balloons.  This is a book that is keeping all ages entranced!

Homeschool Day in the Life Read Aloud

My husband has been working late a lot recently, but he prioritizes getting home in time for family devotions.  He’s home after 7pm, but we’re able to read the Bible together as a family and he puts the 2 younger children to bed.

I read a bit, then head to bed myself.

This homeschooling thing is not always fun and it certainly is not easy.  But I am so incredibly thankful for this time with my children!

Day in the Life 5 kids 2019
Our 100th Day of School celebration this year

What does a day in your life look like these days?

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14 thoughts on “Day in the Life 2019 (with a 13, 11, 8, 6, and 3 year old)”

  1. townsendhouse1

    It sounds like you have a lovely and full day. I love how you are able to take a step back, pray, and move forward with a better attitude. That is something I have been working on this year 🙂

  2. I can relate to your day so much! Even though I have only 2 kids to juggle, I struggle with feelings of self doubt. We parents may feel like we’re not doing enough, but we need to give ourselves more grace.

    Your house seems full of wonderful literature! Thanks for sharing about poetry. You’ve inspired me to make sure I do poetry memorization with my son, since I neglected it with my daughter.

    1. Yes, homeschooling…well, parenting in general…has continued to humble me and remind me to look to Jesus and not myself!

      Poetry memorization is one of our favorite things. Each week on the Humility and Doxology Facebook page I share a video for the “year of memory work” series, and include discussion questions and a free printable for you to use! 🙂

  3. Love the picture you chose with all those smiling faces gathered around mom!

    Sounds like you have a full day! I think we can all relate to having those days that seem a little crazier than others, but it looks like you’re doing a great job! Thanks for sharing your day 🙂

  4. Amy, your day sounds lovely and packed with good books. You’re doing an amazing job – I don’t know how you manage with five, I struggle with two! I also love how you stop, pray and allow a reframe for your day when you hit the trickier parts. Perfect – it’s very inspiring. x

    1. It’s all by grace for sure! 🙂 Thank you for your sweet comment. And, yes…our days are filled with good books and beautiful words and that makes me so happy. 🙂

  5. It looks like you are where I will be in a few years (currently a 9, 7, 5, 4, and 1 year old here). I totally get you on the kitchen counters – that always makes me feel like my house is so messy, and I have to get them cleaned up so I feel better. Loved reading about your day!

    1. Oh I’m so glad you came by! Yay for another Mama of 5. Press on by grace. 🙂 Yep…somehow those counters seem to always stay messy no matter how often I clean them. lol

  6. As I started reading this post, I pictured your home perfectly put together, I love that you shared the picture of your kitchen counters! Without dirty dishes, dirty laundry & dirt on the floor, no one would be living there! When we were in the process of adopting our 3 children 9 yrs ago, the caseworker came for inspections & I had everything perfect for a white glove inspection! – only to be told they didn’t know how children would fit in that atmosphere! They were actually relieved when I told them I was only doing all of that to impress the caseworker!

    1. Oh what a sweet, funny story. 🙂 Yes, how often we create artificial atmospheres of perfection to impress others, while the reality is something a bit different. But I think we’re all a bit of a mess anyway, so we feel like we fit in when things aren’t too pristine. 😉

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