Forget the idealistic vision of what I wanted home schooling to look like, this is a Realistic Home School Routine – Winter Edition that we manage to stick to consistently with a 7 year old and 3 year old both home fulltime.
Okay let me start off by saying I don’t love the term “school” or even “home school”, but my kid went to school up until some of year 2 at our local public so that language was already part of our house and after big family discussions over what to call our learning, we all agreed that the word “school” fits and is okay.
Our dedicated “school” days are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. We focus on one subject per day so we aren’t getting over loaded. Monday is English, Tuesday is Math and Thursday is Digital. That’s it. We definitely lean more towards the un-schooling method, however we wanted Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Skills to be our core focus for the kids. Everything else we are comfortable with them learning organically.
I’ve tried a few different methods since starting to home school my 7 year old son since March of 2024. I am in no way claiming to be any sort of expert – but I am a pretty good over thinker and I struggle sticking to basically anything… except this!
Weekly Routine
Monday is English study for us. Mr 7 will do a Reading Eggs online lesson, a Reading Eggs worksheet and some handwriting practice.
I like to keep Monday as a home day and it’s usually when I do my deep clean for the week once the schooling is out of the way. The kids are usually tired from the weekend and just want to play at home with each other.
Tuesday is Math study. Mr 7 does a Math Seed Lesson, a Math Seed worksheet and I usually try to sneak in some fun math learning like cooking, building, a board game or even just simple math equations when we collect the quail eggs.
Again Tuesdays are a home day and as the house is clean from Monday, this is my chance to chill a little or work on some projects.
Wednesday I do some casual work around the area so the kids go to Glamnan School. Glamnan is what they call my MIL and we started calling it this when Mr 7 was at public school and Miss 3 was wanting some school of her own. The name has stuck and the kids look forward to this day all week.
Glamnan gets lots of art and craft activities ready for the kids and they spend hours and hours playing outside, driving golf buggies, climbing trees, gardening, playing in the trampoline or swings or the giant sandpit. Glamnan and Pop live on our property so it’s cool for the kids to explore a different part of our land and is technically still a home day.
I’m so thankful to my Glamnan and Pop for embracing Mr 7 being with them since home schooling. It felt like such a big deal that I didn’t even ask. I was going to arrange another option for him, but Glamnan offered and it’s so much fun that Pop stopped scheduling his work for Wednesday so he could play with the kids too!
Thursday were our playgroup day but we’re looking at changing that so we can get another dedicated school day. For us – if we don’t do school in the morning, it doesn’t get done.
I also use Thursday as a chance to get the house in order one last time before the weekend hits.
Soccer Training is on a Thursday so Hubby finishes work early, we load the car with all the balls and equipment as we’re somehow coach and manager and we head into town (30 mins away) for an hour of training.
We come home tired, cold and hungry and so I try to have dinner sorted before we leave with something that get get thrown in the oven or is already in the slow cooker.
Fridays Hubby has off however, every second Friday he does a working bee day with his mate. They alternate between each other’s properties so they can work through the never ending list of jobs when you have acreage and kids.
We don’t do any formal school on Friday. It’s too tricky. The kids and I will hang with friends or family or stay home. Sometimes we go off on an adventure, sometimes not. Friday is a wild card for us.
If Hubby is home, this is usually our family adventure time where we go explore somewhere or end up on some crazy mission with the trailer attached. Sometimes I take this chance to have a day out by myself.
Saturday is soccer game day. We leave home at 9am and are usually home by 12 unless we run some errands in town after.
When we get home, we will usually do yard maintenance – mowing, whipper snipping, garden projects or building and renovation projects. There’s a never ending list of things to do when Hubby and I are together and the kids are a little worn out.
Sunday we really try to make a rest day. In the afternoon though, that’s when we reset for the week. I tidy the house (just for something different) and I sit down and prepare our school work for the week, printing off anything we need, scheduling any topics I want to cover, and re-filling the kids Morning Books.
Hubby will stack the firewood pile, collect kindling, empty the bins, change the duck water all those little jobs that need doing and really help our week flow better.
Daily Routine
Mornings
I’m a big fan of starting the day slow. The kids wake whenever they’re ready which at the moment being winter is any time between 7am and 8am.
Usually Mr 7 jumps on his tablet if he’s awake before Miss 3 and I, and once he hears me stirring, he comes in for cuddles.
I make my coffee first up and the kids know they’re not getting much out of me before that kettle whistle has blown.
We do breakfast which at the moment is hot. Home raised quail eggs on home baked toast is a favourite but we also do porridge with maple syrup or sometimes pancakes with all the toppings and occasionally chocolate chip cookies. I bake everything at home and swap out the sugar so I never feel guilty for letting the kids start their day with what feels like a treat.
Then the kids brush their teeth, do their hair and get dressed for the day. Although these days our pyjamas days are becoming more frequent.
I tidy up the kitchen, make the beds, sweep the floors, get myself ready, put more logs on the fire and get that second coffee for the day going.
I always, always put on some ambient music to listen to. YouTube has SO many amazing ones but at the moment we’re loving medieval, witchy, cottage kind of vibes. I’ve also worked out that I can change the kids behaviour and play by changing the music which is pretty cool. For school time, we mostly listen to classical music. Dunno why or how we got onto that but it really works for us.
Some times we feed the chooks before starting. Most of the time we forget.
School Time
The first thing I implemented for us were “Morning Books” which were supposed to get my kids working independently but my kids don’t want to do things on their own – and that’s totally cool with this Mumma with some possible attachment issues.
So our Morning Books are still called that but they’ve kind of morphed to become the only formal learning books we use.
For a while there, I was trying to sit both kids down at the kitchen table and work through their morning books with them both… at the same time… With me sitting between them… What chaos that was. Now, the kids are in separate rooms and can’t even hear each other. It’s safer that way.
I start with Mr 7 because right now, any home schooling that Miss 3 is doing is just for fun and because she wants to be included.
While Mr 7 tidies up his room and makes his bed, I get Miss 3 set up on the laptop. She plays some Sesame Street games with her head phones on. I chose the laptop because I want my kids to know how to use a computer – not just a tablet or phone and this is really helping her learn how to navigate and use a mouse.
Once she’s sorted, Mr 7 and I sit down at the desk in his bedroom and we work through his daily section in his morning book.
Here’s what our Morning Book covers each day for Mr 7:
Daily: Days of The Week; Months of The Year; Multiplication Table (changes); Sight Words; Weekly Reader Book
Monday: Handwriting practice; Reading Eggs printed worksheet
Tuesday: Math Drill (handwritten by me); Math Seed printed worksheet
I’ll do a deeper look into our Morning Books and how I manage our resources at some point.
This takes us no longer than an hour. We should be able to get through it a lot quicker but Mr 7 likes to drag it out and I have a really, really big coffee cup so we’re good with this.
Then we swap.
Mr 7 gets on the laptop to do a Reading Eggs or Math Seed online lesson (depending on the day).
While Mr 7 does that, Miss 3 and I work through her Morning Book and read books together. This usually takes us 10 minutes and then both kids are done and ready to go play.
Outside Play or Errands
After doing our school work, we love getting outside. I usually send the kids out to play while I straighten up then I meet them outside to water the vegetable garden, say hi to the horses, sheep, ducks, quails and chickens.
Sometimes it’s cold and we’re back inside pretty quick. Other times we spend a couple of hours outside. The kids play while I potter around, I honestly can’t tell you what we do during our outside time but I can tell you that we rarely have shoes on and we rarely come back inside grumpy.
Sometimes we will head into town after doing our school work. We really try to have Monday and Tuesday as our dedicated home days – but sometimes we want to grab something for a project, hit the library or just go for a drive and a stroll around somewhere. The joy of home schooling is that we can go with whatever flow takes our fancy.
Lunch Time
One of my favourite things about schooling my kids at home is being able to give them a decent lunch that doesn’t go to waste. The kids are loving platters at the moment with an assortment of fruits, nuts, seeds crackers and home baking.
We sit together at the kitchen table and chat and nibble.
Quiet Time
Then we have our favourite time of the day – quiet time. This is when the kids can watch something on their beds, play together quietly, watch a movie, do some painting, drawing, colouring, basically from lunch until about 2pm is a free flow of whatever we each want to do.
Sometimes I will play in the kitchen baking, cooking or preserving. Sometimes I pull out my sewing machine and sit at the kitchen table. Sometimes I go into the shed to build something. Sometimes the kids join me, sometimes they don’t. But I think it’s good for our kids to see us following our own passions and hobbies.
Afternoons
Hubby is home by about 3pm most days and I know it sounds terribly “old fashioned” but I really do like to have the house clean and tidy before he gets home. On a good day, I have the dishes done, kitchen clean, bathroom wiped down, laundry sorted and the floor vacuumed with all the daily clutter put away.
When he gets home it’s another big outside play time while he waters all the gardens and tends to the animals. The kids love playing out there while their Dad is running around and I love having a chance to rest and recharge before launching into the night time routine.
In the warmer weather, I join Hubby to help water because everything needs a lot more of a soaking so it takes a while. In winter I use this time to get the fire roaring, put laundry away from the day and get dinner started. Sometimes I’ll watch a little episode of something with a coffee and do some knitting.
Night Time
Our night time routine is pretty standard.
Once everyone’s inside, Hubby has his shower then runs a bath for the kids while I do dinner. The kids then play our watch something until dinner is ready at 6pm.
After dinner Hubby does the dishes, I tidy up the house (again) and the kids are either playing together or watching something. We really like to limit the pre-bed time screen usage but sometimes the temptation of getting to have a conversation with my husband is too strong. I’ve noticed that if the kids get too much screen time at night, then when it’s bed time and lights out – they really struggle to prepare for bed and then want time to connect and have their cup filled by me.
Lately we’ve been laying in the big bed and watching something calm together. ABC iView has a few really great books that have been made into animations and because there’s minimal dialogue, it really helps the kids calm down before sleep.
Other times, the kids are in their bed and we play sleepy music for them to listen to.
All of that to say we don’t really have a strict bed time routine and for now, we’re okay with this.
Hopefully you’ve found something here that you can take and implement for yourself. I know I draw a lot of inspiration from reading how others manage their days and weeks.
Let me know below if you want more of this or if you have any other ideas I could try to schedule our days and weeks in these colder seasons.
