Year 2 Schedule

In January had the opportunity to chat with Amanda Faus, the author of The Children’s Tradition, the curriculum we use in our homeschool. After talking with her, I felt like it was way harder than I expected to pinpoint our school days and what they look like since we’ve woven our school into a way of life rhythms. It’s all intertwined, and hard to distinguish where school begins and ends… because it doesn’t!

Our entire days are school days. And before I really understood my educational philosophy and my why in such a way, I’d of never guessed how lifegiving our days could feel. Maybe one day I’ll do a video chatting about it in detail, but for now, here’s a bullet point day in our life. I feel like I’m probably forgetting things, but for the most part, our school days coexist with our rhythms and it’s just “who we are as a family.”

• I start the morning having the composer of the term playing over a loud speaker we have it just causally filling our home and a soothing way to wake up in the mornings!

• I let it play while I’m cooking breakfast and the kids are just gently waking up one by one.

• Over breakfast since I’ve got a one year old in tow, it’s a good place where his mouth and hands are busy and I can get some readings in.

• We start with a term prayer (so far we’ve just picked one per term to open with, I just jotted down A Prayer of Saint Benedict and we read it before the book stacks begin)

• We dive into our “Benediction Time” morning time over breakfast, it’s essentially where we read a Bible story, do our scripture recitation, poetry book and recitation, a daily Aesop Fable, read a saint story, do a little something from our manners book, and if we are lucky read a few pages of The Parents Assistant.

• By then I’ve maxed out breakfast attention and dismiss the kids to tidy/play/I get breakfast cleaned up and make a coffee if mine has been neglected and cold (most often).

• We meet again for our school morning. We have two days a week where we have obligations, one is an online Latin class and the other is an in person Bible study, but most mornings we are home (even if it’s the weekend and not a “school day” we tend to gather either on the couch fireside or on a picnic blanket outside if it’s pretty for a stack of stories. This is where we do a big chunk of school stories like myths, geography, Latin practice when I remember, history style readings, things like that. I’ll ask for a narration after a scheduled read either about what we just read about, or easing into a different book, an easy way to get a narration is asking where we left off last time. It just naturally becomes a retelling/paraphrase of what we’ve already covered, win/win!

• We usually break for someone’s needs, whether it’s a diaper change or nap-time, or just a switching of laundry and let wiggles out.

• While I meet needs of the younger ones, I have a copywork practice book, or if it’s a naptime need for my youngest I usually let the two older ones do an art class from Brighter Day Press or we have some watercolor books they piddle with.

• After this, we do a math lesson and our books are both oral based, so not a lot of moving parts. I read the book and grab some buttons or rocks if we are outside and needing manipulatives for the day.

• After math we usually are maxed out to have lunch so again, we pause. Time for kitchen duty… again. Another natural rhythm of the day.

• We have lunch, usually if it’s pretty, outside, and then play for a while outdoors.

• If there are things we didn’t get to that I want to get to, we do a tea time style snack time around 2/3pm and will go over things like artist or composer study or Shakespeare or Burgess Books, nature study aspects.

• While we are outside most of our days, we go on nature walks along our driveway or camping wherever we are and if we find things we may be curious about, jot them in a nature journal or go inside and pull out the Handbook of Nature Study book to look up our questions.

• After we come in from a few hours outside, it’s time for cooking dinner and as we clean up we’ve started adding in folk songs to spur our cleaning up and the baby loves dancing so it buys me one more chance to tidy up somewhat before bedtime.

• Weather permitting I keep blankets by the back door and we will star gaze and read some stories from our star books and try and spot some new constellations. Not every night is spent a longtime out in the yard, some nights it’s 10 minutes before we bop back inside, some nights is hours… especially camping nights.

• I probably spend an hour before tucking the little ones into bed reading books, it’s just what our bedtime routine has evolved into. We do earlier dinners and by 7pm if we aren’t reading yet I’m threatening the book pile.

• I let each kid pick at least one book to read and there’s always “one more chapter” of a bedtime chapter book read aloud… usually that means we read 3-4+ picture books and then a chapter or two to end our nights.

• *note: this is when my kids start asking for a snack. We allow a bedtime banana during stories so it makes the argument of “I’m hungry” or “I need a drink” etc a little less when nobody is overly excited about said “bedtime banana.”

• Then it’s bedtime break for bathroom needs and bedtime blessings for each little one, and off to sleep! Most often me quoting “to bed, to bed, sleepyhead” and the bigs saying “let’s stay a while says slow” and it’s lovely and wonderful and I’m forever thankful for this season of life, even with it full and demanding, it’s more than I could have ever asked for.

• After kids are nestled into their beds, I usually pick up my computer for work. I may try here or there to sneak in some work during our days but I try my best to be off any sort of device around the kids and be fully present, a juggle and struggle often, but I know it’s just a short season of balance in this way.

• We’ve truly made our rhythms of school a way of life. We never “do school” and “do life” it’s woven together, intertwined effortlessly throughout the days.

Anyhoo, just thought I’d jot down quickly our days for anyone curious on what it actually looks like! Lots of time soaking in outside, sprinkling in truth, goodness and beauty amongst the daily tasks of life.