Here is what a typical day looks like for our unschooling family. Currently, I "unschool" our kids ages 6, 4, and 2. The 6 year old does the most "formal" activities, if you could even use such a strong word :) The other two kids mostly play all day long but often want to be involved in our formal learning times. So here is our winter unschooling kindergarten routine:
7-9:30- The kids are usually all awake by 6:30 or 7:00 AM. They spend this time getting ready, eating breakfast and playing. Sometimes they will read, but most of the time they have tons of energy and they are engaged in some pretty animated play. My husband makes breakfast and manages the kids during this time. I work and go for a run.
9:30-1:30- My husband leaves for work and this when our outside time starts. Usually we will go for a walk, hike, or to some other natural area to play. Today we went to a local nature park that is quite big and the kids and I walked around for a few hours on the gorgeous trails.
1:30-3:30- We usually head back home and my youngest goes for a nap. My two older boys will listen to audio books and engage in "free and quiet play" during this time. After the little one falls asleep, I sneak out to my office and work. I mentioned this my vlog, but we listen to an app called Epic and sometimes Audible. Watch the vlog for more information on our audio-books.
3:30-4:30- "School time" LOL! We do math, reading and writing during this time. Everyone joins in and it's nice to gather around the kitchen doing work! We do use Singapore Math for math. In terms of reading, we use no curriculum. I'll do a full post on how I taught my 6 year old to read without using a curriculum.
4:30-6:30- Independent project time. This is usually when I help the kids get the materials they need or the information they want for their own projects. My two older sons are really into airplanes and space rockets, so usually I'm helping them request material through our library, showing them educational clips on you tube or the internet, or reading to them. This is the time when they usually decide to sit down and work on art as well.
They use the kitchen able as an unofficial makers space. It's so adorable to see them dream up ideas and work feverishly to make them happen. On this particular day my 6 year old was creating a "space sequence" (I think his intention was a comic strip, but he's never read a comic so he didn't have the correct words!) and my 4 year old was crafting paper airplanes.
About 3-4 times per week, the kids will usually end up taking their activities to the backyard as well, which gives me some time to breath and make dinner in PEACE!
6:30- I start dinner around 5:45 PM, sometimes the kids will help me , sometimes they will be busy drawing, playing, or working on some other project.
6:30-8:00- Dinner, clean up, reading, bath and bed!
