Cyberschooling: A Day in the Life of a Cyberschooling Family

I have been told it would be interesting to know how days go with cyberschooling. I think "boring" is a better word for us at this point, but I'll give it a go.

6:30 am: I get up. If I'm lucky, I can get in an hour or so of quiet (Blessed Quiet!). My husband wakes up at various times, depending on what he's doing that day, and when he does, I get him breakfast.

7:30-8:30 am: The kids start waking up and thumping down the stairs looking hungry. This is much later than they had been waking up, but since the institution of Reading Hour their bedtime is later, so I let them sleep in. (Never fear, Concerned Individuals. We know that "In Real Life" some people must get up very early. My husband spent 4 years starting his days at 3:30 am, and I woke up with him, so we have lived this reality. When we need to get up early, we are perfectly capable of it. And the children know how to use an alarm clock. In the subject of Waking Up, they are proficient.)

9:00 am: Oldest Son begins his Language Arts class. All his classes are online, and require him to be present and signed in on the computer at specific times. Language Arts includes reading, grammar, spelling, and various other stuff related to using the English language.
While he is in class, the two little boys play, and I get morning chores done, occasionally pulling one of those two out to help me. I also usually chug several large mugs of tea through this part of the morning. If I don't have a lot to do, I will go and read a pile of books to the littler boys.

10:30 am: Oldest Son finishes LA class and gets a 25 minute break. He is permitted to play or read, but if he knows he's going to have a huge load of homework, he will sometimes choose to get that out of the way so he will have more freedom in the afternoon.

Usually around this time I will get Middle Son set up with some schoolwork, either reading or math that he can do independently.

11:00 am: Oldest Son signs into math class. I set Youngest Son up with "computer school" so that I can have some uninterrupted time teaching Middle Son. He is in 1st grade, and it's easy enough that most of the work can easily be completed in this hour. Math has been a no-brainer for him all the way through. His reading has picked up a great deal in the last couple of months. The only thing that really takes a lot of time and effort is writing. Sometimes I will work ahead with him on other stuff, and save one school day to focus entirely on writing, as it is exhausting and frustrating for both of us at times.

Noon: The kids are out of class, they play, and I fix lunch. We eat together and then I send the two younger ones upstairs. Middle Son reads--he can pick anything he likes, but it is reading time. They both listen to a story on CD, of their choosing.

1:00 pm: Oldest Son signs into his Science/Social Studies class. I often use this time to get paperwork or correspondence done. Occasionally have to run interferance with the littler boys, as Youngest Son is frankly a nuisance to his brothers sometimes. Once in a while his insistance that Middle Son read Garfield to him will turn into a fistfight and I have to seperate them.

2:oo pm: Oldest Son is officially done with classes. Afternoons are kind of up in the air. Sometimes he has lots of homework and spends several hours on it. Other times he's as free as a bird. Some afternoons Middle Son needs to do some extra schoolwork, if he was difficult in the morning or if it just took longer than normal. We have "homeschool gym" on Tuesdays. Other afternoons we might run errands. In nice weather the kids spend many hours outside. Other times they take turns playing computer games. Other times they just run around and drive me up the blinking wall. Afternoons are also the time that we can use for projects or experiments. Sometimes we'll cook something together, or I'll pull one of the boys into the kitchen to work with me on a dish that I know he will particularly enjoy helping with. If we got Bill Nye The Science Guy videos from the library (Another of Middle Son's obsessions), late afternoons are usually when the kids will watch them.

Sometime between 6:00 and 7:30 pm, we pull together and have supper. Afterwards, the older two boys are on dish duty (Thank you, dear husband, for making that happen!). When they are finished, they go upstairs to read. While they are reading, I make sure each one gets pajama-ed and tooth-brushed.

9:00 pm: We put the books away, and gather to pray together. Even if my husband misses supper because of work, we can still get together and end the day as a family in a very sweet way.

9:30 pm: Lights should be out by this point. The boys get a story on CD, but most of them are snoring by about halfway through.

In the summer, and next year, our schedule will be different. I detest the inflexibility of schedule that the online classes created. We will maintain a reasonable routine next year, but I will be able to pick our schedule with Oldest Son back in "paper school". He will still use the curriculum provided by the cyberschool, and be tested by them, etc. But if we want to take a morning field trip, or there is something important that needs to be done first thing in the morning, or if we want to take advantage of gorgeous weather and have gym at the park, we will have more freedom to do those things.

So that's our day, in all it's glory.