A Day In the Life of Our Homeschool

I get asked all the time by strangers, family, friends and our doctors what it looks like to homeschool four children when three have special needs.  Well, the truth is every day looks different, just as it does for most of us who are on this remarkable journey.  I thought I would try to record one of our days. 

7:15 am ~ Got up.  This is late for me to get up.  Tom Sawyer usually wakes me up at 6:30 and my husband rises at 6 am.

8:30 am ~ Everyone is up, dressed, fed (mini-bagels with cream cheese and applesauce), and finishing up their chores.

8:30-9:30 am ~ The little ones do their copy work (thank you notes, spelling words, plus her full name for the youngest).  They also did a math sheet, calendar skills, and phonics songs.  The big teen checked on his biology experiments and recorded the needed data.  He also checked and responded to his email (creative writing).

9:30 am ~ Off to Tomatis/OT.  The Tomatis method of auditory stimulation is designed to reawaken the ear's natural ability to listen and thus ultimately stimulate the brain's desire to communicate.  My special needs children each have a one-on-one occupational therapist while they are listening to the music and sounds coming from the headphones.  They do many activities besides what are mentioned below, and the kids really enjoy going there.  This program is helpful for autism, sensory integration dysfunction disorders, pervasive developmental disorder , and learning disabilities.  My three oldest have one or more of these labels.  We have seen dramatic improvement in two of them and some mild improvement in the third.  We are so blessed to have this program within driving distance; there are only about seven such programs in the whole country!  It is also a reality check for me.  Yes, I have plenty on my plate (my children have 19 diagnoses between them), but seeing some of the other kids reminds me that it could be so much harder.  I am very blessed to have a supportive family, loving husband, great special children, and a strong faith.  There are days when I am completely overwhelmed trying to meet their special needs, but it is all worth it.

10:00-12:00 ~ We are fortunate that all three children got appointments for this loop (which lasts 10 days, every day except Sundays) at the same time.  Yippee!!!


Photos depict: Tom Sawyer and Goldilocks playing in rice and bean buckets, shaving cream on a mirror, microphone work with Tom Sawyer repeating the sounds that come through the headset, the big teen doing swing and balance work, and Little Red Ridinghood getting to play in one of the empty OT rooms.   She sometimes feels left out of the fun and says it's hard to be the normal one!















The big teen did about an hour of creative writing while at Tomatis today, too.  I consider all of Tomatis as school, but it is great when they get the big teen to do his course work with them!


12:00 pm ~ Lunch on the way home (Goldfish crackers, cranberry juice, and organic ham sandwiches).




1:00-2:00 pm ~ We made brownies and watched a Veggie Tales DVD.  Lots of hands-on math and life skills for the little ones.  The big teen read in his room.



2:00-2:30 pm ~ The little ones played outside, while the big teen played Oregon Trail on the computer.

2:30-4:00 pm ~  Everyone in their own room doing their own thing.  I took one child out at a time to do reading lessons with the little ones and math with my big teen (we are reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad for consumer math course at the moment).  I also talked to my Mom on the phone.  The big teen also read several articles for his current affairs course.



Well that about does it for us today.  The kids are now watching "Cheaper by the Dozen" and I am off to make dinner.  Later tonight, the big teen and I will watch a biology video, and we plan on looking at some pond scum under the microscope that we collected yesterday.  That will be all for today. 

I left out the two loads of laundry, the boy who wanted to make his own fish net and all of the trial around that, tending the strawberry garden and teaching a few kiddos how to roller skate a little bit better, not to mention kissing boo boos and all those other mothering things.  Sheesh!  No wonder I am tired by 5 pm!

Blessings, Dawn