Our "Half" Homeschooling Days

I am unusual among the homeschool parents I know because I work full-time. Many people ask me how this is going to work, how I will have time to do both things, and I do have to admit that it is hard.

We have a few types of days in our lives, and I recently posted about our "Full" homeschool days. There are two full-homeschool days a week here, and then there are three half-homeschool days. Today was a fairly typical half-day for us:

7am: I wake up and do my yoga practice, then check email and do some other online business

8am: I get the kids up, and they ate cereal for breakfast. Then the kids dug into their school baskets (baskets I set out the night before with the morning's school supplies in them) with Hypatia sorting colored beads and Carbon doing vision therapy and practicing his piano. I read a counting book to Hypatia, did a set of review questions from SOTW with Carbon, and then I was reading a non-fiction science book to Carbon.

9:00 - Carbon and I bumped and coffee got spilled on our library book. So we had to dry off the book and leave it open to finish drying. The kids quickly got dressed and packed the toys they would take to the nanny's house. I packed my lunch and their "homework".

9:20 - We left the house, and listened to a CD about Bach as we drove to their nanny's house.

9:45 - I left them with their nanny and headed to work.

10:00 - I started my office hours at work.

While the kids were at the nanny's house, they went shopping with her and went on a nature hike in the woods. They also did the homework that I send along, which today were three workbook pages (math-u-see, primary phonics, and 1st grade sight words) and a Bob book to read.

4:00 - I left work and picked up the kids. They weren't ready to leave, so it took awhile and I visited and chatted with my nanny. We finished our CD about Bach as we drove.

5:00 - We got to a Whittle Wood Shop place in town where Carbon has been making a wooden box. Carbon finished the woodwork part for his box, including drawing a shape for a handle and cutting it out. Hypatia and I hung out in the shop while Carbon was busy at work.

6:15 - Crazy run around time! We grabbed our bakery share, went home for a change of clothes for Carbon and a water bottle. Then we turned around and got back in the car and went through a fastfood drive thru.

6:45pm - We got to the gym for Carbon's gymnastics class (and Hypatia dumped a whole large soda onto my carseat). Carbon had his gymnastics class, and I had to clean my car seat with Carbon's blankie - the only thing I could find in the car that would absorb the liquid.

7:30pm - Carbon is done. I spread my raincoat over the carseat, but even then it was a wet-bottomed drive home.

8:00pm - I put Hypatia to bed, read her a story, and called her dad on the phone so he could say goodnight to the kids.

8:30pm - I read a chapter of Carbon's read-aloud book to him and then he went to bed.

9:00 - I spent some time working on Carbon's Christmas gift and blogging, then I go to bed.

It can be crazy, but "school" type stuff does happen even on days I have to work. It works for us - although I am one tired Mom a lot of the time!