Hi everyone! I’m Mollie. I’ve been homeschooling for seven years, and I’m a mom to five great kids (ages 11, 9, 7, 4 and 8 months). It’s been about half a year since my last Day in the Life post, and our days look quite different now. We’re out of the newborn season and our oldest has started public school. So I thought I’d walk you through a typical day in this new season.
No two seasons of life are the same— we have to adjust as we go and learn to settle into a new rhythm.
Here’s a peek at a typical homeschool day for us right now, written on Monday, November 9, 2026. Mondays and Tuesdays are our big school days, because the rest of the week fills up fast. Wednesdays are co-op. On Thursdays I’m at Bible study at my church in the morning, so we do school in the afternoon. And every other Friday, we have a science/history co-op with friends.
So here’s what our Monday looked like! I’ve included lots of links to previous posts about how we spend different parts of our days (like our chore routine, how to homeschool with a baby, our curriculum choices, daily habits that make my day run smoother, afternoon quiet time tips, and how to encourage kids to be more capable).
6:00 a.m.
My alarm goes off and my first thought is gratitude– the baby and the rest of the kids made it through the night without needing me! What a difference from the newborn days! The house is quiet as I turn on the lights and start my coffee. This slow, quiet start before everyone wakes is one of my favorite parts of the day and one of my top daily habits as a stay at home mom.
6:15 a.m.
I sit down for my devotions with my hot coffee in hand. Right now I’m doing an in-depth study of Psalms with my Bible study group at church. I only get a few minutes in before I hear the baby begin to wake. She’s eight months old now, so I head in to nurse her, then sneak in a few more minutes of study while she plays on the floor beside me.
7:00 a.m.
Time to wake my oldest for public school. If you missed it, I recently wrote about our transition from homeschool to public school for her. It’s an early start, and it’s her least favorite time of the day. She is not an early bird, but she still has to get up and get ready.
7:30 a.m.
The boys gradually stumble out of bed. Every homeschool morning follows the same routine– breakfast, chores, get ready, and if there’s any time left over they can play before lessons begin. I’ve taught the kids to make their own breakfast on school mornings, as part of the daily chore rhythm we’ve built over the years. They might heat up a frozen sourdough pancake, make a pot of oatmeal, or toast a bagel and add some fruit. This makes my mornings so much easier! While they eat, I start the day’s load of laundry. Today it’s time for the four older kids since the basket is overflowing, and they’ll fold it themselves this evening.
8:00 a.m.
While the boys finish breakfast and chores, I give the baby bits of breakfast in her high chair and start to get my sourdough loaves ready to bake. I’m taking a meal to a friend tonight who’s having a baby, so having some fresh sourdough to go with the meal will be nice. I bring meals to people as often as I can, because I know how much of a blessing they are in fuller, harder seasons of life. I’m still grateful for all 27 meals that we received when my youngest was born in March!
8:30 a.m.
While the boys finish up, I make my own breakfast and putter around the kitchen. I load the dishwasher, put away last night’s dishes from the counter, tidy up, flip the laundry and get the baby dressed. This is the usual cycle of morning jobs that keep the house running!
9:00 a.m.
The baby is ready for her morning nap, which times perfectly with the beginning of our schooltime. I always try to start school by 9 so the rest of our day keeps moving. The boys start on their independent work while I finish tidying the kitchen (a never-ending job!), so that when I sit down with them, I can give them my full attention. My four-year-old comes back from a quick walk around the block with my husband, so I set him up at the kitchen table with something hands-on he can do by himself. Today he chose moon sand. I shared more ideas like this in How to Homeschool with a Baby or Toddler in Tow.
9:15 a.m.
For the next hour or so, the boys take turns doing school. One works with me while the other works on his own, and then they switch. They get through math lessons, spelling and independent reading. My four-year-old moves between puzzles and moon sand, and the baby keeps napping! Now that she takes two good naps a day, I get about an hour and a half of focused school time in the morning. That feels like such a blessing compared to last spring, when I was teaching with a baby in my arms!
I try not to multitask too much during this time. But honestly, it’s still a struggle to keep up with everything– raising kids, running a home, and all the small things that keep life moving. Right now, my main priority is giving the boys quality time for their schoolwork, so I do what I can in between without putting too much pressure on the rest.
10:30 a.m.
On to morning basket and Bible time! The boys grab a snack to eat while we gather at the kitchen table, and then we pull out our prayer and gratitude journal. This is the sweetest part of our morning basket and one habit I hope we always do together over the years! We keep working on memorizing the Lord’s Prayer, sing a hymn, read a few nursery rhymes, and talk about helping out at home from our Everyday Graces book.
By the time we wrap up, the baby is waking from her morning nap, and we continue with the rest of our lessons.
11:00 a.m.
Once the baby is up, the boys start their writing prompts. My nine-year-old picked a fun one today: Which do you prefer, Christmas break or summer break, and why? He can write complete paragraphs on his own now. My seven-year-old still needs a lot of help with grammar, so I sit with him one-on-one. Meanwhile, the baby has a snack to give me a few extra minutes without her in my arms.
11:30 a.m.
Each boy gets a quick break after writing, and then we move on to language arts. (You can read more about our curriculum choices here.) My older son uses Learning Language Arts Through Literature. My younger son is still working through All About Reading Level 1, which we started in kindergarten. I take turns working 1:1 with each of them, and whoever isn’t with me picks a story to listen to with my four-year-old on Storyline Online. Afterward, my four-year-old and the baby play together in the playroom. Now that she can sit up on her own, the older kids can keep her entertained while I finish our morning lessons.
12:00 p.m.
We finish school right at noon, just as my Aldi grocery delivery arrives at the front door. I started using grocery delivery four years ago, when taking four kids to the store for weekly shopping took two hours and felt completely overwhelming. It’s one service I’ve kept ever since. When homeschooling is my main priority during the week, it is so worth it. We unpack the groceries together, and my seven-year-old washes all the produce in the sink. In between, he helps me make lunch while his brothers jump on the trampoline.
12:30 p.m.
I call the boys in for lunch. They always like to pick a YouTube video about natural disasters to watch while they eat, and today it’s a few on tornadoes and tsunamis. Meanwhile, I mix up a double batch of chocolate granola, a staple I try to always keep on hand since my husband eats it with yogurt for lunch every day. It’s a multitasking kind of time for me in the kitchen– eating lunch between baking the granola, feeding the baby bits of hers, and putting away the rest of the groceries. Sometimes Mondays are just like this!
1:30 p.m.
Lunch is finally finished, the kitchen is clean, the floors are vacuumed, the baby is fed, and I’ve broken up a few brother squabbles. Usually this is when we’d do a history or science lesson. But our afternoon is already full with other things, so I made the decision to skip it today and head straight into quiet time, and the baby goes down for her afternoon nap.
2:00 p.m.
The boys and I start quiet time with 30 minutes of independent reading. I sit down to work on my Christmas school guide, Season of Wonder. It’s a four-week guide to celebrating Advent, full of the favorite books, crafts, baking ideas, service opportunities and Christmas school traditions we’ve collected over the past six years. It’s meant for any family that wants to celebrate Christmas school with their kids, whether they homeschool or not.
2:30 p.m.
Reading time ends and an hour of independent play begins, each boy in his own space. Afternoon quiet time is something we do every weekday that we’re home, and it gives me a short afternoon break to sit, write or catch up on anything else.
Today, my nine-year-old asked to spend his hour bagging leaves in the front yard. He started the project on Saturday, and I pay him $1 a bag. It might be easier to keep every kid in his own spot inside the house, but I try to give my kids chances to be independent and work hard, and when he’s asking to do something hard, I can’t say no. (I wrote more about this in 10 Ways to Shape Capable Kids.)
Meanwhile, I make great progress on the Christmas guide! I’m so excited to share it with you next week, so stay tuned!
3:00 p.m.
My oldest gets home from school. We chat for a few minutes, she grabs a snack, and then she joins her brothers for the rest of quiet time. She winds down with some independent reading while I finish my writing.
3:30 p.m.
Time to put together the meal for my friend! I’m making her Italian baked ziti with sausage, a Greek salad, the sourdough I baked this morning, and some fruit. I make enough so my family can have the same for dinner tonight.
4:30 p.m.
The baby and my four-year-old are up from their naps, and the meal is ready to go. I take my two girls with me for the drop-off. It’s a sweet chance for my oldest and me to chat in the car, since I don’t get to see her during the school day like I do the boys. Once again, the conversation about her dislike of public school resurfaces as we discuss what it would mean to return back to homeschool. It’s a big decision we’re continuing to seek the Lord’s direction in.
5:30 p.m.
We get home, bake our ziti, and finally sit down to dinner. Some nights dinner time is peaceful and enjoyable, and others seem chaotic as we’re trying to teach the kids to sit nicely, not talk over each other when asked a question, and eat what’s on their plate without complaining (it’s still a process we’re working on regularly!). Tonight my husband asks his evening question that we all take turns answering: How would you describe what AI is and how it works? (he works very closely with AI and builds software and programs for his job, so he knows a whole lot more about it than the kids and I do!).
Afterwards, we send the kids off to do our 10-minute tidy while my husband and I finish the kitchen.
6:30 p.m.
Some evenings after dinner we hang out with the kids, go for a walk or just play. Tonight, the basement needs attention after the kids’ weekend sleepovers. We’re also missing a CD that my son checked out from the library a few weeks ago, so it’s a good excuse to search (update: we never found it, but the basement got a very thorough cleaning!). Once we’re done, the kids finish folding their laundry from this morning.
7:30 p.m.
PJs, potty, teeth– our bedtime routine begins. The two younger boys head into the bunk room to listen to an episode of Adventures in Odyssey. All four of the older kids share this room, with double bunks, so it can get chaotic, which is why we stagger bedtimes. The older two read or draw in another room until they head back to the bedroom around 9.
8:00 p.m.
All five kids are in bed or in their evening spots, and my husband and I take this time to talk and catch up. Even though he works from home and I see him throughout the day, we still cherish this time. We read a chapter together; right now it’s Heaven by Dane Ortlund. Some nights we also watch an episode of a show, and at the moment that’s Suits.
9:30 p.m.
Before heading to bed, I do a final round of tidying, get my coffee ready for the morning, and take care of anything that will make tomorrow morning a little easier. Tomorrow is another full school day!
Final Thoughts
And that’s how our Monday went! It wasn’t a perfect day (we never found the missing library CD, I didn’t make time to exercise, and I have several messages and texts still waiting for me to respond), but it was a full and good one. Six months ago, I was pacing the floor with a newborn who couldn’t be put down for very long. This time, I taught with both hands free, baked bread for a friend, and got to catch up with my daughter in the car. Every season brings its own gifts and challenges, and I’m learning to receive both.
If you homeschool too, I’d love to hear what your days look like right now. Leave a comment below! And keep an eye on your inbox next week for a peek at Season of Wonder, our Christmas school guide!
As always, thanks so much for reading and following along! Stay tuned for the reveal of Season of Wonder: Four Weeks of Faith, Literature, and Christmas Traditions which I’ll be sharing about shortly! Until then, I hope you have a wonderful week!
We have 5 also and their ages are very similar to yours!