Our Homeschooling Schedule
2025 marked the beginning of our homeschool journey.
If someone asked me how much planning I had done ahead of time, I probably would have said, “Not that much.”
Looking back at 2024 though, I can see that I did a lot of ‘subconscious’ planning, if I can call it that. Actually, let’s just call it research.
Through pure luck, an Instagram follower recommended that I check out Charlotte Mason when I posted a story saying that we were thinking about homeschooling. She recommended a book by Cindy Rollins but, because I wasn’t ready to invest too much money into the idea yet, I didn’t buy the book right away.
Instead, I searched for Cindy Rollins on Spotify, and was incredibly lucky to find the The New Mason jar podcast almost immediately after making the decision to consider homeschooling.
I spent many, many hours binging episodes from the podcast during 2024, starting right from the beginning and making my way through the vast knowledge that Cindy and her guests share.
I was able to decide to follow a mainly Charlotte Mason homeschooling approach simply by listening to this podcast. I have bought a few books in the meantime, which I will share about in another blog post.
However, I really feel that the podcast, along with the Ambleside Online website, has given me enough knowledge to set up a homeschool schedule for us to start the year off well. I have decided to share this schedule in this blog post, perhaps as a guideline or simply some food for thought for other mamas thinking about entering the homeschool world.
If you’d like to have a full overview of our schedule, you can download a PDF version here:
Total Time Spent Homeschooling Each Day
At the moment, I have allocated three hours per day to homeschooling, Monday to Friday. I have scheduled these three hours to be from 08:00 to 11:00, including a break.
1. Morning Time
We start our days off with morning time. We live in a huge old farmouse which has allowed us to set up a room solely for homeschooling and it has a small adjacent room that we refer to as our library because all our bookshelves and books are stored there.
We hold our morning time in the library, on old rattan couches that we inherited from my great-aunt.
I have a leather organiser bag from Oak Leather where I keep all the books we need for morning time and that stays in the library.
We start with a prayer and a devotion. In 2025, we’re using a German kids’ devotional called Die Helle Strasse.
Then we sing a song or hymn.
After that, we do scripture study using Martin Luther’s Small Cathechism.
I have a leather organiser bag from Oak Leather where I keep all the books we need for morning time and that stays in the library.
We start with a prayer and a devotion. In 2025, we’re using a German kids’ devotional called Die Helle Strasse.
Then we sing a song or hymn.
After that, we do scripture study using Martin Luther’s Small Cathechism.
Next, we read a chapter of the book we’re reading at that point. I choose classics from the Year 1 Ambleside Online book list and read it aloud.
When the chapter is over, my eldest daughter does an oral narration of what we read.
After the narration, we do reading practice. My eldest daughter reads out loud to me to end our morning time session.
2. Copywork
After our morning time in the library, we move into the school room and my eldest daughter sits down at her desk to copy one page of the pages she read aloud to me into a workbook. This helps her to practice her handwriting.
3. Phonics
Next, we spend some time on phonics, spelling, etc. We are currently doing this in German only, and will add English as we progress.
We started the year by creating a collage poster for a different letter each day. On the posters, I write the letter of the day and then my daughter goes through magazines, cuts out images of items that start with that letter, and pastes them onto the page.
We stick these alphabet posters onto the wall and she has loved this activity!
4. Snack Time / Second Breakfast
Homeschooling is hard work and I realised very quickly that it is impossible to do with hangry kids.
At around 09:30, we take a break for a snack and whatever else we need, like fresh air or a little movement.
I have a digital cookbook in my online store that I created a few years back with all of my favourite recipes, which includes some of our favourite snacks. You can check it out here if you’d like to try it out!
5. Body Movement
After our snack, we do some movement exercises. I purchased Dawn Duran’s Swedish Drill ebooks and I am hoping that we can move through those as soon as I am able to read through the instructions.
6. Mathematics
Once we are ready to focus again, we sit down for some Maths. I allow my daughter to do as many activities as she wants to, which varies widely from day to day.
7. Foreign Language / English
Because we speak German as our home language, I have decided to introduce English as our foreign language for now. My children understand a little bit of English from watching television, conversing with nannies etc., but their speech is limited.
8. Various Different Extension Subjects
During the last session of our day, I have chosen a different theme / topic / subject for each day of the week.
This is what we’re doing:
Mondays: history
During this lesson, we correspond history readings with a timeline and map.
tuesdays: art
During this lesson, we do an artist / picture study
wednesdays: music
During this lesson, we do music appreciation, learning about composers, folk songs and hymns
THURSDAYS: OUTDOOR NATURE STUDY
During this lesson, we go outside for a nature study. We are currently working through the Nature Study unit from Wildkidsbooks.
HANDICRAFTS
During this lesson, we will do different handicrafts. We have started with the Sewing Study Unit, also from Wildkids Books.
