Day in the Life: Orthodox Homeschool Mom of 4

Recently I have felt a pull to share about what our homeschooling days look like, especially as an Orthodox Christian mom. I follow a lot of homeschool accounts and I appreciate when others share theirs. But I have to be honest with you, I feel nervous about it. Truthfully, I have not felt like I had much to offer as I bumble my way through trying to homeschool 4 small children (ages 8, 6, 3 and 1). I’m still figuring it out in real time. Recently however, I have been feeling really encouraged. After a lot of trial and error with different routines, I feel like we are finally landing on something sustainable for us. I find myself * really *enjoying our days together. I go to bed thinking about the next day, and wake up excited to begin again. So my hope in sharing these glimpses is to show a few snap shots of our day (with time stamps) and give you an idea of what our morning looks like right now. Bear in mind, I have 4 kids ages 1-8. With a 1-year old, our schedule feels like its always changing, so this is what is working now.

Little context:

As I said above, my kids are ages 1, 3, 6 and 8. My 4th child was born middle of last year (summer of ‘23) and that first year post-partum, our homeschool went into minimal maintenance mode. We did math and reading/writing and everything else was just… life. There were no fancy lesson plans, no intentional crafts, and no planned art projects, no frills. And to be honest, I wasn’t loving it. It was hard to show up for my kids lessons, manage the house, and generally adjust as a family of 6. I think that had a lot to do with postpartum hormones too. None-the-less, we carried on, learning and growing, organically. When my youngest turned 1, I could feel the clouds parting and the sun shined through a little brighter. That was summertime. I spent the summer collecting materials, previewing some new curriculum, and dreaming up what would be our ideal homeschool day.

At the beginning of the new school year (Sep 24’), I resolved to begin again; a fresh start with some new curriculum that felt like a breath of fresh air. Then we hit Nativity fast, and then the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years….), and we slowed down, embraced the seasonal learning. I bought a few seasonal curriculums from Treehouse Schoolhouse we really enjoyed. Christmas day, we all got sick…. and after nearly 2 weeks of our whole house being sick and stir-crazy, I concocted a brilliant plan to revamp our homeschool schedule. Nothing makes you re-think all your life choices and rhythmns like 2 weeks of sickness. I went into the “everything is broken…. I’m ruining my kids….all systems down” mode. 0/10 don’t recommend sickness crisis, but I digress.

What happened next is I spent some time trying to focus on some priorities. You’ve got to get to the “why” behind homeschooling. Why do we do this? What is it that I can offer my kids that no one else can? What motivates ME to show up for my kid? What are our values and how is that reflected in our learning. So after some soul searching, I came up with some priorities.

A few of my priorities for our homeschool rhythm:

💕 Unhurried

☦️ Faith first

✨ Togetherness

🥰 Peace above all else

I say rhythms because sometimes we have to change course and prioritize peace before getting through our normal routine. Although we have general schedules for each day of the week, there’s a lot of flexibility built in. I’ve heard it said, homeschooling is not “school at home.” It’s more like “home learning”. I really take that to heart. Everything we do is an opportunity to learn and grow; we are always learning! There are many advantages to home education. It is tailored towards MY family, and MY kids, and OUR schedule. I don't have actually have time schedule for these things, despite the time stamps. Some days breakfast and clean up takes longer. Or the hygiene takes longer or I need a reset before I'm ready to start lessons. There's a lot of grace in here. But when I keep these things in mind, it helps me stick with my goals for our homeschool day.

8:00 am Wake Up Snacks:

This will be a separate blogpost, but for now, I wanted to share some ideas of wake up snacks. Now, I didn’t make up this term. I have seen others sharing about it online and thought it was brilliant! We’ve been doing it for 3 weeks now and it’s been a huge shift in our house. Not sure about you but my kids wake up famished! Admittedly I am not a morning person. I need a slow start to my day. I'm not quite ready to jump out of bed and get cooking. So the wake up snack is self serve.

Here is how it works: after my kids wake up, they can go downstairs and help themselves to a wake up snack! One rule, just one snack! By the end of the week we usually have a few snacks prepared for the week so they can choose what they want, They can get it out of the fridge or cookie jar and help themselves. Once I come downstairs, we cuddle together on the couch and I make sure to have lots of physical connections with each child at the start of the day. It really starts our day off well. Something about having a snack helped with the dynamic of my kids wanting me to make breakfast right away. My kids are happy, feel cared for, and it buys me a little extra time before I need to start breakfast (we do a hot home-cooked breakfast most mornings).

Here are some of our favorite recipes:

• Carrot Date Muffins (No refined Sugar)

• Frozen Peanut Butter Banana Bites

• Almond Flour Muffins (Gluten free, dairy free, no refined sugar)

• Egg and Bacon Bites

• Very Best Granola

• Lara Bar Bites

• Pumpkin Muffins (No refined sugar)

8:45 am Breakfast

We eat every meal together at the table. Togetherness is a priority, and there’s something sacred about the family table. The eye contact, funny conversations, discussing the plans for the day, practicing manors. The list goes on and on. My children usually lead us in prayer - asking the Lord to bless our food. Here is the prayer they have memorized:

“In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. O Christ our God, bless the food and drink of thy servants. The hands that have prepared it, those who are about to partake, and remember the poor and suffering throughout the world. For you are holy always now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”

9:00 am Clean Up Breakfast and Morning Chores

I firmly believe children should have their respective “jobs”. Early on in motherhood, I was heavenly influenced by Montessori philosophy that teaches that children should be treated as competent beings who are capable of learning and doing things for themselves. Even my baby (18 months old) helps unload the dishwasher. So how do you involve 4 kids in morning chores?

Each child has their “prep the table” job and a “clean the kitchen” job. These jobs do not change or rotate. This helps them take ownership of this responsibility, they get really good at it, and I dont have to keep track of who does what. All I say it “ok let’s set the table!” and they get to work. And when we are done, they have to ask to be excused after everyone is done eating. Once they have been dismissed, i remind them “Please clean up your station, and do your job!”

Here are those chores:

For setting the table:

• Set the napkin/forks on each spot

• Fill up water cups

• Set out plates or bowls

For cleaning up

• (everyone) Bring your plate/bowl/fork/spoon to the sink. Throw out napkin.

• Clear the table- put everything back in its place, dust off mats and clean up crumbs

• Sweep under the table - a small dustpan is provided. Move out the chairs and sweep up crumbs, and push in chairs

• Rinse dishes

• Unload Dishwasher

I usually take the longest to finish up cleaning up the kitchen. Wipe down counters, clean pan, put away food. After my kids are done with their chores, they move on to our homeschool table (aka dining room table) and start their morning menu.

9:15 am - Morning Menu

This is wonderful resource from Treehouse Schoolhouse called “The Morning Time Bundle”. My kids are ages 8 to 3 (that use this) and they have been doing these for well over a year and they still love them. I simple downloaded the packet and purchased a pack of menus on Amazon and slipped in the printables. Each child gets their own dry erase marker and they do these independently while I make coffee or finish cleaning up. One of my favorite features in the bundle is the page that highlights what they are going to wear for the day. This is probably their favorite part! They circle the articles of clothing they will wear last, clean off the menus and put everything back in the cabinet and head up stairs to get ready. Some of them will take their menus with them while they get dressed to remember their plan.

Originally we were getting ready for the day before the menu but they really loved doing the menu first and then getting dressed. Works for them and works for me!

9:15 - Making coffee and steamed milk

As the kids are working on their menu (above), I usually will make myself a coffee and warm milk for the kids. They each have their own espresso cup of warm milk. I personally love the ritual of making and drinking coffee, and my kids are always trying to take sips of my coffee (and with 4 of them there’s little left for me) so I resorted to making them some steamed milk. It’s been a nice comfort drink for them and very easy.

9:40 - Time to Pray

This has been a ongoing adjustment for me. We have tried just about every routine you can imagine for family prayer time. With lots of trial and error and lots of struggle, I think we landed on what brings the most peace to the house (for now). After breakfast (of course we always pray and ask God to bless our food), we clean up, work on the menu, get dressed for the day and work on our morning hygiene. That includes teeth brushing, hair brushing, and tidying up the bedroom. Once ready, we all gather downstairs to pray and begin our homeschooling day.

This time of day is within the window of 9:30-10 am. Again, going with my goals of “unhurried” we get ready without a lot of rushing about, and when we are ready to begin, we gather together. We pray the Morning Prayers from the Antiochian Archdiocese prayer book. My daughters and I will take turn saying various parts, singing when we can. It feels very much like our own little prayer service each day, and it’s one of my favorite parts of the day, despite the rambunctious little ones at our feet. Our little Church in action! This always puts my heart in the right place before we begin formal instructions.

10:00 am - Saint of the Day and Bible Story

One of my goals for my homeschooling is to have our days centered on Christ. We begin with prayer, Saint of the Day, and Bible stories. Eventually I will have this as a morning time bundle - but I am working it out in real time so that I can produce such a curriculum. If you haven’t already noticed, Christian education, specifically Orthodox Christian education and formation is my favorite thing.

Here are my favorite resources for the Saint of the Day

1. My Synaxarion: A Saint for Every Day - 12 Volume Series by Potamitis Publishing (January Pictured). We have the complete set and I would say this is an extraordinary resource to have as an Orthodox family. They have a subscription option to buy just one a month, which is a great way to build up your collection!

2. Listen to “Saint of the Day” podcast on Ancient Faith. Each episode is on average 2-3 min long.

3. Listen to the Synaxarion on Patristic Nectar App.

Children’s Bible Recommendations

These are the children’s Bibles we use and own. You can find most of them used online, and from used bookstores (and sometimes the Library)! The first one is produced by the Greek Archdiocese and is currently out of print, and the last two are Protestant based Bibles, so use your discretion! But I have found them to be useful for instruction and storytelling and are pretty accurate to the Scriptures.

• Children’s Bible Reader

• The Children’s Illustrated Bible

• The Golden Children’s Bible

10:03 - Bible Story

As of the New Year, we are reading through Genesis, story by story. Before we begin, we go over the previous reading. I ask my children to help me recap what happened in the story. Here are some leading questions. Once we they have sufficiently summarized the story, remember who the characters of the story are, and we can recall the main details, we begin our new reading. I want them to read it as one continuous story! Currently we are only reading the Old Testament, but I plan to add New Testament readings in the future to our daily routine.

10:23 - Morning Feast

After a lot of trial and error, I have found for my family that beginning the academic day connecting at the table all together brought us the most peace. My youngest is 18 months and he wants to be wherever I am. So having something for him to play with while we are at the table seems to help. Otherwise he is whining, crying and demanding my attention, which was proving to be challenging for one-on-one instruction time. So we moved those individual lessons to the afternoon and instead have the Morning Feast, as I call it!

This is similar to what others might call “Morning Basket” or circle time. We follow the Treehouse Schoolhouse Nature Study curriculum (highly recommend) which is A Charlotte Mason and Waldorf-Inspired Seasonal Nature Study for Elementary students. Here what offers in beautiful full color printables":

• Weekly Poem

• Hand Rhyme

• Folk Song

• Picture Study

• Weekly Nature Theme Booklist

• Nature Journal Prompts

• Nature Walk Suggestions

• Student sheets and display sheets

• Teacher Guide

If you are interested in trying out one of these studies, they offer a number of free curriculums online. I am not affiliated with their organization and have personally purchased every thing I use from them. I literally want everything they make because it aligns so well with my teaching style!

10:33 AM - Nature Study

This week in particular we are studying Winter Birds in our Treehouse Schoolhouse Nature Study curriculum (highly recommend) which is A Charlotte Mason and Waldorf-Inspired Seasonal Nature Study for Elementary students. Following this curriculum is really enjoyable for the whole family. After we do our poems/hymns/hand-rhyme, we select some of our library books to read aloud together before beginning our daily activity! We do this around the table, and my kids color while they listen.

11:00 - Library Trip

After we did our read-alouds, we bundled up and headed out to our local library to pick up our Library books (I reserve them ahead of time). It was particularly cold this morning (25 deg F) but thankfully our drive was only a mile away!

11:07 - Pick up books

We typically go to the Library on Mondays after music lessons since it’s around the corner, but since this particular Monday was a holiday and the library was closed, we went on a Tuesday morning. If you are not familiar with online library ordering, then I’m happy to introduce you! Check with your local county for this option as many libraries offer it! We use the booklists that our curriculum gives us and I check them out through the county - which ships in books from all over and I can pick them up each week in one place! A free offering!

My son has been to their Story Time many times and noticed people gathering there and even though he can’t talk, he made it very clear he wanted to stay for story time!

11:40 - Heading home for lunch

We headed home for lunch and baby nap time. When the baby goes down for his nap, the big kids work on their independent work. While he naps, I pull the big kids for their one-on-one lessons. Those are very challenging to do with him awake.

My Curriculum Choices:

• Morning Menu- Morning time bundle by Treehouse Schoolhouse

• Math - The Good and Beautiful

• Language Arts - The Good and Beautiful

• Reading - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

• Nature Study - Winter Study by Treehouse Schoolhouse (Includes Art)

• Geography/Social Studies - Around the World Part 1 by Beautiful Feet

• Saint Books - My Synaxarion (monthly) by Potamitis Publishing

• Bible Reading - The Children’s Illustrated Bible

• Monthly Hymn - Orthodox Liturgical Printable (Ascetic Life of Motherhood)

Independent Work (8 year old)

• Timed Math Tests (Math drills)

• Orthodox Copywork by Hrachouhi Zakaryan

• Spelling Practice - Building Spelling Skills

• Handwriting Practice by The Good and Beautiful

• Violin Practice book (to accompany private lessons) - Essential Elements

• 20 mins reading independently on chosen chapter book

Independent Work (6 year old)

• Handwriting by Good and Beautiful

• 20 mins read listening on Yoto

• Hands on math games - see my Amazon Storefront for suggestions.

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About me:

If you’re new here, my name is Khouria Destinie and I’m an Orthodox Christian, married to an Orthodox Priest, homeschool mom of 4. “Khouria” is an honorific title given to Priest Wives. I use my little space here on the web to share resources I find that may be useful to others interested in bringing the life of the Church into their homes! Living out the Ancient Faith in a modern world takes intention. I will happily walk along side you, sharing what I am learning and finding, so together we can raise up the next generation of Christians who love God with all their hearts and minds!

Ascetic Life of Motherhood Blog: My heart has always been to serve Christ, even from a young age. I’ve always been drawn to teaching, and spent nearly 10 years as a Sunday school teacher. Once my oldest was a few years old, I felt the great honor of being the one to teach her about Christ and His Church. Since there were many aspects to the Orthodox faith that were new to me, I grew in my desire to learn more about my faith along side my children, searching for whatever resources I could find to help me teach these Truths in a way that was developmentally appropriate and simple. Thus the blog was born! I was finding all of these amazing resources but I realized after talking to my friends that many of them didn’t know they existed. One thing you’ll learn about me is, I love to over share ;) I just can’t help myself! I find something good and true and want to shout it from the roof tops! I love sharing what I find with others, and it gives me great joy to see others using these resources with their children. It’s my hope and desire that all children love God. As a parent myself, I know that is a huge task, so I hope to help other parents shoulder the burden of sharing simple descriptions to help you learn about each feast, and find fun and age appropriate resources to help share the Faith with their children in a way to engage more fully.

I’m thankful you are here! And I’m sure you know, but everything I teach I am learning too. Thank you for letting me share my heart with you!

- Khouria Destinie

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