Photo: DCI
Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan: What’s your daily schedule like on school days?
7 a.m.: Wake up, everyone!
We’re not early birds. We tend to be more of a night-owl family so we aim to get up by 7 a.m. Everybody wakes up, gets dressed, makes their beds, and gives their rooms a quick clean up.
8 a.m.: Breakfast and chores
We have breakfast and then some quiet time around the table. We might do the proverb of the day, depending on if we’re all at the table together at the same time. It depends on the responsibilities that some of the children have going on. After that, we’ll do a quick tidy of the house. It’s not when we do our big stuff like scrub the toilets and mop the floor, it’s just a fast clean to empty the trash, gather the laundry, and clean the areas that they kids are responsible for.
9 a.m.: School starts
We usually start the day with math, English, and spelling, and maybe a little music practice.
Noon: Lunch break
Jinger is my lunch lady right now, so around 11:30 a.m. she’ll start preparing lunch. At noon we eat and then we have a little bit of time around the table where we do "memory lane" (memory exercises) and we memorize scripture and hymns. This is one of my favorite times of the day; scripture is so important to my family.
We’ll do that for 30 to 45 minutes and sometimes I’ll read a little chunk of a book to my kids. We are still in that old-fashioned mode of reading books! I always tell my kids to pick up a book. That book could be their best friend and they can really learn a lot from reading.
1 p.m.: Back to school
After "memory lane" we’ll do book work, which is our science, history, law, and medicine resources. A lot of times we’re all studying the same information -- just reading it together, so we’re all on the same page. Then the kids break and do resources for each grade level. It's called "the bus stop method," where my little ones get off a little sooner and the bigger ones keep working. They’ll go to their separate desk areas where they can work on their projects individually.
After that, they finish their music practice. If they haven’t finished all their math, English, and spelling, they’ll go back and work on that, too. Typically, it's free time for them after they’re done with all their schoolwork and music practice.
5 p.m.: Dinner and family time
Jessa is my dinner lady now and she has her team of little helpers in there helping her get dinner ready. After dinner, we have family time. We’ll do work projects together and then we go outside to play volleyball or kickball. You name it -- we do all kinds of outside activities! Even in the winter the kids are outside with their gloves and their noses are pink, but they love outside time all year round.
8 p.m.: Baths, snacks, and prayers
Bible time is at 8:30 p.m. so we all have a snack and then get ready for bed first. We’ll meet in the boys’ room or down in the living room for time with dad. We read the scriptures and talk about what we’re reading. Then we all pray together and say goodnight. The younger ones go to their beds, but my older ones will usually come to our room and talk more until midnight or so. It just depends on what’s in their hearts or what they need to talk about. Then we go to bed and get up the next morning and start all over again!
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