Our School Day with ACE

Our day starts at 6:30 a.m. when my husband awakens us, but we don't usually arise until 6:45 a.m. This is followed by devotions using Our Daily Bread, which we receive by mail each quarter. I like the way that this devotional makes things easier to relate to everyday things, and we have been using it for over twelve years now.

A hearty breakfast follows, and then the children wash the dishes, feed the chickens, replenish the dry food and water for the cats, and dust the coffee table and piano - one of the joys of living on a dirt road, but I wouldn't swap living here for the world, and I definitely wouldn't want the road bitumised.

School begins here at 8:15, and we begin by singing our hymn for the month, which at the moment is Hark! Tis the Watchman's Cry. This is followed by our family prayer time and then our Scripture read aloud, and for the month of August this is 1 Thessalonians 5: 8-15.

After this, our PACE work begins, and this continues throughout the day, with a break for recess from 11:00 until 11:30, during which time I usually watch the Channel 10 news, and have a cup of Milo with my husband - he has coffee. The children have something to eat and drink, and then do whatever they want, within reason, for the remainder of recess.

PACE work continues until lunch time, and usually afterwards as well. In the afternoons we have Computer studies on Monday, Rosetta Stone German on Tuesdays, Music (LEM) on Wednesdays, Rosetta Stone German on Thursdays and we have Home Economics on Fridays.

Thursdays are a little different, as we have housework first thing in the morning, and our children dust, tidy and vacuum their own bedrooms. My son also cleans the cellar room and loft/guest bedroom, outside toilet, and on Thursday night cleans the shower. My daughter cleans the sunroom/spare guest bedroom, our bedroom and the bath. This way of dividing up the housework works well in this home. My husband and I manage what is left between us, but invariably he does the lion's share of the housework.I think that it is just as important to teach skills that will be useful to our children throughout life, as it is to teach the "3 R's".

Our school week usually runs smoothly, and we have a set timetable for each day. It's what works well for us, as we, in this family, like to know what we are doing from time to time, but we need to be careful to allow God time to work in our days, and not to become so consumed with the busyness of life that we don't leave any time for Him.

Our goal in homeschooling is to allow our children to develop a close relationship with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and to give them the very best start in life to enable them to
reach their full potential in life for Christ.

I think that it's amazing how diversified the Australian homeschooling community is, with the different curricula that is available, and yet, there is no right or wrong way to educate - Unschooling (natural learning), Discipleship approach, School at Home, Classical Approach, Charlotte Mason, Computer Based, Eclectic, Unit-Study, School of Distance Education, Literature Based and the Notebooking Method. Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but is rather to illustrate the diversity in the Australian homeschooling community. I find it incredible that we all use different methodology to achieve the same outcome, and best of all, it works!

What does your school day look like - care to share? What curriculum, if any, are you using, and what do you like or dislike about it? What are the things that are most important to you in your homeschooling journey, and to God?