Meet Maritza, She’s a Full-Time Working and Homeschooling Mama to three little blessings ages 7, 5, and 4.  Find out how she plans her homeschooling days around a full working schedule, her approach and curricula.

Our full-time working and homeschooling lifestyle

Tell us about you and your Full-Time Working and Homeschooling family.

By husband and I are full-time working and homeschooling. We work in the health care field. My husband does Physical Therapy working as the Rehab Assistant Director at a nursing home, working day shift hours, and I’m a Medical Laboratory Scientist working as a Generalist at a Hospital Laboratory working night shift hours. We live near New Orleans in Louisiana, and we balance our lives with the home education of our three little blessings ages 7, 5, and 4.

How long have you been homeschooling?

By God’s grace, 4 years. In the fall we will be entering our fifth year (boy…time sure flies by!)

Tell us briefly about your homeschooling approach.

We consider ourselves eclectic, leaning towards a combination of Classical and Charlotte Mason.

Year around homeschooling or traditional calendar homeschooling?

Year around homeschooling. It helps us that way to schedule vacations in a more relaxed way, and we know that if we need a day or two off we can take it. It relieves so much pressure since we both work full time!

Tell us about your homeschooling routine. 

We don’t wake up too early. My kids are up by 9:00 am (10:00 am when I work the night before). We do devotional and Bible during breakfast and a read aloud after that. We get writing and spelling done, and then we do one or two of the loop schedule subjects: History, Science, Art. Then they get to do some activity of their choice: drawing, painting, building, playing outside.

After we do our school, we have lunch, do chores, and errands if needed. At about 3:30 pm, my husband teaches them math and piano. If I work that night, I sleep while my hubby teaches them and then they do “gym” with him.

During the Spring and Fall, we participate on Co-Ops giving us the opportunity to participate in several organized field trips, and P.E through our Homeschool Association.

Complete the sentence: Our homeschooling happens mostly at…

Our kitchen area. We made our “school area” in the place where a breakfast table would normally go.

What have you picked for your curriculum next year?

It is still in the works, but so far we have:

Grade 3:

  • Singapore Math Level 3A/3B
  • A Reason for Handwriting Transition
  • Punctuation Made Easy
  • All About Spelling Level 2
  • Geography, History, Literature: Veritas Press’ Ancient Egypt Resources
  • Science- Part Veritas Press, part Usborne Books, and Sonlight.
  • Art: Chalk Pastels by HodgePodge

Grade 1:

  • Singapore Math 2A/2B
  • A Reason for Handwriting Manuscript A
  • Grammar Galaxy
  • All About Spelling Level 1
  • Geography, History, Literature: Veritas Press’ Ancient Egypt Resources
  • Science: Part Veritas Press, Part Usborne Books and Sonlight
  • Art: Chalk Pastel by HodgePodge

Pre-school:

We might do Singapore Pre-school Math very lightly and either Start to Read from Usborne or All About Reading (The pre-reading level with that Zebra puppet), I still haven’t decided.

She will be getting little assignments (Coloring sheets, cutting and pasting, things of the sort) from what we are studying in History, Science, and she will be participating in Art with us.

List 3 books about homeschooling that really impacted you.

  • Mary Pride’s “Complete Guide to Getting Started in Homeschooling”: I learned so much on methods, legal stuff, getting organized, resources, etc. It was the book that introduced me to the rest of the books I have on my shelves.
  • “Teaching from Rest” by Sarah Mackenzie: Homeschooling can surely be more relaxed! This book was such a stress relief!
  • Durenda Wilson’s “The Unhurried Homeschooler”: Was I optimistic and happy of what we have accomplished so far, and was I given so much hope for the future!

Your family is going on an unplanned trip, not much time to pack, you must homeschool the kids while traveling and you can only take 5 of your homeschooling resources/books with you, what would you take?

  • A case with their pencils, eraser, color pencils, and chalk pastels
  • Math books
  • Handwriting books
  • Notebooks/Journals
  • Current classical literature: The Chronicles of Narnia, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” by C. S. Lewis
  • Computer…we can continue studying history, science, and art online.

If you had the chance to start homeschooling all over again today with the knowledge and experience you have now, what would you do differently?

I certainly wouldn’t have stressed so much about it. I began with my oldest, which was 4 at the time, and I burnt her and myself out with doing too much. Most of the time she was happy, but we did so much, that I wasn’t giving her the time to explore on her own (no free time). We did projects and some hands-on activities, but I could have done more playful activities instead of so much “book work”.