both by Nancy Lande.  They are Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days and Homeschool Open House.

Both of these books actually consist of "day in the life" journal type entries by many different types of families, both in the U.S. and in other countries.  They invite the reader to spend a "typical" day in the homes of homeschooling families. 

Like most of these families, our days tend to vary widely, as does real life.  But there is a general pattern, as I try to maintain a "rut to run in" as suggested by Debra Bell, author of The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling, another favorite homeschooling book.  The idea of the "rut" is not to imply that the days should be boring, predictable in a bad sense, or stale.  The idea of the "rut" is to have a basic routine for our days, to eliminate time wasted while deciding what activity, subject, chore or project should come next.

Our routine for this year stemmed from my desire to have more continuity and organization in our days and higher standards for both quantity and quality of learning goals and actual "work" accomplished..  My first goal is to start school each day by 9:00.  That goal is not yet fully realized.  I have raised little night owls that like to stay up late and sleep in.  But it is a goal I am working towards.  It depends somewhat on me getting my own rear out of bed before 8:30 a.m.!

A recent, typical, successful, yet realistic view of a school day in our home.

The alarm goes off at 5:15 a.m. (Note to self: find a better station to waken to than one that will rouse you from a deep sleep to the lilting strains of "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne. Is it my fault they were playing light favorites the night before when I set the alarm only to switch to a bang your head/get out of bed format in the early a.m.?)

Rick hits the snooze button about 4-5 times before he gets up and heads to the shower.  When he comes back upstairs and turns on SportCenter, that is my signal to get up, or throw his pillow over my head to drown out yet another discussion of football, baseball, golf ball, whatever-ball.  It's about 6:30ish by then.

I head downstairs and let the dog out, and the cat in. Then I let the dog back in and the cat back out.  I peer into the fridge and see what possibilities there are for packing Rick's lunch.  After consulting him, I pack his lunch.  He usually leaves no later than 7.

I sit on the couch and try to stay awake enough to read and pray. I am using a daily devotional that my church provides.  I am also reading again A Woman After God's Own Heart, by Elisabeth George.  I sometimes jot down scriptures and thoughts I have as I pray and read. 

By now its usually about 8, and will have a bit of breakfast and check email and my favorite homeschool sites.  Somewhere between 8 and 8:30 I will begin the process of awakening my daughters.  Actually getting them out of bed is a different story.  I could be more firm about this, no doubt.  But since we have the luxury of wakening slowly and gently (most days) that is how I do it.  If I am on one of my let's-get-going-earlier crusades I will be more authoritative about it.  Truth is my girls would probably not roll out of bed til 10:30-11:00 many days and that just will not work.This is, admittedly, an area that could use more structure and discipline on my part, first for myself and then for my children.

So let's pretend we are all up and awake by 8:30.  The rule is if they want to eat breakfast right away, they can.  If they don't want to eat just yet,  they must make their beds and straighten their rooms and feed pets first.  Either way everyone should be dressed (pj bottoms and tshirts are allowed), fed and have made their beds by 9.

We always begin our school day by reading aloud. This is a pleasant (for the most part) way to ease into our academic schedule. We always do Bible first.  We are using Keys for Kids http://cbh.gospelcom.net/kfk/home.php, and will also sometimes review AWANA or personally chosen passages of scripture we are memorizing.  After the story and scripture reading, I will pray, thanking God for all things and asking his blessing on our family and any other concerns we might have. 

After Bible I will continue to read aloud.  We alternate days of history and science.  Right now we are reading Stories of the Pilgrims, as suggested by Beautiful Feet Early American History.  It's a bit young for Katrina, who is 11, but it is a good overview of the daily life and struggles of the pilgrims to get to America and survive here.  On the other days we will read aloud from Abeka science. I try to keep the girls on the same subjects in science.  If there are corresponding chapters in both girls books (6th and 2 grades) we will read both.  We are just finishing mammals, which both books cover.  When we start the "light" unit next week, we will be using only Katrina's book since the 2nd grade doesn't have a unit on light.

We continue reading aloud.  Right now we are a third of the way into These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  We finished Little Town on the Prairie recently and to my suprise Katrina wanted to read the next book in the series.  I am pleased because she was not at all interested in the books that tell of Laura's early childhood.  Laura is about 16 in the book we are now reading, which is infinitely more interesting to her than the ones where she is 5-10 years old.  I hope someday they will read the earlier books as well. There is so much insight into the pioneering life in the earlier books.  Katrina is attending an 1880's schoolhouse this month. She will spend an actual authentic school day there,dressed as an 1880's girl, eating lunch from a tin pail, writing on a slate and participating in an old fashioned spelling bee.  Because we are reading the Little House series, she has a good idea on what things were like back then.

All this reading together snuggled on the couch takes about a half hour.  My voice can't go much longer even with Katrina reading part of the science.  During science and history Jadyn (7) will often play quietly with a small toy or else try to escape only to be ordered back to listen.  She often appears not to be listening but then will ask a pertinent question while I am reading or right afterwards.  As long as she is quiet I will usually let her move around, draw or play with a little toy, to occupy her hands.  It seems to help her concentrate.

More on the rest of our school day later.