Good morning, I wanted to see how others begin their day with their homeschooling. Do you dive right into your first subjects? Or, start with reading? Prayers? Chores? Calendar? I’m trying to put together something realistic that can involve all the kids (7, 5, 3, and 1) for the beginning. I was thinking about after breakfast… calendar, weather, a song (of the week or month?), a story and then dive into subjects… What about a physical activity? Anyone start with anything like that?
Thanks!
My Morning Routine (kids 4 and 6 years old)
Hope this helps 
Yes thank you @Marie This is exactly what I was thinking of. I like the order you do here. And that you have some playtime before school.
Where do you find your songs? Any favorite sites or books or DVDs/CDs, whatever? Thanks!
My little girl is 5-1/2 and in K5. I was determined to start school at a specific time (8:30), but on the first day, that did not go well. She and I both are night owls, and getting up early is especially difficult for her. I have since succumbed to having school after she wakes up, watches one tv show, eats breakfast, and does her “morning chores” (brush teeth, get dressed, make bed, etc.). Sometimes that means that school does not begin until 11:00 AM. I would MUCH RATHER it start earlier, but I also want a happy, well-rested little learner. I’m working on having her go to bed earlier which will help with getting up earlier.
Anyway, in general, our day looks like this:
Sometimes we have to break up the day with errands and/or appointments. She is taking swimming lessons in the afternoons this week. Next week, she will begin soccer, and I hope to have her begin violin lessons in mid-August.
Sometimes it’s bedtime before I can read library books out loud to her.
Because K5 is a lot of review right now, I want to double up lessons, but our schedule (swimming lessons, dental appointments, etc.) has not allowed for that yet.
Here is how our day starts (11, 8, 7 year olds):
We’ve had the same morning routine for years.
Glad I could be of help. 
We really like Songs for Saplings CD by Dana Dirksen.
Most of the songs/finger plays I find on youtube or pinterest by typing in the theme or subject area like apple songs, pumpkin songs, plant songs…
Some of our favorite songs found on youtube:
I have 4 kids too, about the same spacing as yours, but a couple years older. What works best for us is:
Breakfast
Bible Time
Chores
School Time
Break
Lunch
School Time
Afternoon Chores
Free Time
Supper
Evening Activities
What time we get started in the morning depends on what we were doing and what time we got to bed the night before. Every day looks a little different depending on what time we got started or what extra things get thrown into our day at the last minute, but it is helpful to have this basic routine to keep things somewhat uniform.
My boys are a bit older (12,11,8)
We do:
Breakfast
Chores/Get Ready
Bible/Devotions with Dad
Individual work starting with math and reading (they do so much better at math first thing, last year we had math at the end of the day, and it didn’t work so well)
Grammar
Vocab
Cursive
Lunch/Recess (one to one and a half hours)
Group work after lunch:
Phonics
Science
History
Spanish/Art (we switch these every other day)
We try to be started by 8 or 9am
I recommend Leading Little Ones to God by Marian M. Schoolland. The book is a guide to lead your children into learning about God. It is lovely. Each part start with something for you to read to them. It is short and sweet. It really helps draw them closer to God. Then there are some questions to initiate conversation. Next is a memory verse pertaining to the subject at hand. Even if you choose not to have the children memorize the verse, it is a wonderful addition to the study just to read it and try saying it together a few times. There is also a suggested reading verse/verses you can look up in your Bibles. A Hymn is included as well. I look it up online for the children to listen to. They love this. And a closing prayer on the subject as well.
If you’d like to try it out, look it up on Google books. It is available for free there. https://books.google.com/books?id=wJfUfMNEoV0C&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=finnish+melody+ch+11&source=bl&ots=XiRbPI4yFW&sig=mcsAaN1zz6GFy7D4GWV7DJViQys&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwBGoVChMIqq6D6bOFxwIVCnc-Ch1dXg2q#v=onepage&q=finnish%20melody%20ch%2011&f=false
My kiddos are 4 (almost 5) and just turned three, so we are not doing formal schooling yet, with seat work…our Morning… most mornings looks like this…
Wake up
breakfast
cleanup and morning chore
playtime (usually outside before it gets hot…plus they have all this energy from sleeping all night and they are more ready to focus after having some free time to run around)/mommy gets dressed time
if we have somewhere to be in the am I will try to schedule it for this time
Snack and Project time (this is our learning time…which is very child centered and play based. I will ask the kids if they want to do a project and if they do we will do something for how ever long their attention span will tolerate it!)
Lunch/cleanup
quiet/reading/nap time
Second snack/project learning time
free play till dinner