A Visit With Clarissa West from Counting Our Blessings - Homeschoolers at Home Tuesday

This entry is part 15 of 26 in the series Homeschoolers at Home Tuesday

I want you to meet Clarissa West who blogs over at Counting Our Blessings . She is a fellow member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew and I thought it would be nice to get a glimpse into her busy life and homeschool.

Kemi: Can you tell us a little bit about your children’s ages and grades?

Clarissa: This year I have 3 doing formal school. My oldest is 9, and then I have a 6 & 5-year-old doing school. I have four other children as well. My 8 year old daughter is severely delayed due to medical conditions, so she does not do typical schooling. My preschoolers are 2.75, 1.5, and 7-months-old.

Kemi: Do you have any home businesses?

Clarissa: In addition to writing for and managing my blog/affiliates, I am an Independent Lilla Rose Consultant which I sell only online.

(psst!I love Lilla Rose hair pretties! Visit Clarissa’s online shop to buy some. I have several and give them as gifts. They make your hair look so glamorous!)

Clarissa: I’m also starting to work as a Virtual Assistant helping other work-from-home moms with their small businesses (bloggers, homeschool curriculum creators, etsy shop owners, etc.). From writing & editing to organizing, pinning, & social media scheduling for them. I want to do the the things they need me to, so they have the time to focus on their families and the most important parts of their business. My goal is to work with godly women desiring to supplement their husband’s income while staying home and putting their families first!

Kemi: What homeschooling method do you use?

Clarissa: We use textbooks for the Foundational Subjects (Language Arts and Arithmetic) and a mix of living books, textbooks, delight-directed, and hands-on for all other subjects.

Kemi: Can you give us a peek into your typical homeschool day?

Clarissa:We do formal schooling Tuesday through Friday. We start our school days between 8 and 9 am by reading a chapter from the Bible. I have a box of special school time toys for my preschoolers to keep them busy (magnetic alphabet letters, blocks, coloring books, etc.). My oldest then starts his Math, while I focus on teaching Phonics to the younger two. This takes 15-30 minutes. Then I move on to Math with the younger two, which takes another 15 minutes or so.

If my oldest gets done with Math before I am done with the younger two he usually takes a break. Then I do Language Arts with my oldest. Our program is all-in-one with writing, grammar, spelling, and cursive. This takes us 15-30 minutes. With regular interruptions from the littles, we usually are not done with school until noon.

Then our formal schooling is done and the kids are allowed to listen to Mystery of History audio, watch some educational-science shows on Netflix, and are encouraged to read a book from our bookshelf which holds mostly nonfiction, biography-style books as well as plenty of science and history textbooks for all grades. My oldest chooses to read textbooks for fun!

Arts and crafts are done on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.

Music lessons are in the evenings when Dad is home to teach it.

With seven children under 10 (and 1 with severe special/medical needs), I have learned to focus on what is truly important, keep organized, and be very flexible!

Kemi: We love to see where homeschooling happens. Can you give us a peek into your homeschool room?

Clarissa gives us a complete tour of Clarissa’s homeschool space at Counting Our Blessings (not to worry I’ve linked right up to it for you).

Kemi: So Homemaking Organized is all about homemaking or the details of home. We love to find out how others keep their homes. Can you tell us about your own homekeeping and how you manage to fit it in the cares of home?

To be honest, my youngest sister voluntarily comes to my house once a week most weeks for a few hours and does my weekly cleaning! How blessed am I, right?!

That takes a lot of stress off of me! I do my weekly cleaning on Mondays if my sister isn’t able to.

The daily household chores are managed by sticking to a routine and assigning some of the more simple chores to my older kids.

For example: my oldest empties the main garbage every morning, transfers the clothes from the washer to dryer when needed, unloads the dishwasher, and vacuums the hard floors every afternoon.

The other kids empty the bathroom garbages when needed and take the clean clothes from the dryer.

All of my kids help me fold and put away laundry, as well as picking up the house and putting away their toys every evening.

I have a system down where I only need to load the dishwasher every afternoon, wash a couple of loads of clothes each day, focus on the meals, and care for my family of 9 (which currently includes 4 kids in diapers!).

I focus on getting the most important chores done each day and throw in the extra organizing and purging whenever I can.

I wrote a post about my most important chores here => Daily Chores That Must Get Done

Kemi: Do you have any crafts or hobbies that you would like to share?

My biggest hobby is my writing. My goal is to encourage other Christian wives/mothers to embrace their calling as Biblical Wives, Mothers, and homemakers. I also offer practical tips that focus on how to stay organized while raising a large family, how to naturally care for their family’s health, while keeping things as simple as possible.

Kemi: Thank you for dropping by and visiting with us today Clarissa. It was lovely and inspiring to get a peek into your homeschool day.

Clarissa-West Clarissa West is a Christian Wife, Homeschooling Mama, and Homemaker. She blogs at Counting Our Blessings about her life with 8 children (1 resides in heaven).