First Week of School

Monday I arose early to don my classic jumper and put my hair in a nice bun before making a lovely breakfast at 6am. Then I woke the cheerful kids who promptly dressed and arrived for breakfast, and devotional, and began working on science right away.....

WHATEVER! (not that there is anything at all wrong about doing it the above way--it is just so not me!)

So back to what life really looks like this year........I did wake around 6:30 to make coffee and walk the dog (its our communal time) and then came in to wake the kids around 7:05. They were happy to drink some coffee -yes we feed them coffee, and they are fine, I promise- and watch some PBS until 8. Then it is tv off! They go to play and are called to a simple breakfast around 8:10. I had been doing some laundry, cooking and getting school lessons ready for little kids. We pray, eat, and read aloud from Family Pilgrims Progress, then clean up breakfast, make beds brush teeth and they are free until 8:45. Actually, most played, but Jacob was so excited about science he started that. We had devotional at 8:45, then at 9am Jacob and Emily worked on Language Arts, while I taught math and language arts to the three youngest. Then I called out spelling to the two oldest, finished some house stuff and set out food for supper. At 10:30 we exercised and did some PE (homeschool family fitness book). At 11 we came in for history all together, then had lunch and hung out enjoying life until 1pm. We all did chores and at 1:30 I read stories to the littler ones while the older ones did bible reading and math (normally it's Jacob's science time too, but he did that bright and early). We played games and watched videos and talked and built playhouses and went outside, and then at 3:30 we had drawing lessons. The littlest was worn out so she napped. At 4pm we headed to the library to search for stuff for our units, free reading books, videos, and did some coloring and played checkers. Headed home a bit after 5 to throw supper on the grill--yummy! Went swimming at 7 and came home for some light "homework" with dad before getting ready for bed and a new day. Of course, we had some rough spots during the day, like sibling arguments and refusal to eat food served, and throwing fits over not finding swim goggles, but mostly it was a fabulous day, and quite typical.
Oh, and I do NOT wear jumpers--mostly a skirt and t-shirt, or capris and tees--hair in clips or braids or headbands, and bare feet! We DO cook a lot from scratch. And we have a flexible school schedule, though it is regular, and a monthly menu plan, and weekly chore chart to keep life sane.

There, that was just a peek at a day in the life of this homeschooling family. All in good order.