I thought it would be fun to chronicle just one day in our homeschooling life! None of them are exactly the same so I can't say that it's a "typical" day, but it's definitely unique to us! Put your seat belts on....
5:55am: The phone rings...just once. I open my eyes trying to focus on the clock and I reach for the phone but it's no longer ringing. My heart is beating a little fast as the ring scared me. It was probably Dan calling to wake me. He left for work about an hour ago. I get up and have my first cup of steaming hot coffee! Nathan hears me in the kitchen, but I point him back to his bed as it's too early for him to be up! I NEED my quiet time! I let the dog out and notice it's raining. Good! A perfect day to stay in my PJ's all day!
6:30am: I decide to make peanut butter smoothies for breakfast! I figure that everyone will like them as they all like PB!
Recipe: 1 small banana (or 1/2 of a large one), 2 tbsp. peanut butter, 1 tbsp. honey, 1 cup of milk. Blend. I added some flax seed and wheat germ for good health's sake. Nathan gets up at the sound of the blender. He and I drink the first batch. I let him make the second batch....this is MATH!
7:00am: The girls are up. They wander in the kitchen with bed hair (I think their hair was still a little we from their baths last night). They taste the PB smoothie, but Olivia would rather have a strawberry one as we bought fresh strawberries at the grocery store yesterday. Amelia wants waffles. I shove two frozen waffles in the toaster...and some butter and honey...she's happy. Nathan volunteers to make the strawberry smoothie. He decides to concoct his own recipe....this is SCIENCE! He dices up 1/2 of a fresh apple, slices some strawberries and pours in some milk. I think this sounds kind of gross, he ignores me. He didn't measure any of the ingredients...so we don't call it math!
7:30am: We are all sitting at the kitchen table eating or drinking. I read several stories from
The Children's Book of Virtues by William Bennett. The first story was called "Someone Sees You". This didn't go over as I had hoped. During our discussion, Nathan suggested that maybe the man was poor and hungry and so that was why he was stealing the wheat. I tried to explain that even if we are in need, we still need to follow the Commandments and that God does not want us to steal from others. Nathan then asked the question, "What if we were poor and starving and you had no money to feed us....would you steal so you could feed your kids?" Sigh.....I move on to another story (yep....dodged that one BIG TIME!). We also read "Little Sunshine" and the "Honest Disciple". We had pretty good discussions. Then, to close, we read the poem "Over in the Meadow" (one of my all time favorites!). I asked all three of them what they thought it meant. Nathan was first to pipe in with..."It means you should listen to your mom"!! BINGO!!! This is going to be a good day!
9:16am: The kitchen is a mess with sticky honey and banana peels all over the place. The blender needs to be taken apart in order to wash it properly. I'm sitting here, typing this post drinking the rest of my cold coffee (that at one time was hot). The kids have started playing Harry Potter, using pencils as wands and my
Swiffers as brooms....they are playing
Quidditch. Time to rally the troops to start school!
9:30am: We gather in the living room and say our Morning Offering and we do a decade of the Rosary. Nathan is mad because Amelia offered all the same intentions he was going say and so he sits on the couch with his arms folded and does not utter one Hail Mary.
10:08am: Amelia has aced a spelling test on last weeks words (sun, tub, mug, up, cut, him). She is currently working on the spelling lesson for this week! Her new words are bed, jet, hen, men, wet and hug! Nathan is refusing to finish the math lesson he didn't finish last Wednesday! Dan calls to check on us. He gives me support and reinforces to Nathan that if he doesn't do his math today, he will regret it later when he gets home. Olivia is coloring and showing me how well she can stay in the lines. I hear Nathan just shut his bedroom door.....he won't get any work done today.....sigh.....I swear I wonder if he was switched at birth and they gave me the wrong child!
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| Olivia and Amelia working. Notice the empty chair where Nathan should be! |
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| Amelia loves to use Lego's to help with her math. |
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| Olivia practicing fine motor skills - cutting and pasting along with word associations. |
10:30am: Nathan hasn't done a thing this morning! Currently, he is sitting at the table, questioning me as to why he has to do math. Incidentally, his math usually consists of 27 problems. He got to #12 on his lesson from last Wednesday. His assignment for the morning was to complete the remaining 15 problems from last week.
10:35am: He is still sitting at the table with his arms crossed. Clear defiance. I'm ignoring him for now as Amelia and Olivia are working. Olivia just finished letter practice for the letter B! She did a great job. Amelia has begun her math lesson, however, she is now crying because Nathan just made fun of her because she has to do math too. I've sent him to his room because I don't want his misbehavior to disrupt the rest of the house any more than it already has.
10:42am: I hear him in his room playing with his toys. I'm not sure whether or not I should confront him. Against my better judgement, I go in there. I tell him to hand me all the BayBlades. He thinks he's funny by handing me pencils and dirty socks. I've had it. I'm calm, but I've had it! I tell him he needs to pack his stuff and move somewhere else. I'm not ashamed to admit that I probably blew it here, but, day after day, week after week, for almost 5 months of this...I'm little tired of it. I don't want to see him for the rest of the day.
10:48am: The girls are asking for a snack. Cheese and crackers with some orange juice!
10:57am: Nathan comes out of his room to argue with me. He tells me it's my fault that all this has happened. He says we should just ask Grandma and Grandpa for the money to pay for him to go back to Assumption. It's all my fault that we are homeschooling. He wants to go back to school. I tell him that I agree he should go back to school but I explain that we can NOT afford Catholic School and his only other option is the public school around the corner. He says he will NOT go to a public school. He's back in his room, pouting. Today is Monday and this is his Monday routine. He will stew a little longer in his room. Then, sometime after lunch, he will come to his senses and start working. Sigh. This is my life.
Meanwhile, Olivia has finished her schoolwork for the day. We will read together after I've finished the morning dishes. It will take me longer today, the blender is a mess!
11:28am: He's now sitting at the kitchen table doing his math. He wants me to cut his bangs when he's done with school work. He wants to know what we're having for dinner. It's interesting to me that he can blow up one minute, and the next, he's the responsible 10 year old that takes care of his family while dad is at work. Olivia found a spider in the kitchen and screamed! Nathan came to the rescue, picked up the spider and gently placed it outside. He then turned to the rest of us and said, "Please, just let me do my math".
11:41am: He just finished the math lesson! Amazing! He spent 3 hours fighting me for what took him exactly 13 minutes to finish!
12:00pm: Nathan finished his grammar lesson and is now taking a break! Apparently, doing 30 minutes of school work has really tuckered him out! I'm thinking about what to make for lunch. Probably salami and cheese sandwiches and some popcorn.
12:18pm: Amelia just finished her math lesson! The kids are playing and I'm making lunch. I'm trying to decide if we are done for today. I think we will do some Faith & Life and call it a day. I have a load of laundry to fold, a bathroom to clean and a bed to change. Tomorrow will be better, Tuesday's always are.
12:57pm: Eating lunch and watching an episode of Mythbusters....would that be considered science? Later, we will watch a special on Martin Luther King, Jr. and
possibly take a nap!
Well, there you have it - a day in the life of our homeschool. Even with Nathan's morning outburst, we had a good day. We accomplished a reasonable amount of learning and we got in almost every subject. We'll tackle handwriting and geography tomorrow with a field trip to the School Aids store for their wonderful laminating machine!
I would love it if some of the other homeschoolers that read my blog would share "A Day in the Life" in their family homeschool!! Please let me know if you post about it!
