A Day in the Week ~ Day One

  

I have been doing a monthly "Day in the Life" entry for a few years now.  I love to look back on the little snapshots of our life.  Every day is so different for most homeschoolers and doubly so if you are raising special needs kids.  I decided that I want to try and record 3 or 4 days in a row of a "Day in the Life" to give a more complete picture of our homeschool journey.  Some days are filled with academic learning and others are heavier on child training and real world experiences.  It is all good and displays a more cohesive picture of our homeschool journey than just one day.  If you are new here our kids are 22,11,10, and 8.  Our three oldest children have many special needs that weave many extra doctor appointments and therapies through our days.

This first day finds us at home most of the day.  It is what I would call a strong academic day.

6:30 to 7:30 ~ I got up, dressed and started the teapot.  I then checked email and looked at blogs.  Tom Sawyer (10) and Tim (22) awoke and settled into their morning routine of reading books and playing with Boomer.

7:30 to 8:00 ~ We are down to one car right now, so I drove my husband to work.

8:00 to 8:45 ~ Everyone is awake and we all eat breakfast.  The girls play with Play Mobil and Tom Sawyer builds a zip line.  I hang up the laundry.  Everyone does their Just Five Things (eat breakfast, clear dishes, clean clothes, brush hair and teeth, do morning chore).  In the third photo, my daughter asks, "Will my Mom take a picture of everything, even me cleaning the sink?"

8:45 to 9:15 ~ Circle time (we read from A Child's Book Of Prayer in Art, looked at calendar, and read Shakespeare sonnet) (Bible and poetry)

9:15 to 10:30 ~ We rotated through Teaching Textbooks (math), All About Spelling (language arts), typing lesson.  I work with whomever is doing a spelling lesson while the others work independently on math and typing.

10:30 to 11:00 ~ We did our group language arts lesson from English for the Thoughtful Child and then the kids did journaling and Explode the Code. (language arts)


11:00 to 12:15 ~ We worked on our unit study.  Our current literature-based unit study is On the Banks of Plum Creek.  We are loosely using the Prairie Primer as our guide. We listened to three chapters on audio CD which were about Christmas and sacrificing what you want for another's wishes.  We then made a button string, packed food for the needy and celebrated our own mini Christmas (with a few things sent by the grandparents). Art, History, Literature

12:15 to 1:15 ~ We ate lunch and took Tim to college.

1:15 to 2:00 ~  We continued school.  The kids and I learned to draw a horse from the book Draw Write Now.  Then the kids had therapy time ~ fine motor skills for Tom Sawyer, balance work for Little Red Riding Hood and vision therapy for Goldilocks. Art, OT, PT, Vision

2:00 to 3:30 ~ Free Time!!  The kids took turns on the computer and played on the trampoline.

3:30 to 4:00 ~ We did chore time (sweeping and dusting today). 

4:00 to 5:00 ~  I played chauffeur, picking up and dropping off Tim from school and my husband from work.  The kids went along with me.

5:00 to 6:00 ~ I made dinner (chicken and broccoli ~ Asian style with coconut aminos instead of soy).  DH started the silly squares soaking in the bathtub with the kids.  We will be learning about non-vascular plants tomorrow to go along with our study on Lichen. Science

After dinner ~ The kids ran around screaming with Dad.  Then they settled down for story time (currently Notes From the Dog).  Then it was off to personal stories with Dad, personal hygiene and bed. Literature

See you tomorrow with the next day in a life.

Blessings, Dawn