A Day in the Life of...Julia

Ok, I thought this would be fun. Let's each take a turn and share about our day...a typical day, if there is one. I just love to hear how other people spend their homeschool days. I'll start. And I'll begin by saying that today wasn't special in any way. No fun things on the calendar today. No homeschool group today. No cute science experiments today. No exciting field trip. Just a day in the life of our homeschool family.

I rolled out of bed at 9:00 am today. Yes, it's true. I stayed up late with my husband last night having a date-night of sorts watching a few shows we DVR-ed on our tv. It's cheaper than going to the movies and way more comfortable since I can lounge on the couch with my pj's on! My oldest daughter spent the night at my parents' house last night so I had only two kids for 1/2 the day today. Ahh, do you know how much less conflict there is when you take just one kid out of the mix? A lot less in this house. Anyway, Anna and Nathan made themselves breakfast as usual (cereal), I sat with them and checked my email quickly. Then Nathan and I sat on the couch and went over several pages of his reading book (Phonics Pathways) together. Anna did what Anna always does, she read. She got up early this morning (like 7:00 or something like that). She generally gets up early and sits in her bed reading until I get up. Then she eats b/c I make her. Then she reads again. On to our day... I went upstairs to take a shower and get ready for the day. Nathan went to his room with instructions to review his Phonics Pathways words and either listen to books on CD's or music. Anna started her laundry (yes, I teach my kids early to be independent!), cleaned her room, got dressed and started on her morning work. Morning work consists of things that she can do independently while I am getting ready in the morning. Her list includes: assigned reading book, spelling, personal enjoyment reading, devotion/bible study, Flashmaster (a super-great electronic math fact machine), Mavis Beacon typing CD-rom, Chinese language Nintendo DS game (b/c we couldn't afford the $200.00 Rosetta Stone program I really wanted) and reviewing her memory verses. Then I helped Nathan finish a craft project (those beads you put on plastic shapes and iron together). He picked out some Christmas wrapping paper, wrapped it , and then found a good hiding place for it. It's his gift to Daddy for Christmas. Check. One gift done (!!). It was lunch time by then. The kids made their own lunch and I made mine. When I grocery shop on Mondays, I generally splurge (like $4-5.00...ooh, I know...such a treat!) on one special treat for myself for lunches for the week. It usually is a gallon of sweet tea from Chik-fil-A. However, this week I bought a loaf of sundried tomato bread from Panera for my sandwhiches. OH MY GOODNESS! It is so yummy! Yes, little things like that get me excited and make my day a bit more enjoyable. On to lunch...we ate together and laughed a lot. Then it was off to the basement. The serious work gets done down there. I put Nathan's math DVD in (Math U See) while Anna worked on her Latin. I graded some of Anna's work from last week. I usually do that on Monday morning but didn't get to it yesterday. My mom came home with Kara around that time. She stayed and visited with us for about an hour. The kids showed off some of their school work to her along with their "still a work in progress"-Christmas list that they are really in to right now. She left, Nathan continued on with his math, Kara got started on her work for the day, and Anna finished up her Latin. Then we took a break and went to the library to get new books. We returned home around 3:30. (See sweet picture of all three kids reading. Ahhh, if only my whole day looked like that!) I started making dinner while the kids all read their new books. And that's it. That's our day so far. I'll have them start setting the kitchen table and cleaning up the family room shortly.

So, how about you all? What's your day look like? No cheating...you can't wait until a really good/unusual/totally make the rest of us feel like slacker moms kind of day. So, start sharing! Can't wait to hear your "day in the life" post!

PS: As I re-read this post, I thought I'd add one thing. I do teach my girls. It didn't sound like I did from this post! Although I do it a bit differently than most, I think. They are in 4th and 5th grade. So, they are fairly independent workers. The way I structure our week is that I give the girls their lessons for the week on Monday. I teach them, for instance, the grammar lesson and then give them 5 assignments for the week. Then they are on their own for Tues-Fri. If they work really hard, they can get all of their work done early (sometimes as early as Wed). If they don't, then they are stuck with a really awful Friday. It didn't take them long to learn a valuable lesson. Work hard, enjoy some time off. Procrastinate, pay the price on Friday. And doing it like this allows me to spend more time with my 5 year old who requires one on one teaching time. As for this week, Kara took some of her work with her to my parents' house and did it this morning while there. And of course, I am usually answering questions here and there about the work they are doing. But I'm not supermom and can't always answer questions immediately (like when I'm making dinner, in the bathroom, on the phone, etc, etc). And let's face it, questions generally come at those times! Anyway, the funny thing is that as I was grading Anna's math work today, she had this written for three of her word problem answers: "unknown- you wouldn't answer my question". Supermom I am NOT! Although I do consider it a good day if I have dinner prepared by 5:00. It is. I'm good for the day!! julia.