A day in my life

People often like to hear how others conduct their days, and I find this is true for homeschoolers too.  Last week we had a local group of homeschooling mum get together for an Encouragement Night.  Everyone was asked to bring along some notes of what their typical day looked liked.

Well, I actually had neglected to write this up earlier in the day, so after arriving at my girlfriend's house, I plonked myself down beside her coffee table to scrawl out some notes of what I'd done that day.  She was also busy finalising her writeup on the computer.  After we'd both finished, we headed off to the meeting.

I thought I'd share what I'd written here, especially as my typical homeschooling days will change next week, because we'll be finishing up our bookwork and doing all sorts of other activities.

"A Day In My Life .. last Wednesday Nov 30th"

I generally get up and about at 7am.  Whilst my husband (Papa) gets ready for work, I get our breakfast ready.  Fresh coffee and baked beans on toast this morning.  Also, his lunch is made (chicken and salad sandwiches, some fruit and a packet of mixed nuts).

7:30am - Papa leaves for work.  I take some time for myself over the next hour, including getting the wash started.  In that time I checked emails and checked out some excursions happening over at the "Excursion Factor" site (organised for Melbourne homeschoolers, Vic. Australia).  There are a couple there that the children will be interested in, so I make a note to ask them during their breakfast.

8am - children begin to emerge and have their breakfasts.  Mariposa was up first today and diligently went out to check on her hen, Beauty, with the new chick.  After a quick play with the dog (Midgy), she's getting dressed.  Maestro needs to be roused even though his alarm's been going .. but he keeps turning it off and ignoring it.

9am - Maestro's finally out of bed and showering.  Mariposa had started playing the piano, which was impossible to sleep through.

9:30am - piano practice over, Mariposa is keen to start with Maths.  She's very close to finishing her Singapore Maths level 3 book, so she worked hard to get a few pages done today.  We worked together learning about area and perimeter .. not as hard as she thought!

Maestro washed, dressed, fed and done his chores.  He's been working on IEW's Student Writing Intensive and is really liking it.  Today he watches day 3 on the dvd, which takes about an hour with pauses in between for completing the activities.  He likes being independent with his work this way, too.

10am - Mariposa continues her bookwork, doing a lesson from her yellow LLATL book.  She reads aloud to me for a bit .. the part she doesn't like about schoolwork.  For some reason, she's never really enjoyed the task of reading, but still loves a good story if read to.  So, we take small bites of reading at a time (approx. 10 mins).  Today she read from her Science book about Mixtures and Solutions (used for NOEO Chemistry I).

11am - time for a break.  Eggs are collected, washing hung on the line, kitchen tidied up ...  I also check emails again quickly and make a booking for those excursions we were interested in.  Confirmation came through that we can attend the Dolphin Research Centre in a couple of weeks (even though it's almost 2hrs away from here, but it'll be worth it!)

11:30am - read aloud: "Flame Over Tara" from Maestro's Sonlight.
Whilst this was happening, Mariposa started getting some lunch cooked up for us.  Today she made us some noodles with leftover chicken.

12:30pm - Maestro's misplaced his maths book, so during the time he'd usually have for a break, we're looking frantically for it everywhere.  This leads me to cleaning out a bookshelf and putting aside some books we no longer need, plus folding some laundry which was left tossed on the couch (no it wasn't under there, either).  By the end of all that, still no book, so Maestro gets his Apologia Science book out ready to work on in a little while.

Mariposa asks if she can invite a friend over to play.  She makes the phone call and her friend is expected to arrive at 1:30pm.

1pm - As part of Mariposa's Australian history lesson, we were going to do some dot paintings as the Aboriginals did.  She sets up the table with all the necessary bits and pieces.

Meanwhile, Maestro completes his Science.  He's had an experiment brewing in a jar on the window sill, soaking a chicken bone in vinegar.  We check out how it's coming along, but don't enjoy the smell!  The bone is starting to bend as the calcium is leached out.  He writes up his prac. then heads off to read Story of the World II for history.

1:30pm - friend arrives and they do their art activity, followed by play in the backyard and a healthy snack on any cherries they find on the tree.

By 2pm, Maestro's finished all his bookwork and chooses to spend some time on the computer.  I remind him that he does have a violin lesson tonight, and he's yet to do his practice for the day.  Oh, and could he please continue the search for his maths book!

I'm getting myself ready to head out for the afternoon and evening.  Today is the last week of singing lessons for my Wednesday students, and I teach at the children's dance school.  Mariposa also has her final art lesson (chalk pastel drawing) and has to take a plate of afternoon tea, so I get that ready for her.  When I get back, we need to eat dinner before heading out to evening activities.  (Yes, this is a typical VERY BUSY Wednesday!)

3:45pm - time to leave for my singing lessons.  Mariposa has an art lesson at the same location, all this being en-route to dropping her friend home.  Maestro volunteers to stay home and chats with his friend on the phone.

5pm - headed back home.  Dinner to be made: tonight it's a frittata with plenty of our homegrown eggs, some cheese and vegies, plus a salad.  We're eating by 6pm (when Papa has arrived home).  Our dinner time is typically full of discussions of the day's activities.  Papa likes to know what the children have learnt about during the day and if there's anything they're struggling with.  He also lets us know that we're invited to his workplace breakup party, to which we all agree we'd like to go. (An Italian restaurant .. YUM!)

6:45pm - We're all heading out.  Maestro has his 1/2 hr violin lesson and he heads off there with Papa. (When they get home, they choose to have a boy's movie night.)
Mariposa is with me as I head off to my girlfriend's to attend this homeschoolers' meeting.  I won't tell you what time we all got back home .. it was late, and we slept in the next morning!!


Have you written up a 'Day in My Life' entry?  If you'd like to, or already have, let me know and share your link in the comments section.  :)