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My Students + Curriculum + Learning Spaces + Real Life = A Day In the Life

This Day is from last week when I thought it was A Day In The Life but it was Learning Spaces instead...probably just as well, because the last few days have not been worth blogging about (or maybe there's a big blog post in there lurking away, but I just can't deal with it right now)...anyway...

This week is the last of our Aussie NBTS posts and a warning...it's a long post!! So if you stay to the end, you have done well and earn bonus points.

I think a lot of people who don't homeschool are curious as to what our days look like. Those 6 panel Facebook memes have been doing the rounds, and of course there was a Homeschool one:

He he he!

The night before the Day in the Life: I should preface this Day with the fact that we had a late Night watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It was on TV, but we got out the DVD to skip the ads. I feel that some movies are just a compulsory part of any child's education and FB is one of those.

As Ferris says: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." And so:

6:10am:  One of the beauties of homeschooling is that we can be flexible with our routine. I know that we are able get up at 6:30am every morning, get dressed, make lunches and go to school (because we've done it), but it is very nice not to have to do it now. And so it was a late start this morning. Well, I wanted it to be late, but Hubby's alarm went off at 6:10am (set from yesterday) and he was not moving an inch, so I had to get up and turn it off. Back to bed.

8:00am: Generally speaking (and this may fall in the TMI category), I leave the bathroom door open. And I have a furry companion who just sooo happy to see me first thing in the morning!

This is how nearly all my days start!
Except when they start like this

Cup of tea time - the first cup of the day really is the best. It's still quiet, with all the rest of the family asleep, so I have a little uninterrupted time checking emails, Facebook, blogs (my guilty pleasures). Other mornings you can find me (and Max) by the beach, doing our run.

Hubby is up next. He's not working in our shop this morning, so we get to share our adventures with him. Wombat Girl is the next to surface and goes straight to her book on wombats (gee, that was a shock) that we got out of the library yesterday afternoon. 

I go wake up Video Boy, who is likely to sleep until midday if allowed! 

They still look cute when they are asleep!

Bit of Where's My Water on the iPad until we nag them to go eat something and get dressed.

9:00am Wombat Girl eats breakfast while working on her piano composition. She has been busy notating her right hand and now is working on some chords to go with her melody and notating them too.

Meanwhile, Video Boy went outside for a bounce on the trampoline. This is a recurring theme around here and it helps get the blood pumping, some exercise and surprisingly, settle him down. He loves the rhythmic nature of it (he's outgrown our swing set) and he has a lovely time in his imagination.

A load of washing and put the dishwasher on for me and it's time for another cup of tea.

10:00am  Hubby goes down to the office to tackle the never-ending "to do" list for our business and we get started on our "formal" part of the day.

Our volcano model is finally painted and vanished and ready to explode! Bicarb - check. Vinegar - check. Red food colouring - check. Detergent - check. Let's play study!

Which spoon should I use?

I would have thought bringing the bicarb
 a bit closer to the volcano would have
 been a better idea, but what do I know?

Wombat Girl experimenting with colour

Love that they work so well together (most of the time)

Ready....set....

Once the excitement has died down, Video Boy delves into his book on cartooning from the library (whilst snacking) and Wombat Girl plays experiments some more.

After a fair bit of repetitive nagging encouragement from me, we sit down to do a worksheet I made myself, comparing model volcanoes with the real thing. This ends up involving:

• estimation
• measuring
• calculating ratios
• multiplying fractions
• slope calculations
• research on volcano slopes (depends on the type of volcano as it turns out)
• research on temperature of volcanoes
• research on the underground structure of volcanoes
• drawing scientific diagrams
• acid/base chemistry 
• plate tectonics and mountain formation

Hubby came up and wanted to join in the fun!

I did have quite a few things on my "list" of what we could achieve this morning - continuing our persuasive writing, graphing coordinates, completing our work yesterday on Australia's Federation; and we "only" did the volcano. I wonder if I will ever feel as if we do "enough". But yet, when I look back at what we achieve in a week, a term, a year, and I see how happy and engaged the kids are, I know I shouldn't worry.

11:30am: Time to eat. But first, time to clean up the kitchen! I saw a segment on a morning show this morning, which was all about mum's who need to prepare better, healthier school lunches for their kids. They suggested a lamb and vege wrap. Mmm - who could be bothered, even when at home? Sandwiches are the lunch d'jour round here! Bonus - they don't go soggy in your school bag! We occasionally get a monkey platter going if we don't do sandwiches.

What a mess...

That's better!

Honey sandwich and apple for Wombat Girl

Ham, cheese, tomato and avocado sandwich + apple
for Video Boy and Hubby

Leftover chicken curry for me!

Hubby snuck off to the bedroom to get some quiet reading time, but was interrupted by cuddles from two kids and a dog!

We love you Daddy!

Time to round up our swimming stuff (where's my flippers Mum? I think you left them in the pool) and craft stuff and head out for our afternoon.

1:00pm: This term we are meeting another homeschooling family for swimming "lessons". I used to be Austswim qualified (now lapsed), so I run the kids through their paces and then attempt a few laps myself. Well, that's the plan anyway!

Afterwards there is always time for an ice-cream, game and chat!

3:00pm: Then it was off to my Mum's (aka "Nanna") for some craft! Back when I started homeschooling, I thought it might be nice to visit my crafty Mum regularly and let some of her skill rub off on us. It's only taken me a year to get my act together! Wombat Girl did her cross-stitch kit she got for Christmas, with Nanna's expert help and I found an origami animals kit stashed away, so Video Boy and I worked on those (he's really good at them and helped me decipher the instructions!).

Fox

Crabs with peace stork in the background

It was coming over all dark and stormy, with thunder and lightning around, so we headed for home (with a quick stop to buy supplies for dinner tonight!).

But not home in time to rescue the sheets on the line from the rain...

5:00pm: The kids have their chores to do each day (which I usually have to nag remind them about), including feeding the animals and emptying the dishwasher. After chores is some quiet time (more Where's My Water for them and FB/email/blogs for me).

6:30pm: Time to get dinner ready. Tonight - home-made pizza! The kids love helping with these and I love letting them cook dinner (that's what we call a win-win around here!).

7:30pm: Friday night is Scooby Doo night on Go! So we watched that. Wombat Girl was very keen to watch Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (again), but we opted for Better Homes and Gardens (with the home-made pizza section) plus repeats of Sea Change (what a pity there is such a lack of good new Aussie drama on the TV at the present) and the cricket. The lightning, thunder and rain continued.

I really, really hate thunder!

Video Boy took himself off and drew some stick-figure cartoons.

9:00pm:  An early night was called for! I had clean sheets on the bed (except for wet dog footprints) and we had lots of good books from the library, so we were happy to be tucked up, with the rain still falling on the roof, reading, reading...

But not before a bedtime snack....

Sandwich time! Video Boy was the filling!

So, that was our day. Some days are more exciting, some are less, but that is a pretty good example of how we roll 'round here!  Can't wait to finally read everyone else's Day In The Life post's over at Kylie's Our Worldwide Classroom!

I sent Wombat Girl to her own bed around 10:30pm...
but given how much of her book she'd finished
by the next morning I think she stayed up a bit later, reading...