Ever since I wrote this post about our homeschool schedule and promised to do a “Day in the Life” post…I’ve been TRYING to take pictures of a day in our life.
Wow…I didn’t realize how tricky that job would be. The days of our lives are um…eventful. Especially during soccer season. I had a hard time taking a picture journal of one entire day.
Long story short…I couldn’t make it happen. SO…instead I decided to use all the pictures I’ve taken in the past several days of our lives to give you a feel for what our days look like. You’ll see that they really don’t look very much like this schedule…ever. That’s okay…that’s the beauty of homeschooling and being flexible and letting go of the idea that everything will be blissful and perfect and charming when you are a parent. (That was me doing a little self talk…telling myself that it’s okay to let some things go and realize that not everything will be blissful and perfect and charming as I parent my children.)
Here are all the boys eating pancakes for breakfast. Even though our days can look quite different when it comes to the schedule…we always work to make time for our Breakfast/Bible Reading time.
After breakfast we try to do some of our “together” work. On Mondays and Wednesdays this is usually the time we work on our Geography Packets. On this particular day, the boys were learning more about the natural resources in each state. Guess what? Nebraska produces a lot of corn. Bet you never knew that, huh? :)
I let the boys choose a quiet activity while I read History to them. Of course…the day I took this picutre they decided to color. Probably because I had mentioned in this post that my boys almost NEVER sit quietly and color. Had to prove me wrong, didn’t they?
Next, the boys work on some of their individual work. Here, Elias is working on his handwriting. This can take anywhere from five to twenty mintues. Five if I don’t remind him that the point of working in a handwriting book is to LEARN TO WRITE NEATLY. Twenty if he uses his handwriting book to learn to write neatly. ehem
Elias (2nd grade) usually needs help with his math…so here we are working on it. A special thanks to photographer Justus. And I suppose after looking at this picture it’s apparent that I don’t usually take the time to do anything with my hair on a typical school day? Yeah, it’s not in the schedule.
I actually got some Pre-K time with Malachi on this day. I sort of sat in the middle between Elias and Malachi and worked with both of them at the same time.
Asa hides out in an upstairs bedroom to work on his math. We found that it cuts his math time in half if he’s alone in an upstairs room vs. if he’s down in the kitchen where there are always lots of distractions.
One day after Justus finished his independent work…he mixed up cookies for a post-season soccer party he was to have with his team. The party wasn’t until the weekend, but we talked about how busy our upcoming weekend was going to be and decided to make them mid-week and freeze them. MAYBE he’s learning to plan ahead? Maybe.
Sometime in the afternoon everyone sits down for reading time. From the quality of this picture…it kind of looks like I make everyone read in the dark, doesn’t it?
Elias was sitting across the room and I couldn’t get all of the readers in one picture. This cutie is going to town with chapter books this year!
By the time school was over one of the days last week, Malachi had managed to empty the contents of two (or three) toy bins. Here he is (ever so cheerfully) picking up 300 toys. sigh
I think this picture sums up our days quite nicely. I took this last Wednesday right before I tried to cook dinner in this mess. It was our last 70 degree day before we knew it was going to get cold. SO…I left the dishes and the rest of our school work and all afternoon we worked outside to pull in all of our peppers and tomatoes and okra and potatoes. Oh, and we went and picked apples at someone’s farm too. After working for HOURS outside, then bringing it all in…here’s what the kitchen looked like. Shew!
This picture with Malachi and the produce is much cuter than the whole messy kitchen picture. See…that box there is tomatoes. We picked three bags of apples…three buckets of peppers. Somehow the potatoes didn’t make it into the pic. Just when I thought I was done canning for the year…woohoo more applesauce and salsa! :)
Some of you have asked how long our school day takes. Every day is different. Sometimes reading History takes ten minutes…sometimes it takes an hour. Usually we are finished by 2:30 or so (if we start about 9ish). That’s with taking a lunch break and a short play break. Often it depends on how focused the boys are on their independent work.
And there you have it. A day (or so) in our lives. Although there were lots of things I didn’t show you like lunch and dinner and evening and cleaning up and answering the phone and going to soccer games and sliding down the stairs on sleeping bags…
Really, you should all just come for a visit.
I love the one with Malachi in his Western attire! Thank you for showing the “mess” at the end. It makes me feel normal :).
I am so visual – I love it when you post pictures!! I know I’m not supposed to covet – but I am so jealous of your beautiful garden bounty and apples — what a blessing!!! We, too, are homeshoolers and in all the years of homeschooling (since 1993!!) the one thing I’ve discovered is there is no “normal” day :) But, I love it and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. The cowboy get-up was awesome — we had a “princess” with tiara and glittery shoes for a couple of years — so precious. But, the best (imho) was “the kitchen” — mine has looked like that many days when I didn’t have nearly the worthy excuse you did!!! Thanks so much for sharing.
Ahhhh… I feel a little more normal now. I have a lot to figure out still. I keep thinking I need to let my 9YO do her math in another location, but I just don’t do it. I need to do that… and let them lay on the floor… Yikes@!!! That moment when you realize you have said you want it to be laid back and relaxed and you realize you are making your kids sit at a table too much.. we need to get down on the floor… of course, part of that is to keep babies from crawling on us.. I need to tyr to more, though. Great peek into your world. Thanks!
Thanks for giving us a peak into your day. I also really appreciated seeing the “less than perfect” kitchen picture. :) It’s nice to know that other people have messy kitchens at times. ;)
I remember my homeschooling days, I use to read in our closet. (it was a large closet) I would bring a blanket in there and get all cozy with a flashlight…ahhh good times.
I meant get cozy in the closet…not cozy with the flashlight. :)
Thank you so much for sharing! I am hoping to leave my job in the next month and stay home with my kiddos and do some blogging of my own, and I need all the advice I can get. Your site is a blessing!
Whoa! Those are a lot of pictures. That might be kind of fun to do sometime. Thanks for taking the time to share. I’ve got some great printable coupon links if you need them.
OKMom
Oh how precious! We often have a “cowboy” during our homeschooling, too. :-)
Fun! Fun! Fun!
One of the things I LOVE about homeschooling is the boys/girls don’t have to be cramped in a chair all day. Don’t have to stare at books, or writing, all day. They can actually enjoy life!
Joyful
I appreciated that too!! You shoulda seen my kitchen the other day….
lol!
Hey Laura? Why can’t we reply to individual posts?
Thank you for sharing your life with us! I have a question for you. I made bread yesterday according to your tutorial. Now, I have not made homemade bread that much, but my dough started off very dry. Definitely not as wet as yours did in your video where you kept having to add flour. I had trouble adding all of my flour. Do you think it was the type of flour? I used Pillsbury Whole Wheat flour. In the future, should I just keep adding water until it gets to the right consistency? Thanks for your time!!!!
Yes, it might have been the type of flour. Sometimes store bought flour “works up” differently than freshly ground. I think next time if you just add your flour more gradually until it reaches the right consistancy, instead of adding all that I recommend in the recipe, that might work better. Maybe?
Wow! What a BUSY Day!!! And I thought MY day was BUSY!!!! NOT!
Also, have you, or can you share, your Salsa recipe? We LOVE Salsa here, and I would love to be able to make a homemade Salsa that tastes good!
I can’t share my recipe…but some day (whenever I get a round tuit) I’ll share WHY I can’t share my salsa recipe!
Loved the day in the life of post. That is one question I always have a hard time answering-you are so right, no day is ever the same!
Ah, it’s terrible but I loved the picture of your kitchen. Just today I had a freak out about the state of my kitchen after schooling and toddler clean up duty. It made me feel much better and much less “freaked” at leaving it all just one more day in favor of soaking in the last days of sun. :)
It’s already getting COLD there?! I’m jealous! It’s been 100 degrees all month down here with no sign of letting up! I, too, love the cowboy costume. It seems like every time I see him he has a different get-up. So cute!
No, it is very HOT here right now with no break in sight! This was actually an old post I linked to!! :)