A Day In The Life...Finding Our Groove, Shakespeare & Science

Warning: Crazy long, detailed post...you may turn and run now and my feelings won't be hurt.

For homeschool families that blog, sharing a 'typical day' is kind of fun. I love peeking in and catching a glimpse of how you all do it.

How's it going for us?

So far so good! I have to say, it's much easier this year than when we started in 2008. The boys are older and able to work more independently, they are more motivated than ever to learn and have fun doing it. Sophie's three years old now, she's potty trained and goes to preschool two days a week so that helps a ton!

We love our 'Little Mama', but it's nice having her off playing and learning a few times a week. It's been great for her language skills and gives her a chance to play with her bff who we no longer live by.

Here's a look at a 'typical day' at our house...(if there is such a thing).

I wake up at 5:00, review what we are going to do, prepare for the days science experiments and make final preparations. Do a little laundry, cleaning, and check my email, facebook and favorite blogs.

Kids wake at 7:00, eat and get dressed. Soph stresses to make sure we save a piece of banana bread for Kimball. She climbs up to the dish and puts the last piece on a plastic pink plate, then surprises her dad with breakfast in bed....all on her own! What a little mama! She then rushes out to help Kade water the garden and accidentally slams her hand in the door {tears}. Kade feeds our dog Abby and passes out vitamins while entertaining us with hilarious Doug Heffernan quotes.  Jaxon unloads the dishwasher and checks his email, they make their beds and pick up their bedroom while Soph plays a game, she climbs the pantry shelves to sneek more food and gets stuck...Jaxon comes to her rescue.

We meet on the couch at 8:00 a.m. and read from the New Testament St. Matthew chapter 10. Soph sits beside us looking at her basket of books. We discuss Macbeth and together, memorize a poem from Act  4 Scene 1, Soph puts on her witch hat to get us in the mood.

Around 9:15, Jaxon and Kade do copy work (Macbeth poem) in their best handwriting. Jaxon passes off yesterdays poem Jabberwocky by Louis Carol.

At 9:45ish, the boys take their spelling tests.

10:00 we do math. Kade plays with Soph while I get Jaxon started, then I switch and help Kade.

We read from Usborne Science Encyclopedia, discuss the ocean, salt water and cold water. The boys conduct a few science experiments showing at what speed salt water freezes verses plain water.

They also discover that cold water sinks to the bottom while warm water stays at the surface.  They chart their findings and make a few drawings for their science notebooks.

Lunch at 12:30ish, Soph plays with picture flash cards and colors.

We read 20-30 minutes aloud from The Pilgrim's Progress, by 1:30 Soph is napping and the boys and I watch a few appropriate scenes from the movie Elizabeth I The Golden Age.  We then separate for quiet time for an hour. Jaxon chose to work on his book, and Kade read Diary of a Whimpy Kid, I take a 30 minute nap and then take care of a little office work.

By 2:30 we're ready for Latin, we review what we've learned and complete a lesson. Jaxon speeds ahead leaving Kade and I in the dust!

We add a picture of Queen Elizabeth I to our history timeline.

For the next few hours we have free time, Soph helps me make dinner, on the menu is Citrus Basil Shrimp Tacos, they're a hit!

More free time. It's super hot right now, 110 degrees hot...so we don't go outside much except to swim or do the watering.

The boys switch taking a 30 minute turn on the computer.

The boys shower and then go in their rooms for more reading (assigned books or free reads). Jaxon does his writing class home work.

I correct the days work, prep for the next day, send emails, read blogs and work on blog posts. Finally take my relaxing bubble bath. Ahhh, serenity now. I pinch myself for not running today but promise to do it first thing in the morning!

Lights out by 9:00 for the boys, I watch a little football with Kimball, lights out at 10:00 for me. On other days of the week, we have swim class, drama, and scouts in the evenings. I love it on nights like this when we can just stay home and be.

Throughout the entire day I'm picking up as we go or having everyone jump in and do a quick pick up of the house. I'm enjoying having our school room in our main living area. I miss my awesome school room from my last home but we have so much open space in this house it works out perfect!

There you have it! Of course we adjust our days according to things that come up, that's one of the beauties of homeschooling, but this year I'm 100% commited to keeping our studies a priority and I try really hard to keep my days designated for schooling only. There's a million and one things that can distract us if we let them, so I think of it as a full time job (which it is) and remember that we follow a year round type schedule so we can have several weeks off throughout the year. It allows us to hang out with friends, take family trips and do fun projects around the house during those weeks.

For more posts about the nitty gritty of what home schooling families do, go to Heart of The Matter Blog Hop.