A Tuesday at Our House

Today I’m continuing the Day at our House series linked to the Not Back to School Blog Hop.  I’m posting every day this week so you can get a better picture of what homeschool life is really like at our house.  You can read about Monday if you’re just joining me.  I managed to find the camera today, so I have included a few pictures.

Ahh, back to a more normal wake up time today – I was out of bed at 6:10am and had time to eat my breakfast, check email, and read my scriptures before the children’s day began.  I also ran the vacuum, but don’t tell my husband – it’s probably not the best thing to do with my ankle in a brace.

I woke the children up at 7:00am, changed diapers on the baby and toddler, and everyone headed downstairs.  I put dinner in the crock pot while unloading the dishwasher was done by my children: I fed the baby applesauce and blueberries for breakfast, and the other children had cereal or yogurt. 

As the children finish breakfast they leave the table to do their chorepacks.  I cleaned up the baby and he helped me switch a load of laundry (read: he got underfoot and tried to knock over the laundry basket.)I snuggled up on the couch with Emma, Daniel, Oliver, and Caleb when Emma was ready for scripture time and read them aloud.  Then Emma headed back to finish the rest of her chores.  A few minutes later Joseph came down ready to read scriptures with me.

By 8:40am all the chores were done and the children gathered on the couch to sing hymns and start our school day.  Makayla’s first subject after that is always writing.  She’s been working on a story for about a week and a half for our Thursday Story Quest class.  Today she decided she didn’t like her story and threw it away in a huff, which means she’s been writing like a mad woman to create a new story.  Everyone was gathered at the table when she decided this.  I was teaching Emma and Joseph the next lesson in Math U See Alpha about solving for the unknown.  Caleb was sitting in his bumbo seat with a few toys.  Oliver and Daniel were seatbelted into their boosters with coloring paper, then math blocks, and finally some learning toys/puzzles.  Makayla read us her work in progress.

After math the five younger children and I headed to the living room for a spelling bee.  Joseph, Emma, and Daniel are working on short vowel words, this week it is short o, and today we practiced spelling bee style.

Next Makayla took a break from writing so we could all gather on the couch and begin history.  We read a biography of William the Conqueror from Famous Men of the Middle Ages and the 3 oldest narrated orally to me.  Then Makayla went back to writing while I read two chapters of Viking Adventures to Joseph and Emma, which they took turns narrating.  While we were doing that here is what my little guys were doing: By this point it was 9:45am and the youngest 5 were free to play until snack time.  Makayla grabbed her independent reading for history to read and narrate.  She then headed to the piano to practice.

Snack started around 10:15am with a choice of an apple or pretzels and a cheese stick.  Makayla disappeared to her bedroom with her apple to read more of a Childhood of Famous Americans story about Harriet Tubman.  Emma corralled the younger boys into a game of High Ho Cherry-O.  I fed Caleb and he decided it was time for a nap. 

Following snack Makayla did her math practice, which went super smoothly – hallelujah!  Joseph, Emma, and Daniel took turns reading aloud to mommy, Oliver listened for a bit and then ran upstairs to play, where Makayla had already escaped to. 

That’s the end of our school day other than reading aloud Little Men, which we’ll do over lunch.  Tuesday is one of our lighter days, which allows my children plenty of time for exploring their own interests, like Makayla with Harriet Tubman.  Emma will spend a while doing art (her passion).  The boys will most likely turn to building things, Joseph started with this GeoPuzzle of Europe:We plan to head outside this afternoon to enjoy the sunshine, but for now I’ll push publish and go enjoy the rest of my day with my children.

Check back each evening for the next day’s report of life at our house!