A day in our life

I thought it might be nice to give you a rundown of one of our days so you can get an idea as to what schoolwork we do and how we run with 4 busy little boys in the house. No day is ever the same but on days when we stay at home for the morning and do our schoolwork we tend to follow a similar pattern with small allowances for the little ones when they need more attention.

Today is Friday 25th March 2011.

7:00am - Clif gets up to Ehren, gets him a snack and lets him play in the classroom/playroom area with some activities I left out for him the night before. He plays with a Bead and wire toy (like the ones in the banks) and some playfood items and a play microwave. Bailey & Dane also wake within this hour and play a little with their trains. I'm still sleeping as I've been up earlier at 5am with Fraser for a feed and cuddle before getting back to sleep around 6am.

8:00am - I get up and organise breakfast for everyone. I get myself, Fraser and Ehren showered and dressed for the day. Fraser has a booby feed and then hops into his swing whilst watching his brothers play and watch ABC for kids.

9:00am - I do a tidy up in the kitchen and then organise the boys to tidy up the classroom area so we can start school for the day.

9:30am - School starts. The boys bring their chairs over to the mat area and we look at our Weekly planner to work out what we are doing today and we use this as an opportunity for talking about the days of the week. We take another quick look at the month on our Monthly Birthday planner and note that Dane's birthday is next month and getting closer. He wants me to count how many days to go so we count on a calendar how many more days til his birthday.

9:45am - We have a group session talking about our current topic, Endangered Animals. This week so far we have learned what endangered and extinct means and learned about the Giant Panda that comes from China. Today we discuss the Platypus from Australia and Przewalski's horse from Mongolia. We mark these on our world map.

10:15am - Dane sits at the desk to do some name practise in his book. He is still learning his last name which is finds difficult being so long. Bailey and I have a 1 on 1 Maths lesson on Addition when using the carry over system. We do some practise sums on the whiteboard before he sits at his desk to do some sums in his workbook. Fraser is sleeping and Ehren is doing some colouring in with crayons in the Lightning McQueen book.

10:45am - Dane has since moved onto his Letter D worksheet, colouring in the pictures that start with the D sound and practising small and capital D's. Bailey is still working on his Addition worksheet. Bailey then stops partway through to come back to the whiteboard so I can talk more about hundreds and thousands. Ehren has gone to bed for a nap after watching a little bit of Waybuloo on ABC.

11:00am - Dane now completes a Dot to Dot using the numbers 1 - 10 and colours as much as he likes until he tires of it and I tell him he can now have freeplay. He returns to his trains and watches a little bit of ABC for kids. Bailey is finishing off his Maths work after doing a few more practise sums on the whiteboard using thousands for his carry over Addition work.

11:30am - Bailey completes the remainder of his sheet and we mark it together. He has not done too bad, considering the concept is so new to him. We will concentrate on these Maths tasks all next week also.

11:45am - The boys play trains together whilst I organise lunch for everyone. I anticipate Ehren and Fraser waking up soon so I get as much done in the kitchen as I can before we leave at 12:30 for my Mum's salon.

Midday - Lunchtime. Today we have fruit toast and a glass of milk followed by an apple. Fraser wakes for a booby feed and I pack him and Ehren some snacks for at the salon. Ehren wakes just as we're about to leave so eats his toast in the car on the way.

12:30pm - We leave for the salon and arrive for a 1pm appointment. I get my cut and colour done and Bailey decides to get his hair cut the shortest it's been since he was a toddler. It seems to be a new phase he's going through, reinventing himself into 'Big Bailey'.

3:00 pm - We arrive home after being stuck in nightmare traffic from road closures. The boys have a little play before we head back out to go collect an item I won off eBay. More traffic congestion means we get home late, just in time for dinner.

6:00 pm - Ehren and Fraser are fed, changed and put to bed. Bailey & Dane have dinner then go on to play with some playdo.

7:00 pm - Bailey reads me his daily early reader book. He's really enjoying this series of books so I make a mental note to think about buying some more next time I get over the Northside to Edsco bookstore.

8:00pm - Bailey are Dane get off to bed after their usual nightly routine of cuddles, toilet and teeth brushing.

I proceed to get ready to go out for the night with my best mate. I feed Fraser just after she arrives and head out about 10:00pm.

That's the end of another day for us, been very busy as usual. It might take a lot of energy to Homeschool the boys but I wouldn't change it for the world.

HE CAN READ!!!

There are very few things in life that a parent will always remember. The birth of their child, the first time they walked, they first time they said your name and so on and so forth. Another milestone that seems even more significant as a Homeschooling mother is the day your child officially learns to read!

I can honestly say I will never forget the look on Bailey's face last week as he finished his early reader book and turned to me and exclaimed "I can read!". It was such a beautiful moment I had to let Nanna in on the excitement right then and there. Bailey jumped on the phone and screamed into the phone "I can read Nanna!". It was amazing that with that one book we both realised that all the hard work had finally come into fruition. He read the book front to back with no help, a brand new book he'd not even seen before, let alone read before.

It feels like this Homeschooling thing is all coming together. There was one missing link that I believe we have now found, a group of other homeschooling families to belong to. A group where I could get the support, advice and genuine understanding from other homeschooling parents and where my children could make good, genuine friendships with other homeschooling kids. We joined a fantastic group early this year and it is probably one of the best decisions I've made in a long time. We join them for park playdates, swim lessons, Monday classes (Bailey is currently learning Spanish and Art class, Dane is learning Spanish and Drama), excursions and other fun filled activities. It's a great group of Mums too from which I am sure to learn a billion things from.

All in all, things are going great in our World. My boys are thriving, I'm happy, we're all healthy, so really what more could you ask for?