Good School Day!

Today has been a fairly good school day! We got through most our school work, with little effort on the kids part and with minimal help from me.

Big news on the reading front. Thing Two brought down "Duck on a Bike" by David Shannon and read to me. This is the same boy, that even through the summer, was convinced he could not read. It may not be a chapter book, but for really just "getting" how to read, it's a descent length book for a new reader. He read about 98% of the book correctly. Guess it's time to get some more challenging books for him. I might just be able to convince him to try reading "The Magic Tree House" series, working on a chapter a day.

It really is exciting to see my kids taking off in a new or difficult subject. Love the front row seats.

Another blog hop

and this weeks theme - "A Day in the Life Week" from over at Heart of the Matter. What follows, is a tentative schedule of our days. There are so many variables, that can make it change. So here's what a day looks like around here:

• breakfast
• get ready for the day
• few chores
• school - in random order, we change it around to keep it fun
• possible free time if school is finished early
• lunch
• finish up school, if needed
• extra activities (field trip, nature walk, fun stuff, bikes, scooters, library, etc.)
• errands, if any are needed
• straighten up some before dinner
• dinner
• family devotions
• free time
• bed time routine (showers, reading, etc.)
• lights out

Do you like how I don't list times? I've found that if I try to keep strictly to a clock, some things get missed, for example, when they're really getting something and want to do more or almost finished and just need a few more minutes. That's an advantage of homeschooling, being able to give a bit more time when needed. We do have general guide lines, however, for when things should happen. For example, we try to get a bulk of our school finished during the morning hours. We also try to keep lights out around 8:30 to 9:00.

That's our life, in a nutshell!

Advantage #3 of Homeschooling

This may end up being a series of blogs, but just not set to a particular day of the week or on any particular schedule. I had a great thought to add to the series, but alas, my brain has failed me.

One that comes to mind though, when reviewing the day so far, is how I was woken up. About 7 AM this morning, Thing One comes into my bedroom and announces "Mom, I've finished my math, can we move on to something else now?". Um!! Can I wake up first???? Can I have a cup of tea first? Really need to come up with more independent work for the boys for moments like that.

Advantage #2 of Homeschooling

This is the week of "Advantages of Homeschooling". I might as well wrap up the week with a post on the same topic.

Woke up this morning tired, exhausted, and generally wiped out. A feeling that even the strongest caffeine in the world couldn't shake. Chalk it up to doing a lot yesterday and not having fully recovered from surgery last week. By mid day I was really missing my nap. This morning decided to go back to bed by around 9 or so and didn't get back up until 11:00 or so.

We haven't gotten dressed or started school. Hoping to get at least some accomplished today, but might just spread it over the weekend as I'm still dragging.

Off to finally get ready for the day, open up the house, and possibly feel better.

Have a great day folks.

Advantage of Homeschooling

The Thing's and I went to Wal-mart today. Really thought that it would have been less crowded with public school back in session. WRONG!!! It wasn't even busy with Moms without kids. It was just busy. We got things exchanged, purchased, and headed over to Great Harvest Bread. They make some really good bread and I wanted French Toast for dinner one night soon. At about $5.50 a loaf, it doesn't seem so bad for a meal.

Anyway, back to why I'm blogging today. Thing one asked for Kids Cuisine for lunch; when he asks, it usually means a home made variety. It's actually easy enough to do if you have compartmented plastic plates, just fill each section with something different. I decided to take pictures today, because I thought it was a neat idea. So, without further delay, here are some pictures:



Thing One's choice usually has easy mac, chicken nuggets, and something else. Today I added pretzels and sliced apples.











Thing Two didn't know what he wanted for lunch, so I gave him Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, pretzels, and apples. Didn't hear any complaints so it must have been good.








So how is this an advantage of homeschooling? Being able to make your kids a hot lunch (or room temperature in Thing Twos case), at lunch time, and knowing what is going into it.