A Glimpse into our Day!

If you homeschool you know that every family's day looks a little different. If you don't homeschool you might figure that a homeschooler's day looks alot like a regular school day, just in a classroom at home. Well, I wanted to share how our day looks. It probably looks different than many other homeschoolers. But, I am sure there are similarities too. It definitely looks different than a regular school.

Our morning starts with the kiddos waking up some time around 8. Most mornings I have been up for a little while getting my time with God in, as well as a little exercise. Hmmm, well, maybe that's not entirely true....I try, but I am still working on the whole getting up early.... I DON'T DO MORNINGS is a saying that I have always lived by. So, the kids get started on chores and I start breakfast....


After chores and breakfast we use our refrigerator as our "morning board" and go over the daily things they are all working on...Bible verses, books of the Bible, etc.


Then it's time for Bible and Geography on the couch....This is my favorite time because they are all 3 right there with me.

 On to workboxes from there....


We LOVE our workboxes and I am not sure how I ever survived without them. The boys have 9 each and Molly has 6. We do them a little different than Sue Patrick, the "creator" of workboxes does them, but the idea is the same, and we like to tweak things to make them work for us! Molly and Zach work at the kitchen table with me dividing my time between the two...




Paul works on his own for his first 4 boxes--Bible, Reading, Math, and Big IQ Kids independently...


As the day progresses the little ones tend to need lots of play breaks. I know some people add breaks in to the workboxes and I have tried that, but taking breaks when the kids (or myself) have just had enough, instead of waiting until it's in a box, just works better for us. So, after the morning routine is completed and the first couple of workboxes are done our day turns in many different directions.

We love to take school outside to the trampoline....




Or, take a break from our regular scheduled schooling to study whatever the boys' latest nature find might be...



Or we may make some robots....



And, we LOVE field trips....



Even if it's just a "field trip" to our woods with Daddy.



There's also lots of cooking....







And just plain playing....







Not sure why he plays in the hallway...we have a huge playroom, as well as several other places to play. The hallway is often his "play place" of choice!



Of course, outside playing baseball is even better....



There's probably going to be some crazy art project thrown in occasionally as well....



As you can see we are pretty eclectic in our learning, and in our day. You never know what we might end up doing.

 At some point in the afternoon Paul and I sit down together and do the subjects he needs me for--history, writing, language and science. Most days the boys get through all of their workboxes, especially Paul. But, we are also sure to leave lots of time for exploration and play.

 At some point in the day I get to laundry, the kitchen and cleaning the rest of the house. And, if that doesn't happen, well, there's always tomorrow.



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Media Free Days...What do they look like

Unfortunately many parents are scared to take media away from their kids. They have several reasons why media is good for them but many times the truth is just that they don't know what to do with their kids. They think that if the kids aren't watching tv or playing a video game they will be complaining about being bored or they will get too rowdy. Well, the too rowdy part does occasionally happen in our home. But, more often than not, our media free days are peaceful and full of creativity. On pretty days the kids are outside playing in the woods or playing the sport of the season in the front yard. But, on days where it's raining or just plain too hot to be outside without a swimming pool nearby my kids tend to turn to their creative side.

We have lots of Lego building and playing going on.






And some tent building



Which leads to playing together



We have cookie baking and decorating



And tasting



We even found a gluten free cookie recipe that Zach likes



And oh so much more...reading without being asked, painting, coloring, building, creating, and in general just being kids exploring the world around them. They get along better and have less attitude when there is no media influencing them. It has become such a wonderful experience we are considering cutting it down even more. Try it, you'll probably like it, and your kids will thank you for it...one day!

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A Learning Lifestyle

Many schools in our area started back to school last week. We didn't actually start back but we did do a great deal of learning. As mentioned in my previous post we traveled to California last week. Not only did we attend a wedding, we also threw some site-seeing and education in there! There are so many wonderful things to do in the area. Thanks to Carole Marsh and her mystery book the kids had definite ideas as to what they wanted to see. This was such a great and fun way to prepare the kids for our trip. I read it aloud to them and they couldn't get enough. We even read some while waiting for Steve to get the rental car. Travel is such a memorable way to teach our kids. They often talk about the different things we see and learn bout on various trips we have taken.




We started out with a trip down to the redwoods. These aren't the biggest of the redwoods, those are further north in California. These were definitely impressive though.






Later that day we headed to the Boardwalk and Pier in Santa Cruz. We learned about Sea Lions. It was wonderful to see these amazing creatures. We watched them "play" for a long time and actually went back the next day to watch them some more.









After that it was time for the boardwalk. No learning here, just fun!










Well, I guess we learned that chocolate covered bananas with sprinkles are great (or at least Zach really liked it)


And then the kids put their feet in the Pacific Ocean and learned that it was VERY cold.



The kids also loved hanging out with their cousins on the pier. As you can see from the pictures we all learned that when you are in northern California you should always carry a sweatshirt!



And they learned, or i should say we are always learning how to get along with each other.


Later in the week we saw a much anticipated landmark...Lombard Street.



We stopped in and saw a beautiful garden in the middle of the bustling city of San Francisco.









We learned about Alcatraz and that sailing on the Bay is frigid but a lot of fun.







We learned that Zachary will do anything for a laugh...wait, we knew that already!



We learned that Molly takes awesome pictures, oh yea, we knew that already too.




Zach and Paul take great pics too!






We learned about the Golden Gate Bridge and got to sail under it.




We learned all about Ghiradelli Chocolate!




And all about Ice cream with Ghiradelli chocolate---YUMMMM!






We learned about street vendors.



And then we took a tour of an old cargo sailing ship, the Balclutha.








We had a great time and it really was very educational.

The trip home was a completely different educational experience about maneuvering through multiple airports, and subways with 3 very tired kids and 10 bags as well as a stroller and 2 exhausted parents. But that's a story for a completely different post. Suffice it to say we are so glad to be home and so incredibly blessed to have had such a wonderful trip. We often talk about how God has spoiled us in so many ways!