Our Homeschool Day

When I get up at dawn, I walk outside to look on the clothes line for the cleanest and driest denim jumper to wear for the day.  While getting dressed I usually find seed pods and home-cooked meal recipes in the pockets...I can be so forgetful!  I love bringing in the laundry early in the morning.  After milking the cow and chasing the free-range chooks around the yard, I joyfully made a hearty breakfast for the kids who, by this time they are sitting at the table reading from their lesson books.  Writing notes.  Discussing politics.  Committed to their own education, while classical music is playing.  Taking their OCD and ADHD meds.

After a few hours of intensive learning and reading aloud to one another, we take a mid-morning break and walk out into the woods, identify bird songs, check on our fishing lines, and collect water samples for our running pond studies.  Oh, and we feed the llamas, dogs, horse, birds, chinchillas, chooks, reptiles, and carnivorous plants.

Upon our return we all work together in the kitchen on an organic lunch straight out of the garden, which we share with work-at-home Daddy.  After the dishes are tidied up straight away, we drive a few meals around to home-bound friends; they just love my cooking!  Back home we move on to our advanced math and science work.  Experiments are carried out and diagrammed, word problems are discussed, protractors are used.

While the kids are working independently and side-by-side for the afternoon, I take out my embroidery for a bit of relaxation.  How I enjoy their silence.  I work on some darling long skirts for my daughter and black vests for my son.  I have also made curtains for the den and camper, and costumes for the homeschool play.  I'm working on a knitted Christmas tree complete with ornaments, lighted bits, and singing animals.  I found the pattern on Pinterest. 

As formal lesson time ends, the kids get excited about working on their projects.  My daughter spends her time either practicing her ballet, raising baby chicks, working in her organic garden, or ranking all of the American presidents by words made up of anagrams of their names.  My son either works on his matchstick models, his outdoor Liberty Walk, or on cataloging stars by color and chemical make up.  He is also learning to play the spoons.  I get busy making phone calls for all of the volunteer activities that I participate in.  This is also the time we might walk down to the nursing home and sing songs for the residents.  How they love our voices!

When the afternoon wears on toward dinner, the kids start excitedly looking through the pantry planning on what do make for dinner; I can barely stop them!  My daughter might make a pie, some French appetizer, or some fresh home made noodles while my son might create a vegan delight out of nothing but leftovers.

My son tidies out his little closet under the stairs and enjoys some time in total darkness.  My daughter sits alone in her room.  After our family discussion where my husband tells us what we should be improving on, we sit quietly while Daddy smokes and relaxes.

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