Most of my life what time I have gotten up has been dictated by what time I needed to be at school. When I first became a stay-at-home mom, what time I got up was usually dictated by when Ian or Oliver woke up. This has been the first school year in which the kids have very rarely woken me up in the morning. I usually get up sometime between 6:00-7:00, but every once in a while I sleep until sometime between 7:00-7:30. On March 3, I woke up at 6:30 but chose to rest for twenty more minutes before I got up to take a shower. After I finished blow drying my hair, I woke up Nadia and Ian at 7:20. I ate my breakfast, checked my email, solved the daily Wordle puzzle, and put Paul's dishes from dinner into the dishwasher while they took the two dogs outside. We only own one dog, but Nadia is earning $10/day by dog sitting a female Cavapoo named Cookie. Paul ate dinner after I went to bed last night. Nadia began her Algebra I lesson on the iPad while the boys began eating their bowls of cereal while we listened to an audiobook. I started a load of laundry and swept the foyer before sitting down in my recliner. Due to ongoing issues with my ankle, I still spend quite a few hours in that chair every day. We paused the audiobook whenever Nadia wanted to ask me a question regarding her Algebra 1 lesson.
At 8:15 the kids and I began watching today's episode of World Watch News. Recently, we began working through a new book about the Old Testament. Every other school day we watch a three minute video that corresponds with the book. A few decades ago, I attended a Walk Thru the Bible seminar. These short videos are teaching the kids the hand motions from Walk Thru the Bible. After we watched the video, we worked on memorizing James 5: 4 and reviewed verses 1-3 of the same chapter. We have been memorizing the book of James and listening to half of the Old Testament together this school year. Today we listened to and discussed three chapters of Ezekiel. After we finish Ezekiel, we will have two books left (Isaiah and Jeremiah) and then we will have finished listening to (almost) the entire Old Testament (I say almost because we skipped Song of Solomon). The last subject that we all do together is history; thus far this year we have studied from creation through around 400 BC. Topics this week have included the Peloponnesian War, Pericles, Malachi, Plato, and Aristotle.
After we finished history, Oliver copied Isaiah 9:6 in cursive and then started working on a Spanish lesson with the Duolingo app while I read Nadia and Ian the next to last chapter of Life of Fred's Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics. After Nadia and Ian completed the problems at the end of the chapter, we discussed correlative conjunctions and discussed one day of Fix it Grammar's Little Mermaid. I also read them a brief essay on the taming of Bucephalus and reviewed the concepts of antagonist, theme, protagonist, and climax.
At 10:00 Nadia took Cookie up to her room while she read Mara, Daughter of the Nile; on school days she has to read at least thirty minutes a day from a list of books I created. She reads other books of her choosing at other times during the day. Currently she's reading Shine by Chris Grabenstein, The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden by Karina Yan Glaser, and Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien. While Nadia was reading and Oliver was finishing his Spanish lesson, I asked Ian to spell some French loan words such as limousine and exhaust as he is nearing the end of the Level 7 All About Spelling curriculum. After spelling, Ian practiced the piano. While Ian practiced the piano, I asked Oliver to spell the words contained in four sentences from his Level 4 spelling textbook.
At 10:40 Nadia began working on Physical Science, took Milo out, and then used a laptop to complete some coding exercises from Python for Kids. During this time Ian read God King which focuses on three kings - Hezekiah of Judah, Sennacherib of Assyria, and Taharka of Egypt. After his schoolwork is done, he reads books of his choosing. He recently finished reading books #2-5 of the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series by Brandon Sanderson. Currently he's reading On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson. While Ian read, I worked with Oliver on math (Beast Academy 3B) and started making lunches for the boys and I. Nadia always makes her own lunch.
Around 11:30 Ian came down to eat his lunch. After Nadia took Cookie outside, she began making her usual grilled swiss cheese sandwich. We finished listening to Cheaper by the Dozen and began listening to Jessica's Journey. After Nadia finished her lunch, she worked on Duolingo on the iPad while we were listening to the story. I had read Cheaper by the Dozen aloud to the kids in 2015 but they didn't remember it. I decided to have them listen to it aloud again partially because a new movie based on the book is being released on Disney+ in the near future. The kids enjoyed the book, and Nadia and Ian said they want to read the sequel, Belles on their toes.
At 12:15 Nadia took Cookie upstairs and had a turn on the iPad because she had finished all of her school work aside from a science experiment that I asked her to wait to do so that she and Ian could do it together. She typically plays Minecraft and watches a show during her turns. During this time Ian used a laptop to work on Python and lesson 91 of Teaching Textbooks Math 7. I worked with Oliver in his Swimming Creatures workbook where he completed a crustacean crossword puzzle and dictated a creative writing assignment that featured two different types of crabs. He also took Milo out for a walk. Nadia finished her turn before Ian finished Python or Oliver finished science. Ian really enjoys the Python coding exercises, but they often take him a LONG time (more than an hour today). Nadia took a shower while Ian was working on math and Oliver was finishing science.
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| Ian has been learning how to do a "shoot the duck" |
I helped Oliver practice the piano while Ian finished his math. Sometimes I needed to leave the piano bench to answer one of Ian's questions, but he's generally pretty independent in math this year for the first time in his life. Nadia also began making peanut butter bars, which is her most favorite dessert. After Oliver finished practicing the piano around 2:30, he had a turn on the Nintendo Switch and then started working on a puzzle until one of his friends rang our doorbell at 3:30 and he went outside to play with her. I helped Nadia make the dessert. Nadia and Ian each are required to cook once a week, but she made this of her own initiative as she had already made jerk chicken and pommes aligot on Tuesday. After Ian finished his math, he drew an illustration of one of the ten plagues and then completed a lesson in the Physical Science textbook. Nadia and Oliver each took the dogs out a couple of times during the afternoon. I folded the load of laundry that I had done earlier in the day, did the dishes, and make chicken quesadillas for dinner. Ian finished his work at 3:00pm, which meant that it was time for Ian and Nadia to do a very simple science experiment related to electricity as the unit they are working on now deals with electricity and magnetism.
For a few years the kids and I had dinner around 4:00pm most of the time. Nadia had asked that we shift the time to 5:00pm, and that is usually the case these days, but because we leave for ice skating lessons around 4:30pm and don't get back home until a little after 7:00pm, we have been eating dinner at 4:00pm on Thursdays. Oliver chose to have split pea and ham soup that I made yesterday. Ian, Nadia, and I had quesadillas. We listened to more of Jessica's Journey while we ate albeit Ian was lobbying for us to start The Last Cuentista, which was this year's Newberry pick. Today was their last ice skating lesson. Next week they have an ice skating party from 4:30-6:30 that includes pizza so we won't eat dinner before heading out to ice skating next week. I have considered these ice skating lessons to be their gym class for the last two months. Ian and Nadia skate for 75 minutes, and Oliver skates for 45 minutes. Usually during ice skating lessons I read a book and/or work on Duolingo. I do spend time on Duolingo every day. My current streak is 287 days straight. Today I had the privilege of chatting with another homeschooling mom for about 30 minutes. Our paths hadn't crossed for almost two years due to COVID so it was great to chat with her a bit last week and again today.
On our way home from ice skating we made a very quick stop at a grocery store so I could buy some milk and bananas. After Ian and Nadia took the dogs out around 7:20pm and I put away the groceries, we had our devotions and prayer. Typically we do that at 8:30pm, but we had it early because we planned to watch the first part of Addams Family 2 that I checked out from the library yesterday. Paul came home from work a little before 8pm while the kids were watching the movie. Oliver went to bed at 9pm, Ian and Milo went to bed at 9:30pm, and Nadia will go to bed at 10pm. A large portion of our day is the same most weeks Monday through Friday. On Tuesdays Nadia and I are usually gone from 3:00-5:15 for her drama class. On Wednesdays Oliver and I drop Ian and Nadia off at church at 4:30pm and then return at 6:25pm so that he can attend a midweek program for elementary students and I can attend a ladies Bible study. Our weekly commitment for ice skating will be ending next Thursday, but on Monday we'll be starting a ten week session of a 90 minute weekly homeschool gym class. The kids haven't been in a homeschool gym class since spring 2019. I'm thankful we don't have any weekly commitments for three days of the week (has been Monday, Friday, Saturday and will be true for Thursday, Friday, Saturday for the following nine weeks). We typically do most of our chores on Saturday (cleaning the bathrooms, changing the bedding in the guinea pig cage, vacuuming, dusting, etc.).
I am very thankful that I'm "only" homeschooling three kids, doing the laundry, cooking, cleaning, mowing the lawn, etc. and not also juggling a FT job as I did for two school years (August 2017 - May 2019). I again have margin in my schedule - time for activities like reading and working on learning Spanish. On Tuesday I finished reading The Lady's Mine by Francine Rivers, and yesterday I started The Winter Rose by Melanie Dobson. I didn't have time to read today due to working on this post. I've written posts like this several times throughout the years including March 2021, April 2018, December 2015, September 2013, and February 2013.
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| Nadia working on her "waltz jump" |
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