Monday, August 23, 2010

Not Back to School Blog Hop: A Day-in-the-Life

The "Not Back to School Blog Hop" topic for this week: A Day-in-the-Life. I'm not sure if we have typical days around here. ;) How 'bout "Days of Our Lives?"

Not Back to School Blog Hop

[Deep voice.] And these are the Days of Our Lives... [Yes, I was once a Days of Our Lives addict. When I was young. And childless. Now that my life IS a soap opera, I don't need to watch one.]

A typical summer day begins...

*The big kids try to sleep in. The little kids and the dog wake them as they run up and down the hall, screaming with glee.

*Or, on a "food preservation" day, I wake everyone early to go pick produce before it gets hot. (Not that it's been hot here this summer!) Our family picked around 180 pounds of blueberries in July and put 150 pounds in the freezer. We're now moving on to beans. Twenty, 2 quart bags, in the freezer so far. Corn starts in a week or so. The kids LOVE to help! (And I have a bridge to sell you...)

Once the big kids go back to school...

Lizzi leaves with Dad by 7am for high school. Anakin departs by 8:30am. Usually the little boys and I head to the couch for some read aloud time. Then LilDude (8) plans his day using his homeschool schedule pocket chart. He enjoys planning his own schedule. (Don't we all?) His plan indicates when he'll be working independently or with me so I can do other tasks when he's scheduled to work alone.

This year he'll be learning with:
  • Bridges math** (from The Math Learning Center) along with LOTS of Living Math books.
  • Sonlight Core 3 history (with many hands-on activities...) 
  • Writing Workshop--I'm originally a high school/middle school English/language arts teacher. Serious. How the whole "elementary school math specialist" thing came about is one big mystery. So I'm reverting to my roots and doing some writing workshop style lessons with him.
  • Art--We'll return to Roger Kukes' Drawing in the Classroom.
  • Science--Determined to use the bazillion materials I have on the shelf, I think we'll start with some AIMS books.
  • Music--Violin lessons continue. 
  • P.E.--I try to incorporate mandatory time outside. :) Outside play time is so crucial to child development. 
  • Foreign Language--I'm conflicted. I taught the older kids Spanish. But GG came to us fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese. Despite our efforts to retain it, he's lost it already. I don't know whether to try to focus on that, teach Spanish, or work on the language from LilDude's birth country, Korea. 

**Math Classes--LilDude will join me in a homeschool math class one morning/week. On these days, GG (age 4) will do preschool play with his friend and another mom while I teach. This year we'll begin with a class on Place Value Structures, using base 5 to explore what we know about place value. Each class will begin with a living book and continue with lessons using hands-on manipulatives, games, and some interactive calendar activities. [Class blog entries begin in Sept!]

On the rare days that I work outside the home, my students go to Nana where she gifts them with a lifetime of elementary school teaching experience. Her creative ideas are endless!

When LilDude's school schedule ends, it's time for lots and lots of play. Well, actually, his schedule is filled with play time. But that's what our homeschool life is all about!

[Deep voice.] And so concludes the Days of Our Lives...

So what does a day in your life look like? Join the blog hop! ;)

17 comments:

  1. Your Days of Our Lives reference cracked me up! My mom used to watch that when I was a girl, and they STILL have all the same characters on it! I was a General Hospital girl myself...

    Have a great year!

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  2. @Deb...and the ridiculous thing?? Those SAME CHARACTERS look the SAME AGE. How is it that they were older than me when I was in college and now they are younger than me???? (Not that I would ever turn it on to notice!!)

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  3. Great "Day in the Life"! Homeschoolers have so much fun and are so creative :) Love the pocket chart schedule.

    Thanks for sharing and have a very enjoyable 2010-2011 school year!
    ~Tamara
    www.BranchOfWisdom.com

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  4. You guys are funny! My dad saw a soap opera commercial the other day and commented that the lady had to be 110 years old because she was old when he was young. LOL!

    Great post! I plan to incorporate more and more living math books as well. Thanks for sharing!

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  5. The pocket chart is a great idea. I was an avid watcher as well, and some days I tune in and get caught up with years of info in 1 hour. Amazing.:)
    Rebecca

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  6. Thanks for all the nice comments!

    And @ Rebecca..."some days I tune in and get caught up with years of info in 1 hour." Seriously. I know. Pathetic, isn't it? ;) Watch once or twice in 20 years and you've got the whole story line caught up! ;)

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  7. I love that scheduling system you use! Great idea :)
    ~Lily
    www.neverfadingwood.blogspot.com

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  8. P.S. I am a new follower, and I love your blog header!

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  9. How old are your kiddos? I love blog hopping and finding other homeschoolers...it's especially fun to find people with kiddos the same age range as mine!

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  10. Great make your own schedule idea! How empowering for your eight year old!

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  11. Yea! So glad to see that another person had the same thought when reading the Blog Hop assignment this week. :) I also used to watch "Days Of Our Lives"...but that was back in college when I actually had time to kill. I haven't watched in twelve years but I'll bet that I haven't missed much. Nikki is still probably in an "on-and-off again" relationship with Victor (that is if they are still on the show). ;)

    Hannah (# 58 on this week's blog hop)
    http://crayonscrittersandcraziness.blogspot.com/

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  12. Your comment about why would I watch a soap opera when I'm living one made me smile. I like the scheduling chart that your child is in charge of. I'm going to suggest this to my daughter. Teaches huge responsibility on the child's part. Thanks for the post. :)

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  13. I love finding new blogs! I enjoyed meeting your family and reading a day in your life! I am now following your blog & look forward to seeing more of your school year.

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  14. After reading your blog I just thought that you may be interested in my File Folder Math Games that I give away for free. What you get is 20+ FREE Math Games (All of Volume 1 FREE) http://mathfilefoldergames.com

    The games are geared towards 5th to 8th grade students.

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  15. Great post! I plan to incorporate more and more living math books as well.i remember my school days when i read that part of books On the rare days that I work outside the home, my students go to Nana where she gifts them with a lifetime of elementary school teaching experience. Her creative ideas are endless!

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  16. Hi, I really enjoy the blog and all of the fun/creative activities. We do a lot of living math so I often check out the things you do to add to mine. I have a question about the pocket chart daily schedule (Mine is a little different). Do you still use it? Do you cover each subject each day or do you change your chart each day? Does your son choose what he wants to do each day? Do you have a set number of cards, i.e. 5 for journaling and reading time (because you do those every day) 3 for art and 2 for science (because you might spend a longer time on these so only do them 2 or 3 times per week)? My own system needs tweeking for next year so I thought I'd check this out. Thanks, ~Karen in Davis, CA

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  17. Hi Karen,

    We use the daily schedule when we're in full school mode. We're in a relaxed mode at the moment as we started school in June. I change the chart each day. When we were using Sonlight (which we will again), I followed their schedule and added my own pieces each day. My son sometimes chooses what he does each day or may choose within a subject. For instance, he'll have writing workshop and choose what to write. No set # of cards. One card per subject and I just go through the cards the night before and pull out whatever we'll need the next day. Fun to know that you're doing something like this, too. If you have a blog, point me there. ;)

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