A Day in Our Life

"What do you do with the little ones, while you're doing school?"

That question often tops the FAQs of homeschoolers. In our home, we generally begin the morning's lessons at the onset of the baby's morning nap. Because he wakes up around six-thirty, he's usually ready for a nap by eight-thirty or nine.

The girls get busy with their math books (one in Saxon 2, the other is having fun with the Singapore Early Bird series). My two year old son likes to be right there in the action, so he has a few toys saved specifically for this time. Legos, wiki stix, calendar magnets... For the most part, it doesn't matter what it is, it just has to be able to be put in a dump truck and moved from place to place. In the winter, I put a few bags of cornmeal in a big, low sided rubbermaid box and let him move his trucks around in it. He can't get enough of this. I save it for winter, though, because he has a perfectily good sandbox outside for the milder months. We need all the diversions we can get to weather the North Dakota winters, which generally last all year.

Latin is done during this more mom intense time too. I save copywork, oral reading, and spelling for between snack time and lunch. This tends to be a boisterous time around our household and my oldest can do this on her own. I often listen to her read from McGufffey while mixing up baby cereal, looking at my calendar, or tending to the toddler's needs.

After lunch, we have a much needed "quiet time." The baby takes a long nap, the older ones watch a video (the only screen time allowed throughout the day) and I have a quiet cup of coffee. It's pure bliss!

Since the weather has been beautiful around here, we've been taking our afternoon lessons outside. We spread a blanket in the backyard and let the baby flounce around. My two year old either plays on the playset, drives around in his Cozy Coup, or opens and closes the rings on his history binder. I made copies of the coloring pages from Story of the World for him too this year so that he could scribble a little and feel a part of the game. He actually gets into it. His favorite page so far is the farmer and his shaduf. We rotate between history and science during this afternoon time.

We also do a fair amount of "pegging" -- tying one thing on to another. We read from The Golden Children's Bible during morning snack, we listen to our current composer during play time, we often narrate our daily learnings over dinner.

I love the rhythm of it all... Having babies and toddlers around certainly adds a different spice to the atmosphere but a much needed dose of reality as well. When does anyone truly get to work uninterrupted at anything? Life has interruptions, very often they're the best part of the day!