A look at our days

I'm up at 5... not because I am so "supermom" to wake up at the break of dawn, but because I have two year old twin girls who don't give me a choice. So I am able to make the best of it...

I get to see my husband off to work at 5:45.
I get to drink a warm, delicious cup of coffee while reading my Bible and listening to my twins play together.
I am able to put a load of laundry in and prepare breakfast...

Then three more children wake up.
Breakfast is eaten, showers are taken.

Our learning time begins.
First is our Bible reading. This morning we read Ephesians 6, about the armor of God. Then Layla and Josiah colored pictures and did a word search and maze about the armor of God printed from here.

Ian, Layla and Josiah each work on their math while I play with and read to the twins, pausing often to help when needed.

Nap time for the littles... the twins go down and I read with Layla and Josiah. We read our history, our literature, our nature books. Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Among the Night People, and Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare were on our list today. After each reading we have time for narrations... the children will tell back what we just read, sometimes the entire story, sometimes a favorite part. We discuss any lessons we learn from what we read... What can we learn by Dr. Goldsmith's kindness? How can we show the same kindness? ... Sometimes the children will draw pictures of a part of our reading, sometimes they will make up and perform a play. Once a week, Layla will write her narration.

At this same time, Ian is typically writing at least a one page essay. He will write about something he is reading, learning, thinking. He does his own history, literature and science readings...each one followed by a discussion with me, an experiment (if science), and at least one written narration per day. Currently he is reading Birth of Britain, Ivanhoe, Age of Chivalry, English literature for Boys and Girls, The World of Physics, A Midsummer Night's Dream, How to Read a Book, and Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

At some point in there, we eat lunch.

As the twins rejoin our day, it becomes a bit louder. They usually color, build blocks, "read" their books, play with their baby dolls and go down their slide while everyone else continues their learning.

Layla does copywork picked from a current reading...either the Bible, poetry (our current poet is Robert Louis Stevenson), history or literature. Josiah works on a handwriting page. Ian continues his reading, writing and discussions for the day and then does dictation. Layla and Ian both have their own language arts books that they work out of.

We make time each day for something extra...either picture study (our current artist is Leonardo DaVinci, our painting is The Last Supper), nature study (we spend time outdoors, find beautiful things, draw them, learn about them), Spanish, etc.

We read our own books freely throughout the day...
Ian is reading Jane Eyre...(yes, a 14 year old boy chose to read this book, and he loves it! That is what happens when you raise your children up with the best literature there is.)
Layla is reading The Borrowers Aloft.
Josiah is very slowly making his way through Winnie-the-Pooh...and he's on his last chapter!

We do some chores, we play, we read, we do crafts, we bake, we go to the park, we (ok, not me) play musical instruments.

I make dinner...tonight something easy, chicken, corn and pasta.

Usually daddy is home by now, and we eat, we play more, we read more and together, we snuggle, we laugh, we give baths, we play more, girls are getting sleepy... we read the Bible, we talk...sometimes we watch a family movie...but not tonight. Tonight was game 1 of the Dodgers in the play offs, and our guys had to watch it. (They are winning by the way, yay!) This explains why I have had so much time to sit and write this post!

Our littles are all asleep, well, except for Layla who is trying to stay awake and read her book. That is a basic overview of most of our days, with a little of today's specifics. I'm sure I have left some things out...like dessert (pumpkin cake the kids and I made), the trip to the store for pencils (yes, we ran out of pencils...not good when you homeschool), all of the numerous snuggles and kisses we had throughout the day... but, this is most of what our days look like.

Have a good night,
Amy