Day in the Life

 We're a homeschooling family which means juggling education with daily needs. We're only two weeks in and still getting the hang of things, but so far, it's been working well. No transporting kids to and from school, no evening meetings and no homework means more time for housework, social engagements and PLAY!

This is where all the magic happens :)

I like how our busy homeschool book shelf is hidden behind the door to the kitchen. I do not like that I'm still using my sewing machine as a door stop. Gotta get on that!

 The bookshelf was $10 and it houses all of our Sonlight books, workbooks, art caddies, games, readers, manipulatives, puzzles and even our household files. The cabinet holds lots of other fun art supplies - ribbons, buttons, glue, stickers, yarn, chalkboards, paints, etc. Sometimes the dining room feels a little heavy to me, but it's a well used and beloved room in our house. As long as I keep surfaces clean, I don't get too anxious about it :)

So, what does our day look like? It starts the same way every day. East breakfast, get dressed and meet mama on the couch by 8:30am. This is my favorite part of the day when I get to just read to the boys. It's part of our Sonlight curriculum (generously lended to us by a friend!!). We start with Bible and prayer, then read through our materials. We cover history, literature and geography during this time, too.

(here, we're doing our reading at night because we decided to "skip" school that morning!)

Then, we move on to written work with phonics which takes about 20 minutes. This is the only true "teaching time" I have to give and we do this part 5 days a week. To keep Lazarus busy, he gets 30 minutes of blanket time. Each day, he is given a few different activities to do while on the blanket. Lacing cards, magnet shapes and a cookie tray, beads and pipe cleaners, pom poms and kitchen tongs, etc. He's done well keeping himself busy and I think it's good for him to learn how to focus on just a few objects at a time.

Elijah also LOVES math (no surprise here!) so we've been working through a $1 workbook. I have so many of these I've collected from the dollar store and Target. He loves writing his name at the top, completing his work and getting a sticker. It's so cute!! We also have great math games we love to play with dice, counting bears, blocks and other things I've picked up.  Lazarus sits at the table with us and does his own little coloring and cutting activities. He, too loves getting the "completion" sticker :)

One morning, Elijah slept in until 9am, so we took our time. We eventually did school, then baked and played games. I love the flexibility that homeschool gives us. Of course, I imagined myself to be more like my friend : super organized, very scheduled, beautiful spaces to work in, etc, but it turns out, I'm more of an unorganized flexible homeschool mom. Again, if we continue to homeschool, things will need to be more organized with 2 kids learning, but for now, I'm loving the extra time and space to just BE.

We're done by 10am and the rest of the day is open to do things like this:

 And this:

Oh, and this:

And the best part is, Lazarus has his best friend to play with every day instead of getting into trouble like this:

Oh who am I kidding...stuff like this happens all the time!

Fall and winter are right around the corner here in Bellingham and y'all, it ain't pretty. Lots and lots of dark rainy days are in our future and I'm feeling anxious. We do plan to attend the library story time every week and become members at this cute museum with an amazing kids section. There is also a free kids gym time at a community center nearby. I'm sure we'll be there once or twice a week!!