We spend so little time at home, I sometimes wonder how we get any homeschooling done. Then we have days like today, when learning just flows and the day seems to stretch pleasantly to fit everything in.
At 8:30 AM I walked the dogs by the river while J(8) was having his occupational therapy session. C(9) did copywork and German on Duolingo and read her Rick Riordan book.
When I got back C(9) and I edited a story she wrote last week for a newspaper competition Granny had kindly sent her in the post.
Editing left us a bit peckish so we decided it was waffle time. We’ve been reading about the Battle of Agincourt in the Story of the World this week, so I read Shakespeare’s Stories: Henry V as I cooked.
Which led to a long game of History Heroes: How Well Do You Know Your Monarchs?, a great game we just came across thanks to Hwee. As we’ve not learned much English history recently we picked out a few cards to play with. The cards are packed with different kinds of interesting information which makes the game really easy to adapt to any knowledge-level.
While we were all gathered together, I invited the children to listen to Pythagoras and the Ratios: A Math Adventure which I bought after Julie wrote about it. This tied in nicely with the science project I had in mind for this week – making kazoos – and also with C(9)’s recent maths work on simplifying fractions.
At 2 PM each Wednesday a lovely guitar tutor visits the house to teach classical guitar to first me and then C(9). Before he arrived, J(8) and I read Life of Fred: Ice Cream together.
After guitar, C(9) and I worked through some more of the wonderful {free!} times tables book for visual-spatial learners, Nothin’ But the Facts! We started this book last week and C(9) has learned almost all her multiplication tables since then! Today we learned a trick for multiplying any number by 11 in your head – it’s very cool!
Then it was time for fifteen minutes’ meditation for me while the kids played Minecraft in their rooms on a Skype conference call with their cousins. (I still marvel at how they set all this up on their own. I wouldn’t have a clue.)
At 4:45 PM I popped dinner in the oven then took J(8) to his swimming lesson. I managed to squeeze in a quick half hour on the cross-trainer at the gym while he swam.
Another wonderful unschooling moment happened over dinner: C(9) got so excited telling her Dad about the maths she’d learned today, she spontaneously grabbed a whiteboard and started teaching him times tables tricks! 😀
After dinner it was Cubs for C(9). She was thrilled that her Six got the most points this half-term by over 200 points, which earned them each a chocolate bar – and she was presented with the “Best Sixer” award.
My chauffeur duties ended at 8:45 PM. What a lovely day 🙂
Head over to Adventuroo for more Week in My Life fun! And here are my posts for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
I’m appreciatively linking up with Collage Friday at Homegrown Learners, Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers’ Weekly Wrap-Up and the Hip Homeschool Hop.
What a busy and fruitful day! I love days like this. I’m really glad that you’re enjoying the “History Heroes” game too. I’ve not tried to read aloud and cook at the same time, for fear of burning the dinner! Also thanks for sharing so many good resources. I’ll have to check out the VSL times table book. Although Tiger already knows his tables, I’m still intrigued by what goes on in his brain so this book might help demystify it.
The History Heroes game is great – I really appreciate that tip, Hwee. Yes I do take multi-tasking to a bit of an extreme sometimes – but waffle-making and Shakespeare were strangely quite compatible! C(9) pointed out it looks like the waffle-iron’s on fire in the photo, but I promise it was only steam 😀
I love that tables book – lots of number patterns to play with, even if you already know the tables. I didn’t know the elevens trick – so handy that it works for any number multiplied by eleven.
Phew – I need a lie down after all that!
I know what you mean, Angela. It was a lovely day but I couldn’t do every day like that!
Lucinda,
What a full and interesting day! Love all the photos. Looks like everyone is enjoying all the activities. Thank you for the times table link. I think Gemma-Rose has conquered times tables or nearly, but I’m still interested in different methods of learning tables. A bit of reinforcement, maybe?
Thank you for reading about my week, Sue! And for your kind words. I think you and Gemma-Rose will like the times tables booklet. It’s full of fun patterns and multi-sensory memory tricks – just the sort of learning fun we like, I think!
Love your photos! Oh my goodness, I want to try to make kazoos with our boys now. Such a great idea. Thanks for sharing the link!
Thank you, Rita! The kazoos are very easy and lots of fun. Even I can’t resist picking one up and making some noise when I see one nearby!
Sounds like a fabulous day filled with just the right amount of learning and fun.
It was a lovely balance, Jessica. Thank you for stopping by!
Oh the kazoo looks like so much fun!
And I love that (c)9 was so into her math today– that’s awesome. Sounds like it was a great day all around!
It was definitely one of those days where everything just works – aren’t they great? I think I even heard J(8) say the words “I never knew division could be so easy!” at one point in the day, too. Music to a homeschooling mama’s ears!
I love day in the life posts. What a wonderful day you all had. I love all of the hands on learning.
Blessings, Dawn
Thank you so much, Dawn. I love other people’s day in the life posts, too. It’s so interesting seeing the similarities and differences in our days, isn’t it? Blessings, Lucinda