A day in the life…I thought if I shared one day in our lives, every once in a while. I’m hoping it gives people an idea of what learning in our homeschool looks like. I’m fully aware this is not a perfect day and we don’t cover all subjects every day. I decide the day before hand so it’s somewhat random and thus…real.
5 AM: wake up to go to seminary. I realize the baby was up at some point during the night and is asleep on the couch. Thank you, husband, for getting her back to sleep. I move her to our bed in hopes that she sleeps through the children getting up, who are as loud and graceful as a herd of high heel wearing elephants.
Drive to seminary. I run out of gas. I immediately knew what the distraction was. The afternoon before on the way home from Shakespeare try outs, my children were talking about who each of the characters in the Tempest would be in the Batman universe. Once you decide Prospero is Ra’s al Ghul, it just falls into place, if you are my children and their friends.
I discover that I have left my phone at home and my 17 year old and I will be walking to a gas station to buy a gas can and gas. We learn some important things, like a woman five months pregnant can still run, if a car is speeding up to run you down and the honking of the other cars isn’t stopping it. We also learned people can still be wonderful. Someone lent us a gas can and drove us back to our van.
Breakfast: pumpkin muffins and fruit.
I read some books to the three little girls.
After breakfast we have a piano lesson with 13 year old . We are beginning more earnest work on her sight reading.
We hit the sweet spot of the morning. 13 year old keeps practicing piano for 45 minutes. 17 year old is typing on her book. 11 year old is typing on his book. 7 year old is on the couch with me doing phonics. 2 year old is coloring next to us. 4 year old is “doing the dishes”. The 9 year olds are having “twin time”.
I read with one 9 year old, who is still working on reading skills.
I deal with crazy insurance guy and shower while lunch is supposed to be made.
The front room is cleaned, lunch is actually started and I leave to my midwife appointment. I noticed that one of the little people has decided to sort a couple of handfuls of cat food by color. The fish one is, for whatever reason, the most popular. At the appointment, the baby is kicking and happy and healthy and I’m definitely getting bigger.
I come home and wait for their show to end.
To read more of Britt’s articles, click the picture.
We go outside for a spot of kid school. We are reading The Jungle Book and last night while reading we noticed that Kala Nag, the elephant in one of the later stories, had a stride of 8 feet. We measured that out and compared our strides to Kala Nags. 11-year-old even gets the 2 year old to walk the 8 feet, she takes 8 steps. We tried to jump 8 feet; by we I mean they. I may be able to run, but I can’t jump 8 feet.
We go back inside and 13 year old starts typing.
A vase of wild flowers for mom. 7 year old asks how big the baby is and how big the baby is going to be.
We relax, read books, have dinner and handle youth activities.
Britt grew up in a family of six brothers and one sister and gained a bonus sister later. She camped in the High Sierras, canoed down the Colorado, and played volleyball at Brigham Young University. She then served a mission to South Africa.
With all of her time in the gym and the mountains and South Africa, she was totally prepared to become the mother of 2 sons and soon to be 9 daughters. By totally prepared she means willing to love them and muddle through everything else in a partially sleepless state. She is mostly successful at figuring out how to keep the baby clothed, or at least diapered, though her current toddler is challenging this skill.
She feels children naturally love to learn and didn’t want to disrupt childhood curiosity with worksheets and school bells. She loves to play in the dirt, read books, go on adventures, watch her children discover new things, and mentor her children. Her oldest child is currently at a community college and her oldest son is going to high school at a public school. She loves to follow her children in their unique paths and interests.
She loves to write because, unlike the laundry and the dishes, writing stays done. Whenever someone asks her how she does it all she wonders what in the world they think she’s doing.
