A Year in the Life of a Homeschooling Family: Day 4

Brr, it was Baltic today! So much so that we all wanted to spend the day in our warm beds. The thought did flicker through my mind, but after mentally visualising the reality of painting pottery and making a mummy whilst still languishing in bed, I decided getting up seemed the more sensible option.

This was the scene which greeted me on rising:

Yes, for the third day on the trot the girls had got up early to do chores and get a head-start on their school. Unfortunately it didn’t help them much as Becca was extremely tired and Abigail was struggling to concentrate.

Charlotte had been finishing her school work much earlier than I liked, so each day I have been increasing it a little. She is definitely on the mend, but I don’t want to push her so far that she relapses again (For those of you who don’t know, Charlotte was diagnosed with ME last year and has been very unwell for the past twelve months). Here she is getting a good start on her reading of the Iliad:

Lil had got out of bed a bit later than everyone else and was still doing her kitchen chores:

Thomas had the morning off and he spent it helping Gary empty his shed, put in insulation and get some shelves up (which Gary was gifted with along side the wash basket yesterday!):

They have also been clearing an area down the side of our house for me to start growing veg. It still needs a lot of work but it is a nice big area and because it is where our chickens used to run it is very fertile. At least I assume it is. It sure does grow a lot of weeds. Hopefully growing veg will be just as simple…

At around ten we all had a tea and a snack, and then quickly got back to work. We usually have morning meeting around this time, but Lillie is under pressure to get her art completed by tomorrow so I cancelled it and we all worked through. Becca at this point had finished her workbooks so coloured in some Egyptian clothing:

Lillie showed me her almost finished scarf:

I say almost, because she still needs to stitch some sea glass on each end to weight it down a bit:

Whilst she was busy stitching away, Charlotte was writing an essay retelling the story of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter:

Whilst all this industry was going on I was sending off my design for a necklace for Becca. I have given each of my girls a necklace which contains meaningful words to both her and I. They have worn them all the time since. Other jewellery comes and goes but the girls really treasure these necklaces and have never taken them off. Lillie has a necklace with a slightly altered quote from Winnie the Poo:

‘You are braver than you believe, Stronger then you seem, Smarter than you think & Loved more than you could ever know

Charlotte has a necklace which has a quote from the book I read to them every day for the first three years of their lives, and something she and I used to say to each other each night before she went to bed:

‘I love you to the moon and back’

Abigail has a beautiful handmade necklace. She has always been Little Miss Sunshine to us because she is always happy, always looks on the bright side of life and is just generally lovely to be around. Her necklace reads:

‘You are my sunshine’

The girl who made her necklace is going to make Becca one in a simple design. It will be a heart with a tiny red stone in an engrave heart off to the right and her necklace will read:

‘I loved you first’

At night-time, for as long as I can remember, I give both girls a kiss and the conversation goes like this: I love you lots… I love you more… I love you most… and I end it by saying I loved you first. Hence the necklace! It is her birthday in February so I am hoping it will be done by then 🙂

After lunch, I snuck outside to see how the boys were doing. Thomas was about to leave for college, but they are getting there slowly. This is the insulation going in:

The girls took the opportunity for some playing outside:

Before coming in and painting the site of our model Stonehenge:

I have cut all the stones we need to create the model and they are currently drying by the radiator:

We will be adding them to the model once quiet time is over. Last but not least the girls painted a second coat on the Minoan jar and bull we had made and painted earlier on in the week:

They are pretty much done now.

Afternoon school was a fairly relaxed affair as it normally is when Daddy is home. We were all exclaiming how much less we get done when he is home. The little ones in particular want to spend as much time as possible with him. Even given the cold, Abigail begged to be allowed to have her quiet time outside with Gary 🙂

We did manage to finish our model of Stonehenge, and whilst waaaay out of proportion in places (!) we were chuffed with the result. Homeschooling rocks…quite literally!

The paint wasn’t quite dry, and the rocks weren’t quite hard, but thankful for a lack of perfectionism, we soldiered on and put it together:

We included the large sarsen stones (spelt correctly now – I looked it up!), as well as the smaller ones, and added all the much smaller bluestone and last but not least we added the alter. I can’t tell you how pleased with it I was!

I popped outside to see how Gary was doing. And look what he achieved in one day! He is amazing! That wall is insulated, bordered and now has shelves lining it. Good job Gary!

Our three Mystery of History lessons this week have been Stonehenge, Early Egyptians and the Minoans (posts to come some weekend). I had planned to mummify some foil but that shall have to wait for tomorrow. Gary has added some pirate bits and pieces he found to the children’s play frame and all they want to do is play.

And I am very happy to let them! Daddy’s back at work tomorrow, so maybe their concentration will return to all things academic…