A Year in the Life of a Home-Schooling Family: Day 77

The morning started as normal. Thomas was at work; Lillie was going into town for a first aid course for her work and Charlotte went over to mum’s house to be tested on her Latin vocab and grammar:

The littles got a good start on their workbooks for the day:

In fact, Becca managed to get hers completed by 930 when she went over to Granny’s for Granny to listen to her reading:

Meanwhile, Abigail had her quiet time reading one of the Lady Grace mysteries:

Once Becca returned, Abigail finished off her workbooks whilst Becca did some shadow work in the garden (she is learning about shadows in her science workbooks):

Charlotte, round at Granny’s again, began to slog her way through the very long list of work I had prepared for her:

Once the little ones had finished their basic homeschool, we moved onto more fun stuff. We are covering the Israelites escape from Egypt this week, focusing on the Passover in particular. We are using one of my favourite books to do so:

I spent about half an hour reading out loud to them. We learnt about Kadesh (light the candles, say the blessing), Urchatz (wash hands), Karpas (dip the parsley), Yachatz (break the middle Matzah) and are half way Maggid (tell the Passover). The book above is wonderful because we are learning through a mixture of fact, stories and hands on activities such as making Matzah.

Monday is usually the infamous angelicscalliwags’ cooking day, when every female in the house, regardless of the protests get to learn to cook from Delia Smith! All the heckling is done in good jest and it is actually quite fun… Well, today Lillie is on a first aid course so isn’t around to join in. I did want to do some cooking with the littles though, because unlike the biggies my littlies are very enthusiastic learners in the kitchen! Last week I had taught them how to make leek and potato soup and they had been begging for me to let them do it entirely on their own. Today was the day:

They did a fabulous job, with very little help from me. They used the recipe card I made up last week to remind them what to do:

It was a huge hit:

They all went back for seconds!

We relaxed over lunch, with Becca doing some food experimenting, Charlotte finishing off her book and Abigail watching Anne of Green Gables. I then grabbed the younger ones to do some more reading about the Passover, whilst Charlotte went back to Mum’s to study.

The last thing I wanted the girls to do was to practice last week’s egg cooking skills to make some egg mayonnaise to go with cress for Thomas’ and Lillie’s packed lunch (they are both away from home colleging and working tomorrow). It’s incredible how much they remember. For instance, Abigail immediately began testing the freshness of the eggs in some water:

She knew that she needed the least fresh eggs for hard boiled eggs. And they both remembered to prick the tops of the eggs to prevent them from cracking:

Once boiled, they remembered to cool them down quickly. As the eggs were all very fresh, the girls knew they might struggle to peel off the skin, so they cut them in half and scooped out the flesh instead. Adding some mayonnaise completed their prep:

All ready for tomorrow:

Charlotte is currently ‘tidying up her room’… not! I popped up there and she is sat on the floor surrounded by make-up doing her face. So, not much tidying then! Becca is sat at her desk sponge painting:

Abigail is looking up on her tablet whether or not the unusual looking stones she has found are meteorites. Apparently meteorites float.

Thomas and Gary are still at work. Poor Gary is working a ten hour day today and tomorrow. Lillie won’t be back from her course until later on this afternoon. I am going to go and do some housekeeping and tidy up my bedroom!

Have a great evening everyone!