A Week in the Life of a Home Educating Family: Thursday 2015

I wasn’t planning on having a free day today but that’s how it turned out – I feel like we’ve had a great positive day though, even if it was another day indoors!

I you missed the previous days’ posts, please click here:

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

7am

I wake and go to feed the bunnies.  I get the shock of my life because Morris won’t wake up: he’s just lying flat in his tray although I can see him breathing.  I talk to him – no response.  I lift the tray out of the cage so I can reach him better and start stroking him to see if I can rouse him – no response.  I then think maybe I should lift him out and he jumps awake!  Phew. What was that all about?!  Then D starts calling down the stairs “Mum, why are you up so late?”.  Turns out she thinks it’s the middle of the night and was wondering why I wasn’t in bed.  She’s a bit wobbly after that and I feel wobbly after the scare Morris gave me.  We have a cuddle and sit and read a couple of Jake and the Neverland Pirate books together.  What a weird start to the day!

7.45an

M comes down and I make Coco Pops for her and porridge for D.  D seems to eat in cycles – one day she’ll exist on Hula Hoops and the next day she’ll have three full meals.

8am

I have invited friends over today so we set to work tidying up.  Both girls help me clean the bunnies’ cage out and sweep the kitchen floor.  Unschooling very much works on a ‘no punishment, no rewards’ basis – the girls get no rewards for cleaning, they do it because they want to.  They know I really appreciate it though and they actually enjoy the jobs they do, to the extent that they fight over it sometimes!

9am

Our friends have the same bug that D had so can’t come today.  Tidying is cancelled. 😀  I sit and have my porridge while the girls play on the iPad.

9.30am

D wants me to make a wig for her bunny.  I ask her to draw a picture of how she wants it to look.  D helps me to draw it out using tailor’s chalk onto red felt.

10am

I go for a shower.  M practices piano while D plays with her bunny.

10.30am

M wants to learn a new tune on the piano so I show her the first few bars of Silent Night.  D interrupts and irritates M, so I distract D by getting her started on painting her treasure box.

11am

We start to make M’s cookie cakes.  D wants to join in but she doesn’t want to be friends with M.  M would like her to help but not if D is still going to be annoying.  They reach an impasse.  We decide that D should do her own baking so I get her started on some chocolate cookies.  Their Aunt Sh comes over for coffee and chats while we help the girls mix ingredients.

12

Aunt Sh goes home.  All the baking is out of the oven.  M practices Silent Night while they cool.  I begin all the clearing up from the morning’s activities in the kitchen.

12.30pm

The girls play with K’Nex while I iron and tidy upstairs.

1.30pm

I come downstairs to continue cleaning and check my to do list.  Since the girls are still busy I get on with clearing out a kitchen cupboard.  D paints another colour onto her box while I clean.

2.30pm

I finish the cupboard and sit down with a cup of tea.  D wants to do something so I make her a crown out of K’Nex.  She then wants a sceptre and orb made from it too so I do that.  Then she wants a coronation so I do that too!  We then watch Back to the Future 2.  D is insistent on not watching so I set her up with the iPad but she ends up watching and following the plot anyway!

5pm

I go to cook dinner while D puts on another film – Alvin and the Chipmunks – The Squeakuel.  M plays on Animal Crossing.

6pm

M Facetimes her cousin – they visit each other on Animal Crossing and time travel to Christmas Day!

7pm

D wants to continue painting her box and M is still on Facetime.  After D has finished painting (she has very clear ideas about how she wants things to look, but takes no time at all in carrying it out!) I encourage her to play with the Multi Cubes.  They haven’t been out for a long long time so she’s interested – she spends over an hour making a shape, which I point out shows off the 1 x table quite nicely.

8.30pm

We go upstairs a bit later today as I get absorbed in reading a few blogs, M is busy finishing a Christmas card for her cousin and D is playing with the Multi Cubes.  I read Heidi to M and play on My Little Pony on the iPad with D for a while.

9.30pm

I’m back downstairs again and once I’ve done a couple of jobs I’ll be going back up again!