A day in the life

This is the last week to participate in the not back to school Blog hop and the topic is: Day in the life



Well this will be a tough one as there are no two day the same in my house! So I will give rough estimates of when things should be getting done:)!

I awake any where from 6:30 to 8 am. I am not a great morning person so I snooze until the children clamor into my bed. My oldest doesn't do this very much anymore preferring to read in her bed until I tell her to get up and get dress. My youngest still demands his cuddle time in the morning. Sometimes we just talk, play games, or he (or I) will read a story.

8am I do try my best to get both kids up, dressed, brush teeth and hair. In no particular order and how long this take depends on the day. During this time I get my shower in:)

9am I am downstairs and shouting, uh, no, I mean encouraging the children to hurry up and come down stairs. I begin to fix breakfast. I keep it simple here frozen pancakes, waffles, oatmeal or cereal for the kids. Large cuppa tea and 2 fiber bars for me:)

9-9:30 the kids eat breakfast and I am usually logging on to the computer to quickly check e-mail.

School starts between 9:30 and 10 depends on the day and the activities we are doing. I would say about 3X a week we do actual school work the other days we are doing field trips or play dates or something else entirely. It really depends. On a great school day we can accomplish 4-5 different school topics by lunch time. On a not so good day I am lucky if we accomplish 2 activities.

12-1pm Sometime during this period we stop for lunch. While I am cooking lunch the children are emptying and loading the dish washer and tidying up a little (emphasize LITTLE)

Lunch and free time is between 1230 and 2 Kids can read, play, go outside, draw what ever they like during this time. Electronic devices for the kids are off limits. I do a few chores and then spend a little more time on the computer

3 days a week we have outside activities in the afternoon piano lesson, horse back riding lesson and martial arts. I am hoping to add swimming lesson but haven't found a private teacher yet.

If we don't have any outside activities then I do resume school around 2 for one more hour. We can usually squeeze in 2 additional activity but usually much lighter like music, art, typing, reading etc.

Most days we are finished with school by 3 pm on a not so good day I will go til 4 pm but after that I am wiped out and even I can't concentrate anymore:) and I start to yell and I really hate yelling. That said according to my children I am a very good yeller :(

Free time for the kids between 3-5:30 They can do as they please but there are no electronic devices allowed. This doesn't stop them from asking nearly every day. This is when I do a load of laundry (maybe) and start contemplating what we are going to have for dinner. This is also a time to look over the days work and consider my strategy for the next day. Sometimes I get back on the computer. I am beginning to think I am on the computer too much!!!

530 to 630 Begin cooking dinner if I remembered to thaw out meat. If not we have been known to go out to dinner at least once a week. A very bad habit I am trying to break us from:)

Our dining room table is where we do our school work and most days it is a mess with art supplies, half finished projects we are working on, books, papers etc. I have given up on cleaning it off every single evening so we can have a evening meal at the table. So I have a HUGE confession to make. As a family we eat in the living room. The kids have a blanket they spread out on the floor and my husband and I sit on the couch. I know this is very, very bad and I promise when we move back to the states and have a dedicated school room we will break ourselves of this incredibly bad habit but for now it is what works.

6:30 to 8:00 eat dinner and watch educational show. The kids love Myth busters, How It's Made, wild life shows, dinosaur shows and How the Earth Was Made show. Pretty much anything on the Discovery Channel we watch. On a rare night I might let the kids watch a movie usually about something we are studying but still fun. Tonight for example the kids are watching "Free Willy" because we have been learning about Killer whales and we learned quite a bit about Kieko and his rescue.

8:00 Bath time or showers for the children. The plan is for the kids to be in their bed by 8:30 again it is hit or miss. The kids can read until 9PM and then it is lights out this time has been known to creep up to 9:30 but then I am very serious and it is lights out!!!!

9:00 the adults tend to wonder up to bed to read themselves to sleep.

And that in a nutshell is our day. Looking forward to reading how every one else is managing their day.

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