Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop: Day-in-the-Life Week

Here is a glimpse into 

"A-Day-in-the-Life" of

The Fantastic Five household.

 Now,

before I go into the details,

I just wanted to put up this little disclaimer:

Everyday in our household

is a little different.

Yes,

we do try to get school done 

five days a week.

Yes,

I try to keep us on a
"schedule"

of sorts.

But everyday is different.

And NO day is perfect.

And that's OK.

It's the beauty of homeschooling...

******************************

7:15am:

I woke up and got dressed

and mostly ready.

8:05am:

Smiley B and Mad Max arrive.

(Two of the kiddos I babysit for

during the week.)

Baby Girl  wakes up.

8:10am:

I finished getting ready while Baby Girl

played with Smiley B and Mad Max.

Jungle Girl and Little Wild Man

wake up.

8:20am:

I fed Mad Max a bottle while

Jungle Girl warmed up some pancakes

for the rest of the kiddos.

8:45am:

The kiddos chowed down,
and I made my own breakfast.

8:55am:

I ate my breakfast
(QUICKLY),
while Maddox began to get fussy.

9:00am:

Baby Girl played held Maddox...

...while I cleaned up the breakfast dishes.

9:05am:

Change Maddox...

...and fix Baby Girl's Hair.

9:15am:

While the kiddos finished getting ready and did their chores,

 I put Maddox down for a nap.

9:17am:

As the kiddos continued getting ready

and playing for a bit,

I finished making a couple of batches of Apple Butter.

9:33am:

Checked in on Mad Max,

since he was still fussing.

 Calmed him down with his pacifier-

or so I thought...

9:43am:

Gathered up the kiddos and started our school time

with prayer and our bible Memory Box.

Then the kiddos started in our their work boxes:

*Little Wild Man and I worked on All About Spelling

*Smiley B dug into his Apple Explorer Box

*Both Jungle girl and Baby Girl started independently

completing their Bible/Math/Copywork (Baby Girl) 

and Reading (Jungle Girl)

10:21am:

Mad Max would not go to sleep,

and I discovered it was because he was

"wasting away to nothing," ;0)

so I fed him his oatmeal and applesauce.

While I was feeding him,

I checked Baby Girl's Math work.

10:47am:

After moving Mad Max into the school room,
Little Wild Man and I went through his reading together...

...while Baby Girl played with Smiley B
on his play dough tot tray.

11:01am:
Put Maddox down for his nap-
and he was out like a light this time! 

(Little Wild Man joined Smiley B and baby Girl
for some play dough fun while I put him to bed.)

11:04am:

"Eat" play dough green beans prepared by
Smiley B and Little Wild Man.

11:05am:

Little Wild Man began working on his Math and Copywork,
while I worked with Baby Girl on her
Spelling and Reading.

 Since Jungle Girl was finished with her
independent work,
she and Smiley B played with play dough.

11:50am:

Wile Little Wild Man and Baby Girl
finished up working on their independent work,
I straightened up a bit, put away the clean dishes,
started a load of laundry, and began making lunch.

12:05pm:

Stopped making lunch for a bit to kiss
Little Wild Man's boo-boo.
 He pinched his finger on a marker.

 12:06pm:

Resumed making lunch...

 ...while the kiddos played "firefighter"...

...and prepped for dinner.

12:37pm:

Lunch time!

12:49pm:

Cleaned up the lunch mess,
and then finished up the Olympic Lapbook
with the kiddos.

During this time,
Mad Max woke up,
so I changed and fed him...

...and Smiley B worked through a couple more
of the apple tot trays.

1:21pm:

We were finished with school for the day,
so the kiddos commenced to playing... 

...and Mad max and I spent some
"belly time" playing together...

...after I check in on the laundry.

1:51pm:

Changed Mad Max's diaper again
and settled him in for his
afternoon nap.

1:55pm:

Checked in on the kiddos to make certain they
were still playing nicely together.  ;0)

1:56pm:

Sat down and checked my email,
and began finishing up
 a blog post that I had been working on for a
couple of days.

2:32pm:

Broke up a sword fight  between the boys
and put up the swords...geesh...

3:10pm:

Finished up my blog post-
FINALLY...

3:15pm:

The kiddos came in a watch a bit of
Smiley B's lastest obsession-
"Fireman Sam"

 

3:22pm:

I had a little snack-

Homemade Apple Butter on a biscuit-

YUM!

3:30pm:

Girlie V arrived to play!

3:35pm:

Changed Girlie V's diaper
and changed out the laundry.

3:50pm:

Head outside to play,
armed with homemade bug spray.

Drove plasma cars on the driveway,
blew bubbles,
and went to a "pretend" rodeo...

4:30pm:

Our neighborhood friends came over 

to hang out,

now that public school was over...

5:10pm:

We all headed inside to play,
except for Little Wild Man,
who went over to a neighbor's home to play.

6:00pm:

Smiley B and Mad Max's mother arrives
and takes them home.

Right before she did,
Smiley B decided he was scared of our dogs,
and hid in Little Wild Man's room.

I was thankfully able to get him out
and reassure him the doggies could not open our door,
so they would not bin the house to jump on him.

6:05pm:

While I cooked up some burgers and corn for supper,
Girlie V watched an episode of
"Dora the Explorer" and ate fried egg her
mother sent with her.

6:16pm:

I called Super Dad and asked him to stop by the store
to pick up some chips and hamburger buns
for supper.

6:28pm:

Supper was finished and ready to go,
with the exception of 
the chips and hamburger buns.

I picked up some toys and
folded a load of laundry while I waited on
the arrival of Super Dad.
 

6:41pm:

The family sat down and ate supper together.

During supper...

...Girlie V had us in stitches with her
cracker eating habits.

She is a picky eater,
so we gave her the usual-
a pack of crackers.

She then proceeded to take a bite out of one cracker,
put it on her plate,
and then take out another cracker,
take one bite out of it,
and put it one her plate.

She continued with this eating pattern until
Super Dad asked if she was going to actually
finished a cracker completely before she got a new one.

It set us all off in a fit of giggles...

7:00pm:

After finishing supper,
I changed Girlie V's diaper and put on an episode
of the "Mickey Mouse Club House"
for her to watch so I could clean up the kitchen,
put on my walking shoes,
and take out the trash.

7:34pm:

I cleaned out and switched over to
a new purse.

7:47pm:

Girlie V's mother came and picked her up.

7:55pm:

Refilled the little bottles of
Essential Oils
in my purse.

8:14pm:

I went on a 2.5 mile walk/run
(emphasis on the walking)
around the neighborhood.

The kiddos stayed home with Super Dad
to watch some TV.

8:52pm:

After arriving home from my walk/run,
I stretched and drank
LOTS of water
because my fingers looked like sausages!!!

9:00pm:

The kiddos went upstairs to
get ready for bed
while Super Dad and I watched the
an episode of "Major Crimes."

9:40pm:

Super Dad pauses our show to put the kiddos
to bed.

10:00pm:

I spend about an HOUR trying to place an
on-line oils order
(I order on the 20th of every month).

It took so long because our Internet provider
was doing something crazy,
which caused us to be on-line for a couple of minutes,
and then off-line for the next couple of minutes.

Craziness...

11:00pm:

Took a shower and painted my toe nails
while watching some reruns of
"Fraiser."

12:00am:

Tried to got o bed...

12:30pm:

My lower back was keeping me awake
(from my earlier walk/run),
so I got up and took something.

12:40pm:

In bed and out light a light!

********************************

WHEW!

What a BUSY day!

Now,

as I said at the beginning of this post,

not everyday is this crazy busy.

Some days can actually be busier.

Some days we only get to do Reading and Math.

Some days we "take a break" from school

and lay around in our PJ's,

watching TV and playing on the computer.

Some days we work on just one project,

like our recent 

"Pompeii Party."

Some days I feel like we have learned a lot.

Some days- well- NOT SO MUCH.

I have learned by my 4th year of homeschooling that

it all evens out in the end.

Yes,

I do try to keep some semblance of a schedule,

but as long as I keep other kiddos

in my home,

I KNOW that FLEXIBILITY is the KEY to SUCCESS!

So,
if you just read the above post and thought,
"HOW in in the WORLD does she keep this pace up?

Truth is,
I don't.

And I am OK with that.

I have my kiddos at home with me,
we are learning together daily about
the wonderful world God has created,
 and I try to be thankful for this blessing
EVERY.  DAY.

***************************************

Please check out how others homeschooling
families "run" their daily schedules
by heading one over to the
Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop...