A Day in the Life: Homeschooling Grade 3, Grade 1 and Preschool

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A day in the life- grade 3, grade 1, preschoolFTCdisclosure

I realized today it’s been a while since I gave you a little glimpse into what life is like in our home homeschooling grade 3, grade 1, and preschool. I feel a little like we’re all on some sort of sick merry-go-round that just won’t stop spinning. It was just yesterday (I think. . .) that we made the decision to homeschool and we arrived here in Germany. Somehow, my little kids are growing up, and now I have three to teach.

Last time I did a day in the life, I was really good about keeping track of how long we spent on everything, but considering this idea came to me at the end of the day- I didn’t do that. Also, I am a little less type-A these days than I have been in the past, mostly out of survival. It comes back to that darn Merry-go-Round. I’ve had to let go a little!

How the day starts:

These days, I am up before the sun, and well before the kids wake. I’ve fallen in love with exercise! Last month, I joined some friends for Insanity: Asylum, and this week, I started the T25 workout at home. It’s only 25 minutes, and it makes a world of difference for me to take care of myself before the day starts.

By the time I am done, the kids are rolling out of bed, and it’s time for breakfast, some chores, and school to start. I put on some old fashioned oatmeal, and work on a load of dishes while I catch up on a 20 minute TV program. The boys get dressed, and run around like crazy people while I get breakfast on the table.

After breakfast, we start circle time.

DSC_0838
I love circle time. We’ve found our own little way of doing it. These days, I use a combination of the poems, songs and resources from our Oak Meadow curriculum, and the organized circle time as outlined in Em’s Mother Goose Time curriculum. We use the circle time resources I made to look at the weather, practice weather graphing, and do calender time. Then, we have a little lesson. Today, we learned about what it means to be gentle, and played a game where we passed around a raw egg. Little Miss was convinced there was a baby bird in there just trying to get out! This is also the time when I review some flash cards, practice Latin and Spanish vocabulary, and work on math facts and other memory skills.

Little Miss Doing Mother Goose Time
Little Miss gets to start her organized learning first, because I’ve learned my day goes so much smoother when I fill her cup first. Last week, we started Mother Goose Time (full review coming soon!) and I am so thrilled with it. It has all our daily supplies separated out into little bags, so I just grab her bag and we get started. Today, we learned all about being gentle, she decorated a “gentle feather”, we learned about the letter Q, and did some counting practice to 5. She comes back to the table, and either repeats the activities she did earlier in the day (I think she did the number 5 counting puzzle about 40 times…) or plays with other small toys. I fully admit to also handing her the iPad and letting her play learning games on it as well. Gotta do what you gotta do.

Bug's Third Grade
Bug is getting more and more independent these days, which is nice. We do use mostly parent-lead curriculum, so I am in and out teaching lessons between him working independently to finish his assignments. He always starts the day with a lesson from Teaching Textbooks 5. I don’t love Teaching Textbooks (I’m still hoping it will grow on me) but I do love how much time it freed up in my day. It’s giving him a much needed break from the grind, and it also has given him more time to use some of the fun math supplements on my shelf, like Beast Academy.

In our core today, he learned more about interdependence with Oak Meadow 3 (the quote he wrote in his Main Lesson Book today says “We survive by working together. Alone, we are poor, together, we are wealthy.” This was in response to a story he read about a native American tribe. Love, love, love this curriculum!)

We also did a lesson about minerals from Nancy Larson Science 2, and looked at salt crystals. He watched the video lesson from Prima Latina, and we did a lesson from Risas y Sonrisas Spanish for Kids (full review coming!). I’m not great with Spanish, but he’s really coming along thanks to Spanish for Kids and his one on one tutoring with Homeschool Spanish Academy. I’m so glad there are good resources out there, because I want so badly for my children to have the benefits from being bilingual, but doubt my own abilities!

Mr Man KMr. Man is the easiest kiddo to teach these days. He finished Logic of English Foundations A today, and is reading basic books! He spends a lot of his day enjoying audio books (with the immersion reading feature) on the kindle. He also enjoys learning on the computer.

Today, we spent some time measuring things around the house with a rule, and playing a little with the idea of capacity. This really means that I was able to fill up a sink and have him wash the dishes while he played with the water to see what cups held the most water. Win, Win.

By the end of the day….

To be honest, I feel a little like I’ve been hit by a truck. When the lessons are done, the chores still are waiting. The kids do well helping me clean up, but there is still a ton for me to do. I know this is just a season, and things are always changing around here…. but boy am I tired!

When school and the chores are done, Bug likes to go outside, or play minecraft. Mr. Man plays with his legos, and Little Miss tends to climb on me as I attempt to write a blog post. And, that is that!

How is Homeschooling going for you these days?

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