Designing Our Days

One of the things I love most about homeschooling is being able to design our days according to what we want and/or need to do. Our schedule is different each day to fit in all the different stuff we have chosen together - develop skills, gain knowledge, exercise, enjoy nature, cook, make music, dance, walk our dogs... These are the things that make us happy, and that we want to make sure to do.

Lu got absolutely into the guitar last year.

Even though it is only on our schedule from 8-8:30am every morning, guitar practice happens all throughout the day. He even has the guitar near when we're watching a movie, so he can play whenever we pause for bathroom or snack breaks. He also has a private lesson with a teacher each week.

 

Math is daily at our house. Sometimes even twice a day.

Lu sometimes sits down to do two hours of math and not even notice.

But that's not every day. Some days 30 minutes is too much.

Science is officially 3 times weekly,

but we often end up watching science videos 

and documentaries during breaks or with lunch. 

Lu is always up for doing experiments, he'll do them just for fun.

History is pretty much daily, between reading and watching documentaries, we do something history related almost every day. This is my favorite subject and Lu enjoys it most of the time, except when he has to write a lot. This definitely isn't a year of enthusiastic writing, but that's okay. He's written a lot in past years, so I'm not pushing and just hoping that he will find his own writing inspiration in his own time.

Wednesdays are lake days.

We try to make it each week, after all, that's why we live here.

 Slowly but surely, Lu's clubhouse is moving forward.

Whenever there's a chance,

 Lu will go bang in some nails or sand some boards.

 

 Cooking, like music, has a place on the schedule,

but also happens all the time, throughout the week.

Jewelry-making has taken a backseat

to cooking and guitar, so it's not on the schedule,

but occasionally happens when Lu's in the mood.

Geography happens twice a week.

This year's focus is on regions and landmarks.

Language arts is not one of Lu's favorites, and I have come to accept and respect this. We still do a little English spelling and some Spanish grammar, but it's very minimal. I used to insist on more, but I'd rather he used the extra time for what he's truly passionate about.

Lu specifically asked for basketball this year, so every Friday morning, at 7am (before the public school's P.E. classes take over the court) Lu goes to play for an hour, and comes back sweaty-faced and red-cheeked. I should go take some pictures of him playing one of these days, but this is sacred empty-house coffee time for mama :)

 

  On Thursday afternoons 30 other kids come to our house/center for arts classes.

 And since the volunteer teachers live on site with us,

Lu often has the chance to get some one-on-one with them.

As Lu gets older, my role shifts more and more from working side-by-side with him, to making sure we have lots of interesting resources, organizing our subject matter so that it fits in the year, and trying to put it all together in a way that flows nicely for us, in a flexible schedule that molds itself to our needs.

When it all comes together, we finish a day satisfied with having completed the work we'd planned on doing AND having time for art, exercise, hobbies, research, new interests, exploration, naps, outings... This is a perfect day.

I feel that this year we've really whittled down our academic plans to what is important for him to learn for the life he desires. This gives us much more time for all the other stuff we want to do. And yes, I push for certain things (like spelling and grammar), but I do it with a strong argument, and it only goes if I can manage to convince Lu. If in the end he really doesn't want to do something, then he won't. He has his own reasons for studying science, math, and history. He has real interest for learning where things are in the world, who invented what and when, what black holes are, how dogs' brains work... If I force my own ideas about what is important to learn, I'm taking time away from him following his true interests.

So, maybe we won't be reading Shakespeare together in high school like I had envisioned, but there will be engineering, and culinary arts, and maybe a rock band, and a bunch of other stuff that I never envisioned because they weren't my interests. But I LOVE my son's interests, just because they're HIS. His very own. 

And when he is engaged in what he's doing, he glows. He shines. 

He is REALLY learning. And that is what it's all about.

Another Day-In-The-Life

I usually wake up at around 4:30am to pee. By then, Cha is already working in his office, and Lu is (most days) in our bed. He's almost 11, and he's had his own room for 2 years, but old habits die hard. 

I climb back in bed, slide my arm under him, pull him in close, and sleep for another couple hours until Cha calls up to us in a sing-song voice with his British accent: "It's a quarter past six."

Lu jumps up, puts on his pants and is READY TO GO! I usually stay and stretch under the covers, extending arms and legs in full occupation of the bed, like I could always do when I was single. And then I'm up.

I walk down the hobbit hallway between our bedrooms and open the door to the dressing room, where my puppy (above) attacks me full-force in a jumping-licking frenzy. Cha and Lu are in the kitchen getting their breakfasts and talking about... I don't know what they're talking about because my brain isn't working yet. I need coffee. But first I call Lu into the bathroom to make sure he drinks a glass of water. I do this eight times a day. Our water filter is in the bathroom. Tap water carries all kinds of tummy bugs here. If I don't remind him to drink water, he won't.

I feed the puppy and make my coffee. Then puppy and I go upstairs to my office. Puppy sits on the draw-bridge window that looks out onto a sea of trees, and a majestic volcano. I upload yesterday's pictures to my photo library and find one that Lu took of the sky. It's beautiful. I smile.

At 8:00 am, I call Lu up to do a Spelling worksheet with me. He needs me for the dictation part of it, but then I'm free to go. I'm finally hungry, and I have to teach a class in 45 minutes, so it's time to get some food in me. I usually throw some corn tortillas on the griddle and, while they warm up, grab a pair of tights and a tank top. It's a bodyweight training class that I teach today. I flip the tortillas, stick some brie in between them, and spread on some orange marmalade. It's my intercultural breakfast.

9:45 am and my class is over. I chat a while with the ladies (my students), and then go check on Lu. My studio is about 20 steps and a flight of stairs away from our house. He's baked a cake in the time I was gone. No, not a cake. I am informed that it is a Cacao Banana Bread.

 

 

I praise the creation and ask him to get on to math and geography - 

both are free internet programs that he can do on his own. 

Khan for math and Shepperd for geography.

In the meantime, I do half an hour of weights in my office. I don't workout quite so vigorously every day, just Tuesdays and Fridays. I do, however, make sure to get an hour of exercise a day. Be it dancing, walking, or lifting. I go nutso if I don't move.

I'm done with my bicep curls and we watch a short science video. Then, Lu writes and draws pictures about the new concept in his science notebook while I get a quick shower and then make lunch.

We often watch a documentary with lunch.

Usually about history, nature, or space.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: 

If you get your kid to enjoy documentaries, 

homeschooling is a gazillion times easier.

I remember reading on someone else's homeschool blog that a child who is eating is a child who is listening. Just make sure the meal doesn't involve a lot of on-plate preparation - like tacos, or anything that needs dipping. We eat lots of beans and tortillas.

After lunch, we take a walk downtown. Each with our own dog. I pick up some vegetables at one of the street stands, and some beer at the store. We don't have a car. Our town is so tiny, everything is just a short walk away. I drink dark beer. Sometimes with lunch (if I don't have an afternoon class), always with dinner.

We get home and find a little friend has come to visit. She sits on Lu's lap while he reads from our history document on the screen. She looks at the picture of Mongol warriors invading Slavic territory. We got all into Genghis Khan. Did you know that the Mongol Empire was the largest land empire EVER? I didn't. The Mongols were highly kick-ass.

 

And this pic isn't from today, but here it is - from the start of the week. Lu's puppy (the sandy-colored one) recently got fixed. He waited at the vet's with her, gently talked to her while she came to, and took on complete responsibility for the administration of her pain killers and anti-biotics - taking the orders directly from the vet. He was compulsively punctual with the pills, and a great nurse. He spent the first two days of her recovery on this mattress, on the kitchen floor with her - making sure she didn't pull her stitches out.