Sunday, August 26, 2012

* Our Normal Crazy Day *

Living on a farm one would expect us all to be up at dawn and I wish that were so but we seem to be night owls, not morning birds. As much as I have tried to change that (and some progress has been made) getting up early is not always easy to do. I am working on getting myself out of bed at 5 but having insomnia and a husband that works partial nights doesn't help any.

Our day usually begins about 9 when I wake everyone up and we all go outside to do our respective chores; me milking, feeding cows and sheep while hubby supervises the kids while they do all the poultry chores. When the kids are done (usually before me) they head inside and start breakfast. I bring milk in the house to bottle, eat breakfast and then we all clean up (on a good morning).

We haven't started our book school yet (our summers are filled with semi-structured learning, more hands on and practical) so our schedule isn't nail down perfectly. We really don't watch the clock, we have a routine more than anything else. We start with Bible and memory verses, then reading/grammar/spelling/writing, onto math, and then history. We alternate our science between Apologia Astronomy, Zoology 3 and the Big Bag of Science. We do art and music twice a week.

Lunch happens late, when we are hungry (since we usually eat brunch) or when we need break. We try to make it to the library at least once a week. The late afternoon is usually filled with garden/farm activities (the hope in starting in October this year is that most, if not all, of that work will be done). Asa sometimes goes and mows the lawn for his papa or drags fields in the late afternoon if it isn't too hot.

We are pretty good about getting supper between 5 - 6, devotions after supper and then we shoot for starting night chores at 7. The biggest issue with night chores are the chickens won't go in until dark, so in the middle of the summer that means 10 pm, thus achieving the not-so-good habit of staying up late and sleeping in was formed. (This was the first summer that the kids have been fully in charge of chores when their dad is at work at night on the weekends). I try to milk around 7, but most of the time that gets pushed back to 8 because I am trying to get caught up on all those house chores that went half finished for the day (my biggest pet peeve is unfinished projects). By the time I get finish milking, feeding, filling water tanks, and then bottling milk it is usually ten.

Some nights the kids are great about bed because they are really tired and then there are the nights when everyone is over tired and really ornery. So, working on going to bed earlier and getting up earlier will be the main goal over the next few weeks.

This is share at the iHomeschool "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop, A Day in the Life


3 comments:

  1. I'm sure they're learning a lot more working on the farm than they would from books all the time! Your days look wonderful.

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  2. I agree - those are real life skills your kiddos are learning! Thank you for sharing!

    Reading from http://ajoyfulmess.blogspot.com

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