If you haven’t read the first part of this blog, you may want to read it before finishing the second part of our day. Andrea, my co-blogger here in homeschooling, had the great idea to let people read two different perspectives. We left off in our last blog discussing our lunch time conversations and the importance of such time.
1-3pm
After my son cleans up lunch, we start doing what we call electives. Electives are anything from history and science to Swahili to ballet to crafts. They generally can involve everyone on some level, and are usually (but not always) based on something the kids wanted to investigate further. This is where Legos take on a life of their own and where Little People become explorers to the far ends of the earth.
3pm-6pm
At this point during the day, every day, we go out. This is the part where I have to explain a little about what it’s like to live in the city. When my husband and I were growing up, we went outside regularly to play in our yards. We went and played with the neighbors, and didn’t think twice about coming home until dinner. No such scenario exists in the city. There is no back yard to play in, no large grassy fields to just run through. To make it worse the play ground is being torn up and renovated during this winter. I am hoping it is finished in the spring.
So to combat what I see as a serious lack of exercise, we go out. We walk, go to our friend’s house, or go to the park. Someone usually has some type of activity at this point as well. But I make a point to take those who are not doing something and encourage them to run around and play. Even on a horrible weather day, we will usually make the two block trip to the library–just so that at least they got some exercise.
6pm-7pm
You likely have guessed that my littlest one (excluding the twins of course) helps with dinner as the older two do with breakfast and lunch. She is the chef extraordinaire in the house (after me of course) which is why she helps with dinner. It involves the most cooking, and she also requires the most help.
One of our daily dinner rituals is to have the kids tell dad what they learned. This never turns into a review of the day–and I’m actually glad for it. I am happy if they can say that they’ve had fun reading and playing together. It always turns into a discussion involving abstract ideas, and sometimes veers off into interesting tangents.
A word on relaxed homeschooling: I am sure someone is reading this thinking that my day is anything but relaxed and they are likely right. I consider myself a relaxed homeschooler not because of my schedule or curriculum–but because of our attitude. We are not yet able to take advantage of as many things that ‘come up’ as we’d like. We hope that as the average age of our household goes up, we will be able to enjoy more spontaneous opportunities–even if I do have to re-write my IHIPs ten times!
Did you read Andrea’s blogs about her ‘typical’ day?
What Exactly Is Relaxed Homeschooling?
A Day in the Life of a Relaxed Homeschooler Part 1, Part2, and Part 3