It has been awhile since I wrote the Minute by Minute Tot School post, and have since been asked to update with a detailed post of what our homeschool time looks like now with a 4th grader, Kindergartner and Tot Schooler. I am breaking this idea into 4 parts, probably 5 when all is said and done, but 4 planned parts for now! If you missed any other parts, see links below…
- Before the Homeschool Day
- Our Homeschool Morning {that’s this post!}
- Our Homeschool Afternoon
- After the Homeschool Day
How I recorded our day……
I kept a notebook with me, my iPod {camera}, and my good camera. I took TONS of pictures and jotted down notes throughout the day. It isn’t easy, but makes for a very true-to-life account for you all. Good news – the day we recorded – March 7, 2012, was a very typical day for us! I was hoping it would give a good look at what is “normal” for us and it does!
9:00am
Family Prayer Time ends, PacMan heads off to finish his morning chores {with a gentle reminder}. Ladybug clings to me and my “fuzzy Mickey pants” that she loves. She follows me into the schoolroom and wanders over to the computer to play Starfall. I set her up and she plays independently.
I wander back into the kitchen where Pac is unloading the dishes while chatting with Daddy. Krash announces that he has poop on his face and is freaking out. The dog licked him in the face and Daddy teased him about the fact that the dog eats his poop. Oh my men, always something new.
Next I am asked to cut the butt tag off of the stuffed animal, important business.
Meanwhile, Krash comes into the schoolroom first bugs L-bug on the computer, she whines for him to go away, a common occurrence. She has major personal space issues. 
He then selects Wedgits to play with. Ladybug joins him which results in some possessiveness. You can see him pull the box away and direct her back to the computer 😉 We have a quick “be nice” talk and then add Construct Its to their play and all is well. They play together.
9:10am
I make myself some coffee, clean the island off from breakfast.
I come back into the schoolroom and Ladybug announces that she is sitting criss-cross, and is very proud. We are working on getting her out of her W sitting lifestyle-but it is hard, she chooses to W sit 100% of the time!
She wanders over and dumps over the South America puzzle, then wanders away again.
9:15am
Pac is done with the dishes and comes into the schoolroom to begin his independent work at his desk. 
The little two play. Ladybug with the rainbow balancer, Krash with Construct-Its, then Ladybug with the iPad {Build a Bug is her choice}.
Jolanthe calls, we chat for about 10 minutes.
9:25am
Daddy goes around and gives good-bye kisses as he heads off to work. Wednesday is his later day, he normally leaves by 9am.
I notice PacMan isn’t at his desk, I yell for him-he was feeding the cat, a morning chore he forgot. He comes back and gets back to work on his phonics.
I check email, Facebook, and sip on my coffee for about 5 minutes total.
9:35am
Ladybug asks for her gorilla notebook {Animal ABC-letter G}, she chooses the Gg play dough mat. Krash jumps on the iPad.
I sit with her and make her “snakes” so she can make the letters. I can’t remember why I was high-fiving her, but am so glad Pac caught this pic!
He is playing Toca Doctor and calls me over to hear the stinker sound, on the right he is making the sound for me.
I notice he hasn’t cleaned up the Construct-Its, and ask him to do that, he does.
Meanwhile, Pac is playing First in Math on his computer…
Ladybug switches to making play doh balls on the Gorilla dot fun mat. After balls, she presses jewels into the dots. I am playing with her.
She then goes to get Wrecking Ball and makes him…
9:45am
A full room view, showing them all in action…
The little two switch to Magneatos after cleaning up Play Doh…they play nicely together. 
I run in the kitchen to load breakfast dishes in the dishwasher, also answer a phone call from our college “daughter” Kirsten…
9:55am
Krash asks to make a house for his stuffed dog {the one I cut the butt tag off of earlier}. He makes a house out of rainbow blocks with my help.
Ladybug makes a house for her 2 favorite Skylanders; Cynder and Wrecking Ball.
10:00am
I run over to my desk and write K’s morning message, which I forgot to do the night before. He LOVES these and gets disappointed if I forget. I write it and slip it in his Morning Message notebook while he plays!
Krash runs over to watch PacMan work for a few minutes…
10:05am
Ladybug accidentally knocks her house over and throws a little fit.
She gets over it and cleans up her blocks when I ask her to.
10:10am
She moves on to pom pom transferring, she loves this.
Pac is ready for his spelling test, and I sit at my desk to give him his test. Krash is still playing First in Math on his computer.
Spelling test…
We get all of 3-4 minutes before Ladybug joins us. She chooses Scrabble ABCs and wants me to play with her. She sits at my desk. I play with her and give the spelling test, thankfully Pac is used to this!
Full room shot…
10:20am
I grade his test, he updates his daily task list { a school to-do list and chore list I made for him in Excel}.
He is done with his independent work for the morning {screen shot from his lesson plan blog}…
He sits to play with his siblings. They play together for a few minutes before snack time. I put on Seeds in the background…
10:25am
I ask Ladybug if she wants to clean up the South America puzzle with me {the one she dumped this morning}. She says yes and we name the countries together. She plays with this puzzle at least 3-5 times per day. Pac takes a few pictures…
10:30am
Snack Time! Ladybug gets to choose a tv show at this time, these days it is usually Octonauts. The boys can either watch with her or go play in their room. They ate their snack and went upstairs.
I run upstairs to see the boys, Pac is showing Krash his sports pendants that Baba gave him. I fold a load of laundry and start a new load.
10:45 am
I come back downstairs, do some computer time, check in and answer 2 Facebook comments, and reply to 4 comments on the blog…
10:55am
Octonauts is over, Ladybug comes to my desk to play with her rainbow balancer, she loves to “spinny round.”
I set up trays {trays are from Michaels} for Calendar Notebook time, then call the boys down for Calendar time.
11:00 am
Ladybug chooses not to sit with us at first, and plays Starfall for awhile. 
The boys and I get busy on our group task list. Calendar, We Choose Virtues, Little Passports/Brazil, and PowerPoints…
Pac is starting a new drawing for his drawing page in his Calendar Notebook, he is choosing from our Draw, Write, Now books.
11:10 am
After the boys finish Calendar Notebooks, we review the 3 virtues {We Choose Virtues} we have studied so far: Obedient, Self-Controlled, and Diligent.
We move on to Little Passports and find animals from the Amazon Rainforest. By this time Ladybug has joined us and has been working a bit in her Tot Time Notebook. She comes over to find animals with the boys.
We all see what our next baby animal is. Baby Animals is our calendar theme for this month {they will be released next month on the blog}.
11:15am
Time for PowerPoints! The kids all get in a bean bag…
We do USA first, going through our F-I states. We then do Counting 1-10. Our PP shows are shown up on our wall with our projector.
11:25am
Outside Time! I get Ladybug dressed and all of the kids head outside to enjoy a warm winter day.
Meanwhile, I make lunch in our Easy Lunchboxes, warm my coffee up and drink the rest.
The lunch mess. I wish I had a school cafeteria lady. That’s my wildest dream.
I jump on Facebook for a second, answer a comment, set up All About Reading for K’s afternoon school and pick up the schoolroom. 
12:00 pm
I call the kids in to wash hands for lunch. 
The phone rings, it is my husband calling to say I Love You. I joke with him that he just wanted to make it into this post {he knew I was recording this day}. He laughs and tells me he totally forgot about that but yes, I can add his call to the blog post. ;-).
I LOVE this shot. Krash was a TOTAL whiney grump because I made him a peanut butter sandwich and made Pac a meat sandwich. Someone always complains about lunch. He would have complained about meat yesterday. ugh. Pac was thrilled with his lunch as you can see.
Ladybug is a finicky eater, but today she enjoyed most of her lunch: peanut butter sandwich, pretzels and hummus, & mango. She tells me she made a bread chair.
12:10pm
Ladybug is done and we head upstairs to get her ready for nap {the boys stay down and finish eating}. She insists on brushing her teeth every day before nap.
We head into her room, she is in the “I do it” stage so she undresses herself so we can put her pull up on for nap. She chooses Miss Spider ABC to read together. We read, sing and rock.
After reading, she happily goes in her bed. She always sleeps with books and most naps end up being 2 hours of her reading to herself. She did this today, never actually slept but stayed in her bed happily until 3:00pm when Daddy comes to get her out.
I head in to transfer laundry to the dryer and make sure our old dog is OK, I shut our bedroom door so he won’t bark at the doorbell while Ladybug is “napping.”
12:20pm
I am back down to clean up from lunch. The boys are done and in the schoolroom reading.
There you have it, 3 hours and 20 minutes at our house! Most days look very similar to this one. This was a pretty good day for us, often we have more meltdowns and attitude problems. The older two knew what was going on so they probably had better self control than normal!
Stay tuned, in my next post I will share what it looks like after lunch! Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it!
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