Day 1 of our Real Life Homeschool

Welcome to day ONE of this weeks show and tell brought to you by the Schoolhouse Review Crew.  Often times when we look at blogs we see the picture perfect homeschool lives that bloggers choose for you to see.  This week however 52 homeschool families have decided to give you a look at our day to day lives.

My goal is to give you a peek into what homeschooling looks like for us.  We are a Christian, eclectic, mostly Sonlight, Charlotte Mason driven homeschool.  I have been homeschooling for  17 years and over time I have discovered that I love the principles of a Charlotte Mason model, along with chronological history and Sonlight Curriculum.

To be honest with you there is NO such thing as a typical homeschool family.  Each and every family has their own unique way of doing things.  Please do not read the posts in this series with the view of copying what we do as that's a sure fire recipe for failure.  It's important in your homeschool journey to find out what works for you and follow that path.

As a family we tend to be fairly flexible in our approach because Paul works a rotating roster which means that each week he is home on different days. This year I started working part time as a Social Media Assistant for the Old Schoolhouse. As a result we are trying to establish a new routine and find a rhythm that will work well for us.

Nathaniel

Nathaniel is currently my only student.  My first two children have graduated.  Timothy is currently looking at tertiary study options and Jane is currently taking a GAP year and traveling around the world.


 Our Morning
Today my day began at 7 am due it being Paul's first day back on his roster.  He left for work at 7:30 am and I looked over The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide to Daylight. I am feeling really encouraged reading this book. Heidi St John shares some wonderful down to earth encouragement and practical advice.We had breakfast and a slow morning due to it being a public holiday in Australia. Nathaniel had breakfast and then I did a session of Walk Strong by Leslie Sansone.

Jane

Next I rang Jane in America and we had a wonderful time chatting for an hour. Next it was Nathaniel's turn to chat to her.  We've really been enjoying having access to her via Skype, Facebook and land line. This is her first Easter away from home so it was really good to be able to catch up with her about what she's been doing and where she's been going.

Netflix recently launched in Australia and we are currently making use of their introductory offer of one month free viewing. Since it's a public holiday we decided to do some TV schooling.

We watched:

1. Horrible Histories Series One Episode One (sample on YouTube) We learned a lot of horrible history.  Some of the things we learned were: What did the German soldiers eat in the second World War, The Four King Georges, Rules on a Pirate Ship (did you know they had an 8 pm bed time ?), the burial traditions of Ancient Rome and how this became the foundation of the Gladiator Games, the lice problems the troops encountered in WW1 and some points of interest about Vikings.
2.  The Great Ship which is part of The Seven Wonders of the Industrial World series. SS Great Eastern was designed by IK Brunel and built in London.  The ship was revolutionary in that it had a double hull, she was launched in 1858. Due to her size she was eventually used to lay cable across the oceans between continents.
3. Walking with Dinosaurs episode one from the BBC. Neither of us were particularly impressed with this series after episode one.

Our Afternoon
Lunch time was enjoyed in the beautiful autumn sunshine outside. We enjoyed a cuppa together before we came back inside to tackle the house keeping chores.

Once the chores were completed I allowed Nathaniel to watch a children's movie on Netflix whilst I tackled some work I promised a friend help with online.

Jo popped by to give her son a hand with taking his things back home.  It was so good to connect with Jo and find out how things are going with Build Aid.  This amazing family are helping missionaries overseas to build their accommodation and schooling.  They are currently working in Vanuatu.

I wrote a note to Jane.

Paul arrived home from work and had managed to capture some wonderful photographs of a Flame Robin.  If you love wildlife photography I encourage you to follow him on Instagram. His username is servalpaul

Our Evening
I cooked dinner consisting of stir fried mince over fried cauli' rice and cabbage salad. We watched two episodes of Eureka and at 8:15 pm Nathaniel went to bed.

8:00 - 9:30 I spent blogging and then joined Paul to watch the second half of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

11 PM Bed Time

As I mentioned before not a typical day for us due to it being a public holiday.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Blessings
Chareen

PS some encouragement from Heidi St John: "If you are at the end of your home school rope, tie a knot and hang on."

To get you started on meeting new homeschool bloggers here are 10 of the crew participating this week:

1. Ben and Me
2. Footprints in the Butter
3. Mountain of Grace Homeschooling
4. Raventhreads
5. Counting Our Blessings
6. Homeschooling for His Glory
7. Ozark Ramblings
8. Chestnut Grove Academy
9. Only Passionate Curiosity
10. Farm Fresh Adventures