A day in our life

We've changed things up, so I'm trying to keep a good record of what rabbit trails and interests my kid is chasing. Call it an effort to prove to myself that my kid is really learning something, but it makes me feel better. I guess it's a common thing to worry about when you first make a transition from a more structured approach to one that is more relaxed and child-led. We've never been over structured. We aren't ones for schedules. However, I'm a box checker. I feel like a new homeschooler grabbing all of the homeschooling books off the shelf to read and scour for ideas. I even scored a copy of The Unschooling Handbook on ebay for .01! A PENNY! But, I digress.... (I just get excited over a good deal!)

Here's a peek into our day today...

Up and at 'em around 7:30. I climbed out of bed, stumbled downstairs, and the kid followed shortly after.

Breakfast and email for me, breakfast and websites for the kid - 30 minutes or so

C spent almost an hour working through Absurd Math episode 1.0. She loves this site! I have to admit, I love it too. She's pulled out the Illustrated Dictionary of Math by Usborne each day to use along side the website which eventually leads to her searching out additional topics in the book. She worked through order of operations, area, perimeter, graphing, estimation, solving for an unknown value, and measurement.

C played around on the Free Rice website. It's such a great (and simple) concept, so please check it out. For each vocabulary question you get correct they donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nation for distribution. We discussed quite a few meanings of words, and also how to guess a meaning based on the clues that you have (prefixes or suffixes that you know, etc.) C earned the donation of 320 grains of rice from her vocabulary work on the website. This led to a discussion on how much this would be, how much it takes for a serving of rice, etc. We got out the teaspoons and brown rice, and we counted. C has decided that she wants to be able to "donate" 1/4 cup of rice each week, so she is going to create a graph showing how many vocabulary words she got correct each day. I love it. It also led into a discussion about hunger and poverty. We really truly are blessed to not want. We have our own financial issues and bills are truly tight, but worrying about the mortgage is totally different than being afraid that your child won't have dinner tomorrow. Another hidden reminder of God's blessings.

C came in a while later asking if she could take some time to read about nutrition. She has been reading in the "Care and Keeping of You" about various subjects, including nutrition. This was a great opportunity for me get practice in letting her lead the day. :) She is so used to having to check off a box that I wrote that she wasn't sure if she could really choose to do something else! She spent a good deal of the afternoon looking up information on the new food pyramid and figuring out how many actual cups of each type of food she would need on a daily basis. She even wrote a list of this plus "smart snack ideas" to post on the refrigerator. Again, I love it!

Literature found it's way in through bits and pieces of reading here and there, though she was still able to get about 70 pages read. (I won't say that I love it, but I do!)

Mid afternoon brought our oldest and her little one over for a visit. She's 2.5 mos old and pure joy! I just love this little critter. She's starting to smile, but mom hasn't noticed yet so we're not saying anything until she does. :) C loves to hold and cuddle her. We did find that A's dog isn't adjusting well to the changes she's been facing (new apartment with the girlfriend - long story, and a baby in the house means no pup on the furniture... hard for a 6 yo dog to adjust to!) Unfortunately - or maybe, fortunately? - it might mean that we'll have her back here. Back to three dogs in the house... sigh. But, it's better than her being given away or so miserable that she's becoming neurotic. That's definitely not a good thing.

After that I ran some candles to a friend. I got my hands on a retired scent for her, so it was fun to gift her a smile. When we got home a friend was waiting for C. I actually got to sit and read blogs for an hour while she played! (I do actually read them even if I don't post many comments these days. Yet another thing that I'm trying to get better at!)

My mother stopped by for a few minutes, we had supper (frozen pizza), and watched a bit of TV. I have to admit that I'm a Pushing Daisies addict. I'm not one to try to beat it to the couch for a tv show, but I have to admit that having a new DVR makes it appealing that I can still avoid rushing to the couch AND have my tv show when I'm ready. I still stand by my position that if everyone else would agree I'd have the cable turned off. But, if it's here I can't neglect it can I? The poor little DVR would be sad...

DH came home around 9:30, the kid was in bed, and I started updating the blog. And, that's my day. :)