First Day of Third Grade - Homeschool Style

My friend Lael recently wrote about a day in her life and asked her blog readers to share.  I never got around to it and I also have to confess that by "recently" I mean a good month ago or longer.  So better late than never, right?

Since my summer days had no schedule to them, I wanted to share a typical day during the school year.    Today was the first day of school for both of my younger children.  My daughter went off to her public middle school and my son stayed home to attend an exclusive private school taught by moi.  Ha ha.

In a rare fit of organization last night, I prepared for both children's days.  My daughter Allison had paperwork to be filled out, lunch to be packed and clothes to be readied.  My son Sean just needed a schedule written down and supplies laid out.

The morning was a cinch.  I had already mixed Allison's tuna and packed a salad, dressing and blueberries.  The only thing I had to do was assemble her sandwich and throw it in her lunch box with a water bottle and her pre-packed side dishes.    Then I drove her to school at 7:30.

When I came home, Sean was still sleeping.    I am fortunate that my husband often telecommutes so I was able to run to the bank, put in some money and grab some groceries.  On the way home I saw a sign for the Wednesday Farmer's Market and an idea for later was born.

I was home from the grocery store at 8:20.  Sean was still asleep.  No problem.  I made a spinach smoothie, hoping the blender would wake him up.  It didn't.  My highly optimistic schedule had called for a 20 minute walk at 8:30. But this wasn't a huge problem as it is homeschool and we can be flexible.

Finally at 8:40 Mr. Lazypants got out of bed.  He didn't want a walk quite yet and I couldn't blame him.  The first thing I want when I wake up is to well, wake up!  I cooked his breakfast and we started school at nine.

The first lesson of the day was art.  The boy had no schedule all summer so we were not jumping into the murky waters of math right away.  I had found a little ceramic car piggy bank at the dollar store.  I dug out some better paint brushes and some tempura paints as the ones in the package were laughable.  I'm no Bob Ross but I think a paintbrush should have a nice point on the end of it for detailed painting.  It should not look like one of those old style frustration pencils with the crazy hair on top you spin around.  Does anybody else remember those?

Art was met with enthusiasm.  I was able to do my hair and make-up while he painted.  Why yes, I did go to the grocery store earlier with scary hair and naked face.  But it's okay to do that as long as it's before nine in the morning.  At least that is my theory.

Art was finished and I implemented my new idea.  We grabbed ten dollars and went to the farmer's market for a math lesson.  First we went to different stalls and wrote down the prices of the items we wanted.  There were cherry tomatoes, blackberries, pluots and onions.   Cherry tomatoes were 3.00 a basket.  Blackberries were 3.00 for a small basket or 8.00 for three baskets.  Ouch!  Pluots were 2.00 a pound and onions were 2.00 a pound.

Our lesson started.  Sean decided pluots were a definite yes.  I grabbed what I thought was a pound worth but it was a pound and a half so we rounded up to two pounds.  I had him tell me what 2 x 2 was and then we subtracted that from the ten dollars.  I then asked him if we had enough to get the big basket of blackberries.  He said no, since we were down to six dollars, so we went ahead and got a little basket of blackberries.  I had him subtract again and we were already down to three dollars.  Then I asked if there was anything on the list  that was exactly three dollars and he pointed out the cherry tomatoes.  That finished our shopping.  I didn't get my onions so I also thought it was a great lesson on not being able to afford everything you wanted.  In addition, it is a sneaky way to get him to eat his fruits and vegetables.

We came home and had a five minute pluot break and then took our walk.  It was a 25 minute walk.  We grabbed some rocks to identify later in science and some pine cones for arts and crafts.  Toward the end of the walk we brainstormed for his next lesson, which was the standard "something I did this summer" paragraph.

When we walked in the door we sat down and he dictated his paragraph to me.  I then gave it to him to write in his special book while I started some laundry.  He stayed on task, which is really a challenge for him.  I quickly made a paper that is titled "Sean's Staying on Task Chart" and gave him a star.

Eleven o' clock had already rolled around and we took 35 minutes for lunch.  He had tuna, gluten-free crackers and tomatoes.  I had tuna, tortilla chips and blueberries.

After lunch he finished his paragraph and we started a story.  We talked about setting and main characters.  Then we looked up his spelling words from the story and went over the definitions.  The timer went off.  We work in twenty minute increments and then break for ten minutes throughout the day.  It is very obvious when his twenty minutes are up as he loses focus.

After the break we finished talking about his spelling words and began some review multiplication.  I tried to get him to finish his whole multiplication paper but he couldn't go over twenty minutes again.  So he finished his paper after another ten minute break.

Wow, it was already almost one and time to get my daughter from school.  Her school releases students an hour early on Wednesdays.  I pick her up near the library so I dropped off some books before she showed up.  Then I saw a friend and talked to her while waiting.  It is always good to see a friend.

We were home by 1:20 and I took some down time until almost three.  I zoned out on the computer, talked to my mother-in-law on the phone and had a cup of green tea. 

After three  I vacuumed our area rug,  swept and mopped the kitchen, dining room, living room and entryway floors.  I started some chicken in a marinade for dinner and I did more laundry.  You would think my house was clean.  You would be wrong.  Four people messing and one person cleaning means constant clutter.

I also answered a few e-mails regarding various homeschool get-togethers, helped my daughter find a sharpie by yelling instructions on where to look and also found her some packing tape.  She needed duct tape but we were out.  My husband is in charge of duct tape.  Him letting us run out of duct tape is like me letting us run out of toilet paper - unthinkable.  Since he has been working sixty hour weeks, I am willing to let it slide...this time.

After the floors were mopped, I started rice in the cooker, then chopped and cooked chicken and vegetables for a stir-fry.  After dinner I cleaned the front bathroom and scooped the cat box.  Not all my days are this busy but my mother in law is coming to visit and I would like the house to look a bit less chaotic.

Last but not least, I loaded and started the dishwasher and made some krispy treats.  It is now almost seven and I am ready to sit on my butt for the rest of the day thank you very much...except there is that load of towels that needs to go in the dryer...