A Day in Our Life
I'm joining in the Homeschool Day in Our Life link up at Simple Homeschool today.
Since we just moved to England from New England, got sick, got sick some more, and then had the Epic Family Flu Experience, we haven't had very many days that have come anywhere close to normal recently. In fact, this day I'm documenting is the first relatively normal day we've had in months, as luck would have it (with an emphasis on the "relatively"--we still have more boxes to unpack!)
So, while this day has gone smoothly and has been blessedly filled with routine, had I written this post just a week ago, it would have involved me curled up feverish on the couch with the kids recovering and using their iPads pretty much all day, and Eric cooking bacon and eggs for dinner (again). Just for full disclosure.
But now we're finally healthy, so here is our day:
7-7:45 am: We all wake up at about the same time. In my ideal world, I'd wake up before everyone to write in my journal, read scriptures, and maybe workout. But thanks to co-sleeping kids, that's not in the cards at the moment. After we get up, everyone gets dressed and makes beds, etc to get ready for the day.
7:45 am: We read books while we eat breakfast (oatmeal that I soaked overnight and cooked in the morning.) I usually read a mix of non-fiction for my 9-year-old and picture books for my 5-year-old. Today's non-fiction is about Roman Britain since now that we're all healthy I can't wait to take the kids to the nearby Roman villa to explore. We also like the Anna Hibiscus picture book we found at our local library...we first met her doing the Around the World Book Club!
8:15-9:15 am: The kids write letters to friends and family back in the US to practice writing, and they both do some math. Justin uses a workbook to practice and Rebecca does Smartick.
9:15-10: We drive Eric to the train. Since he's a professor he works from home most days, but goes into Oxford when he has meetings, seminars, or teaching. Today he has three meetings so he'll be gone most of the day.
10:30 am-1:30 pm: After dropping Eric off at the station, the kids and I head straight to Cotswold Farm Park, a local attraction that's only a few miles from our village. We've been wanting to explore it, but since we've been sick, it's taken us a month and a half to get there. But it's worth the wait because it's lambing season! The kids have so much fun seeing the animals, bottle-feeding the new lambs, and playing on the zip line, slides, and climbing walls. We decide to get a membership since it's so close and so fun!
1:30 pm: We get back home and are all glad to warm up! Thanks to a bizarre weather pattern, much of the UK is experiencing frigid temperatures. Even though we came from usually-much-colder New England, today's freezing wind gave Boston a run for its money.
1:30-2:30 pm: We eat lunch (everyone has something different, which I don't mind because I prepare it in advance--Justin has turkey, cheese, bread, cherries, blueberries, and apple; Rebecca has yogurt, blueberries, apple, and bread; I have leftover stew from last night's slow cooker dinner.) While we eat, I read more about Roman Britain, and Rebecca is not pleased to learn that Roman girls had to give away all their toys before they got married as proof they had grown up.
2:30-3:30 pm: We all have computer and iPad time. Justin reads about all the new trains he can't wait to ride in the UK (he has his eye on a sleeper train to Scotland he's especially excited to try.) Rebecca plays some puzzle games and watches a show. I get recipes, send some emails, write a post for the blog, and get directions to our rock climbing class we will try out tomorrow. Please note that our living room isn't usually this messy, but we still haven't found homes for all our things. The major downside of living in a house built in the mid-19th century is that it has NO closets. I guess that's a good reminder that much of what we think we need now we don't really need, but I can't convince the kids to donate all their toys, so we're still figuring out creative ways to store everything...
3:30-5 pm: The kids play, I do some pilates via free videos, and then I tackle more unpacking and cleaning. I am still not satisfied with my homemaking routine in our new house. There are enough differences that I am realizing I can't just replicate my old American plan here (for example, laundry takes five hours to wash and dry with our machine here, and we're lucky to even have a dryer--many houses here don't!) Today I head upstairs to clean. Here is the pile of boxes and miscellaneous things I tackle today in my never-ending unpacking project:
5 pm-6:30 pm: I make dinner (kale and spinach saag with paneer, but I haven't found good milk here to make my paneer so we use halloumi instead as an acceptable-but-not-perfect substitute). We go pick Eric up from the train station in this window, too.
6:30 pm: We eat dinner. I also give everyone a dose of elderberry syrup in a proactive effort to stay healthy for more than three days straight.
7 pm: I clean up, Eric plays with the kids, and then we head up to read and get ready for bed. These days, the kids are usually asleep by 8 or 8:30 pm, and then Eric and I spend time together, read, and go to bed.
Our schedule here is still very much evolving! I haven't figured out the best chores for the kids to do in this house (Justin used to do laundry, for example, but as I mentioned that is more complicated here...) And our schedule is MUCH later than it was in Boston. Thanks to the very dark and long nights this far north, we never fully adjusted to the time change when we arrived, so we've just sort of stayed later than usual. In Boston, our days started at 5 and ended at 6:30...
And that's a day in our new life in England! We are all adjusting, and we love the beautiful place we live, especially now that we are all healthy.
Since we just moved to England from New England, got sick, got sick some more, and then had the Epic Family Flu Experience, we haven't had very many days that have come anywhere close to normal recently. In fact, this day I'm documenting is the first relatively normal day we've had in months, as luck would have it (with an emphasis on the "relatively"--we still have more boxes to unpack!)
So, while this day has gone smoothly and has been blessedly filled with routine, had I written this post just a week ago, it would have involved me curled up feverish on the couch with the kids recovering and using their iPads pretty much all day, and Eric cooking bacon and eggs for dinner (again). Just for full disclosure.
But now we're finally healthy, so here is our day:
7-7:45 am: We all wake up at about the same time. In my ideal world, I'd wake up before everyone to write in my journal, read scriptures, and maybe workout. But thanks to co-sleeping kids, that's not in the cards at the moment. After we get up, everyone gets dressed and makes beds, etc to get ready for the day.
7:45 am: We read books while we eat breakfast (oatmeal that I soaked overnight and cooked in the morning.) I usually read a mix of non-fiction for my 9-year-old and picture books for my 5-year-old. Today's non-fiction is about Roman Britain since now that we're all healthy I can't wait to take the kids to the nearby Roman villa to explore. We also like the Anna Hibiscus picture book we found at our local library...we first met her doing the Around the World Book Club!
8:15-9:15 am: The kids write letters to friends and family back in the US to practice writing, and they both do some math. Justin uses a workbook to practice and Rebecca does Smartick.
9:15-10: We drive Eric to the train. Since he's a professor he works from home most days, but goes into Oxford when he has meetings, seminars, or teaching. Today he has three meetings so he'll be gone most of the day.
10:30 am-1:30 pm: After dropping Eric off at the station, the kids and I head straight to Cotswold Farm Park, a local attraction that's only a few miles from our village. We've been wanting to explore it, but since we've been sick, it's taken us a month and a half to get there. But it's worth the wait because it's lambing season! The kids have so much fun seeing the animals, bottle-feeding the new lambs, and playing on the zip line, slides, and climbing walls. We decide to get a membership since it's so close and so fun!
1:30 pm: We get back home and are all glad to warm up! Thanks to a bizarre weather pattern, much of the UK is experiencing frigid temperatures. Even though we came from usually-much-colder New England, today's freezing wind gave Boston a run for its money.
1:30-2:30 pm: We eat lunch (everyone has something different, which I don't mind because I prepare it in advance--Justin has turkey, cheese, bread, cherries, blueberries, and apple; Rebecca has yogurt, blueberries, apple, and bread; I have leftover stew from last night's slow cooker dinner.) While we eat, I read more about Roman Britain, and Rebecca is not pleased to learn that Roman girls had to give away all their toys before they got married as proof they had grown up.
2:30-3:30 pm: We all have computer and iPad time. Justin reads about all the new trains he can't wait to ride in the UK (he has his eye on a sleeper train to Scotland he's especially excited to try.) Rebecca plays some puzzle games and watches a show. I get recipes, send some emails, write a post for the blog, and get directions to our rock climbing class we will try out tomorrow. Please note that our living room isn't usually this messy, but we still haven't found homes for all our things. The major downside of living in a house built in the mid-19th century is that it has NO closets. I guess that's a good reminder that much of what we think we need now we don't really need, but I can't convince the kids to donate all their toys, so we're still figuring out creative ways to store everything...
3:30-5 pm: The kids play, I do some pilates via free videos, and then I tackle more unpacking and cleaning. I am still not satisfied with my homemaking routine in our new house. There are enough differences that I am realizing I can't just replicate my old American plan here (for example, laundry takes five hours to wash and dry with our machine here, and we're lucky to even have a dryer--many houses here don't!) Today I head upstairs to clean. Here is the pile of boxes and miscellaneous things I tackle today in my never-ending unpacking project:
5 pm-6:30 pm: I make dinner (kale and spinach saag with paneer, but I haven't found good milk here to make my paneer so we use halloumi instead as an acceptable-but-not-perfect substitute). We go pick Eric up from the train station in this window, too.
6:30 pm: We eat dinner. I also give everyone a dose of elderberry syrup in a proactive effort to stay healthy for more than three days straight.
7 pm: I clean up, Eric plays with the kids, and then we head up to read and get ready for bed. These days, the kids are usually asleep by 8 or 8:30 pm, and then Eric and I spend time together, read, and go to bed.
Our schedule here is still very much evolving! I haven't figured out the best chores for the kids to do in this house (Justin used to do laundry, for example, but as I mentioned that is more complicated here...) And our schedule is MUCH later than it was in Boston. Thanks to the very dark and long nights this far north, we never fully adjusted to the time change when we arrived, so we've just sort of stayed later than usual. In Boston, our days started at 5 and ended at 6:30...
And that's a day in our new life in England! We are all adjusting, and we love the beautiful place we live, especially now that we are all healthy.
Very interesting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! We are finding it interesting to adjust to homeschool and life in a new country!
DeleteI enjoyed hearing about a sample day. I’d be wondering if you’d been able to adopt a more usual bedtime schedule. Glad to hear about letter writing. I’d be happy to be a pen pal with the kids if they want more practice. 🙂 and I’m sure Cedar would too.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes! That would be good! We'll write to you soon! Yes, it's been strange being up so "late" here, but kind of nice to be on a more normal schedule. I think it's going to go up in flames, though, when the sun gets up earlier, b/c the kids have already started getting up earlier and earlier...
DeleteCedar wanted me to warn you that when he writes back his handwriting (printing) will likely look worse than the kids’. 🙂
DeleteHa! Well, I can use it as an example of what not to do :)
DeleteYes, that’s what he said! 🙂 fine motor skills have never been his strong suit. But his content and writing style are good.
DeleteHow wonderful to have the opportunity to live in another country. I hope you have a wonderful time exploring it.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn
Thanks for stopping by, Dawn! We are all feeling blessed by the opportunity, especially now that we are all healthy!
Delete