Morning
My cup of tea arrived at 6:46am this morning. The tea was very hot so I read a chapter from the book on my bedside table as I waited for the tea to cool down. Today's chapter is on the topic of kindness. I was soon engrossed in it and lost track of time, hence I was on the exercise bike a little later than yesterday, resulting in coming back in a quarter of an hour later too.
I ate my breakfast as usual then started on today's main chore: wiping windows and surfaces. I break the household chores down to smaller tasks and aim to complete one major chore each day so that I don't feel overwhelmed by having to do everything all at once.
8:45am. I was wiping the windows in my bedroom when Tiger came in to find out what the noise was (he's a light sleeper). Seeing that it was just me, he went back to sleep for another half an hour.
It was 10:15am by the time he finished his breakfast and his morning chores. We started with memory work, still working on the same three poems as yesterday. After that, I read a chapter from The Golden Age of Myth and Legend while Tiger drew another helicopter. No narration this time but we discussed the similarities between the stories of Pyramus and Thisbe and Romeo and Juliet.
Then it was on to the meat of the day: history. We are still in the homework-completion mode, today it's history. Tiger's homework from his history of medicine class has to do with Mesopotamia, so I thought it would be a good idea to start using the History Odyssey: Ancients (Level 2) curriculum that we have to go through the Mesopotamia section as part of completing his class homework -- I had a look at his homework requirement and found that there are a few overlaps.
Right before we started work, Tiger took put a CD into the player. It was our music for the week: Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet, 2 Violines, Viola & Cello, in A major KV581! Would you believe it? The boy certainly has the right idea about things.
Afternoon
After lunch, we took a 30 minutes break after watching a documentary on ancient Iraq. Our dining table looked like this at break-time:
We were to resume at 2pm, but my mother called right on the hour so she and I talked for 30 minutes as she updated me with news from her part of the world.
At 2:30pm, I was off the phone so I read another chapter from The Story Book of Science from which Tiger narrated orally. At this point, my husband came home from work! He has a flexible work arrangement such that he works from home half the time and today is one of those days. Another half hour was taken up with us fussing about him before all of us resumed work - my husband to his work in the home office, Tiger and I back to the Sumerians in the dining area.
By 4:30pm, Tiger has completed four lessons in the History Odyssey: Ancients (Level 2) curriculum and said he has had enough of Sumerians and cuneiform for a day, so I asked him to take a break. While he was enjoying the Blueberry Bakewell Cake (a modified version of this recipe) that I made yesterday and a cup of mint tea, I got started with dinner.
Evening
Tiger's final commitment for the day was tennis.
It was 8pm when we got home. My husband had a work-related call to take then so we waited until 8:30pm to have dinner together. This evening was a short one but we spent it together as a family, which is nice.
Tiger is in bed now, and I am going to join my husband to watch a movie.
My cup of tea arrived at 6:46am this morning. The tea was very hot so I read a chapter from the book on my bedside table as I waited for the tea to cool down. Today's chapter is on the topic of kindness. I was soon engrossed in it and lost track of time, hence I was on the exercise bike a little later than yesterday, resulting in coming back in a quarter of an hour later too.
I ate my breakfast as usual then started on today's main chore: wiping windows and surfaces. I break the household chores down to smaller tasks and aim to complete one major chore each day so that I don't feel overwhelmed by having to do everything all at once.
8:45am. I was wiping the windows in my bedroom when Tiger came in to find out what the noise was (he's a light sleeper). Seeing that it was just me, he went back to sleep for another half an hour.
It was 10:15am by the time he finished his breakfast and his morning chores. We started with memory work, still working on the same three poems as yesterday. After that, I read a chapter from The Golden Age of Myth and Legend while Tiger drew another helicopter. No narration this time but we discussed the similarities between the stories of Pyramus and Thisbe and Romeo and Juliet.
Then it was on to the meat of the day: history. We are still in the homework-completion mode, today it's history. Tiger's homework from his history of medicine class has to do with Mesopotamia, so I thought it would be a good idea to start using the History Odyssey: Ancients (Level 2) curriculum that we have to go through the Mesopotamia section as part of completing his class homework -- I had a look at his homework requirement and found that there are a few overlaps.
Right before we started work, Tiger took put a CD into the player. It was our music for the week: Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet, 2 Violines, Viola & Cello, in A major KV581! Would you believe it? The boy certainly has the right idea about things.
Afternoon
After lunch, we took a 30 minutes break after watching a documentary on ancient Iraq. Our dining table looked like this at break-time:
We were to resume at 2pm, but my mother called right on the hour so she and I talked for 30 minutes as she updated me with news from her part of the world.
At 2:30pm, I was off the phone so I read another chapter from The Story Book of Science from which Tiger narrated orally. At this point, my husband came home from work! He has a flexible work arrangement such that he works from home half the time and today is one of those days. Another half hour was taken up with us fussing about him before all of us resumed work - my husband to his work in the home office, Tiger and I back to the Sumerians in the dining area.
By 4:30pm, Tiger has completed four lessons in the History Odyssey: Ancients (Level 2) curriculum and said he has had enough of Sumerians and cuneiform for a day, so I asked him to take a break. While he was enjoying the Blueberry Bakewell Cake (a modified version of this recipe) that I made yesterday and a cup of mint tea, I got started with dinner.
Evening
Tiger's final commitment for the day was tennis.
It was 8pm when we got home. My husband had a work-related call to take then so we waited until 8:30pm to have dinner together. This evening was a short one but we spent it together as a family, which is nice.
Tiger is in bed now, and I am going to join my husband to watch a movie.
I've enjoyed reading the last three posts Hwee. It is always interesting to see how other homeschooler's days pan out. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteIt's been an interesting exercise for me to gain some insights into how things are working or not working here, and why. :-) I foresee changes to be implemented soon to take things up a notch.
DeleteWhat a lovely sounding day. It's funny, although you and Tiger do different activities from us, I can also see many similarities in the rhythm of your day. I'm relieved my children aren't the only ones who sometimes start their 'working' day after 10am! Your cake looks delicious - I might try that one, thanks for sharing the recipe. :)
ReplyDeleteI, too, am relieved to know that I'm not the only parent who has a late start to a 'work' day. :-) I think there is much health value in letting children have enough sleep. A tired and grumpy child is not going to be very productive.
DeleteWe have lots of "working lunches," and we quite enjoy it that way.
ReplyDeleteI too have a late start, I'm so not a morning person.
I like working lunches, although some say it's better for digestion if we just concentrated on eating. Well, we only do working lunches occasionally so it's not too bad, I guess. :-)
DeleteI've come to accept the fact that we are not naturally early risers, and have adjusted our day accordingly. More peace at home that way!