Thursday 25 August 2011

A day in the life

This is the last week to participate in the not back to school Blog hop and the topic is: Day in the life

Not Back to School Blog Hop

Well this will be a tough one as there are no two day the same in my house! So I will give rough estimates of when things should be getting done:)!

I awake any where from 6:30 to 8 am. I am not a great morning person so I snooze until the children clamor into my bed. My oldest doesn't do this very much anymore preferring to read in her bed until I tell her to get up and get dress. My youngest still demands his cuddle time in the morning. Sometimes we just talk, play games, or he (or I) will read a story.

8am I do try my best to get both kids up, dressed, brush teeth and hair. In no particular order and how long this take depends on the day. During this time I get my shower in:)

9am I am downstairs and shouting, uh, no, I mean encouraging the children to hurry up and come down stairs. I begin to fix breakfast. I keep it simple here frozen pancakes, waffles, oatmeal or cereal for the kids. Large cuppa tea and 2 fiber bars for me:)

9-9:30 the kids eat breakfast and I am usually logging on to the computer to quickly check e-mail.

School starts between 9:30 and 10 depends on the day and the activities we are doing. I would say about 3X a week we do actual school work the other days we are doing field trips or play dates or something else entirely. It really depends. On a great school day we can accomplish 4-5 different school topics by lunch time. On a not so good day I am lucky if we accomplish 2 activities.

12-1pm Sometime during this period we stop for lunch. While I am cooking lunch the children are emptying and loading the dish washer and tidying up a little (emphasize LITTLE)

Lunch and free time is between 1230 and 2 Kids can read, play, go outside, draw what ever they like during this time. Electronic devices for the kids are off limits. I do a few chores and then spend a little more time on the computer

3 days a week we have outside activities in the afternoon piano lesson, horse back riding lesson and martial arts. I am hoping to add swimming lesson but haven't found a private teacher yet.

If we don't have any outside activities then I do resume school around 2 for one more hour. We can usually squeeze in 2 additional activity but usually much lighter like music, art, typing, reading etc.

Most days we are finished with school by 3 pm on a not so good day I will go til 4 pm but after that I am wiped out and even I can't concentrate anymore:) and I start to yell and I really hate yelling. That said according to my children I am a very good yeller :(

Free time for the kids between 3-5:30 They can do as they please but there are no electronic devices allowed. This doesn't stop them from asking nearly every day. This is when I do a load of laundry (maybe) and start contemplating what we are going to have for dinner. This is also a time to look over the days work and consider my strategy for the next day. Sometimes I get back on the computer. I am beginning to think I am on the computer too much!!!

530 to 630 Begin cooking dinner if I remembered to thaw out meat. If not we have been known to go out to dinner at least once a week. A very bad habit I am trying to break us from:)

Our dining room table is where we do our school work and most days it is a mess with art supplies, half finished projects we are working on, books, papers etc. I have given up on cleaning it off every single evening so we can have a evening meal at the table. So I have a HUGE confession to make. As a family we eat in the living room. The kids have a blanket they spread out on the floor and my husband and I sit on the couch. I know this is very, very bad and I promise when we move back to the states and have a dedicated school room we will break ourselves of this incredibly bad habit but for now it is what works.

6:30 to 8:00 eat dinner and watch educational show. The kids love Myth busters, How It's Made, wild life shows, dinosaur shows and How the Earth Was Made show. Pretty much anything on the Discovery Channel we watch. On a rare night I might let the kids watch a movie usually about something we are studying but still fun. Tonight for example the kids are watching "Free Willy" because we have been learning about Killer whales and we learned quite a bit about Kieko and his rescue.

8:00 Bath time or showers for the children. The plan is for the kids to be in their bed by 8:30 again it is hit or miss. The kids can read until 9PM and then it is lights out this time has been known to creep up to 9:30 but then I am very serious and it is lights out!!!!

9:00 the adults tend to wonder up to bed to read themselves to sleep.

And that in a nutshell is our day. Looking forward to reading how every one else is managing their day.

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12 comments:

  1. Wow - you are so much more disciplined than I am! Kids usually get going on school before I get there each day LOL I will have to write up our day for the hop so that everyone can feel good about the time they get going LOL - thanks for linking to it.

    Found you via A Slice of Life and am a new follower.

    Recent Post: Books Your Kids Will Love

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  2. Oh, I forgot to mention that we also eat in the living room in front of the TV :O The kitchen table is always covered and I have actually decided that the whole "evening meal" thing that most people think is necessary is really the case for families who are not with each other all day long and who only have the meal time to catch up, so I wouldn't worry about it too much... :-)

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  3. hi AM. I enjoyed this post! I can identify with the 'If I remember to thaw out the meat" part. So grateful for Tesco Express...
    hoping to get started with my blog today!

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  4. HI Anna-Marie,
    We are so much alike in some ways: school eventually gets started each morning, I yell too much and I'm on the computer for my break time :) I enjoyed reading your typical day! Also, a LITTLE tidying happens in our house too, but our little rascal, my 3 year old, knows how to undo tear out things we put away! :) Have a blessed weekend and we are praying Hurricane Irene is not mean to us and the east coast... :) Clicked a vote for you!

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  5. Sigh. I always wanted a kiddo that liked sleeping in. ALL of mine wake up by no later than SEVEN am! And usually it's waaaay before! Although my middle is trending towards sleeping more as she gets older...

    I really enjoyed the day in the life of post! It's fun to see the real deal!

    ...danielle

    from my Raising Little Rhodies blog

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  6. Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier. Your day sounds pretty much like mine, except I only have 1 child to look after! LOL.

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  7. I couldn't even begin to describe a typical for us, as there is no such thing, so I didn't even try. We also do schoolwork on the kitchen table. I end up cleaning it multiple times a day, but with five kids we can't eat anywhere else. We do have a counter with barstools and it is not uncommon for everyone to eat lunch and snacks there. Of course, we also have cats who will eat ANYTHING, so I have to clean up all art supplies and so forth or they will eat them and I will wake up the next day to cat throw-up and I hate starting the day that way.

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  8. Even that little bit of tidying up by the kids makes such a difference here. We are in a stretch of eating in the living room again, as the dining room table is piled high with our school work. The more I read your blog, the more similarities I find. :)

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  9. Loved this post! I am amazed by what you accomplish in one day! And I love the 'no electronics' rule. And your family is together at supper time. Visiting. The seating arrangements are optional . . . Thank you for sharing!:)

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  10. Haven't linked up to this one because we've been so busy! But like you said, we don't have a "typical day." It's been fun to read everyone's posts, though! We eat out way too much, too--usually because I haven't had time to get to the supermarket!

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  11. I love reading about everyone's day. I'd like to get our day started earlier, but I'm not a morning person either.

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  12. Popping in (late) from the Not Back to School Blog Hop and now a new follower! So glad to see there's other mom's out there who start school late-ish and forget to take meat out for supper :D

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