in the rhythm

I'm absolutely basking in our new daily rhythm, and felt the need to share after another fantastic day in our homeschooling lives! Here's how our days are shaping up:

At 7am we awaken (actually, J awakens sometime before that, and The Map Man even earlier since he's gone by 6:30, and I'm awake soon after that, but our actual rhythm does not begin until 7, and even then Zoo Boy is usually still sleeping). I take care of the barn chores (set out sheep to graze, scoop the stalls in the horse barn, feed hay to everyone, let the chickens out for the day), and put the dogs out in their yards.

At 8ish I make the kids their breakfast, and they eat while I make food for and feed the birds. Then we clean up the table, do a short calendar activity (look to see which day of the week and month it is, sing a song and/or recite a poem about the month, write in the planned highlight of the day, and look ahead to see what major events are coming up), then brush teeth. Immediately following tooth brushing, I do sensory brushing and speech therapy activities with Zoo Boy, then both boys get dressed.

Then it's right into our Adventure Circle -- in the above photo the boys are swinging their sickles to harvest our field of grain, which we then bring to the miller to grind into flour. (I'll write out the whole adventure circle and post it here in the next day or two, in case anyone is desiring more info.)

After Circle, we go for our morning walk, Collies included. This morning we actually had some brisk weather, hence the sweatshirts and hoods. When we get home, we have a short Sensory Intensive activity -- today the kids got into their body socks and had a crawling race. Yesterday they had a rolling race (where they rolled across the living room and back). Some days it'll be a sack race, some days a crab race, etc. Anything to ground the kids with heavy proprioceptive work, as we're about to enter our more contracted part of the morning.

Next is snack (kids eat while I feed the horses), then we start our story work for the day. On Mondays, the kids will draw/write in their weekend journals, then will hear a new Fairy Tale. On Tuesdays, they will recall the story, then draw a picture from it (with my guidance), and will read/recite a verse from the story. On Wednesday, they will identify a hidden letter in the drawing, then will write the letter in their "good books", as well as writing the verse recited the day before. (Or part of the verse, as the case will probably end up being with Zoo Boy.) In the afternoon on Wednesdays they will also hear a new Fairy Tale. Then Thursday's story work will be the same as Tuesday's, and Friday's will be the same as Wednesday's. Friday night we'll have a Nature Story around a fire, and Saturday's story work will be recalling that story, and doing some sort of artistic project with that story.

After story work comes an hour of creative play to help bring the kids back into a less contracted state. Yesterday I mentioned that the kids had trouble sinking into play after our story, but there was no such difficulty today -- they immediately set to work building this fort out of some dining room chairs and a large silk, and the play flowed from there.

Then comes lunch, followed by rest, although much of our rest this year is going to be in the car on our way to afternoon adventures.

The afternoon adventures vary greatly by the day. Monday we will have our Monday Homeschool Classes, which will include a Community Circle, Folk Dancing, Soccer for J, and a class about animals for Zoo Boy (which I happen to be teaching), plus some free play with other kids in the museum. Tuesday we have our therapies. Wednesday is our "home all day" day -- we have baking/cooking, listening to a new Fairy Tale, creative play, and then:


painting. Thursday is Nature Walk and Craft day with other Enki Homeschooling friends. Friday is our playdate day with other homeschooling families at various parks. And Saturday is our Family Adventure Day, which will involve a field trip that is related to our Nature Story for the week.

After our Afternoon Adventures, there is Practice Time (which I talked about yesterday a bit) for the hour before dinner, where the kids practice skills such as reading, writing, and math. The Map Man comes home at the beginning of that, and somewhere during that time I start work.

Then it's supper, bed prep, Family Story Time, and on to bed.

It seems like a lot -- I was really worried that I'd packed our day too full of activity and that I'd constantly be worried about not getting to everything, or always feeling like I'm playing catch-up. But as it turns out, so far things are flowing along very smoothly and there seems to be plenty of time to fit it all in without feeling rushed or hurried or stressed. In fact, I think the rhythm is supporting me every bit as much as it's supporting the kids! I've had a constant smile on my face for two days now. Now let's see what happens tomorrow when we try our first led-drawing of the story we read over the past two days....