Pepper Paints

A Day In Our Unschooling Life

I meant to write this post yesterday when things were fresh in my mind, because today, yesterday seems like a blur.  But from what I can remember it felt like a really productive day. And some days are like that around here. But before I type it all out-I just want you to know that this is just how yesterday panned out. I can’t say this is a typical day because most days we have to leave the house for one reason or another.  So this is just a small peek into one of our quasi typical days.

So for starters Molly woke up with a sore throat and wanted some tea. Well that always seems to mean it’s tea time-complete with tea cups, snacks and books.

So before 9 AM we were drinking tea and reading several chapters out of our latest chapter book, WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME TO TOWN. A book based on actual events in the early 20th century. The main character in the book spends some time in her room hiding from her friends because her face is badly scarred from smallpox. So after reading a few chapters we googled smallpox and read a little bit about it and looked at some photos of smallpox scars. I continued to work on the computer while the girls played.

Played what? Played -”Look, I’ve got small pox scars!”

Then I tackled the kitchen while they built with various block, while listening to some ancient Ella Jenkins records.

Molly decided to make a pot of Matzo Ball soup-so out came pots and bowls and knives and veggies…….There was chopping, measuring, stirring, converting.

At this point in the early afternoon-Jake finally woke up just in time to eat lunch! Joe even surprised us for lunch. While they ate, I switched the laundry yet again. Then we all took the dogs for  walk before Joe went back to work and I headed back to  clean up the messy kitchen!

I finally got Jake to sign on to his on-line school and do a little bit of work. We try to do a little bit 4 days out of the week-some days more than others. This is our second year using an on-line school. We are able to work the curriculum to meet our needs. It may not seem very unschooley but it works for us (me)!  We are almost done for this year-whoo-hoo! So after we finished up he went back to his book and TV. While the girls played in the basement-coming up occasionally to show off a new outfit!

Usually on Mondays we participate in an Unplug your kids project. This weeks theme was clothing and Molly loves to sew. You can read all about it here.

So after her project was all finished I put a couple more baskets of laundry away, checked e-mail and blogs on the computer while the girls watched Arthur. Then I made dinner, cleaned up dinner and gathered library returns for my late working husband to run up to the library when he came home at 8:00pm.

Today we were gone most of the day, with pre-school and a playground visit with friends for Ginger and I,  meeting up with  friend at the  library for Jake  and circus and a trip to the zoo with friends for Molly. More dishes, more food preparation more computer time and now 2 paper routes to stuff. 1 for Molly who came home sick from the zoo and one for Jake with the broken arm. And where is my husband who promised to help??? Still at work at 8:45pm! That is typical around here!! But he did come home for lunch yesterday-so I guess I’ll cut him a break. Oops he is here now and ready to start stuffing papers, I better go help!!

Tags: belt, ella jenkins, Kitchen, messy kitchen, PepperPaints, photo, photos, pox scars, smallpox, Tea, tea cups, tea time, tie, typical day, typical days, unschool, unschooling, when the circus came to town