Typical Unschooling Day

Here's what a typical day of unschooling, this time of year, looks like for us. We usually call it by it's other name...living our lives.

Cimion gets up at 6:00 with my husband, has breakfast (usually a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter, a banana and yogurt) and hangs out with him bwfore he leaves for work. He'll then go into his room and read or play with his legos or Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
I get up at 8:00, wake up Shawna, make a cup of tea and go online for a while. At this point, Cimion is washing up and getting dressed and Shawna is having breakfast (usually simular to what Cimion had or cereal). They each have a set morning routine that they do which includes exercises and some work around the house or yard. I usually get Jacqueline at about 9:00, sometimes Mini (our dog) will decide she needs to get up earlier and go wake her up. :-) Jacqueline & I usually end up having breakfast together. She likes to have a bagel with cream cheese or cinnamon raisin bread. I feed Mini and Buddie, our iguana.

After that, Jacqueline & I go for a walk...I walk and she rides her bike. We go for about a mile and it takes about 20 minutes.
Being it's starting to get very hot here during the afternoon, we try and do our errands and appointments in the morning, so sometimes we'll have a doctors appointment to go to or we'll do some food shopping. Other times we'll go to the library or thrift store shopping. If it's a Saturday, Cimion goes to his Yu-Gi-Oh duel league, which he loves!

Lunch usually takes place between 11:30-12:30...with Cimion usually eating first because he's up the longest and hungry at this point. They just had eggplant parmesean sandwiches for the first time the other day. My mom made it and they really liked it. Speaking of first time foods, the other day when we went food shopping, Shawna wanted to try a mango and a grapefruit so we bought one of each. All three had the mango (and liked it). Actually, it was four of them because Buddie had some also. Only the girls had the graefruit (and liked it). Cimion didn't like the smell. We do a lot of pasta for lunch, a lot of different ways. We've been on a garlic cheese bread kick lately so we have that with whatever pasta we're having.

Afternoon in Florida in May = POOL!
When we bought our house, it was a little smaller than we wanted but the inground pool really sold us on it. It's kinda like a kidney shape and is 10,000 gallons so it's perfect for them. They've been in the pool more and more each day as it gets hotter and hotter here. It's been in the high 80's most days. They just took some of their money and bought pool toys. They all do awesome cannonballs and Billy is helping Jacqueline learn how to dive.

They usually go back and forth between the pool, playset and trampoline (14' with a net). We have one of the Rainbow playsets and the kids love it. The initial one was a Christmas gift from my mother and each year she buys them the next extension for it.

On Thursday afternoons we get together with our homeschool group, on Tuesday afternoons, Shawna & Cimion just finished a 3 month long storytelling club (how to tell stories) and on Saturday Cimion has a Yu-Gi-Oh duel league that he attends. Lately in the afternoons, Jacqueline has been bringing a movie and some snacks to my mothers house (she lives next door) and hanging out with her. It makes me so happy to see the two of them together and having fun. :-)

We usually eat dinner between 5:30-6:00. If I'm making it, it's always something fast and as easy as opening a can or popping something into the microwave unless Billy is home on time and makes something (he just made stew in the crockpot). I tend to put more time and effort into lunch than dinnner because mentally, I have more energy in the afternoon.

Some evenings Jacqueline has Brownies, which will be ending soon for the summer. She just finished her jazz class and she wants to try karate in the fall instead.

After dinner, they shower and we have some down time. They each like to read so they'll go to their rooms, get comfy and read. Jacqueline sometimes works on her second story. Here's her first one. Cimion will sometimes play with his legos and Shawna will always read.

Billy & I usually go into the jacuzzi and reconnect after the day apart or we'll watch a movie. Cimion is usually in bed earlier than the other two because he's been up from 6:00 AM.

That's basically a typical day here lately. It's been very relaxed and laid back, which I love because last year so was crazy and full of running around.