A(n a)typical day in the lives of the snowflakes

I have decided to copy a great idea I came across, and post the occasional Day in the Life of article.  A couple of disclaimers here: first, our day won't look anything like the day of any other home educating family; secondly, our day today probably won't look anything like our day tomorrow, or our day next week. Taking this into account, here  is one example of how we spend our time.

Snowflakes #1 and #2 get up at about 6.45am. They play "Clopper the horse" - a Famous Five inspired act where one pretends to be the front legs of the horse and the other plays its back legs - up and down the hall for a while, then decide to set the table for breakfast before coming back to wake the other children. Daddy Snow and I have been camping in snowflake #3's bedroom while the children's aunt, uncle and cousin from Sydney have been staying in our room. Snowflake #3 wakes up and has her "good morning milk" breastfeed while the others start some kind of game with their uncle; I'm not sure of the exact rules but it involves hiding toys behind their backs and lots of giggling.

After breakfast, the snowflakes and their cousin do various playing, dancing and singing. #3 is trying to learn Danny Boy, but doesn't quite remember (or understand) the lyrics. My niece is very musical for a just-turned-3yo, and can do quite an impressive rendition of Shuffle Off to Buffalo. Daddy Snow is taking the relatives off to his other sister's house, and from there to the airport to catch their flight home. After many hugs and sad farewells, the snowflakes feel it's imperative to lift their mood by means of cake and ice cream. (I'm probably setting them up for a lifetime of comfort eating by agreeing to this.)

The schoolwork side of things has been somewhat neglected of late, so we spend an hour or two with me playing teacher. The elder two practice piano for a while; they are both rather keen at the moment because they are almost ready to move on to their respective next books. #1 has finally "got" that it's more effective to practice the bits he can't play yet, as opposed to only doing the phrases he already knows how to play. Each of them plays with #3 while I help the other with their practice.

I give them each a reading lesson. #1 is introduced to the epistolary narrative style and the idea of translating little known ancient languages, while #2 reads and makes up sentences with words beginning with sm, sp and sc. Then #3 demands a reading lesson too. This is tricky for me, because I don't think she is ready to read, but it's impossible to convince her of this. She learned all the basic letter sounds a long time ago, but she finds it difficult to blend them into words. She will occasionally read a two or three letter word correctly, but she really prefers to do pretend reading where she invents a story and sounds out words from her imagination. Whatever, it's all good. So I spend a few minutes showing her words, she reads a couple, and then, honour satisfied, I leave her to play with her letter cards for a while.

The elder two snowflakes want some outside time, so they tell me they're going to cuddle the chickens. This is #2's idea: since we are not able to get a dog at this stage, she has started to treat the chooks like puppies, including a training program (she earnestly informed me the other day that she had taught one of them to sit on command!). After a quick chat about the importance of treating the livestock kindly, they disappear for the better part of an hour to get themselves covered in mud.


Snowflake #3 isn't quite so keen on the chook whispering gig today, so she has a few snacks and then asks to "do writing". She is nowhere near ready to write, as she just doesn't have the necessary fine motor ability yet, but I have given her a few "learning books" that she loves to work on. Today we do a page of identifying and drawing circles in one book, and a page of drawing loops in another, then she has a go at solving one of the elaborate mazes her brother has drawn. I've been surprised lately to see that she is actually beginning to be able to control the pencil: yesterday she coloured something in for the first time (colouring inside the lines rather than vaguely scribbling in the vicinity of the picture), and this ability seems to have come from nowhere, although undoubtedly she has been working up to it without me noticing.

Following their much needed showers (after sitting down in the chook pen), #1 helps me cook vegetable pastries, then he and #2 do some worksheets from their language skills books, sitting cozily in front of the fire that Daddy lit when he got home. They spend the rest of the time up until lunch designing mazes. #1 is teaching #2 about maze construction. I notice that the mazes he draws have been getting more complex, and realise that I probably wouldn't know how to draw them as well as he does either. #3 has had enough of writing and drawing by now, so she does some role play involving a family of stuffed animals who are going on a plane.

We eat our latish lunch all together, then it's Quiet Time, when all the snowflakes occupy themselves quietly in their bedrooms for an hour or so (well, OK, they are mostly quiet and mostly in their rooms: I hear snippets and singing and counting, and they pop out every so often for various toys or art supplies). I don't know of many other people who keep up the traditional afternoon nap time for their school aged children who haven't needed naps for years, but it works really well for us. Not only do I get to do some work in (relative) peace, but the snowflakes also seem to enjoy and benefit from some calm, alone time.

Snowflake #2 emerges from her room with a handful of "letters" she has made. She has done a great job of writing names and addresses, considering she has never been taught to do this. We have a short, informal lesson on how to address an envelope correctly, then she puts on some stamps and we go for a quick drive so that she can post her letters. Meanwhile, #3 does some drawing on the whiteboard and #1 strings some bead bracelets, Daddy watching as he works by the fire.

Later in the afternoon, Daddy Snow gets some more work done while the rest of us play Planet Quest. I mentally count this as schoolwork, since we are looking at astronomy this year and they are learning some facts about the solar system, however the biggest lessons they learn are about playing fair, waiting one's turn, and being tolerant of one's 2yo sister who is apt to interpret the rules very creatively.

Snowflake #1 begs to play on Reading Eggs. It's been a long time since he's used the program, and it becomes evident that, in the interim, he has progressed well beyond the levels that it covers. However it does give him some practice with following instructions and using the mouse (maybe he'll learn to mouse with one hand  instead of two). #2 and #3 do some tidying in the playroom and play a few dressing up games.

While the snowflakes eat their dinner, I read them a couple of chapters from Water Babies. (Yes, I have read about the importance of the Family Dinner, but, given that we have family breakfast, often family lunch and diverse sundry other Family Times throughout the day, I think we can be forgiven for sometimes having separate adult and child dinner times.) Books from that era are a lot denser than much of the literature they are used to, but I'm constantly suprised at how willing they are to persevere with stories that entail lots of new information, unfamiliar vocabulary and different writing styles. Pretty much any book more than about 30 years old can turn into a history lesson as we unpack all the elements that are new to them.

They are all fed, clean, cuddled and happily settled in bed by some time after 8pm - a bit later than I would have liked, given how tired they are. I reflect that it's been a pretty good day. Until I remember that I have a ton of paperwork to do, and I haven't even got to the laundry yet...