Our yesterday, with the 7 year old:
Breakfast over the Lego Movie in Hindi
She built a snowcat while watching and eating, I worked on cleaning out our greenhouse/workshop and prepared the yard for the impending freeze.
By 11am we were discussing the angles cut into pieces of wood (trim) that I was moving around. She wanted a few of the scraps. She took them in and incorporated them into some sort of dwelling for her Legos and fairies.
Lunch was a concoction of soup and stuff that she prepared for both of us while I worked. We rested and had lunch while discussing the turtle’s latest adventures (he has the run of our house, can go up/down stairs, etc..) and talking about finding some stuff in the greenhouse her Papa had been looking for. After lunch, she and I worked to get said stuff into a sorted mess for her Papa to review. She learned about the various technologically related items that were discovered.
She went to play Minecraft for an hour or so, in which she continued to construct the world she and a few other children from WLU are building. She remained available to assist me in my efforts, and she had a conversation with a friend on the phone.
When I returned to the interior of the house about 2 hours after lunch, I found her in the middle of a Lego minefield, along with her Nature Stuff that she uses to build things. She’d made a two level something of a house and a 3 axle, sand/snow/mud mobile out of Legos, beeswax rubbed leaves, a chunk of moss for the roof, and the trim pieces I mentioned above.
I concluded my work for the day (sun down, too cold) and began dinner. She watched an episode of Annedroids and Dragons: Berk in Japanese. (We spend our mornings around here in other languages, and are a multi-lingual house.) We ate together, talked about her day and mine, our accomplishments, cool stuff we’d discovered, and she asked about what I’d been listening to while working. I explained it was a book discussing the concepts of financial leverage and utilizing money in ways that cause it to grow without having to go to work to do it. She integrated the concepts at her level and within a half hour, I overheard her talking to her various animal creatures (she’d become a bat by then) about how she was going to make her money exponentially grow so she could get so many more legos that she’d never be stuck without the right piece.
After dinner, with her Papa/my partner hours away (working) still, I began working on my husband’s expense reports. I explained to her that working on it then would give us more time with him later. She understood and decided it was a good time to wrap up her Minecrafting for the day, which she did for probably 30 minutes, and then joined me (while still working on the reports) to watch Dancing with the Stars. Watching this, of course, inspired us and we got up and tried to copy some of the dance steps.
Neither of us felt like going to bed before Papa got home, but that was going to be after midnight… he put in a 16 hour day yesterday, and does this too often. So, in effort to keep our night long, we pulled out a Geopuzzzle and put Africa together. We put a continent or two together a few times a week. She’s getting faster at it than I am.
What else… we had special time together just being, in the evening. Dancing (show) is always a fun time for she and I to enjoy, and on the nights that her Papa is gone, we just sort of cuddle up and tuck in.
This is an example of a calm, uneventful day around here. We do this probably 1-2 times a week on average.
For those needing this “day” put into academic categories:
– Geometry
– Woodworking
– Fine Motor Skills
– Engineering
– Architecture
– Problem Solving
– Design, Form & Function
– Financial Education
– Simple Math
– Reading
– Social/Societal Awareness Development and Skills
– Cooking
– Chemistry
– Fractions and Measurements
– Inventing, Engineering, Optics, Astronomical Observations and Technology to do so (Annedroids)
– Japanese, Hindi, Spanish (she watched an episode of Telma y Tula in there somewhere too)
– Advanced and Progressive English Development, Vocabulary, Spelling, Sentence and Complex Thought Composition (Minecraft chat discussions, conversations with me, conversation with friend on phone)
– Life Lessons and Reflection (another friend had a death in her family yesterday)
– History, Cultural Studies, Social Engagement, Chemistry of Eels (and their effect on various other organisms, and Poetic/Compositional License (Dragons:Berk – this series, and its inaccuracies, spawned an interest in Vikings, Norwegian History and Current Societal Studies, Early Peoples of Europe, Explorers to the North American Continent and Europe, Human Civilization and Expansion – this is over the last few weeks and continues)
– Geography, Political Science and Cultural Studies (we talk about the countries the puzzle pieces we’re holding in our hands represent – the pieces are shaped as the political borders dictate and because of our extensive travel, she understands how states and countries are divided by invisible lines/political borders), Language Studies (learning what languages are spoken in the various multitude of countries, and the difference between our country with members from all over the world, and other countries where such diversity is not unified by a single language)
– Interpersonal Development (seeking to cooperate with house efforts, requesting use of materials/trim, coordinating her schedule and needs with mine and the rest of the house, etc..)
– Animal Care, Responsibility (she is the primary care giver for the turtle)
And on and on….. Again, this is a calm, laid back, didn’t really do anything day.