A Day at School with the Smiths

So, when people hear I home educate, they automatically jump to the conclusion that we play all day. Then I explain it's virtual school so it's public school online. That's when they suddenly think that I plop my children in front of a computer all day. So, I decided to take pictures of everything we did today so people could see how our school day actually goes. Tuesdays are the best day to record everything because the kids have no live classes or anything. Tomorrow, they both have a 1 hr math class in a virtual classroom with a live teacher. Collin has his virtual speech therapy with webcams and microphones and Collin has his monthly conference with his teacher so she can see how he's doing in school and make sure he is retaining the information. She also helps him with anything he may be struggling with and give me tips on how to help.  They also have a 1 hr reading class on Thursdays and Collin has another 30 minute virtual speech therapy session. So... let's get on with today.

We normally get up at 7am. We eat...

 Then I shower and dress. Sometimes the kids get dressed. ;)

Calendar. Don't laugh. It's homemade, OK. haha! It includes days of school, weather, and yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We sing our days of the week song and talk about the tens place and ones place in our number of school days section.

Then, someone leads us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Today was Ryanne's turn. :)

We look at the calendar to see what we have going on. No online classes or anything today. Our "extra" class is science. Media means educational computer games (Jumpstart, PBS Kids, Readings Eggs...etc)

This is my spot. I have realized I am too old to sit on the hard floor so I sit on one of the small beanbags. LOL! It's softer on the bum.

Collin is doing vocabulary on the computer (of course, he seems to be slightly distracted in this shot) and Ryanne and I are working on phonics.

Collin is doing literature while Ryanne is working on her phonics worksheet.

This is the computer portion of phonics. It takes about 5-10 minutes.

Collin is working on Reading Eggs (paid for by the school so we take advantage of it).

Ryanne and I are working on literature while Collin is doing Reading Eggs on the computer.

What is kindergarten without a little bit of coloring? She is working on language skills. This also had a small portion on the computer. It was her vocabulary words and only took about 10 minutes.

Snack break! I love doing the snack in this thing b/c there are always leftovers so it just stays in the school room and if they get munch they just sit at the bar (school room is the dining room) and eat the food. The dark strips are home made deer jerky just in case you are wondering. My BIL hunts and gave us some of his deer meat and then Paul made the jerky. Yum Yum!!

They get a 30 minute snack break (10-10:30am at this point) and I used this opportunity to work on some Christmas presents I'm making. Some of these people look at this blog so you just get a shot of the crochet hook.

After snack time we go straight to math.

Then it's media time. Ryanne is doing Reading Eggs here but she was having trouble figuring out what she was supposed to do so Collin was helping her.

Lunch!!! They get an hour here! 

I eat and then I work on some of my chores like dishes, laundry, or bathroom.

At 1pm it's back to work. We do our Daily 5 right after lunch. The kids are working on writing here. Collin was writing about his favorite dinosaur and Ryanne was making a gift list.

Word Work!! Ryanne was working on her sight words and Collin was practicing his spelling words. They both had a board and magnetic letters.

Read to self time! They do this for 20 minutes/day and every week they get 100 minutes they get a bead on a necklace. After 10 beads we have an ice cream party or a pizza party if it's too cold for ice cream. ;)

Then we all take turns reading to each other. Ryanne reads to us with pictures. She looks at the pictures and makes her own story based on what the pictures tell her. Collin reads a picture book to us. Then, I read a chapter book to them for 20 minutes. We are reading this book right now. We are a little backwards and started with the second book and have now gone back to the first one. This book actually belongs to my niece who was kind enough to let us borrow it. :) We're almost finished! You'll get it back soon! :)

Finally, science.

Not bad. We finished before 3:30. We normally finish between 3 and 3:30pm. So, see, we do a full day, just like your kids. :)

Snack and play time! The kids ate and are now outside playing. YAY!!!

Now, I get to finish chores, cook dinner (hope it stays warm until we can eat it) take Collin to TaeKwonDo, take Ryanne to dance, (hopefully Paul picks up Collin from TKD) and then head home. Eat, get kids ready for bed and then I have a couple of hours worth of my own school work to do. I love that I get to do this with my kids everyday though. I think it's super fun!