Typical Day

I haven't written about a "typical" day for a while. I think it will be fun to look back in 10 years and see what our days were like.

So, today I slept in late because I was up late last night working on my ezine (which is almost done!). D got up with the girls and made them breakfast, while I laid in bed and read my Bible. E usually likes to watch a movie when she first wakes up, and this morning she put on Shark Tales. I got up around 10:30, and she was about 20 minutes into her movie. I told her I was going to take a shower and asked if she wanted to take a bath, which she did.

After our shower/bath, she wanted to play "Don't Get Away," which is a game where I hold onto her and she tries to get away and I say "NO! Never! You'll never escape!" but of course she always does, and then I pretend to be sad that she got away, then she comes running back and we do it all over. Or sometimes she runs around me getting just close enough where I can almost grab her but I MISS. Or I pretend that I don't notice that she has escaped my arms and I go ON and ON about how she'll never get away from me, when she's already on the other side of the room. It's a great game for getting out big energy! Then L and D joined in the fun and we had a big tickle fight.

Then I offered to read some books to her, and she said that she wanted to read them to me. So, I suggested one of her "easy reader" type books with big, simple words that I could help her sound out, but she wasn't interested in those. She wanted to read A Snack for Phillip, so we did. She asked me to help her sound out the words on the cover, and then a few words on the first page. Then she wanted me to read a page to her and then she would "read" it after me. She started doing this a week or two ago. It's funny because when I first told people that we were going to be unschooling, someone asked me "so are you just going to wait and hope that some day she says 'hey mom, teach me to read'?" and I said, no, I think it will be a process of slowly picking up on words and sounds and making connections as we go through a word-filled life. I'm totally ok with her not reading until she's 8 or 10 or whatever, but here she is at 3 saying "mom, show me how to read." LOL

So, when she was done trying to read, I read a few books to her and then put on some music. E and L danced while I cleaned up the house. E's been asking for ballet lessons, and I'm not sure how I'm going to swing that financially, but we'll figure something out. Maybe not ballet exactly, but some kind of dance.

Then E fed her rat, and talked to it and both girls watched it. E got out a book about rats that we had gotten from the library and looked at the pictures. Then she wanted to play on the computer, so I set her up with the paint program. When she was done with that, she asked to type and did that for a while. Then she played uptoten.com. She printed a coloring page out and I helped her and L get set up at the table with paper and crayons.

I have a "strew basket" that I put new things in and rotate old games and puzzles and things. While they were coloring, I put the basket out on the table. E noticed her memory game and pipe cleaners and played with those for a while.

I made stir fry for lunch, and E ate just the broccoli and then asked for more. When we prayed, we talked a little bit about Yahweh being God's name. This is a little confusing for her still, because we use "God" and "Jesus" around most people, because they wouldn't know what we're talking about if we said Yahweh and Yeshua. But at home we use their real names, when I remember, since I'm so entrenched in the habit of saying God and Jesus after a life time of Christian church.

Not long after lunch, she told me she was tired and asked me to lay down and nurse her. So, we all laid down for a while. L fell asleep, but E got up and D put on Open Season for her while I read some of my book. I got up after 15 or 20 minutes and then E wanted to play Don't Get Away again, so we did. Then she wanted to hold her rat and watch Little Mermaid. While she did that, I did yoga and we talked about that movie and the rat. The rat fell asleep in it's box and E covered it up with a blanket- so cute!

Little Mermaid barely made it past the previews before D asked E if she wanted to go outside with him. So she played outside while he worked, and I got some work in the office done. When they came inside, E and L played together for a long time, then E took another bath.

The evening crankiness came and went without too much fuss tonight. She's at a point where she usually doesn't take a nap, unless she falls asleep in the car. But in the evening she gets cranky. When I remember that tireness is the reason for it, and don't get bent out of shape myself, it goes pretty smoothly. I laid down with her and nursed her, and then she felt better. I still had office work to do, so D played with the girls for a while.

Then we made a late night decision to go get a redbox movie. I thought the girls would fall asleep in the car, but they didn't. We got The Tale of Desperoux and it was pretty good. I think it's based of a classic book, so now I want to find out for sure and read it. After the movie, D and already sleeping L went to bed, I got on the computer and E watched a few minutes of a Dr. Suess movie before falling asleep in the living room.

All in all, a wonderful day! I wish I would have gotten myself outside though. I need to make sure to go out for a long time tomorrow. I get cranky if I'm inside too many days in a row. I wonder what tomorrow will bring....