My kids are night owls. It’s 8am. they’re still sleeping. Because of this, I choose to get up early. By 6am if possible. This gives me a chance to exercise (snigger – doesn’t happen as often as I’d like!), do some work, do some research, write blogs. You get the point.
When
they do wake up, we’re pretty slow to get going. Some form of breakfast – fruit, porridge, banana ‘bread’. Then we’re usually heading out somewhere. Our regular activities include weekly park days where we meet up with other homeschoolers. I think this is Alex’s favourite ‘activity’. We meet in Brimbank park, the kids start off playing in the playground, but it’s not long before someone is asking to head down to the river. So off we go. Then off come the clothes and the kids are happy for ages. Alex loves a dog belonging to a family we have grown very fond of. Alex seems to hit it off well with the two kids. And their lifestyle, be it schooling or otherwise is similar enough to ours that we are comfortable.
A few evenings each week, Alex does karate and ju-jitsu. Karate has been going since December 2013. Interest has fluctuated and we have had times with breaks but we are trying to encourage Alex to maintain his commitment. He rarely asks to miss ju-jitsu however! Earlier this month Alex attended presentation (each alternate month). He earned his second merit in karate. At home, he asked if he could sew his stripe on himself. After my initial thoughts and hesitation, and then schoolish internal dialogue “he wants to sew, how to teach him best? Classes? Youtube videos?” I started the process with him watching and he gladly finished the job.
As well as this, Alex enjoys bike rides with his Dad, and of course wrestling! Daniel has started to join in the fun. He loves to do what his big brother is doing. If Daniel does something we’d like to discourage, such as launching a toy across the room and Alex laughs that’s all he needs to encourage him! Daniel’s favourite word is more. I love seeing his little lips form the word! Hes adorable.
And Alex’s favourite thing is movies. He’s not so much into TV, although ‘Tree Fu Tom’ and ‘Star Wars rebels’ which led to the purchase of a light saber last week with saved up pocket money. This is a new thing since he turned 5. He’s been pretty quick to spend so far! We watch a movie most nights. Usually we watch the same movie a few times as requested, probably as Alex has so many questions and is understanding what is happening and needs this time to process it. We don’t do any writing, except he may write his name on a painting or drawing that he does. We read books together most days, but not as much as before the TV was ‘released’.
Soon we have football to look forward to. All in all not a bad way to live your days?! I hope he has fond memories of us together.