Our weeks: day by day
Now we've been settling into the new (not) 'school year', our weekly activities are pretty well set into our schedule. No two days are the same when home educating, but we definitely have a rhythm; and our weeks are pretty regular when viewed as a whole, even though the individual days are very different.
So, let's have a look at it.
Monday
There are two different versions of Mondays, because our Christian Home Educators' co-op is fortnightly. When that's on, it's a full day 9-3. It's simply a group of parents hiring a local hall and delivering learning, fun and activities for our kids, dividing them roughly into age groups. N(11) and D(10) are in the same group, and this term their activities include learning about the persecuted church, book club, and a whole afternoon of exploring nature in a nearby woodland! This is our longest-running group we've been part of, and the kids have precious, deep friendships there - as do I. Definitely one of the highlights of our weeks.
On the off-weeks, I take them to the pool for a free swim in the morning and they join in with an after-school club at our local allotments. This is led by a qualified Forest School leader, and they get to do all sorts of gardening, nature discovery, bushcraft and survival skills there. Best of all, this is offered free to residents of our neighbourhood!
Finally, D then attends St John's Ambulance Cadets in the evening. He just aged out of their younger group, Badgers, and everyone at Cadets is older so he's only just finding his feet there. But he did enjoy Badgers a lot, and I think the skills he will pick up as a Cadet are extremely useful (first aid!).
Tuesday
Also known as, the day of madness. I don't know why so much had to cram into this one day, but I've just surrendered to the fact that this day will be hectic. This enables other days to be quieter, so we just get on with it.
I start work at 8:30 - I work remotely, so all I need is my laptop, headphones, and an Internet connection.
By 9am I need to get N to the local stables, where she'll spend her morning mucking out and looking after the horses. She's a helper there, this is not an organised activity! I try to get her there for about 9 but it depends on when I get a break from my work.
Returning home, I then take D to the gardening group at the local community centre. This group designs and maintains the centre's grounds, led by a qualified ecologist; D is the only child attending this as it's a school day and not targeted at children, but he does love working in nature and he shadows the leader quite closely. For safeguarding reasons, they do not allow me to drop him off and leave - I need to stay on site, so I work the rest of my morning in the van, using my phone as hotspot.
When D and my work finish, I collect N from the stables, and as soon as we return it's time for their music teacher to arrive - N plays guitar, D plays piano, and they each have a half-hour lesson with this same teacher, who's been teaching them for years now.
A little while later, I take everyone (the kids and the dog) to the local food bank, where they run a woodworking group for kids after school; again, free to attend for residents. This is two hours of supervised freedom with wood, where they can create whatever they can dream up - N recently made a Minecraft Creeper statuette, and D created a wooden Donut that he later painted at home. I leave them there, and walk the dog in the nearby park.
This is taking us nearly up to dinnertime, and I wouldn't have had time to make anything (nor would N have time to eat at home), so while they are still at woodworking, I hop over to nearby Costco and pick up hot dogs and a hot cooked chicken for our dinner. They can eat the hot dogs in the car as we drive home, and not long after arriving there, N sets off on foot to the community centre for the evening, as there's an Amateur Dramatics group that's become her absolute highlight. They are now rehearsing the Panto for December, and N has been cast as the mirror in Snow White!
Wednesday
The day I kept intentionally free from organised commitments, at least in the daytime. We begin the day by going to a weekday Mass; and then, this is the day we use for bigger outings or to meet up with friends for the day. Last year, we visited a number of Welsh castles on our outings - they are free for home educators in term time - and we continue our streak with a visit to Castell Coch next week. This week, we stay more local by visiting the Botanic Gardens here as the weather is still so lovely.
In the evenings, last year the Cathedral's junior choir that N sings with rehearsed every week on Wednesdays but this year they have moved to what feels like a more erratic schedule - not quite fortnightly. So if she has choir rehearsal, then that's the activity of the evening; if there's no rehearsal, she goes to Karate locally.
Thursday
Home Blessing Day. This is the day I catch up with all the housework, and the kids have a calm morning: sleeping in, tidying and hoovering their rooms, practicing their instruments, continuing their bigger projects, and tablet time. In the afternoon, I get them out into the fresh air; usually to the adventure playground nearby, which is open for after-school sessions from 3:30, and which is right next to a lovely nature reserve where I can walk the dog while the kids are at the supervised playground.
Friday
Another half day of work for me, from 8:30. The kids have a quiet morning again, working independently or playing; at 12:30 they have their swimming lesson. Mr. will finish work around that time too, so our weekend kind of begins there - N has Karate at 4:30, but that's the end of our week.
The Weekend
Saturdays somehow always fill up with activities and commitments; we continue to be involved with Marriage Encounter, where we meet every month for a Saturday afternoon. We try to visit Mr's parents monthly too, and one Saturday afternoon a month there's Children's Come & See at the Cathedral which we take part in. Sunday mornings belong to church, and then it's family time.
This rhythm is not set in stone, but it's a bit of a scaffold to hang our activities on. After years of home educating and trying many, many different groups and activities, we are currently doing very little that's particularly aimed at home educators - the main group we consider ourselves part of is the Bristol Christian Home Ed group. But we are as active as we can be in our church, where the kids also have growing friendships, and we take advantage as much as possible of local activities on offer.