Project Days

Around here some days just end up being project days. Days where all those things I've been meaning to do with the campers gets bundled up and done in short bursts all day long. So for this month's "Day in the life" post I'm going with Sunday, March 16th, 2014 as our day. 

We went to Saturday mass at our parish simply because we prefer it to the super early morning one on Sunday. Waking up the Peanut before she's ready to wake up is not the best of ideas, especially if it's not for something she's going to get super excited about right away. She loves church but not when she's sleepy. Right now Saturday evenings work better for us.

So, Sunday morning we all kind of woke up around 9 AM. Normal wake up routines were followed and chores were done, all of which took about half an hour. Then YCJ got ready to make instant oatmeal for breakfast for the family. She started with the kiddos and then did the adults. We all like different kinds of oatmeal and if we make plain there has to be a small "bar" worth of toppings and additions, so when we find instant on sale we tend to grab it up. (We got three big things of different flavored instants for $6 PLUS got a free milk about a week ago.)

Around 10 AM we all finished eating and it was time to start our leprechaun trap project. So, I got out all of the materials for the campers and poured another cup of coffee for myself. I took just a few moments explaining to them what I had thought we'd do and then let them go at it. I spent a few minutes, after I saw that they were working well, getting our next item on the agenda ready. 

The next "item" on our list, which we got to around 10:30 AM, was our "work" on Saint Patrick. These were really shamrocks that I attempted to draw drew out and then gave the children blessings to write above the smaller shamrocks and we discussed the trinity while working with the larger shamrock. 

We stayed in the school area for awhile while we worked on some of our little decorations for Saint Patrick's day, and the transition from winter to spring. Mostly coloring pages and chit chatting with each other while I took down our winter garden above the dining table. They really like coloring sheets, even ECJ whom you would think would get tired of coloring pages at age 12. As soon as they finished with that part they took off for a break into one of the rooms. I spent the time they were taking a break to catch up on some e-mail and blog reading.

Around 1:30 PM we had lunch, ECJ made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids and buttered rice for Mom and Dad. Afternoon chores were quickly done and then we finished off the leprechaun traps while I began getting our next project ready.

We weren't ready to do the next project until after 2:30 PM but that was just fine as the campers were ready to watch a quick DVD in Peanut's room while I busied myself in the kitchen and ECJ came out before the girls to help me set up. And before we actually began the project I showed them a bit of why we were doing what we were going to do and the differences between the before and after of it. 

The next project was our "fire starters" (step-by-step instructions coming up next week) and actually was pretty scientifically oriented. Peanut thought it was super messy but sort of enjoyed doing it. After we got the stuff dipped in the melted wax and placed on our wax paper to dry the kids again went off to play for awhile, this time it was very imagination oriented.

The last project before supper was done around 4:30 PM, which was to make individual chalk pastel winter scene pictures for our wall. Honestly, this was one of their favorite projects of the day. I know now for sure that I need to purchase "real" chalk pastels before September as our sidewalk chalk is not the best for our purposes, though it does sort of work.

Supper was around 6:30 on Sunday and Peanut had opted to cook for the evening. We were having soup and crackers. On went the apron and Mommy supervised for a yummy yummy dinner. We talked about math during her cooking process, three cans of soup plus three cans of water equal how many cans total type of thing. Everyone agreed while we ate (after prayers) that Peanut made the best soup ever! 

7 PM is Peanut's migraine medication time.

8 PM is the campers official "start getting ready for bed" time.

8: 30 PM Mommy reads the girls two Bible stories which we quietly discuss before they go to sleep. During this time ECJ says his rosary and then begins his own project of working on inventing a board game for the family.

9 PM Mommy works on some blogging for Monday morning, ECJ keeps working on the board game, and Daddy gets ready to watch the news.

10 PM ECJ goes to bed

10:30 PM I go join Daddy to watch some television in the bedroom.

11 PM Parents prayers and rosary then more news

1 AM I finally fell to sleep.

As you can see we had a lot of religion, art, holiday, science, home economics, math, and more during our day on Sunday. Usually we'll throw one or two of these days together a month and it's almost always a weekend day. The campers don't really see these days as school days, but Mommy knows better. They love all the projects and I love all the learning PLUS I get to catch up on most of those things I'd like to get accomplished but haven't found time for recently during lesson time.

Linking up today with Our Busy Homeschool

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