Day 72

23rd February 2022

Hieroglyphics

Confession: For the last two nights I’ve been getting to bed after 1am, and that just doesn’t work when you’re mum to young children. 🥱

I am so tired I could cry.

I’ve been writing late and organising things for our weekend away. Poor time management really.

So, today wasn’t our best. Or I should say, today wasn’t MY best. 😞

It started with me giving my children a choice. (What was I thinking?!) They never agree on the same thing.

Ever! 🙄

I asked if they wanted to start our new book on bushranger’s or, we could keep going with history book.

“Bushrangers!” Lincoln cried.

“History!” Mila cried.

I just stared at them. My eyes were scratchy, and my head was banging. (Need to drink more water).

“Why don’t we read about bushranger’s because it’s a new book?” I reasoned.

“NO! That’s not fair!! Screamed Mila. blah, blah, blah, storm out.

She marched back in and demanded a coin toss. She won and history it was. Although now Lincoln was grumpy.😒

So, we learnt about the importance of recording information and how this has been done over time.

We learnt about Egyptian hieroglyphs and how modern people decoded the language after finding the Rosetta Stone which had the same passage of writing written in 3 languages. One passage was in Greek which was already a known language.

There is a YouTube video where you can learn to write your name in hieroglyphics, but we found it too late. Maybe we’ll do that tomorrow.

Language/Arts

So, we moved on and Mila did her language/arts work and Linc played a maths game online.

Note the Unicorn teddy that is also listening in at the table. It was just given to her, and she is never without it.

Mila is a great little speller!
Look at that face. You wouldn’t think she’d be capable of a storm out.

Linc worked with me at the table and today, he had a lesson in water colours.

He was really enjoying this, & I felt like we were moving away from our episode. He was making different shades of the same colour, and then he asked if he could paint Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.

“Of course!” I said.

He was really focused & getting into it and then Dad came home for lunch and Linc completely changed.

He lost interest all together, started acting up and not painting properly and holding the brush in his mouth and being silly.

I was so frustrated with him. He just quit his beautiful painting.

In fact, he painted his hands and started stamping hands all over it!

He had already done the burning moon and had done the blue flecks in a really interesting way and then he ruined it.

So, that was the end of that.

In the end Linc said he didn’t want to paint because he thought it wouldn’t be good and Dad is such a great artist. 😞

I mustn’t be telling the story right because reading about it now, it doesn’t sound like a good reason to be upset but it really bothered me. He was in the middle of doing something wonderful and then just quit it, and gave up.

Then he was upset that I was upset, and the mood was tense.

I tried not to be. I’m just so tired.

The walls were caving in on me and as the rain had suddenly stopped, I rounded them up and we took Pepe for a walk to the oval.

The fresh air helped.

This picture doesn’t look so happy 😂 but we enjoyed stomping in all the puddles! (Mila is wearing a skirt that she made on her sewing machine). 👏👏

We also met 3 little doggies, one that was just rescued 2 weeks ago from a puppy farm. 😢 They got lots of licks and cuddles with the dogs & they loved that.

Pool

After lunch I took them to the pool.

Thought I’d try to be better than I had been, and try to turn the day around.

They were laying on the bottom of the pool blowing bubble rings, something they were taught at Ocean School, and Mila was doing handstands.

There were only 3 old people doing slow motion laps. (It doesn’t matter how slow they seem to go, they never, ever sink?!).

I took my book and caught up on some reading. My mum bought me ‘Acid For The Children.’ It’s the biography of Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers & I’m loving it. ❤️

Craft

When we got home, Mila made banana bread and Linc watched Star Wars.

Liam came home shortly after and took them outside to work on their craft projects while I made dinner.

First undercoat!
The big apple gets the final spray.

My friend was telling me when she cooks, she always listens to her head phones and I’ve been doing it a lot lately.

The Chilli Peppers are one of my favourite bands and reading Flea’s book has me listening to them more and more.

Road Trippin’ is one of my favourite songs.

Tonight, while I cooked spaghetti bolognaise it came bursting through my headphones like liquid sunshine, filled my ears, & my day melted away, and I felt free.

Watch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11GYvfYjyV0

The Challenge: Home school for 1 year while not losing sanity or love for children and/or husband.
Contenders: Mila 8yrs, Lincoln 10 yrs, Me (Mum), Liam (Dad), Pepe (dog)
Home School Days: 200

This blog was inspired by the film Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep & Amy Adams.

Julie decides she will take her love of cooking to the next level by cooking every recipe in Julia Childs French cookbook, in one year! 500 & something fancy, technical recipes!! While working full time!

Julie writes a daily blog about her time in the kitchen for herself & other amateur cooks who may, or may not be, reading along. You gotta watch it (http://thehomeschoolyear.com/about/).  Or read it here. (http://thehomeschoolyear.com/book)

I loved that she wrote every day. I loved hearing about her small everyday frustrations, with the recipes & with life. It really inspired me to throw myself into something.

The timing was perfect as we have just decided to homeschool our children as a lifestyle choice and I thought…Cool! A daily blog will be perfect!

There must be other families out there wondering if there’s another way to live? Another way to do ‘family life’?

If you’re here, then hello & welcome aboard! Please feel free to sit back & watch it all unfold. Put the kettle on & check in with us each night to see what went down and how we all got over the line. I’m sure we’ll find our rhythm, right?

Are you a homeschool family? If you’re watching the wheels fall off this thing, I’m open to your emails or comments any time. I would love them! I am very friendly, & I could use the help.

Ok, come hell or high water….I’m in. A daily blog, for 12 months. I’ll be right, here.

Kindly, Lisa x

Can we be friends?!

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