An optimal morning

 What happens in your households at 6am? Snooze buttons, still in the land of nod, maybe a sleepy coffee, or a reluctant breakfast. 

The following is a typical example of what occurs in our household before breakfast, if everyone is feeling good, and are having a good mental health day. The lights are blazing here, and all three children are usually up and ready to tackle the day. They get dressed, grab a 'school bag' and pack what they may want to learn the day. Books which are flavour of the day, ipads, pencils and paper, a workbook or two, a writing set. Dinosaurs and stuffed animals finish up the over spilling bags. They then march into the school room or living room to commence the learning. 

As they're getting older I'm finding running three different lesson plans at once is easier, bespoke to each child. They're moving at different paces in different subjects. 

Kira may greet me in Spanish, bring me the daily board where she tells me the time, date, month, day of the week, the weather (darkness permitting), and the season. Once this has been established she will have a run through on her times tables, (only has the 7,8 and 9 sets left to learn), and practice some addition and subtraction mental maths. 

She'll then have a chat about whatever is on her mind....ranging from tsunamis, continents, and how the earth's rotation causes day and night. Some mornings our discussion may be about particles and waves, refraction and shadows, or about the  facts of a snake or why baby birds aren't born in winter. 

She also has a pet of the day, a stuffed animal which is her baby and she'll tell me all she knows about the animal in question, and match her clothes if possible. She also has a word of the day that she picks herself,  and uses throughout the day as much as she can, an example is 'ridiculous' and 'menacingly'. 

Xander will read to me, it varies whether its a page or fifteen pages. He will practice his alphabet and drawing. The other morning he sat in their rocking chair and demanded 'colores mummy'. This means he wants to be tested on his vocabulary, switching between Spanish English and Japanese. 

He will play ipad educational games. He likes to practice to trace the alphabet, play numberblocks, watch science videos from Ryans world, educational videos from Blippi. He is responding really well to an app called Playground Heros, the concept is you fix bridges and slides using measurements, patterns, counting and observation skills. He loves playing role play with his action figures, dinosaurs and animals. 

I will test him on pre school knowledge if he's engaged. He annoyed his eldest sister the other morning by jumping in and answering 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 when I was asking her about her 3x table. She was not amused. He marched away chuckling. 

Sophia has a slower start to the day, she is usually still rocking impressive bed hair. She disappears to the school room and has a drawing session while she comes round. She will read with me from several books, and put time on her ipad with reading with monsters, a dragon maths app, and pirate word sounds. The girls will finish up with daily spellings and some Youtube educational videos. 

Breakfast time everyone! 





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