Snapshot

One of my favourite questions (actual favourite, not "favourite" favourite) people ask about unschoolers is what a typical day looks like, partly because it's fun to reflect and partly because I love hearing about how others go about their lives. Our days have a typical rhythm, but there's no set standard of what a normal weekday is around here. Sometimes we're out of the house all day, sometimes we're home for days on end. I make an effort to match our activity level to our needs and energy levels, and so no two days really look the same.

A while back I wrote a post about what a day in our life looked like, and today I thought it would be fun to do the same. And so I give you, a Thursday with the Johnstones.

6:30 am: I wake up to the sound of Bear yawn-whining his desperate need to eat, or pee, or both. I sneak out of bed, tucking the blanket back around Ollie so she hopefully sleeps a bit longer. I set Bear up with food in the dog run and set myself up with coffee and my laptop. When the girls wake they come downstairs for Netflix. Nick wakes and hangs out upstairs with his laptop.

9 am: I process jars of apple sauce. The kids and I picked the apples at a friend's house the other day and cooked them in the slowcooker yesterday. This is the first canning I've done this year and I need to use my friend Google to remind me of how long the jars need to sit in the boiling water. This is usually the time when I get in my daily workout, but I'm in a small funk this week and not quite feeling it today.

Playing the jars like small drums.

Getting all hot and steamy

10 am: Breakfast! Homemade granola and homemade apple sauce. So much yum.

10:30 am: Breakfast table is cleared, so Ollie and I get chopping more apples for the next batch of apple sauce. Unlike yesterday, she manages not to slice herself open with her knife. Nick sprawls on the couch with a book. Lily experiments and creates a Rainbow Loom outfit for one of the dolls.

Choppy choppy choppy

All dolled up with cinnamon and honey

The Rainbow Loom Baby Bikini

11am: I fill jars with zucchini and pickling brine, then process them. Nick alternates between being in his room and coming downstairs to show us the magic tricks he's just taught himself. Lily and Ollie work on some Rainbow Loom charms and then some paintings based on a craft book we took out of the library.

Sisterly paining. Let's not discuss the doll, because I just don't know.

1 pm: Lunch. Lily amazes me with her mad food skills and packs away four bowls of mac and cheese.

1:30 pm: My friend, coffee o'clock. I get a few minutes to read my book and then I read some children's poems out loud to the kids until they're bored of listening to me.

2:30 pm: I process four more jars of apple sauce from the apples Ollie and I cut up this morning. The kids make some paper cut out penguins from the craft book. Lily reads some books to Ollie on the couch. Nick collects plants to continue building a braided rope he's been working on this week.

Rope braid. 

3 pm: We all go down to the bottom garden and I do some weeding. I feel guilt over how neglected this new garden has been all summer and I wonder if I'll actually get any squash from it. We check the potato plants for potatoes but don't find any big enough to dig up yet. The girls play on driveway gate. Nick goes bushwhacking and brings me back nettle for tea.

Jack, hunting for untold treasures in the potato patch.

The gate game. I think the goal is to hurt your sister without your mom catching you. Or something.

4 pm: We run into our next door neighbour as she's taking her garbage out. My kids help her toddler feed carrots to the horse. Our neighbour invites us over and we hang out and drink iced tea.

5 pm: Ollie has a massive meltdown about leaving neighbours to come home. Much crying. Much trying to run away from me. Much not fun.

5:30 pm: Ollie is mostly done freaking out, mainly thanks to Nick. I'd jokingly offered him a nickel to cheer her up and he took me up on it. And then came to collect his nickel. The kids play some strange game involving the stairs and the couch cushions while I cook supper. In the midst of the chaos, I get the news that a dog we'd fostered earlier this summer was put down today. I take some time to process and then talk to the kids about it.

6 pm: Liam is home and we eat supper. Yay Liam! Yay supper!

7 pm: We pack up kids and dogs for a walk. We stop for the mail and walk the loop of the subdivision. Ollie meets a woman collecting her mail from the other mailbox and they become instant friends. We notice that a piece of mail delivered to us belongs to aforementioned neighbour. Children gleefully offer to deliver it to her. They're sent up the long driveway with instructions to return quickly because it's late. They don't return quickly. When Ollie finally gets in the house she presents me with her bike helmet holding a bunch of freshly picked rosehips.

Ollie takes getting the mail very seriously.

Cool teenagers don't need shoes on the road.

Extra awesome points because they fed grass to horses at two houses on our walk.

8 pm: Snack time. Shower time for the girls. Probably should be shower time for Nick as well but it's late. Much loudness. Much straying away from actually getting to bed because there are suddenly all these exciting things that need to be done right now. Nick comes down to say goodnight and promptly acts like my kiss on his cheek will actually kill him.

9:30 pm: The children are all asleep. The cat scratches at the door to come inside, then at the kitchen cupboard to have her food dish refilled. I find myself an evening snack and work on updating my food co-op order for next week's groceries.

And that there is as typical as a typical day gets in our life. We do some things together, and some things on our own. The kids learn all day through exploring things that have captured their attention and imagination. We eat, we work, we fight, we laugh. And I wouldn't want it any other way.