Annette of A Net In Time at Homeschoolers at Home Tuesdays

Today we’re talking with Annette of A Net In Time. Annette is a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew this year with me and I thought it would be nice to get a glimpse into her home and life and find out how she homeschools.

Kemi: Annette can you tell us a little bit about your children’s ages and grades?

Annette: One child.  He’s nine years old and is an average student.  🙂   He’s a crazy interesting child.

Kemi: What homeschooling method do you use?

Annette:  What method?  I have to admit, I don’t really categorize myself.    I do whatever works.  We do lots of reading good literature, bad literature.. it all works.  As long as it makes my boy ask questions that’s an excellent thing in my book.  Our days NEVER look the same.   Our weeks can sometimes be computer heavy and other weeks be hands on let’s get out and do things and experience the world.

Today we built a model jet engine.   Friday we go to a museum.  In between we’ll keep ourselves busy learning and living life. 🙂    Lately we’ve jut been doing the basics wince we’ve had major family stuff going on, we’ll pick it again with more interesting things next month.   And there is ALWAYS the summer.  🙂

Kemi: Can you give us a peek into your typical homeschool day?

Annette: Typical day. I have to admit that’s a hard one to answer.

We always start with caring for our critters.  Usually over breakfast we use a conversation starter and then read a a chapter from a book.. for two weeks we learned about mummies, right now we’re doing plants.   Sometimes we browse the paper and just talk about things that grab our attention.

We try (and often fail) to work in a walk along the way.   Sometimes instead of a walk will play ball tag (which gets intriguing dodging around trees).  🙂

We start anywhere from 8 in the morning to well.. 11 30 in the morning.. we end either by  1 pm or 3 pm.  Mostly.  We are NOT organized in our lives.  Other than one important aspect of life.  My son plays one hour of minecraft every day.   That’s just the way it is.  🙂  if he wants more time he needs to earn it, or be generously helpful or obedient in other areas of life and then he is gifted more time just because.

Cadets on Thursday nights, events with homeschooling, every other week we visit a museum of some sort, usually spend some time with friends.   It’s a good life overall.  OH!  I almost forgot.. ALMOST every week we help at  our local food bank.  Wednesday mornings.  It’s about the only organized thing we have.

Kemi: We love to see where homeschooling happens. Can you give us a peek into your homeschool room?

Annette: yes I do  GACK! I have to admit, the shape and complexity of this room/area changes.   It’s often the dumping ground for “where do I put this” stuff.  Do every three months things get shifted around or removed from the house completely.

Kemi: So you know that Homemaking Organized is all about homemaking or the details of home. We love to find out how others keep their homes. Can you tell us about your own homekeeping and how you manage to fit it in with homeschool?

Annette: Fit in the cares of our home????  Oh please.. um.. I am NOT a housekeeper.   I barely keep my head above water.  I have a GREAT mother-in-law who likes to help out without being irritating about it.  I am so very blessed by her.

Since I’m NOT a great  homemaker  I work to make things easy and doable.

I have one basket to collect Laundry.
Then it gets divided into loads:. white, light colours, dark colours, towels. Laundry happens when I have a full one-colour basket.   No one ever runs out of clothes.

I do the same with everything else.   Clean a room, everything that doesn’t belong gets boxed and carried to the next room where it gets emptied and refilled with what doesn’t belong.   Just don’t ask me how often okay?

Floors are an easy time earner for my boy.
Boxes hold stuff neat and tidy.
Dishes get done daily.  🙂    Well, okay.. not always every day… but they do get done and things are generally kept in reasonable order.  🙂

In my defense I have to tell you this.  I’ve had mom’s come over for a visit and THANK ME for not tidying up.   Saying it helps them to know they aren’t the only ones who don’t have a spotless house.  🙂   These things make my heart smile. (I like her style 🙂
Kemi: Do you have any crafts or hobbies that you would like to share?

Annette: No.  I do run a small business though.  I raise rabbits and guinea pigs, my son raises mice.   My business is called AT Home Pets. You can find us here.

Homeschool Blog
Rabbitry Site and Blog

I am a pastor’s wife living in south-western Ontario.  A farm girl who would love to have her own 25  acres to play with.  🙂   BUT needing to be content with nice house and good sized backyard.  I want chickens!  But I can’t so I have bunnies instead.  I love to read, spend time with my family, go for walks and write.  It’s what I do.  I love my God… he is so gracious and kind to me it blows me away.   My hubby is a  super quiet introvert who loves the Lord and loves me.  It’s cool!   My boy makes me laugh and oh boy.. do I like to make him ponder on things (but he does the same back).  It’s a good life you know?    It’s not perfect (just check out the living room floor!) but it is good.