Our Toned Down Schedule

Now that I'm trying to relax things a bit, here's what our day looks like-

5:30 I get up, shower, have devotions, start the bread, start the laundry

7 Kids get up, dress, breakfast, chores, play if they have time before...

9 We have circle time- devotions, various books of my choosing (right now it's Stories of Missionary Heroism)- they color while I read

9:30 Review for Classical Conversations- memory work, map tracing, copywork, recitations (varies each day)

10:30 Peter and Kate take turns doing math (on the computer) and piano
Others do Explode the Code books, handwriting practice, phonics flashcards,
and math

11:30 Break- eat lunch, do chores, play outside

1:00 ish- Story hour- we are listening to Little House on the Prairie right now (I knit and drink tea, they draw, we all listen)

2:00 History or Science depending on the day (each 2 days per week)- Charlotte takes a nap, Maddie, Teshome, and Ella listen and do activity and coloring pages that correspond with the material)

3:00 Shurley Grammar everyday

3:30 Latin (Peter and Kate only) -dvd on Wednesdays and review exercises other days

4:30 hopefully by now everyone is done and enjoying some free play or reading time!

I also do reading with Maddie either in the morning or in the evening when Pete is home (depending on the day and her mood).

I am trying to accomplish all of my laundry/meal prep/other things when it's not "school hours" but that is really tricky! By the end of the day, there are many things left undone and the house is not kept up the way I'd like, but I just don't thing it's my season in life for a clean house.

Less is More

Here we are nearly half way through our school year and I am, once again, tweaking the schedule. We just don't have enough time in our day to accomplish all that I'd like to. Rather than being discouraged and frustrated and stressed out all the time I've decided that somethings gotta give. I need to enjoy what we're doing. I need my children to enjoy our days. So I've scaled back the expectations once again in an effort to be realistic about what we actually NEED to accomplish. Here's a beautiful sight. Kate was able to get her work done in the morning and have time to do something she enjoys. Which is read. And look at what she chose. So it's a win win, really! I think she just might be learning a little something on her lunch break :)

Here we are...

...ready to start another week. A few more sips of coffee for me and it will be time to start. Thirty minutes "late" but that's okay- it is Monday after all. This is a moment I'd really like to just say go ahead and keep playing. Then I could curl up with the stack of neglected books. Or practice my guitar. But I won't. There's work to be done here. Minds to inspire. I got up earlier today- 5 instead of 5:30. Pete and I are going to start working out- me to the basement on my treadmill and him to the YMCA. There comes a time to stop talking about how nice it would be to have time to exercise and just START even when you don't FEEL like it! And so we'll attempt to get into a routine of working out while it's still bright in the morning. Hopefully by the time the dreary and dark days of winter come we'll be so used to it that it won't feel like drudgery, but will rather enable us to feel invigorated all the way till the sun shines again.

The Most Important Thing

It would be very easy right now to think of all the things I am NOT doing that I would like to be doing- if the day consisted of about 10 extra hours, I had unlimited energy, and I didn't have to be focused on establishing firm attachment with our new son.

Due to the reality of life right now, I cannot homeschool exactly as I'd like to BUT I CAN concentrate on what is MOST important.

Job 28:28 tells us that the fear of the Lord is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding.

Our days are very simple right now. For Peter and Kate there is math, handwriting, and lots of reading. Sometimes there is history and latin. Mostly not. There is no formal grammar, spelling, or science. For Maddie, there is handwriting, a little reading practice, and coloring.

For my THREE preschoolers there is a little workbook time (big, little, same, different etc), a little ABC booklet making, and coloring.

For all, there is reading aloud EVERY morning- the Bible, our book of reformers, and some simple poems or stories, and sometimes Narnia.

The lessons I am really working on right now are that we eat together three times a day and there is always enough, we read the Word after we eat, we play together, and love eachother, and go to church together. Consistency is the lesson right now.

Hopefully, in a couple of months we'll get back into a more rigorous school routine. Right now, I need SIMPLE and STEADY ways to guide my children to fear the Lord and to depart from evil.

Monday

I'm pretty sure I have written posts in the past with the same title. A title that probably speaks for itself. Monday is recovery day here. It is brutal and usually not made up of happy children and a productive mama. Rather, it is a day to scoop up the mess from the weekend. I used to do a ton of laundry on Monday. That has changed due to the fact that I am needed for other things. I try to atleast get my sheets washed and maybe a load of towels done and that is it. We spend the day easing into school work. Easing because a certain daughter of mine is very tired and unmotivated on Monday. And easing because I am needed by the 3 littles to just hold them and be available. Why does it have to be this way? It's like we get a good routine going for the week and then, CRASH, the weekend happens and everyone gets out of whack. Just when we pull ourselves back together it's the weekend and we do it all again. Well, Charlotte is wailing for no apparent reason so I best go tend to my baby.

In the past week

I've always noticed that life is really chaotic when we don't adhere to a relatively strict daily schedule. For those of you who can fly by the seat of your pants with a large family, good job. I can't. I've been struck the past week with how tiring it is to not have the children know what to expect each day and have a grasp of what they should be spending their time on. I think the schedule is the key to making homeschooling work- for us anyway. I was just telling Pete yesterday that it isn't that I'm less busy now that we're taking a break from the books. I'm refereeing (is that a word??) more fights and hearing "I don't know what to do" quite often. I'm spending more time knitting which leads to losing track of time which leads to late breakfasts and lunches which leads to crabby little girls.
This past week was really busy and fun and exhausting. My mom and sister and the boys were here for a few days and we packed in a lot- garage sales Thursday morning, Trader Joe's Thursday night, strawberry picking Friday morning, and Kate's birthday date with daddy and mommy Friday night. I kind of feel like I lived in the van with all that driving!
Next week we're going camping for a few days so I'll spend the next two days getting ready for that. Then the following week the three oldest kids are going to be going to VBS at Nana and Papa's church which means lots of driving and more busyness. It's all good stuff, but I'm really feeling the need to slow it down and just be home for awhile after that!!

tweaking the schedule

I love having a schedule- my kids thrive on the structure and discipline a schedule provides. But lately, ours is failing a little. I think it's because of a combination of reasons- the outdoors are calling us, I've been staying up too late, Ella is almost ready to drop her morning nap. Here's what an ideal day looked like until about a month ago-

5:30am Rachel up and walk 30 min
shower, devotions, start laundry
7:00am Kids up, Peter devotions, all chores
8:00am Breakfast
8:30 am Peter practice piano
all 3 girls play in their room
Ella nap
Other 3- reading from our ABC devotional book,
the book of Jeremiah, and an Aespop's fable.
Then I do Math and Phonics with Peter and Kate
while Maddie does puzzles, colors, asks us a million
times to look at her. Usually we're done with this by
11 or 11:30 depending on how diligent the kids are.
11:30am lunch
12:30 read to all 4 from our Bible story book
and a library book of Maddie's choice
1:00 Babies down for a nap
Read to Peter and Kate from either Ten Boys Who
Made a Difference or Ten Girls Who Made a Difference
as well as a couple of library books and/or a chapter book
2:00 Rest time
3:00 Free time
3:30 Babies up

The afternoon is less structured- Peter had piano on Thursdays
and the 2 oldest had soccer on Tues and Thurs. Also, we always go
to the library on Tuesday mornings.

Sometime around 5 or 5:30 I start supper unless it's a crock pot thing
that I started earlier. We try to be ready to eat at 6, but it's often more
like 6:30 since Pete isn't usually home right at 6 and we try to wait.

Then it's clean up, baths some nights, read the Bible as a family,
read a couple of books or portion of one chapter book and try to
have them all in bed at 8. Ella is ready much earlier than that, but
we can't always have the dinner and pj process done for her to get
in bed when she'd like.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to structure our summer.
We need some sort of schedule and I plan to continue "doing
school" 2 days a week. And our fall will probably start at the
end of July or beginning of August so we can fit in a little break
when the baby is born.

Of course, just when you figure out the perfect schedule,
someone drops a nap, gets pregnant and needs a nap,
starts a sport, grows a tooth, gets sick, etc and you have
to sort of start over!


As far as chores go, this is what I've had the 3 oldest
doing and it has worked really well. (We have a chart
posted on the fridge and Peter and Kate run
down and check it in the morning)-

Peter- everyday make bed, get dressed, brush teeth, clear
place at table, pick up room, sweep after lunch,
pick up basement before supper
Kate- everyday make bed, get dressed, brush teeth, clear
place at table, pick up room, pick up living
room before supper
Maddie- everyday help get diapers out, make bed (with LOTS of
help from Kate), brush teeth, help pick up room,
help pick up living room before supper

On a rotating basis, Peter and Kate also unload the dishwasher,
wipe down their bathroom sink, mirror, toilet, vacuum the 2 kids
bedrooms, fold laundry, and Maddie unloads the silverware.

I'm finding it difficult to not slack off on some of this stuff
as the weather gets warmer and the evenings longer. So
I need to try a little harder!