My day began at 4:45. It should have been 5am but an alarm clock mix up got me out of bed 15 minutes early. I don't do snooze so I figured I might as well get started. First act of business was to start a load of clothes in the washer. Then make a pot of coffee. I prayed the rosary while the house was still quiet.
After prayers, I still had time before the children woke up so I gathered clothes and folded, swept and mopped the kitchen and hung clothes to dry from the washer. I sat down to drink a cup of coffee while the older boys ate the leftover pancakes from yesterday. I read a chapter in The First Christians. I have planned the major reading during breakfast, lunch and tea/snack time. That way if the little ones are awake, they'll be less noisy if their mouths are full.
We had to take the baby to the dr in the middle of last week and didn't have as much study time to prepare for spelling and Latin quizzes so those subjects today involved rewriting the spelling words for practice and studying to get to the quizzes tomorrow. We also went through some segmenting words in All about Spelling. During these activities, I have a box of activities like colorful toys, games, playdough, etc that can be rotated as often as necessary to keep the little ones entertained.
The boys practiced piano and did some work in their math workbooks. This independent work allowed me to help the little ones with going potty as well as some more chores with another load of laundry and vacuuming. I also made a batch of Rice Krispy treats for my husband to have a mid-morning snack before heading off on some work-related business that might last past lunch.
They studied their Latin while I fed the baby and had a little down time. I'm working on a crocheted nativity play set so I got through a few more rows of the background blue.
We fixed lunch and sat down to read Famous Men of Greece. We passed the Ipad around to read the kindle version. James was comparing all the characters to the ones he knew from the cartoon Hercules. We also noted how the nymphs were similar to the fairies from Tinker Bell.
After lunch, we had a little down time to play games, knit and crochet. David has almost finished a coaster with two colors. Can't wait to share his finished project. The boys took time working on new math skills in Khan Academy. I took some time to write down the completed assignments in my daily log book. I also traced a few art pages for the art lesson.
We sat down for a snack and read for about 45 minutes in The Hobbit. We are really enjoying the story. One word that we read was ambling. I asked the boys what the word meant and what Latin word it came from. James remembered that ambulo meant I walk and so ambling must mean walking. David is usually quick to answer Latin questions so James was thrilled to finally beat him with the answer.
Art normally is done on Friday. However, the little ones were in need of an activity and I had traced four so they could participate. We learned about pottery made in Greece which was a fascinating three fire process. We also studied the negative and positive space used on some vases. They each had two vases to color one emphasizing negative space and another emphasizing positive space. While they colored, I reorganized our crafts area of the computer desk. Our pencils, colors, scissors and such were overflowing.
The boys asked for a cup of peppermint tea while they finished up their art and map skills assignments. Homeschool Advantage and Grammar are normally afterwards but they had lost a grammar book and the living room was in need of tidying so that became a whole-family activity. We found the grammar book and I gave them an assignment of a story prompt that would be due Thursday. We put up the Lego Duplo blocks and some interlocking hexagonal toys and brought down the bin wooden blocks and toys.
We ate supper. My husband took one boy to taekwondo. The other boy stayed behind to clean his room because he misplaced some of his sparring gear. The little ones were thrilled with the wooden blocks so I took advantage of the time to clean the kitchen and tidy the little ones room. I was on a roll so I vacuumed some more and cleaned the windows in the living room.
6:30 pm - I'm calling it a day. We have our bedtime routine to finish by 8pm. That will include diaper changes, brushing teeth, vitamins, Bible reading, prayers, hugs, and blessings.
So this seems a little intense after reading it over. But Monday through Thursday are our academic days with Friday through Sunday is devoted to fun, errands and rest with a few necessary chores in the mix. What has helped me most is the detailed schedule that I've been tweaking to work for us. I was inspired by this schedule. I can't keep all of what needs to be done in my head. A schedule makes sure it all gets done but also that we don't burn out. In my schedule, I have 7 15-minute breaks in addition to meals and movie/game time. This gives us time for potty breaks, drinks of water and buffer time so that if one activity goes over a few minutes then the whole schedule isn't a wash. I'm not rushing us into burnout to get everything in my head done. It's on the schedule and it'll get done when the time comes.
Now for some family time before a well-deserved rest after a very productive day.
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