I recorded every hour of a simple Tuesday, just 4 weeks into homeschooling. And, this was the first day we incorporated history, science, spelling and character training so far this year. A gutsy move for 'a-day-in-the-life', huh? Well, you will see how it really goes in our house then, right? With five kids, a high-maintenance infant and lots of to-dos around the house, just getting through a full day of school is amazing right now. If you must compare, my ideal block schedule is written out HERE.
Warning! If you don't want to hear about the rambling musings of a homeschool mom with precise detail, click away right now!
Background: Baby Myra (11 months) is weaning from a steroid for Infantile Spasms and is changing dosages every 10 days; therefore, she is one unhappy baby much of the day and isn't sleeping much. This is day 7 of the rotation. Also, my homeschool day begins the night before. My plans need to be written out, the house together and books out and ready to go or my day never goes well. On this day prep work is all done and, since Myra was up so late, the dishes and kitchen are all clean, too! Unfortunately, I start my day with less than 4 hours of sleep, and less than 2 hours the previous night...sigh.
6:45 Mr. Prince wakes me for my shower but I forfeit it for another hour of sleep. This also means I forfeit my quiet bible time. But, it often times ends up being an evening activity anyway. I'm much more of a night person.
8:13 I awake with no alarm, and surprisingly, not from children either. Myra is still sleeping, but I know the girls(4&5) are downstairs (they are allowed to go down after their room is clean and after 8am with or without me). Sid the Science Kid(7) is up also, though often times he sleeps in with Boo Boo(2). I rush downstairs, make some bagels and cream cheese and head back up for a shower.
8:17 Upstairs I hear Boo Boo... stink! Will I still get a shower? I take him downstairs, change his diaper, make his breakfast and I secretly tell Sid he can turn on a video after breakfast if I'm still upstairs (mostly to keep Boo Boo quiet and occupied so he doesn't wake Myra or come find me in the shower).
8:20 Upstairs again and I'm suddenly irritated by the suitcase left unpacked
8:30 Out of the shower and dressing interrupted by Sid the Science Kid telling me the t.v. is not working. I tell him to give me 2 minutes and I'd be down to help. I get dressed in comfy clothes (not going anywhere today) and head downstairs and
8:36 Brush my teeth. I realize I left Myra's monitor in the shower and in the bathroom upstairs I see... Myra's bumbo seat? Who put that in there? Back down to the kitchen it goes, and on my way I fume about the suitcase and clothes again.
8:37 Down to the laundry room to dry some clothes I washed last night and....they are dry! Thank you, husband! Unfortunately, I will not be able to fold them before they wrinkle. Grr! Washer loaded, but I still need to collect clothes from upstairs before I start it. On my way out I step over an overfilled basket of towels, boxes and boxes of jarred baby food from WIC, and who knows what else. My mudroom is so full of Salvation Army stuff and resale items, it's hard to maneuver. Ugh, more things on my to-do list that seem will never get done.
8:40 Throw hair up. Myra's monitor dies and I have to plug it in. Darn monitor! I get the kids' yogurt in bowls to finish off their breakfast. Oh no! Promised yogurt and an expired container! This has never happened in our house. Yogurt is equal to icecream or a candy bar 'round here. Thankfully, I find another container and I am saved from many tears. Clean yogurt tubs for recycling. Collect clothes for the laundry.
8:56 Sid the Science Kid episode over. Diffuse 2yr old tantrum with yogurt...success! Start washer. Preschool bible read over yogurt devouring. We talk about John the Baptist and the older two say they want to get baptized "to please God" like the book said. I said we would look into studying baptism and we would talk to Daddy. Pledge of Allegiance. Go over family rules and bible verses.
9:10 Helping Habits (chores) after breakfast. Classic storybook (Gingerbread Man) with Boo Boo.
9:17 Preschool with Angelica Pickles about African Elephants (her choice of theme this week). Princess Pea listens in while Sid the Science Kid does dishes. Sid seems quietly irritated he can't listen in also, but I'm trying to help the older two do their own thing so I can work with the littles during this time. Princess Pea reads the quotation boxes for the story, her idea. I only read one of the two books cause the baby wakes. Kids break up to play.
9:28 Get Myra up. Nurse.
9:33 Myra's medications and injection. Princess Pea helps change her diaper and Angelica Pickles helps calm Myra after her injection and collects all the trash from it and throws it away for me. Girls singing to Myra.
9:44 Nurse again and put Myra in the swing.
9:49 Two character building books/stories about being selfish (Help Me Be Good Books). Discussion.
10:10 Change Boo Boo's diaper. Character Builders DVD on Sharing (12min) while I fold the laundry basket from this morning.
10:28 Myra's fussing in the swing so I start to rock her to sleep. Boo Boo insists that I read him some books, even though my hands are quite occupied. After two books, Princess Pea offers to read to him and they read 3-4 more books together. After Boo Boo finds something else to do, Princess Pea gets out her Language Smarts book and she works on the coffee table as I help her and still rock Myra.
10:50 Myra put down to nap upstairs. Language Smarts with Sid. Angelica Pickles is taking Boo Boo's toys and I get up to redirect her to the puzzles.
11:09 Myra's up after 19 minutes! It takes me almost 10 minutes to calm her. Kids are all playing house together in living room. I put Myra in her swing after she's calm and quickly check my email and Facebook.
11:18 Quick clean up with kids.
11:23 Make lunch while kids do Helping Habits. Myra's fussing in swing. Kids eating. Lunch often times is me redirecting their discussion, which often times is upsetting someone. The 7 yr old wants to lead everything, while the 4 yr old is craving the attention from her siblings. The 2 yr old shouts out little blurps and always gets a belly laugh out of everyone.
*First School Block ended, All About Spelling and History not completed thus far.*
11:40 Get Myra out of the swing. Try to feed her solid food but she was too fussy. Discipline Boo Boo for getting out of his seat. Finish lunch. Helping Habits.
12:00 Read aloud 2 chapters of novel. Myra fussing and falls asleep on my shoulder eventually.
12:12 Sonlight Science read aloud, 2 books.
12:23 Interruption...friend calls. Myra down for nap upstairs. Clean up lunch...ooops! Forgot after-lunch Helping Habits! Do chores for the kids. Each lunch myself. Two kids upstairs and two downstairs playing.
12:46 Myra up after 23 minutes...sigh. Poor girl can't sleep! Discipline Sid and Angelica Pickles for arguing and Princess Pea for not being nice. Rocking Myra. Still on phone.
12:58 Lay Myra back down for nap. Clean up kitchen while on phone. Switch laundry. Sid doing lunch dishes.
1:05 Myra up again! Off the phone. Rocking, calming...
1:12 Myra down again....getting frustrated. She usually isn't like this. Kids playing better together.
1:14 Friend calls back. Checking on homeschool stuff for her on the computer. Kids coloring. Discuss curriculum and homeschool schedules.
1:34 Off phone. Finish science reading with three oldest kids.
1:40 Boo Boo is very distracting while I'm trying to read, so I take him up for a nap. Read second preschool book with Angelica Pickles.
1:52 Angelica Pickles to bed. Adventures in My Father's World history with two oldest.
2:00 Myra up. Hey, that was a 48 minute nap! Hold her while finishing history lesson.
2:22 I help Sid the Science Kid with All About Spelling while Princess Pea does Horizons Math 1. Myra sits in her high chair and does play therapy.
2:40 Princess Pea begins A Reason for Handwriting Manuscript. Sid still doing AAS.
2:55 Princess Pea does AAS and Sid does A Reason for Handwriting Transition and Horizons Math 3.
3:12 AAS done. Princess Pea does Explode the Code and finishes the first book! Sid still working on math. Myra fussing. Nurse and do physical therapy with her.
3:22 Sid moving too slowly and too distracted, so he moves into the office to finish his math. I work on Junior Bible Quiz questions orally with Princess Pea while I do Myra's therapy.
3:50 JBQ and therapy finished. Bob Books with Princess Pea. She is doing some amazing expression while reading! But, she has a mini-tantrum about not getting a sticker for reading the book perfectly (a reward system we've used for all the Bob Books). I encourage her in how well she is doing and she recovers, just short of tears. Sid finally finishes math after 45 minutes or so.
4:00 JBQ with Sid.
*Second School Block ended 40 minutes late.*
4:10 Sid does JBQ studying alone with some defiance. I told him to memorize at least one new question in the next 10 minutes and he gains some motivation. Rocking Myra. Princess Pea gets Boo Boo up from his nap.
4:20 Myra down upstairs for a nap. Angelica Pickles up from nap. Change Boo Boo's diaper. Library Signing Time video on (learning American Sign Language).
4:22 Start dinner (lasagna). Change laundry, but can't fold the load yet.
4:45 Sid down and chat with Mr. Prince when he arrives home from his second day back at school while meat thaws in the microwave because, of course, I didn't thaw it the night before...
4:55 Blog, Email while noodles cook and Mr. Prince cooks meat. Alter size of pan and recipe when I realize I don't have enough noodles for the large pan. Better than some days when Mr. Prince has to make a quick grocery run because I've started cooking something and realize halfway through I don't have something... Happens to me all the time.
5:10 Lasagna in oven.
5:14 Myra up from nap. Yeah, almost an hour nap! Blog. Mr. Prince takes Myra and does lots of training and discipline for the kids as they wait for dinner. They are having a hard time getting along to play a game together. Myra falls asleep on Daddy. Helping Habits before dinner.
6:00 Dinner. Daddy holds sleeping baby and eats when everyone else is done, a common occurrence 'round here.
6:30 Dinner done. Helping Habits. Nurse Myra, feed solids. Dishes and talking to Mr. Prince.
6:55 Clean up house with kids. PJs, brush teeth. Kids run pretty wild this time of day. Should go outside, but we don't. Fold laundry instead.
7:35 Mr. Prince put kids to bed (every night). I hold Myra and do therapy stuff.
8:00 Adult evening begins, ensuing baby passing back and forth, blogging, t.v., chatting on the phone with some friends, nursing, bible study, minimum prep for tomorrow's homeschool, etc. Laundry not put away, will have to do that tomorrow when the kids are up.
Bedtime: 2:30a.m. with a total of 2 hours of sleep for the night...sigh.
And it all starts again! I think we had a pretty successful day, really. Looking forward to reading about other homeschool moms' days at Heart of the Matter!
5 comments:
WOW. You are amazing! I am interested in hearing more about helping habits! Is that a program or something you made up yourself?
We have a lot in common! I wanted to home birth, but couldn't and other than that, we vaccinated and use Pampers. Everything else is the same. :) Thanks for the visit!
I do like Writing With Ease, the book I have from Amazon is a hardback and goes through 4 levels. I just ordered the first level student book, which is not a have to, but I don't have the time to come up with my own selections from books. I would recommend it. :)
That made my head hurt. You get an awful lot done in a day! You are amazing!
Oh my goodness, such a wonderful real life description of a very busy day! But Momma, you have got to get some more sleep in there!
I replied to your comment on my blog in my comment section under yours. I will be reading about your MFW days since we are about to start. Our oldest was a special needs baby so I understand what that is like... thankful for you that your little one is doing well now.
I was wondering where you found the time to chronicle all that:) We have a lot in common too :) I have some older kids too though and it helps, it also adds more grrs to the day but it helps. We'd be passing the baby around among us. But they'd also want to share the computer and not fold the clothes:) We are both very blessed:) Glad to hear that Myra is doing better.
Post a Comment