A Day in the Life--March
Linking up with Tristan at Our Busy Homeschool.
It is Tuesday at 10:03 am.
I just finished getting dressed. (However, in writing that sentence I realized that I still need to brush my teeth.)
I have been productive all morning in spite of my late wake up at 6:45 am. I did wake at 5:50, but I rolled over to just rest my eyes for 10 more minutes.
Oops.
Between 6:45 and 10:03 . . .
*I've read from the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.
*I've recorded some thought-provoking scriptures and the thoughts that go with them in my journal.
*I've checked the older kids' schoolwork from yesterday.
*I've made new assignments for today.
*I've fed my three littles some graham crackers and milk.
*I've checked my email--including the daily digest from forum for our new homeschool group. We're still trying to make some new friends in our new area, but none of the activities on the calendar have worked so far.
*I've checked craigslist for a day bed for E14.
*I've made oatmeal with stewed apples.
*I've held morning devotional which included an article from the Ensign about living the Word of Wisdom. We had some rather lively discussion about our current eating habits.
*I've taken away and popped a balloon that was the source of contention between my 3 littles.
*I've put on black beans to soak for dinner tonight.
*I've started bread dough for lunch today.
*I've done the first batch of dishes.
*I've cleaned my bathroom.
*I've vacuumed the bedroom hallway.
*I've visited with my husband.
*I've gotten dressed and combed my hair.
*The kids have gotten up, done their chores, gotten dressed, and have either read or played while they waited for breakfast--depending on age. They've eaten, participated in devotional, brushed their teeth, and the older ones have headed off to start their school work while the younger ones are in the "library" playing school.
Now it is 10:12 am. I am off to get the littles to help me clean their bathroom.
*********************
It is now 1:21 pm. Lunch (fresh bread with butter and honey) has been prepared, consumed, and cleaned up. The older kids have all finished their independent school, and the littles have had preschool and/or school.
Between 10:12 and 1:21 . . .
*E14 completed math, reading, vocabulary, copywork, Book of Mormon, and spelling. She had to use the laptop to watch a Math-U-See DVD about finding the area of a trapezoid, but she didn't like how it was explained. I worked with her for a few minutes, and she got it. (I think it took both explanations for the lesson to stick, though.)
*M12 completed all of the same subjects as E14--minus the spelling. She also played math games on the computer and spent time working on a new way to curl her hair without curlers or curling iron.
*S11 completed math, reading, copywork, and Book of Mormon. She did some math drills on the computer and played Minecraft for a little while.
*J10 did the same as S11. She also helped out with preschool because I got called away by E14 and M12 to help them with their math. When both S11 and J10 exhausted their daily screen time allotments, they turned to their Barbies. They played together for a looooong time.
*A7 played with our guinea pig, played school with H4 and I2, cleaned her room, helped me clean the bathroom, participated in our preschool craft, practiced spelling, sang "Let it Go" from Frozen about 200 times, and read aloud to me about Balto, the sled dog from Alaska that brought the medicine to the sick children. She also watched her sisters use the computer.
*H4 did a lot of the same things A7 did. She didn't read aloud to me or do spelling, though. Preschool consisted of a "U is for umbrella" multimedia craft made of cupcake liners, glitter, and pipe cleaners.
*I2 did what A7 and H4 did. You can't see him in the picture, but he's on E14's lap as she plays at CoolMathGames.com. During preschool he didn't like the glitter on his picture; he kept asking us to take it off. We made a big deal out of how cool his picture was with the "rain" falling on it, but nothing we said made him feel better. We finally gave him a new sheet of paper, but he cried. After much effort, I finally figured out that we'd said "cupcake" when referring to the little umbrellas we'd made, so he kept thinking a cupcake was showing up. I gave him a cupcake liner full of animal crackers, and he was mollified.
During all of the above I finished the bread, organized preschool, answered school questions, listened to A7's reading and played a synonym game with her, took pictures, found out that the day bed we liked already sold (the affordable one), looked at more day beds (not very affordable ones--that E14 loved!), set screen time timers, helped solve problems with using the laptop and/or tablet and/or computer, corrected the box of turned-in schoolwork, and generally kept everything running and more or less peaceful.
When the bread was done we gathered at the table to pray, eat, and play at www.geoguessr.com. We played 2 rounds, scoring 9030 points in round 1 and 11253 points in round 2. We've learned that when in doubt, guess Brazil . . . but honestly, we're learning quite a bit of geography from this fun, fun game.
It is now 1:40 pm. I've been at the computer long enough. The kids are all outside on the deck. I need to call the big ones in for New Testament, Science, and History.
(I'd kind of like to leave them outside, but there will still be time to roam free when we do what's on our syllabus)
***********************
It is now 4:29 pm. The older kids and I worked on organizing our New Testament journals, read about wool, hemp, and flax (and considered buying a raw wool fleece for a little while . . . just for the experience of it . . . people sell it on ebay! . . . but decided against it because we have no combs for carding, no wheel for spinning, no knowledge . . . but I still want to . . . to gain some knowledge!), and read about the Louisiana Purchase.
I honestly don't know at all what the littles did while we older ones worked. They came in and out of the kitchen, and sometimes sat on my lap, so I know they were around. Doing things. I just don't know what!
Everyone scattered to the 4 winds.
E14 and A7 to their building.
J10, H4 and I2 to their computer screen time.
M12 to more beautification rituals.
S11 to the hammock with a library book.
I tidied up the kitchen, did some school planning, worked on dinner, and considered digging a new garden bed. The garden bed will not be dug today because it is too close to dinner time--and dinner must be on time because Daddy has to work tonight.
So I'm updating this journal.
Now I must wash some lettuce--taco salad tonight!
***************************
It is now 9:00 pm. We have been home from church activities for 10 minutes. I transferred a sleeping I2 to his bed (I took jammies to the church because I knew he'd fall asleep on the way home), helped the little girls change and brush their teeth. They're giving Percy (the guinea pig) his bedtime treat of lettuce and a carrot.
We had our family dinner, prayer, and scripture study before Daddy left for work.
The kids all split to get another quick half hour outside after dinner while I cleaned up and packed Daddy's lunch. Once I kissed him goodbye and listened to the chorus of, "Good bye, Daddy!" that came from the yard as he pulled out of the garage, I called everyone in to wash hands, faces, and feet and put on shoes and socks to head to the church.
Only the teens and scouts had activities, but the rest of us hung out in the gym with several other mothers and siblings of teens and scouts. Kids raced from one end of the room to the other. Mothers talked. The time passed pleasantly.
My visiting teacher caught me and made an appointment to come tomorrow morning at 11:00 am. That will be fine because it is then that we usually have preschool, and my H4 is "best friends" with her S4. M12 will pause in her studies to play with the baby. I2 spends his Sundays with her little K2 in the church nursery with me. It will be a refreshing break in our day and we will not miss any school essentials. Rather I hope the visit will enrich our day.
I believe it will.
Percy is almost done with his snack.
It is time to tuck my smallest girls into bed.
I will follow that with tucking in my big girls.
After that I will get ready for bed, too.
I'll secure the house.
I'll walk through the rooms one last time.
I'll see if I can stay awake long enough to read for a bit, but we'll see . . .
It is Tuesday at 10:03 am.
I just finished getting dressed. (However, in writing that sentence I realized that I still need to brush my teeth.)
I have been productive all morning in spite of my late wake up at 6:45 am. I did wake at 5:50, but I rolled over to just rest my eyes for 10 more minutes.
Oops.
Between 6:45 and 10:03 . . .
*I've read from the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.
*I've recorded some thought-provoking scriptures and the thoughts that go with them in my journal.
*I've checked the older kids' schoolwork from yesterday.
*I've made new assignments for today.
*I've fed my three littles some graham crackers and milk.
*I've checked my email--including the daily digest from forum for our new homeschool group. We're still trying to make some new friends in our new area, but none of the activities on the calendar have worked so far.
*I've checked craigslist for a day bed for E14.
*I've made oatmeal with stewed apples.
*I've held morning devotional which included an article from the Ensign about living the Word of Wisdom. We had some rather lively discussion about our current eating habits.
*I've taken away and popped a balloon that was the source of contention between my 3 littles.
*I've put on black beans to soak for dinner tonight.
*I've started bread dough for lunch today.
*I've done the first batch of dishes.
*I've cleaned my bathroom.
*I've vacuumed the bedroom hallway.
*I've visited with my husband.
*I've gotten dressed and combed my hair.
*The kids have gotten up, done their chores, gotten dressed, and have either read or played while they waited for breakfast--depending on age. They've eaten, participated in devotional, brushed their teeth, and the older ones have headed off to start their school work while the younger ones are in the "library" playing school.
Now it is 10:12 am. I am off to get the littles to help me clean their bathroom.
*********************
It is now 1:21 pm. Lunch (fresh bread with butter and honey) has been prepared, consumed, and cleaned up. The older kids have all finished their independent school, and the littles have had preschool and/or school.
Between 10:12 and 1:21 . . .
*E14 completed math, reading, vocabulary, copywork, Book of Mormon, and spelling. She had to use the laptop to watch a Math-U-See DVD about finding the area of a trapezoid, but she didn't like how it was explained. I worked with her for a few minutes, and she got it. (I think it took both explanations for the lesson to stick, though.)
*M12 completed all of the same subjects as E14--minus the spelling. She also played math games on the computer and spent time working on a new way to curl her hair without curlers or curling iron.
*S11 completed math, reading, copywork, and Book of Mormon. She did some math drills on the computer and played Minecraft for a little while.
*J10 did the same as S11. She also helped out with preschool because I got called away by E14 and M12 to help them with their math. When both S11 and J10 exhausted their daily screen time allotments, they turned to their Barbies. They played together for a looooong time.
*A7 played with our guinea pig, played school with H4 and I2, cleaned her room, helped me clean the bathroom, participated in our preschool craft, practiced spelling, sang "Let it Go" from Frozen about 200 times, and read aloud to me about Balto, the sled dog from Alaska that brought the medicine to the sick children. She also watched her sisters use the computer.
*H4 did a lot of the same things A7 did. She didn't read aloud to me or do spelling, though. Preschool consisted of a "U is for umbrella" multimedia craft made of cupcake liners, glitter, and pipe cleaners.
*I2 did what A7 and H4 did. You can't see him in the picture, but he's on E14's lap as she plays at CoolMathGames.com. During preschool he didn't like the glitter on his picture; he kept asking us to take it off. We made a big deal out of how cool his picture was with the "rain" falling on it, but nothing we said made him feel better. We finally gave him a new sheet of paper, but he cried. After much effort, I finally figured out that we'd said "cupcake" when referring to the little umbrellas we'd made, so he kept thinking a cupcake was showing up. I gave him a cupcake liner full of animal crackers, and he was mollified.
During all of the above I finished the bread, organized preschool, answered school questions, listened to A7's reading and played a synonym game with her, took pictures, found out that the day bed we liked already sold (the affordable one), looked at more day beds (not very affordable ones--that E14 loved!), set screen time timers, helped solve problems with using the laptop and/or tablet and/or computer, corrected the box of turned-in schoolwork, and generally kept everything running and more or less peaceful.
When the bread was done we gathered at the table to pray, eat, and play at www.geoguessr.com. We played 2 rounds, scoring 9030 points in round 1 and 11253 points in round 2. We've learned that when in doubt, guess Brazil . . . but honestly, we're learning quite a bit of geography from this fun, fun game.
It is now 1:40 pm. I've been at the computer long enough. The kids are all outside on the deck. I need to call the big ones in for New Testament, Science, and History.
(I'd kind of like to leave them outside, but there will still be time to roam free when we do what's on our syllabus)
***********************
It is now 4:29 pm. The older kids and I worked on organizing our New Testament journals, read about wool, hemp, and flax (and considered buying a raw wool fleece for a little while . . . just for the experience of it . . . people sell it on ebay! . . . but decided against it because we have no combs for carding, no wheel for spinning, no knowledge . . . but I still want to . . . to gain some knowledge!), and read about the Louisiana Purchase.
I honestly don't know at all what the littles did while we older ones worked. They came in and out of the kitchen, and sometimes sat on my lap, so I know they were around. Doing things. I just don't know what!
 |
| Though I do have this picture of them typing on the laptop--so they must have been here for at least a little while! |
E14 and A7 to their building.
J10, H4 and I2 to their computer screen time.
M12 to more beautification rituals.
S11 to the hammock with a library book.
I tidied up the kitchen, did some school planning, worked on dinner, and considered digging a new garden bed. The garden bed will not be dug today because it is too close to dinner time--and dinner must be on time because Daddy has to work tonight.
 |
| Before . . . |
 |
| After! |
So I'm updating this journal.
Now I must wash some lettuce--taco salad tonight!
***************************
It is now 9:00 pm. We have been home from church activities for 10 minutes. I transferred a sleeping I2 to his bed (I took jammies to the church because I knew he'd fall asleep on the way home), helped the little girls change and brush their teeth. They're giving Percy (the guinea pig) his bedtime treat of lettuce and a carrot.
We had our family dinner, prayer, and scripture study before Daddy left for work.
The kids all split to get another quick half hour outside after dinner while I cleaned up and packed Daddy's lunch. Once I kissed him goodbye and listened to the chorus of, "Good bye, Daddy!" that came from the yard as he pulled out of the garage, I called everyone in to wash hands, faces, and feet and put on shoes and socks to head to the church.
Only the teens and scouts had activities, but the rest of us hung out in the gym with several other mothers and siblings of teens and scouts. Kids raced from one end of the room to the other. Mothers talked. The time passed pleasantly.
My visiting teacher caught me and made an appointment to come tomorrow morning at 11:00 am. That will be fine because it is then that we usually have preschool, and my H4 is "best friends" with her S4. M12 will pause in her studies to play with the baby. I2 spends his Sundays with her little K2 in the church nursery with me. It will be a refreshing break in our day and we will not miss any school essentials. Rather I hope the visit will enrich our day.
I believe it will.
Percy is almost done with his snack.
It is time to tuck my smallest girls into bed.
I will follow that with tucking in my big girls.
After that I will get ready for bed, too.
I'll secure the house.
I'll walk through the rooms one last time.
I'll see if I can stay awake long enough to read for a bit, but we'll see . . .
What a busy busy day!!!
ReplyDeleteReading this is like reading my own journal - the many children doing multiple things with mommy in the background doing what needs done and helping when called. I love it! This homeschool life is such a blessing with all the children home, isn't it? And can I say that I love the before and after kitchen pictures? I love that clean kitchen moment, even if it only lasts a few minutes. ;)
ReplyDeleteThat's a very busy day! I smiled about your taking I2's pajamas to church. I have friends who take their 2 &3 year olds to church in their pajamas every Wednesday night because they're going to fall asleep in the car and soon after they get home. My two year old is a night owl though and AWANA leaves her wired!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a busy day. I love seeing pictures of children reading Gods Word. Makes my heart happy.
ReplyDelete