I mentioned in my previous post that I want to start journaling my days better and sharing what we are doing with MFW. My life is crazy random here, so this is what the last two days have been like... the short story that may not seem so short. :)
Monday morning we were supposed to be good homeschoolers, so we got up and everyone got dressed and went to breakfast. That's were the problems started. My children were so cutely having their milk in tiny little wine glasses UNTIL they tasted it. Bleeeeeeeechhhh! It was sour... arghhhh... and still in date. Milk is necessary here! So, I told the kids to get their shoes on and get ready to load up on this very cold and rainy morning with a three year old with fever. {giant fake sarcastic smiles :) } I bribed them with a trip to get donuts if they would make it quick. I can't say it was quick, but they did all get their rain gear on and it was quite cute... UNTIL I had to actually step out in the freezing cold rain to load them all up. Yeah! Off we went to the donut shop aroung the corner. Sorry... I should not whine when I live within minutes of everything I need and especially, a donut shop! I was going to take them all in to the grocery store until the vision of trekking them all in there popped in my head in this yucky weather. I hit the CVS Pharmacy, parked by the front door, ran in, grabbed a gallon of milk at the front, paid, and headed home. By the time we waddled our wet selves in the house and got ready once again to begin schooling it was close to 10:am....partly because I had to stop before leaving the house to feed (nurse) my starving baby that missed breakfast due to the spoiled milk. She was not gonna wait on a trip to the store. By the way, she is supposed to be weaning.... all my others nursed for 13 mo., 12 mo., & 12 mo.... she is 19 months and is old enough to have an opinion about it all. She screams like we are killing her when we refuse nursing. Yikes.... and the main reason I want to wean her is that she is refusing to eat solids many times just so she can nurse. ;) Sweet, but not a good thing in my opinion. And now that you have that little bit of info, back to the story.... So, we start schooling... well the baby gets tired... hmmm... I get her distracted and she runs about playing with her brother. She comes back "digging". Digging in her diaper.... This child seriously thinks she is supposed to do a touch test and I keep saying, "If you've got booty stew, don't touch the booty stew!" She does not get that. So, off we go to wash her hands, change her diaper, and wash our hands, again. Back to schooling..... and then, Caden needs a potty break and for some reason on this day I must be present. Yes, parenting is a joy! So, he goes potty, I wipe him, and he is off running in high gear, again. Back to schooling. My poor Sierra is sitting patiently waiting for me to read her book and looking quite bored, but I am back now. UNTIL Sahara walks past me "digging"... AGAIN!!! Off we go to wash her hands, change her diaper, wash both our hands, AGAIN! And finally, we are back to schooling. Meanwhile Savannah is trying to not be distracted, but being as the child is a poster child for ADD she has had much to keep her from staying on task. Her 3o minute math assignment ends up taking her 1 1/2 hours. Ohh.... and yes, Sierra is still awaiting that book reading time... I sit... I look at the kids and say, "Okay, Momma's gonna freak out a bit, but don't worry. Just let me have a moment." I take the "book" that I am supposed to be reading and beat it on the table about six times pretty hard and get some much needed frustration out. Of course, my kids are looking at me like I am nuts, but slighly comical nuts and we moved on. Finally, I read the book and whizzed through some K schooling while guiding Savannah through some independent work. Sounds fun doesn't it?... I will say this... we DID get most of our school done, but it took WAY TOO LONG and there was way too much time of poor little Sierra sitting and waiting on me. For K we are finishing up some of our W-Water week and starting on our I-Insect week at the same time. We buzzed through most of the W-Water lessons last week in one day (Thursday), but did not do all of the "Reading Plan" portion or any of the worksheets. I just felt the Science lessons were better combined into one day and the kids liked it that way. We had a two sick babies, so we had a wacky week last week. So, today we continued to talk about the ocean (for W-Water) a bit more and introduced the I-Insect lesson. We did the "Reading Plan" activities and the worksheets for both. We did a fabulous insect puzzle. For Savannah, 3rd, she did a devotional lesson, Spelling, handwriting, math worksheet, and two timed math quizzes (oddly, she is liking those). We did not get to any of MFW Adventures like I had planned to be our focus for the day. Savannah did do some reading while I gathered library books and as soon as my husband got home we darted out the door to the library. I confess I camped out there a while with my two older girls enjoying the distraction. Shame on me. My husband thought for sure I died, I think. He called to inquire about HIM cooking dinner. My reply, "Not unless you have learned to cook." ;) I told him not to worry and we have dinner soon. We made a quick grocery store run and at the kids request had corn dogs for dinner. Healthy? NO, but there were no complaints and it was really some great comfort food... and I needed some comfort. All-in-all it was a good day.... really, just a bit on the chaotic side!
Now on to Tuesday.... although my day was not bad yesterday I told my husband that I could not have another day like that one. That thinking lead to a bit of procrastination on my part. My goal.... how to avoid that type of day? I just was not sure, so I focused on other things and decided at some point that it sounded like a good day to try "evening school". I spent the morning making a couple of file folder games, cleaning some problem areas, and letting my kids ENJOY THEIR DAY. Seriously, in all the chaos they had spent way to much time sitting for their schooling yesterday. They played... and the sun shone, although it was still cool and windy. I even let the two little play outside for awhile in the warmest part of the day because Caden was fever free today. Hallelujah! So, this is how we schooled... after dinner we went straight to our calendar time activities. Cody played with the two littles and bbathed them. Savannah began her independent work (devotional, Spelling, handwriting memory verse, quick art) and I began Sierra's K. Sierra finished her writing practice worksheets for W and I, while I talked to her about ants and read some ant books to her. We did all her day 2 activities, but could not set up her ants because we are still awaiting delivery. I dismissed her to play with Daddy after she did her quick art. I froze some water in a pan and she got to write on it with markers (bingo dot markers worked well). We got hers done in one hour! I decided at that point to have Savannah (3rd) skip her math and we did MFW Adventures, but changed up. We did two days of Bible, decided to hold off on Science until tomorrow, and read the history while Savannah's was in the bath tub. Sierra fell asleep listening in my bed nearby. Savannah's schooling was two hours today, since we did not do the math. They also did one of my file folder games.
On that note, my little guy is sooo maturing all of a sudden. He has shown a new interest in books, counting, and colors. Today I was going to let him "play" with the file folder game I made. It is flowers with words in the center (pig, car, ...) and you place the round center on the flower with a matching picture. I was thinking he would randomly place the centers on the flowers and that was all I thought he needed to do, but he surprised me by asking, "What does that say?" I began with, "ppppp-iiiiiii-gggg, pig" and he would place the appropriate picture on. Quite cool to see this from so young. It made me realize that he will be ready to learn and I will know more about how to teach him than I do with my older two and it is going to be more natural, I hope. If you have stuck with this super long post, bless your heart! So, this is just a look at two days in my life and how I am trying to make schooling work for us and us not work so much for schooling. ;)
That was a long post??!! I've only taken notes on my Monday and it looks longer than that! Maybe I should do some editing except it's only notes!
ReplyDeleteAnd just so you know, it looks much shorter in Google reader.
I think the best lesson we can learn that typical homeschooling days are anything but typical, and we should be ok with that.
I can relate to say the least!!! It's hard, it's a lot of work and it is not always fun here either.We get in a good three days of school plus coop and we are doing great! I just chalk it up to the kids in public school aren't really doing school every day, some days they have parties and testing and such, we are still ahead of the game either way you look at it (from an acedemic point and diffentitely a spiritual point)
ReplyDeleteWOW! That was an interesting read. I do love the fact that in homeschooling we can make it be what we want/need it to be and work around all the little or should I say big things in life. We always get a late start on Monday just trying to recoup from the weekend and church all day on Sunday. Enjoyed reading about your week so far.
ReplyDelete