Well, here we are, several weeks into a new homeschooling year...Exhausted! LOL!
This year has started better then usual, actually, No one got sick, no one needed several doctor appointments, and I didn't even throw out my shoulder. We did, however, lose a printer. We also found out, in the process of replacing it, that our computer has almost NO temporary memory (RAM), contrary to what we were told at purchase. This being the reason for frozen programs and stalled computers. We (I) learned alot about the workings of computers this week, and look REALLY forward to removing the cover and adding new memory this weekend....!!!
This year has already presented many challenges. Our schedule is an ongoing battle. I seem to be the only person that understands(or cares about) the insanity of living this "second shift" schedule. I feel quite positive that I have spent the last several years catering to the specific schedules of everyone I know, yet have been met with blank/unyielding stares when I actaully SAY that we aren't really into mornings, that they are extremely difficult for us. Because of this, our lives have changed in ways I never considered, our friends have changed, and the way we spend our time has changed. Mostly for the better, thankfully.
Our new schedule has us doing chores and finding playtime in the am hours, usually up around nine to eat, do chores, and plan our day. At 10, the kids usually go out to play with Daddy, sometimes they work in the garden together. Around 11am, the older kids start lessons with five different subjects of Language Arts, the younger play cars...We break around noon to eat with daddy, then go outside to say goodbye and chase him up the street...LOL:) After that, we jump back into lessons with either History or Science, while the younger boys continue to play upstairs with building toys, blocks, Leappad and more...At 2, I work a brief time with my kindergartner, reading letter books, handwriting, site words and phonics pages. Usually the youngest, 3 1/2, joins us. The older children complete writing work for science and history during this time, and sometimes do a chore or two. Sometimes they watch a science/history video. I then spend some time working individually with one of the older children, doing math, working on other subjects that might need extra help from me. Around three or so, I take a break, usually to watch Dr Phil and eat a small snack, make phonecalls and catch up on laundry. This is art/music time for the kids. Four o'clock has me back with an older child, working on Math and etc again. Then it's math concepts with the younger til five or so. Usually I spend some time working on plans, calendars, co-op stuff while they finish lessons, get chores done and prepare for dinnertime. Sometimes we run errands before dinner....Sometimes dinner gets eaten at 8pm, and soccer practice has us running all night, then eating at 9:30pm....Chores, baths, pjs...and it's 10pm!!!! Which leads us to the last, and, obviously, least important, time of our day-TV time. Sometimes, if closer to 9, the kids watch a rented movie from the library, sometimes, if later, they watch "Who's the Boss", "Cosby", and once in a Blue Moon, Lizzie McGuire...Most nights they opt out to play, surf online, or read, and that's fine by me. I don't know HOW I managed to raise children that don't need television, don't even seem to care, but I am I NOT complaining!!!!!!:) The kids head to bed between 10 and 11pm, helping to keep them sound asleep til a "daddy decent" hour of 8:30 or so. He arrives home sometime between 1am and 4am.....I doze after 1:30am, if I am not working on something, but don't really "sleep" til he is home safely....Sleep is wild and waning here.....!:) Some nights I write til the am, when he gets home, some nights I read....Sometimes I watch really bad rerun tv all night!
We do the library two, three times a week, soccer three nights and all day Saturdays from 8am on (yes, mornings!), dance once a week, co-op on Wednesday, playdates on Fridays, and now, ME, being a Religious Ed teacher on Sundays...
Someone in the neighborhood-with ONE small child, I might add, asked me two weeks back what I "did" with all the time I have being "home all the time".....The person knew I had four kids (as if that's not enough to do!), and also knew I homeschooled AND develop our curriculum, and have four in soccer....I told her she was welcome to spend any hour she wished with us as a homeschooling family, and see what she thought. Her 'smug" face made me think she knew my life better then her own. Her husband, horse of another color, asked me tonight (while trying to convince the small boys I did NOT want the sidewalk toad into my house!) HOW I do it...! he remarked, in a totally not disrespectful manner towards his wife, that she didn't seem to have enough hours, enough patience, enough...anything, to get through a single day with one small child. He seemed amazed at what my day entailed, asked several questions and left us with a look of complete awe on his face. I love talking to people like that-amazed by homeschooling, amazed by homeschoolers, amazed by passion for children. It's different then most of the people I meet...Many of them seem to feel an instant need to "defend" themselves for NOT homeschooling. I am quick to say, "not for all", "special person to do it", "personal circumstances" etc.....but sometimes people just get angry...like my saying "We homeschool" is really coming out as "you don't homeschool!"....which I would never say...Sadly, I have met more "not great" homeschoolers then great. The "great" are those I stay in contact with. They say to "surround yourself with greatness". !!!
OK...12 midnight, time for me to get planning done for tomorrow and thurday....We are going to the Baltimore Science Center in the am, with our co-op, so I need to get some sleep!
Sami