Works For Me Wednesday
I saw this on another homeschool blog and thought I could apply it over here too. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with this theme for the year. (I petered out on the Day Book theme).
This will probably sound really confusing to a lot of people, but I will attempt to tell you what our schedule is, and when it's working how it works for us.
I cannot function in a blown up house. The clutter, messiness and dirt inhibits any functionality in my body. Maybe this came from a few years of studying Feng Shui, maybe it is just how I'm wired. For me, my best time is in the morning, so most mornings (barring any catastrophes, like a flooded basement, lost dog, meltdown 30 seconds before heading out the door)we start with scripture study. This year we are doing the Relief Society and Priesthood book Gospel Principles together as a family. We eat breakfast and get everyone out the door for work and three kids that are going to school. Once back home, we clean up the dishes, get laundry going, clean the cat box, feed the animals, and clean the bathroom.
Then it is onto school. I'll post more about this tomorrow, but we are just getting back into the routine of things after a four month break. While I function better in the morning, Isaac does not and his best time is early afternoon and evening. I try to get in school for him in the morning, and then carry over the leftover school stuff to afternoon.
Lunch is leftovers or sandwiches and soup. When I was homeschooling all the kids, we had some lunches like that, but I usually ended up cooking a regular meal because it was cheaper and went farther.
Naps are at 1:30. The little boys go down and that leaves time for Isaac and I to do school stuff uninterrupted and without distractions. I will admit, if it has been a hard morning, I veg during this time. I zone out on Facebook, email, a game or a book and Isaac does the same. If its been a pretty good day, we do chores and school activities.
One thing I don't like is the 3:30 interruption for the other three kids coming home from school. They don't all get out of school at the same time. They stagger the dismissal times between the 3 different schools the kids attend and so I end up waiting impatiently for Jesse to arrive. I have hurt their feelings by refusing to allow the kids to show me anything out of their backpacks in the car. Too much stuff in an itty bitty space. Once we are home it is snack time and homework time, a few chores (animal care and laundry to be put away) and veg time for the school age kids.
Mondays and Wednesdays we have a paper route that takes an hour and fifteen minutes to complete. It adds a nice break in the summer from the monotonous day of nothing, but during school its becomes a chore and on really cold, freezing days like today, it is miserable.
Dinner is at 6. Then it is baths for little kids, showers for the older ones, cleaning of the bedrooms and bathroom (again) and most of them are into bed by 9.
On bad days, my sanity is strapping them all in the car and driving around for 20 minutes 'creating' errands. If I can't leave the house for whatever reason, it's listening to my Ipod with the volume turned up so loud I can't hear crying or fighting. Or hiding in my closet.
A friend reminded me last week I needed to get back to our family rhythm so that we can relieve some stress in our family (more to follow on that) and so I really took time this week to try to remember what that was. There simply is a lot of comfort in routine, and a lot of relief in not having to use your brain for one more thing to stress out about.
If any of you would feel inclined to share a WFMW post, please link it here! We'd love to hear it!
This will probably sound really confusing to a lot of people, but I will attempt to tell you what our schedule is, and when it's working how it works for us.
I cannot function in a blown up house. The clutter, messiness and dirt inhibits any functionality in my body. Maybe this came from a few years of studying Feng Shui, maybe it is just how I'm wired. For me, my best time is in the morning, so most mornings (barring any catastrophes, like a flooded basement, lost dog, meltdown 30 seconds before heading out the door)we start with scripture study. This year we are doing the Relief Society and Priesthood book Gospel Principles together as a family. We eat breakfast and get everyone out the door for work and three kids that are going to school. Once back home, we clean up the dishes, get laundry going, clean the cat box, feed the animals, and clean the bathroom.
Then it is onto school. I'll post more about this tomorrow, but we are just getting back into the routine of things after a four month break. While I function better in the morning, Isaac does not and his best time is early afternoon and evening. I try to get in school for him in the morning, and then carry over the leftover school stuff to afternoon.
Lunch is leftovers or sandwiches and soup. When I was homeschooling all the kids, we had some lunches like that, but I usually ended up cooking a regular meal because it was cheaper and went farther.
Naps are at 1:30. The little boys go down and that leaves time for Isaac and I to do school stuff uninterrupted and without distractions. I will admit, if it has been a hard morning, I veg during this time. I zone out on Facebook, email, a game or a book and Isaac does the same. If its been a pretty good day, we do chores and school activities.
One thing I don't like is the 3:30 interruption for the other three kids coming home from school. They don't all get out of school at the same time. They stagger the dismissal times between the 3 different schools the kids attend and so I end up waiting impatiently for Jesse to arrive. I have hurt their feelings by refusing to allow the kids to show me anything out of their backpacks in the car. Too much stuff in an itty bitty space. Once we are home it is snack time and homework time, a few chores (animal care and laundry to be put away) and veg time for the school age kids.
Mondays and Wednesdays we have a paper route that takes an hour and fifteen minutes to complete. It adds a nice break in the summer from the monotonous day of nothing, but during school its becomes a chore and on really cold, freezing days like today, it is miserable.
Dinner is at 6. Then it is baths for little kids, showers for the older ones, cleaning of the bedrooms and bathroom (again) and most of them are into bed by 9.
On bad days, my sanity is strapping them all in the car and driving around for 20 minutes 'creating' errands. If I can't leave the house for whatever reason, it's listening to my Ipod with the volume turned up so loud I can't hear crying or fighting. Or hiding in my closet.
A friend reminded me last week I needed to get back to our family rhythm so that we can relieve some stress in our family (more to follow on that) and so I really took time this week to try to remember what that was. There simply is a lot of comfort in routine, and a lot of relief in not having to use your brain for one more thing to stress out about.
If any of you would feel inclined to share a WFMW post, please link it here! We'd love to hear it!
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