My Day

Dare I admit that my schedule is sometimes far from ideal? Ok, here goes. My ideal is to follow a nice simple rhythm (I gave up on schedules a few years back, rhythms are so much nicer). The day started as normal-I wake, yoga for 15 minutes (yep, that's it these days, but at least some exercise is still in there), read scriptures with notebook and pen, pray, make my husbands lunch and that was as far as I got in the normal routine of things. It was one of those rare days where I actually had to leave all of my kids for most of the day. I dressed and prepped for work, while hugging a child, who just needed a cuddle time that I could not do sitting, so carry, walk, hug, kiss, sit down, while I slip into clothes, pick up, hug, kiss, sit child half on counter with one arm around him while I do my make up with the other... As I served oatmeal and gave final instruction to the older kids I knew my daughter needed an I appreciate you day and while it couldn't be today, I made a mental note.

Then I was gone, off to a learning record appointment and then to meet an advisor and other educational specialists to discuss student portfolios, complicated high school transcripts, BTSA requirements and new laws that may or may not affect our school. What were my children doing? Well, my two workbook loving children were working through workbooks, one child was writing an essay on justice and mercy and how it relates to "The Merchant of Venice," and one was doing Brain Pop, watching videos about the brain, brushing teeth, and the earth's crust. Milly was waiting for her aunt. By 9:30 the oldest two were off to a Shakespeare co-op, and the younger four were off to cousins to play. Then friends returned them home and three left for PE at the park where they stretched and did a soccer scrimmage working on skills they previously had learned.

At six we were all back together, only for me to take the three older ones to see a play their cousin was in about the rock cycle. By seven we were home again and I was hugging and tickling Milly, while listening to Logan read. Kamron was reading his science text, and Aubrey was reading. Then Brennen and Logan and I decided to hang up skip counting charts in the bathroom so they could practice while brushing teeth-online search, print, done. Brennen got work sheets on the rock cycle, we then watched videos on the rock cycle, learned a song, pulled out a rock collection named them, pulled out loose rocks and looked at which could float and which sink. Then it was story time and we reviewed the card on red-winged blackbirds, sang nursery rhyme songs, read a chapter from the Charlotte Mason Geography book, then the story of Saint Augustine and his mother all while cuddling little ones on my lap. After prayers I tucked them in with audio books and said good night. An ideal day? No, a decent day? Yes, as long as I am not away from them that much that often. And that is true life in this homeschooling household juggling two full time jobs, six kids, and 11 weekly extra curricular/outside classes.