A-typical Day in the Life

There aren't "typical" days around here.  They are all unique unto themselves.... though there are typical Tuesdays or typical Wednesdays, etc.  Due to our outside activities, each day is different... HOWEVER, I do try to keep our morning routine as best as possible.

It is supposed  to go like this....

• Wake up and quite time for mom... (0600 every day baby!) LOTS OF COFFEE!!! Sweet time with the Lord and planning out the day happen at this time... I also check email, FB, and other stuff.
• Wake Hubby and kids (0700ish)  Sigh.... wish the quiet time would last all day!
• Every day it is my HOPE that in 1 hour they will be dressed have finished chores and finished breakfast...I cook while they clean (or Hubby does the cooking sometimes!) We rarely make it in 1 hour!
• Then we start school with our gratitude journals, hymn study, Bible, and Scripture memory.  This usually takes about an hour, but I don't limit it...ok... I do clock watch, always hoping to be done with school as early as possible!
• Then we split and Bean Boy goes onto his independent studies while I work with the girls. ***Survival mode so far has meant a focus on Bible, math, reading.  And I try to finish those by lunch (1200). I used to do nature study, composer study, art, etc.... maybe one day.... sigh
• After lunch I try to work with Bean Boy on things that he needs a "grown-up" for...  Some days though he gets left behind because Mom just needs a nap... I'm working on this!!!  This is also when we do our science lessons. 
• Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons are our gymnastics days... Monday afternoons we go to the chiropractor.  Thursday is the only I don't have to leave the house, but we usually do end up out somehow or other...  

The last couple of weeks we've done a good job reading in our Apologia Science book, and I even got creative and found a documentary on Netflix that we are really enjoying...one part at a time.  We watched that one night before bed with Hubby.

We are going to take a break for at least 2 weeks.  I plan to plan!  I'm really hoping to ramp up our history and get better at doing some of the activities SOTW recommends, since we seem to have gotten the rest under control. I hope to add in some of the readers too.  It is hard for me to do all of those extras.... being a Type A and wanting things to be just right, put in their place, and already dealing with so much out of place (refer to School Room- The Ugly Truth), knowing the activities require messes and "things" to be pulled out, and then knowing that it will take TIME.... oh well, do you get the picture?  I tend to find it more stressful than enjoyable.  I know my kids don't though, and that the memories of both the fun times and the lessons learned will be worth it.  This is one of the areas I refer to when talking about self-sacrifice...I'd much rather be a textbook/workbook mom, but that's just not who we are as a family and I believe my kids would hate it...except maybe one.  I wonder if I could have a little fairy come along and pick up after us so we can move right on to the next activity!!!

Every so often, we take planned breaks from school. During this time I re-evaluate what is working, what isn't, and try to gear up for the next go round, fixing what's not working along the way.  Every so often, we have unplanned breaks from school.  Someone gets sick (though unless puking, I tend to make them do some school work so our days off are fun days!), someone outside of our home needs help, or last minute plans come up with family or friends... I'm flexible.  Every so often, we take mental health days for mom's sake!  Every so often, you can find me hiding in my room with the door closed...the kids are so good at hide and seek though...it never lasts long enough! ;)

*Of course, all of this is altered any time I have to work during the week or on a Sunday night!  But, we're flexible! And, I'm ever so grateful for the opportunity to be with my amazing chilies!

I'm really looking forward to reading what others are doing and gleaning some insight through this bloghop

Curricula Corner: 2012-2013

Our local homeschooling conference is this weekend.  This will be the first time since my oldest was 4 that I will not attend!  It is kind of sad in a way, but I did get to go to our state conference, and I really don't need anything else... plus, instead of going, we shipped off our beloved chilies to a friend's house, and are enjoying the time alone!!!! WOW- that RARELY happens!

It seems that conference times bring planning times, and there is a lot of that going on with my friends, and in the blogging world.  So, I thought I'd share what we are doing around here.

I've put the girls together. They are in K and 1st...

Bible/Hymns/Scripture Memory
My one main goal this year has been to have a worship/Bible study time.  The past few years we have attended Community Bible Study which I HIGHLY recommend for a great in-depth Bible study, a wonderful homeschool program, and kids program.  BUT, with my work schedule, we struggle already to get our school work done, so one more day out of the house just isn't a good idea for us.  SO, I searched high and low for something my 6th grader reading on a 9-10th grade level could share with my K/1st graders.... I didn't find much.  What I did find was Bible Study Guide for All Ages.  It was really inexpensive, so I figured that if we don't like it, I haven't wasted too much money.  It is a little childish for my 6th grader, so he does all the oral readings for us.  AND, what I've noticed that is just the added benefit, is that he is helping the girls, we have more community in our family, and the kids are growing closer.  We also use a Scripture Memory box/system like the one described here.  We put most of our verses to music- some of our favorite Veggie Tale songs, nursery rhymes, hymns, etc.  One day I'll have to blog those to share with you all!  And, we do a hymn study using 101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth Osbeck, and following the monthly schedule set out by ???? the url is not on my printout and after a long time of searching, I am unable to find it- though we don't do the handwriting with it. 

Math
Right Start Mathematics  *my son absolutely loved Right Start, and I even learned so much the first time through. He is taking very slowly the Geometric Approach level.  It will be interesting to see what I learn this time around with the girls.  We actually have 2-3 lessons in level A to finish up, then on to level B.   Baby T may need some remediation, but she seems to be catching up.

Bean Boy is also using Life With Fred Fractions and will have that finished next week already and be on to Decimals.... He was having problems with these in his day to day work.  Now I will never be allowed  to leave the Life with Fred series.... He LOVES them!!!!

Reading
My other BIG goal is to get both of the girls reading mostly independently.  Little Bit has really struggled in this area. Baby T has really excelled in this area.  We have used an eclectic approach to this to try to find ways to help Lydia.  I have used Spell to Write and Read, Simply Charlotte Mason's Delightful Reading, flashcards, and just any beginner book we can put our hands on.  Unfortunately, Little Bit still hates it... I keep praying that will change! 

Science
If we could just do science, I would be a happy momma!  I'd love to do daily nature study.  I would love to get through all of Apologia's science curricula, and probably their other stuff too.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their books.  This year we are doing Land Animals of the Sixth Day.

History
I truly have a love/hate relationship with history.  I LOVE to study it, read about it, teach it.... but I know so little of it, it makes the teaching part difficult.  Since we are in survival mode this year, I went with Story of the World, Level 3.  Both Little Bit and Bean Boy are listening to the CDs and doing some workbook pages, and such. We haven't really done any of the projects, though I would love to extend our days to 50 hour days so I could do more of this too! Baby T pretty much does gymnastics as quietly as she can while the others are listening...


Computer Programming
Despite my having started a blog, and what you may think, my poor kids have been cursed with having parents that are technological idiots!  Seriously!! If you're not sure, look at my posts that have videos in them... I digress. I am confident one day my son will take over as our technological expert!  He wanted to learn about programming, so I found KidCoder when we were at our state conference.  He loves it, and is motivated to keep going, learning independently.  I did ask the vendor, and yes, he can call or email them for help so I don't have to learn this!  This makes me happy!!!  He is motivated, because in the 2nd book, he will learn to program games!  Happy all around!
I also read aloud from various books.  Right now, Bean Boy and I are finishing up a book that I can't wait to be done with....Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped.  Ugh.... I don't like it!!! Anyway, as soon as we are done, we are going to read.....drumroll please!!! The Hobbit!  We are both very excited about that... then I will unleash him on the trilogy on his own!

The girls and I are reading many short, fun books, as well as the Thorton Burgess Bird Book for Children.  We finished his Animal Stories and really loved it!

We do practice handwriting daily, but usually just from printouts we find on the web, or cards we are making for friends, or something to keep us practicing....

Well, I do believe that about sums it up.  You can read about our Olympic study here.

Link-up here with your plans in the curricula corner, so I (and others) can get more ideas!
I'm linking up to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers too!




If you use Apologia, check out Sarah's blog. She has linked up with other Apologia users to help share ideas...
Also linking up with iHomeschoolNetwork