Not Many Spare Moments
Last week we started a new schedule. The girls and I have struggled all year to consistently get ready for the day and get basic household tasks done in time to spend a good chunk of the day doing school. We desperately needed a solution.
In our home group Bible study last week, we all decided to hold each other accountable to spend time with God (prayer and Bible reading) daily. As I was having my quiet time one evening, I was praying about the homeschooling problem, and a possible solution came into my mind. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. It was so simple, yet I wasn't sure DH would be willing to help me do it.
When I suggested the plan, though, he readily agreed. So far the plan has been much more successful than anything else we've tried.
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Essentially, we get up early together and DH helps me get the kids ready for the day and some of the morning chores done. That way there are two of us to keep the kids moving and one of us to care for Baby E if she's in a screaming/clingy mode all morning (which had been happening frequently) while the other cooks breakfast, gets laundry under control, etc.
I had been really struggling to get myself and the kids ready and take care of the day's meals, and we often weren't starting school (if we did school at all) until afternoon.
Now DH gets up with me, and I can get a shower while he helps the kids get going on their chores. Then I can cook breakfast and clean up the kitchen while he watches Baby E and maybe does some laundry or some other task. With both of us working to get the morning going (even with DH leaving just as I start feeding the kids breakfast), we've had little trouble getting everyone ready to start school by our target time of 9:30.
We've been doing pretty well at this for almost a week now, and it's amazing how much easier it is to get schoolwork done. We're finished with the bulk of it by lunchtime. Even if we do all the extra subjects like art, we're done for the day by early afternoon. The girls are starting to complain that "we're always doing school," but they are enjoying what they're learning.
After school, I put Baby E down for a nap and the girls for quiet time, and then I have a few minutes to either rest or get some housework done before I start dinner. After dinner I've been working outside until after dark, trying to get the garden planted. Then it's time to put Baby E to bed and do the dishes, and by then it's bedtime.
It doesn't leave much time for blogging. :) But I am busy and productive, and dead-tired by the end of the day.
Grass pollen season has started, with a whole new set of symptoms--including a constant sinus headache and an occasional mild cough with a heavy-chested feeling and tightness in the throat (and here I thought I didn't have asthma any more). But at least it doesn't seem to give me the all-over body aches, the fatigue isn't quite as debilitating, and the mood swings aren't as bad as they were with the maple pollen. It's quite fascinating to me how the same body can respond so differently to different allergens.
The kids are feeling quite a bit better. Baby E, after screaming all morning and being fussy all day for the better part of 3 weeks, is back to her cheerful self again.
Well, I'm off to bed now. It's time to get up in about 7 hours, so I'm late to bed already. I'll try to post pictures of the fabulous Mother's Day gift the girls made for me later.
In our home group Bible study last week, we all decided to hold each other accountable to spend time with God (prayer and Bible reading) daily. As I was having my quiet time one evening, I was praying about the homeschooling problem, and a possible solution came into my mind. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. It was so simple, yet I wasn't sure DH would be willing to help me do it.
When I suggested the plan, though, he readily agreed. So far the plan has been much more successful than anything else we've tried.
#######################
Essentially, we get up early together and DH helps me get the kids ready for the day and some of the morning chores done. That way there are two of us to keep the kids moving and one of us to care for Baby E if she's in a screaming/clingy mode all morning (which had been happening frequently) while the other cooks breakfast, gets laundry under control, etc.
I had been really struggling to get myself and the kids ready and take care of the day's meals, and we often weren't starting school (if we did school at all) until afternoon.
Now DH gets up with me, and I can get a shower while he helps the kids get going on their chores. Then I can cook breakfast and clean up the kitchen while he watches Baby E and maybe does some laundry or some other task. With both of us working to get the morning going (even with DH leaving just as I start feeding the kids breakfast), we've had little trouble getting everyone ready to start school by our target time of 9:30.
We've been doing pretty well at this for almost a week now, and it's amazing how much easier it is to get schoolwork done. We're finished with the bulk of it by lunchtime. Even if we do all the extra subjects like art, we're done for the day by early afternoon. The girls are starting to complain that "we're always doing school," but they are enjoying what they're learning.
After school, I put Baby E down for a nap and the girls for quiet time, and then I have a few minutes to either rest or get some housework done before I start dinner. After dinner I've been working outside until after dark, trying to get the garden planted. Then it's time to put Baby E to bed and do the dishes, and by then it's bedtime.
It doesn't leave much time for blogging. :) But I am busy and productive, and dead-tired by the end of the day.
Grass pollen season has started, with a whole new set of symptoms--including a constant sinus headache and an occasional mild cough with a heavy-chested feeling and tightness in the throat (and here I thought I didn't have asthma any more). But at least it doesn't seem to give me the all-over body aches, the fatigue isn't quite as debilitating, and the mood swings aren't as bad as they were with the maple pollen. It's quite fascinating to me how the same body can respond so differently to different allergens.
The kids are feeling quite a bit better. Baby E, after screaming all morning and being fussy all day for the better part of 3 weeks, is back to her cheerful self again.
Well, I'm off to bed now. It's time to get up in about 7 hours, so I'm late to bed already. I'll try to post pictures of the fabulous Mother's Day gift the girls made for me later.
Labels: just life, learning, muddling motherhood
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 11:27 PM[Permanent link]
4 Comments:
I'm so glad you have found a solution for school that works for everyone.
I'm glad, too!
But I wanted to chime in and say that I, too, find that I have very different reactions to different allergens. I'm equally allergic to both tree and grass pollen, but I feel much sicker during tree season than I do during grass season. And my mold allergies are fairly mild, but the symptoms they provoke are just awful. It is funny how it works, isn't it?
What CCW said. And I'm glad you're tracking your symptoms and correlating them to environmental allergens.
A schedule that 'works' is truly a gift. I just have to keep reminding myself that 'things' change and I need to re-jig the schedule.
Best wishes
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