Our regular school year ends tomorrow.
We are taking next week off. Then we go into our summer school schedule. Our summer schedule doesn't look that much different from our regular school, but it makes the kids happy to hear "shortened" school. And then of course we'll take time off when the baby comes at the end of July.
Why don't we take the whole summer off?
You know how a lot of moms go a little crazy with kids home all day, everyday during vacation times? I go a little nutty, too, when we aren't on our regular schedule. We may be home all day together, but we do have a definite flow to the day. Everybody knows what they should be doing throughout the day.
If you're interested this is what our "Home School Day" looks like:
I wake up between 7:30 and 8:30. I am not a morning person and I'm pregnant-- I am past feeling guilty about this little morning indulgence. Clark often sets his alarm to wake up earlier to get started on his reading time.
We eat breakfast next. Everybody likes to eat cold cereal first thing in the morning. Once again, although I admire my friends who cook a hot breakfast for their families, I'm past guilt about the cold cereal route we've chosen.
The BIG FIVE is next. This includes clothes, hair, teeth, tidy room, and morning prayer. If we have problems with children lolly-gagging and not completing their big five in a timely manner, we enforce a "big five before breakfast" policy.
Next is cleaning jobs. Clark, Bethany, and Elinor each have 3 or 4 cleaning jobs they are in charge of. I only assign the jobs once every 4 months or so. This makes it easy to remember who is in charge of what for the kids and for me.
Then we start school time with song, prayer, scriptures, and read aloud time. Everybody likes this time and it is a relaxing time after a morning of "do this, do that". The kids are allowed to draw, write, or play with toys quietly during read aloud time. Read alouds can be history, science, poetry, art history, literature. The fun stuff.
Next is lunch prep time and lunch. Then Cannon goes to bed. We LOVE him like crazy, but this is a happy moment for everyone. He is very contented to go to bed after giving hugs and kisses to everyone.
Next is the portion of the day that looks the most like "real school". Math, spelling, grammar, journal writing, reading, handwriting. I sit with Elinor as she does her work. Clark and Bethany come to me as needed. Everyone gets their work checked and makes needed corrections.
As school work wraps up we get into piano and violin practice. Sometimes we get this done during this time and sometimes we don't get to it until later in the evening because I teach piano lessons three days of the week in the afternoons. Usually the kids are done with their "stuff" by this point and they are delighted to play with friends while I teach. If they aren't done yet, they are still happy to have me out of their hair for an hour and just play.
That's pretty much what our days looks like. Not everyday flows smoothly, but I think it is the concerted, consistent effort every day that makes it work most days. The kids know what to expect and so even when I'm having an off day, they can get into gear until I pull it together.
Now, just as we established a great routine, we happily welcome the summer and a change of routine. I know this baby will throw off our schedule for a little while, but eventually (hopefully) we'll find our "new normal" again. That's a nice thing about having had so many babies, you kind of know what's coming and what to expect.
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