Last week I had hit my limit. Time for Summer Vacation to end. So on Monday we started school back up. What a life saver. AND a time saver! I’m always amazed at how much more smoothly our lives go when we are actively doing school.
I also tried valiantly to take my own advice and not worry about what the clock says. I had made plans to go walking with some friends Monday morning at 8:30. We and our eleven children walked down to the track about 1/2 mile away and the kids played on the soccer field while we walked around and around them. We were all having so much fun that we didn’t get back to my house (closest to the track) until almost 11. We turned on the sprinkler in the backyard for the kids while us mommies fed the babies. We were well into quiet time when our house was empty.
Since our morning was full of activities that were something other than academic, I was able to enjoy teaching the girls while Spencer napped (something that has never happened). We got so much done and I was so happy with how our day had turned out (clean house, school, dinner, and fun socializing time for mom) that I didn’t even care that I was dead tired by 8 pm.
Tuesday was similar. several hours of school smattered throughout the day, clean house and a birthday party for Spencer that night. As usual, we kept our guests way longer than they wanted to stay and it was a late night for us all. But fun. Again… dead tired.
Wednesday, is our planned life skills/home ec day (aka, time to get our house back in order). Laundry. Hours and hours of laundry. I even got in a much needed nap. But it was a very stressful day. See, there is a reason why I wanted to start school back up when Jack is only 4 weeks old. When left to their own devices for entertainment, my five and three year olds have awesome ideas like climbing and then repelling down the gate of our backyard fence in an attempt to escape the confines of our backyard. What does my seven year old do? She draws pictures of milkshakes on the sidewalk and asks for her spelling, math and history lessons. Oh that all children would be seven and a half. She was quite disappointed when I said I couldn’t give her those lessons because I needed a nap so badly. So for quiet time, Lucy sat in my room, and per my instructions, researched wild cats and wrote a report about tigers (complete with an illustration). THIS is why I have the patience to homeschool! It’s the YOUNGER kids that make me pull out my hair. Why on earth would I send my biggest relief and helper off for someone ELSE to enjoy for eight hours a day?
Anyway, today so far has been much the same as Tuesday. Lucy has to finish her math and history, but has already done so much today, that if I don’t get around to it, then it certainly isn’t the end of the world. We can make it up on Saturday if I decide to be a nazi about it.
The most interesting and great thing about being in our school routine is the effect it has on me. Do you remember my post about hulu.com the other day? How I was never going to read again? Well, this week, not only have I not watched hulu.com at all, but I haven’t even WANTED to. I had a chance to sit down on Tuesday, kids were in quiet time, house was clean, and I had another hour or so before I had to start on the food for the party. I figured I’d watch a little Highlander. I got less then five minutes into it before I turned it off and grabbed a book. I wasn’t even interested.
