September 24, 2011
I thought it might be fun to see what we do all day … and I thought it might also be a useful tool for myself to see how much time is wasted … time I probably should be ‘teaching’.
- 6:00 am – I’m up. I get my coffee and sit down to blog, facebook, whatever …
- 7:00 – Sweetie is up. I share with her an email I received regarding an ATC swap and we begin to research/brainstorm ideas.
- 8:00 – Buddy is up. I begin to prepare breakfast as the munchkins work on their craft projects (Perler beads and Polymer clay).
- 8:15 – We eat breakfast. Thereafter, clean up kitchen and gather our things for the day.
- 9:00 – Kids get into an argument. I put them into time out. I take a moment to compose myself.
- 9:11 – We depart for Mandarin. Along the way, we renew a discussion of the word “illegal”. When I used it in context the other day, they had misunderstood me. Somehow this came up again so we reviewed the definition. This lead to an oral discussion of prefixes.
- 9:30 – We arrive at Shawn’s and the Mandarin lesson begins. While Sweetie is engaged, I work with Buddy and cover the following lessons: math, reading, and a little writing.
- 10:30 – Mandarin lesson concludes. Kids play with Evelyn (the kitten) for a short time.
- 10:45 – We stop at JoAnns for a few things.
- 11:15 – We arrive home and I prepare lunch.
- 12:00 – We do a writing lesson (Sept prompts).
- 12:30 – Sweetie does a math lesson while Buddy takes a break and resumes his Perler bead project.
- 1:00 – Sweetie tries to log into the American Girl book club but the room is already full. She is disappointed. I allow the kids to play quietly … or do crafts.
- 2:00 – We do a followup Nature Study lesson on leaf-rollers.
- 2:45 – We sit down to do lesson #2 from the GEMS ‘Artifacts’ unit. However, the kids express that the masks seem stupid. “It’s just glueing things onto paper, Mom. We’ll end up throwing it away in a few days.” I see their point and can’t help but agree with them. We thereby opt to read about how masks are used in different cultures and discuss similarities and differences.
- 3:15 – We took another break. The kids started to play the piano on their own. I think we are all beginning to miss our weekly lessons with Janellybean. Guitar and violin are just not the same.
- 4:00 – They resumed their activities of interest .. Sweetie was working with polymer clay and Buddy played with his HO trains which are currently taking up much of the living room floor. We made him a layout years ago that slides beneath his bed but he claims it doesn’t work anymore so out come the temporary track. Good-bye floor space.
- 5:00 – We depart for my hair appointment.
- 5:15 – We arrive at hair salon. Kids get busy right away on the work they brought along – Sweetie begins making a new rubber band bracelet. Buddy continues his sketch of a train locomotive.
- 6:30 – Return home and prepare dinner.
- 7:30 – With dinner complete and the kitchen now once again.
- 8:15 – I inform the munchkins to prepare for bed … get your teeth brushed, jammies on and climb into bed. This is a battle … every night … always an excuse, “I’m hungry.” “I’m not tired.” “I need to do this one thing…” I used to read aloud to them as they brushed and this helped to keep them quiet and attentive. With the move, for some reason, I stopped. I definitely need to resume this.
All in all it was a pretty full day and we accomplished quite a bit in most respects. I wish I had worked out. The first few weeks we were here, I was going to the gym to swim in the hour prior to Mandarin. It became a little tricky to get the kids out of bed that early though. Had I not had a hair appointment, we would have gone to the gym for swim team and I could have worked out then. Oh well. Adjustments are still necessary here and there.