First Week

Several of my children headed off to school Tuesday for the first time. The only child remaining at home is Madelyn who is in 8th grade. I wanted to start the new school year off well, so I woke up at 6 on Tuesday and made breakfast. A big family breakfast. After the boys left for the school bus, I cleaned up the kitchen. We had tons of bacon, eggs and toast left over. Normally, bacon and eggs are served for lunch or dinner around here. We usually eat cereal, oatmeal, coffee cake, or bagels in the morning with fruit. I'll be able to serve all the leftovers as a dinner for 6 members of the family. It's nice to know that I don't need to get up and cook breakfast any time soon!

I knew that my days would have a different feel and that the house would be much quieter with most of the family gone. What I wasn't expecting was to get so much accomplished and have so much energy when our school work was completed. Here's what was completed Tueaday.

5:30am: Woke up and called children. Began cooking 2 pounds of bacon, 14 slices of toast, 1 dozen eggs.

6:30am: Serve breakfast. Brushed Paige and Allie's hair. Got dressed. Took pictures of the boys before they left for the bus.

7:00am: Cleaned kitchen and dining room, wrote names on backpacks, started load of laundry, ran dishwasher.

7:30am: Walked Paige and Allie to school, received classroom assignments, met principal, spoke with teachers, walked home.

8:00am: Flipped load of laundry, taught geography, washed dining room windows and door.

8:30am: Folded load of laundry, started new load, taught English and writing.

9:00am: Taught pre-Algebra, flipped a load of laundry, folded laundry.

10:00am: Flipped another load of laundry, taught Spanish, sorted out 2 shelves in the old school armoire.

10:45am: Taught science, sorted out 2 more shelves in the school armoire. Filled empty shelves with fabric. Flipped another load of laundry, folded clothes.

11:30am: Took 2 bags of trash out to garbage (from school armoire) swept bathroom floor, flipped laundry.

12:15pm: Folded laundry, took laundry to appropriate rooms, cleaned downstairs bathroom, taught literature.

1:15pm: Went out to lunch with Madelyn and Mike.

2:15pm: Vacuumed master bedroom, took Madelyn to purchase bicycle. Washed dining room and kitchen floors. Swept deck and patio.

3:00 Started dinner.

The kids came home from school around 3:15. The house was clean. The laundry wass done. Madelyn finished all her assignments. I wasn't tired. My brain didn't hurt! What a huge change from our normal homeschooling day!

By 8 in the evening, I was ready for bed. We don't usually get up that early and my body couldn't go to sleep before 3am on Monday.


The kids all seemed to enjoy school. After the first day, I started getting up at 6:30 and wasn't quite so tired by early evening. A few more weeks and we should all be in sync with the new schedule. Paige and Allie didn't get much work accomplished this week. They did math twice and reading once. They learned a ton of school, classroom and library rules. They watched movies and had lots of recess. Hopefully, this was not a normal type of school week. Allie had a few moments of unease, but struggled through. She has met some kids that she is hanging out with during the school day. Paige loves school. She is the first person up each morning and ready to leave for school half an hour early.

The boys didn't do too much at school either. They had to read one chapter in one class and do a logic worksheet in their math classes. We still haven't found out if Steve's credits will be accepted. The boys have met some kids. Each boy is being pursued by a different girl. Neither boy likes the pursuing girl.

Madelyn has been able to get all her work done each day before 1 o'clock. She's been doing Joe's papers, so she does those before the at-school kids come home. She is missing her siblings, but I'm trying to do fun things with her each day, so homeschooling doesn't get monotonous.

Each day she accomplishes these subjects:

Bible (with the little girls before they leave for school)
Spanish
pre-Algebra
English
Spelling
Writing (currently poetry)
Latin
science
geography
literature
home economics

School Planning

The younger girls have been at V.B.S. this past week from 10 am until noon. The other children have been sleeping late, due to the heat. What have I been doing with these quiet mornings? Working on next year's school plans! The year is going to be unique because there are only 3 children in our homeschool next year! I'm trying to do as much with the three girls together and have a lot of variation in how we are learning.

The three girls will be doing Bible and music together each morning.

Allie will be doing phonics, math, and spelling with me.

Paige's individual subjects will be math, spelling, and phonics.

Paige and Allie will do Spanish, English, Latin, and science together.

Madelyn individual subjects are language arts, math, science, Spanish and Latin.

The three girls will be doing a variety of unit studies on various subjects throughout the year. We will also be doing history and geography lap-books. I'm planning on covering music theory, art, art appreciation, and group piano sessions, as well as, individual piano and flute lessons.

Obviously, we won't be covering every subject every day of the week. So far, the schedule looks good. I'm getting excited about the new year and love coming up with fun projects and activities.

My boys will be getting on the school bus at 7:00 a.m. Our family used to begin school around 9. With the boys leaving so early, I'm planning on the rest of us starting piano practice around 7:30, so our school day can begin at 8. It would be wonderful to finish earlier in the day next year. I would love more time to do things in the afternoon with the kids. It's going to be a great year!

Teaching Math

Yesterday, Paige decided to help Allie with her math lesson. Paige is 7 and in second grade; Allie turned 6 in December and is in k/1st grade. I was folding clothes and overheard their discussion. It went something like this:

"First we need to count the dimes. Start counting."
"How much are dimes worth?"
"Ten cents. Hurry up. You know how to do this!" (exasperation in voice)
"10,20. What's this one called?"
"Come on!!! You know what the bigger one is called. What comes next?"
"Twenty-thirty?"
"Stop horsing around! What comes after 20 when you have a nickle?"
"Twenty-six?"
"Okay, remember 20....now count my fingers" (holds up 5 fingers)
"25. It's 25."
"Good job. I knew that you could do it!" (said in sickly sweet, high-pitched voice)

They finished the entire lesson and then came to tell me all about their experience. Allie thought that Paige was the nicest teacher ever. Today, Paige informed me that she was getting her math done really early, so she could teach Allie again. Allie was thrilled! Maybe I need to show less patience, but speak in a phony voice during our next lesson.