Just Another 24 Hours in the Homeschooling Life

Mary Grace put forth a challenge to record a day of our homeschooling lives.  Join in the fun if you like.  Here's mine....

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

The day begins (kind of) around 3:30 or 4:00 am when Miriam wakes up crying, then screaming.  She's 18 months and still wakes up once a night to nurse.  This frequency increases when we're away (like we were over Thanksgiving) so this week was when I decided she needed to be broken of this sleep-interrupting habit.  While Jamey is the one that goes over to comfort her, as always, it's the Momma who hears her fuss turned scream each time he leaves and has to re-awaken him (he falls asleep when his head hits the pillow) to ask him to go back over.  All this to say, it was a good hour of listening to fussing turn screaming until all was quiet and I fell back asleep. (I'm happy to report that after a few nights of training, she's sleeping through the night- and so am I!)

Around 7:00 am, Sadie wakes me up, asking for breakfast.  I lay in bed a good ten minutes until I can will myself up and dressed.  Sadie plays with Miriam in her crib until I can get to her.  Sam has gone downstairs.  Somebody ate a yogurt without asking around this time that I find later (empty) hidden in the bathroom trash.  I nurse and change Miriam and we head downstairs, passing all the suitcases that sit in the hallway yet unpacked.

There is no breakfast.  I start to mix up baked oatmeal only to find there is not enough brown sugar.  I attempt to use stevia powder while everyone is fussing at me that they are hungry.  While it's baking, I dice up and brown venison for the crock pot.  We eat the oatmeal and heap crushed strawberries on top because the stevia version is less than stellar.  Edible, but not very good.  I should have thought that one through a bit more.

Clean up kids and commence to putting together dinner in the crock pot. This takes longer than expected and is interrupted by Miriam falling off the bench (twice) and me needing to take out to the chickens a bunch of turned vegetables from the crisper.  The phone rings at the exact moment a neighbor stops by to drop something off.  Way too many dishes get washed and, finally, the kitchen is in order.  I have no idea what time that was.

We all head into the school room to listen to the CD of Christmas songs the kids are to be learning for the offertory that Sunday.  I open the CD player to find a bunch of salt in it.  Thus begins about an hour long inquisition as I try to determine who the culprit is.  I turn the CD player upside down.  I shake it.  I vacuum it.  I blow in it.  CDs will not play.  I just bought this CD player this fall and while it wasn't expensive, we do not have money to throw around.  I lose it and begin crying.  Like a baby.  The day before one of the children was too impatient with the DVD player and broke that.

A friend stops by to drop something off.  I hope she cannot tell how upset I am at the moment about the CD player incident.  Finally, under the threat of no TV until the guilty party confesses, someone fesses up and is punished.

We practice our songs without the CD.

The kids watch PBS for a half hour while I fix lunch.  We eat lunch.  I clean up.  Sam is put to work completing his handwriting and spelling (he's read ahead in his independent reading, so he doesn't have to do that today).  I check email with an 18-month old on my lap.

I nurse Miriam and lay her down for her nap.  Sam and I check handwriting, quiz his spelling, do language arts (research on Marco Polo), and Math (which includes a quiz, learning about perimeter and area and reviewing multiplication).  Sadie is playing with plastic people and dancing around the kitchen to Christmas music.  Sam reads the Bible passage out loud and practices the poem he's memorizing (Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson) while I trim Sadie's hang nail and apply a band aid.  I read Sam and Sadie history, two Aesop's fables and several sections of science (how reptiles and amphibians are different, aquatic amphibians, etc.).  I quiz Sam on Science.  They make sea snakes out of clay to add to their ocean boxes (dioramas).  We have no read aloud chapter to do today because we read ahead last week. 

Sam and Sadie want to make Christmas trees out of paper, so I set them up with supplies and rearrange bookshelves to make a better spot for their ocean boxes to sit on display.  They spy that it's time for afternoon TV, drop what they're doing and disappear into the living room.  I put away school books, try not to think about the mounds of laundry sitting on the floor of the laundry room and jump in the shower before Miriam wakes up and after giving Sam and Sadie the "do not open the door for anyone- not even Daddy because he has a key" talk.  In the shower I imagine what it must be like not to homeschool.

After the shower, I check my email, banish both children to couches with books when they cannot resolve an argument turned fight.  Miriam is awake.  I get her up, thankful that I have supper already taken care of.  Jamey calls to say he'll be late.  Lovely.

I set the table expecting to have to eat without Jamey.  I decide to add dumplings to the top of the stew.  I read Miriam a couple books and referee disputes.  Jamey gets home a bit earlier than he thought (Praise God!).  Sam and I listen to his geography songs while the dumplings finish cooking since we forgot to earlier in the day.

We eat dinner and the kids don't complain too much.  Miriam actually eats some vegetables.  I finish eating and have just enough time to change, pick up a few groceries and get to my Tuesday night class at 7pm. (I love this class (and will tell you more about it soon) and am so sad that it's almost over.)

I get home around 10:00 pm.  Jamey and I talk about our day for about 10 minutes.  He falls asleep on the couch next to me and I unwind while watching The Office reruns and check my email.

My head hits the pillow around 11:30 pm and I vow that the next day I will not allow any of our children to damage any of our remaining electronics.

Just another 24 hours in the homeschooling life. Pin It