The last 2 weeks we’ve spent our days adjusting our routine. I think I’ve said it before … at least I’ve thought it-vaulted ceilings and hardwood floors make reading aloud SO. HARD. I feel like I am yelling over a toddler the entire time. At this stage everyone fusses over my lap, so we’ve moved our reading aloud to my room, on the big king sized bed where they can spread out and hear me better.
Our new routine involves mama tending to the farm chores before the kids wake, getting her workout in after breakfast ,and brain warm-ups for all the kids! Day light savings really threw me for a loop this year as far as waking early goes. I am finally getting used to it. I strive for my mornings to look like this:
- 5:30/6am- mama wakes, breakfast for the hubs, pack his lunch, coffee with him before he leaves
- tend to meat chicks & LGD pup outside
- Jesus devotional & coffee with my Help Club for Moms book
- Prep Breakfast
- 7am Kids up, eat, morning basket
- Kid chores and 7yo practice violin- dishwasher, waste baskets, laundry, pick up floors if not done night before
- 8:15/8:30 Mama works out, kid brain warm-ups (videos on youtube for crossing midline)
- 9:00 Begin read alouds in my room
- 9:30/9:45 begin table work- each day includes Reading/LArts for each child, math, handwriting/copy work We do other activities on various days, looping them (Latin, Apologia Science we are reviewing, art, messy play, game school)
- During that time, the tot (20 months) goes to independent play in her room, and after the 3yo has done school along with us for a while, she also goes to IP
- 11:30 Lunch
- 12:15 Tot’s nap, others play outside
- 12:45 Preschooler’s nap
- 1:30 5yo naps, 7yo rest time or time with mama
- 3:00 everyone up from naps-play outside, nature study, handicrafts of their choice
- 5:30 dinner
- This time of year, depending on what daddy is doing outside after work and how everyone napped, we are outside after dinner then come in for baths and wind down. We’ve been spending several evenings a week at the table coloring, doing more learning time (science, or new spelling, writing letters, practicing cursive, etc). I LOVE this time because it brings Daddy into our homeschool setting for just a snippet, allowing the kids to tell him all about what they’re learning, show him new skills, inviting him into their world.
**Some evenings are spent folding laundry as a family while watching Create TV on PBS-Martha Bakes, This old House, Lydia, America’s Test Kitchen, etc. They are our favorites! We have pretty much written off all the mind numbingly ridiculous kids shows on Netflix & Amazon. They truly hurt my brain- We are already very picky about what our kids take in (supposedly targeted for kids … targeted being the key word here) but even the appropriate shows are just stupid. These days our shows consist of Mr. Rogers, Reading Rainbow, and sometimes the book adaptations of If You Give a Mouse, or The Snowy Day, or nature shows. Nothing else seems worth our time or brain cells. (If you have any suggestions for quality kid shows that aren’t “twaddle,” please share in the comments!) The amount of content out there that you really wouldn’t want your kids seeing really seems to be overwhelming these days but at least parents have access to more information than ever on how to combat this harmful material being consumed by their children.
Our studies this week have included:
- David and Saul in the Bible
- each day we read The Little Island– focusing on narration and seasons (3yo loooves this living book!)
- read The Apple and The Arrow from our Sonlight Core A, and our missionary stories from The Good News Must Go Out
- commas in a series, writing sentences, list making and narrating an item from that list (from The Good and The Beautiful LA), spelling from our new Memoria Press (for review), handwriting letter review (5yo),
- naming and measuring line segments using linking cubes, writing numbers, skip counting (5yo)
- handicrafts- my daughter is finishing a bag for her co-op sewing class, all of the kids are really into card making, and other paper crafts. We made crowns this week
- All About Reading level 1-beginning and ending blends, read stories from reader (5yo)
- the 3yo is learning her letter sounds, enjoys Starfall 1 day a week, and literally writes and draws all day long
- Science right now is coming from Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Anatomy & Physiology We are loving this just as much as their Astronomy, and I will have a review on that very soon!
In between lessons we have planned special plants for our garden, played outside, studied the bees collecting pollen, taken nature walks in the woods, and observed the changes that come with SPRING! (though this morning we have played in SNOW, and made snow cream … Because winter just doesn’t want to leave us!)
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