C.J. wakes up at 7am every morning on the dot (sometimes even 6:30 or 6:45) he just doesn't need near the sleep as the other kids do. The girls wake up at about 7:30 or 8:00am. The three older kids kind of take care of themselves for a while at this point, they don't come and wake me up right when they get up, which is nice. Rowan usually gets up at 8-8:30am. I wake up at about 7am, sometimes 8am if I'm really lucky:)
Once I get up we work on getting breakfast, getting dressed and cleaning up after breakfast. I plan on giving the kids some sort of morning chore, but have yet to put that in place...I should:)
The kids love to hit the ground running with their play and usually have some elaborate game or plan in place at this point. So begins my struggle to have them stop and get started with school. If I let them play, it's usually nice and quiet and I can get ready and clean up or start some other chores that need done, check email,etc. And suddenly the morning can get away from me.
Today was the first sunny day we've had in a while, so the kids did their handwriting and then headed outside. In that moment, I had to decide "do I make them come in and do their school work or let them play outside?".
They ended up playing outside for an hour. Part of that flexibility is the beauty of teaching them at home.
I loved that they were playing outside and using their imaginations and I loved that it was sunny out, so we took the time to play.
Usually after some grumbling and complaining, we sit down to get started on school.
Nearly every day, Adrian takes forever to get going and she does her best to make sure I know she is miserable:) She is a really smart girl, she just hates the idea of 'school' right now. If I add some coloring to whatever she is learning, she loves it and seems to forget she is 'doing school'. Here is some of her writing from today.
While we are working on school, Megan usually sits and waits for them to finish, waiting to maybe watch a movie or something when they are done. She is such social girl that she doesn't usually enjoy playing by herself. I need to start getting her involved a little more in what we're doing and teaching her letters and other things. Here is what she wanted me to create with her today.
CJ is making great progress with his school work. I am proud of his effort, he really doesn't enjoy sitting down to do school, but he rallies and does a good job every day.
Here is some of what he is doing. Not sure why this math sheet is upside down and the pages are so fuzzy, but I hope it still give you some idea of what he's doing.
As for Rowan, he usually needs me quite a bit throughout the morning, but is starting to play a bit on his own. He usually carries around a car in each hand or a ball in each hand and he is as happy as can be. And he loves to go outside, he loves his 'boots' (shoes) and his coat.
I actually love the days where we have no commitments or scheduled appointments and we have the beauty of taking our time throughout the day to get school finished. With Megan having speech two days a week, we usually try to rush through school in the morning and then never get back to it after lunch. I am looking forward to taking a break from speech in a few weeks so that we can have our mornings back.
I usually play worship music while we're working on school so I feel like I can steal away moments with the Lord while we're sitting together. Also to release peace and joy over our day.
I am far from figuring this whole thing out, but am learning and growing every day.
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