I left off last Thursday with the fact that Daddy was homeschooling most of the kids on Friday while Makayla and I were going on a college visit. Friday went well, everyone learned a lot and had a good day. The college visit was great, we got some questions answered, had a lot of information given to us, and it made it seem a little bit more real that my first baby is almost finished with her homeschool journey (sob).The weekend was quiet and home based - just the kind of weekend I love.
Monday Daddy's college semester began and the kids and I got busy on another homeschool week. We started our study of the Middle Ages with an overview of the Ancient Britons, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and some of the mythology of King Arthur. We looked at maps and enjoyed the stories.
I am seeing definite patterns emerge in the scheduling styles of my children. Each week I have a few kids in each of the following groups:
- Spreading all work evenly over the week, not overloading or making light any days.
- Concentrating their work in mainly over the first 4 days of the week, leaving a much lighter Friday. One child takes this to the extreme, with all possible subjects done every single day until the last two days of the week, where Thursday becomes lighter and Friday has even less.
- Keeping Monday's workload light, to start off their week a bit slower.
I love that they can take responsibility for this. It makes for great life lessons as their week unfolds.
Other Monday things: Dinner was chili and cornbread. It rained all day long and just felt like a good soup day. After dinner was cleaned up we had Family Home Evening. For the family business portion of the evening everyone shared their ideas for food and snacks for General Conference weekend. I wrote it all down and we will refer to it the grocery shopping trip before conference weekend. After that we played Pictionary with a set of cards I bought a while ago from Chicken Scratch and Sniff. It has great themed cards like temple, prophet, Bible, King Benjamin, Joseph Smith, Jonah, and prayer.
Tuesday morning was filled with reading lessons, language arts, science, Latin, and math. There were many children to teach, help, and listen to. By lunch prep time I was ready for some quiet. I banished everyone from the kitchen while I made lunch and ate a pumpkin chocolate mug cake. For total transparency, I doubled the recipe for the mug cake and used a bowl. It was my lunch and totally worth every bite. I didn't share with my kids either. During lunch and again later in the day we listened to Wonder, our book club read aloud.
The rest of Tuesday involved emailing a college about how they prefer to receive homeschool transcripts (and if they have any other specific things they require for homeschoolers beyond that), sitting on the phone on hold with a medical supplier for way too long, and piano lessons. Daddy got home an hour after dinner time (remember, he is up at 2:15am and out the door for work by 3am) and basically sat down at his computer the rest of the evening because the new semester has started and he's doing college 1 or 2 classes at a time. It feels like it will take forever (he's been doing classes for 3 years I think) and I'm not a huge fan of being a single parent during the school semesters but you do what you have to do, right? This semester is an accounting class (last semester was too). I sat down with several of the kids to watch part of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
Wednesday rolled out with a tired momma. Rebekah was awake more than once last night so my sleep was less than stellar. We did school and I just took a deep breath whenever I got frustrated with something and plastered a smile on my face, reminded my kids they are great at learning and that mommy was tired but loves learning with them.
History was a really fun lesson today on the spread of Christianity into Ireland and Saint Patrick. My little boys, who don't always choose to listen to our history stories, loved that pirates were involved in the story. My other kids (and I) loved listening to the story told with a beautiful Irish accent. We had an interesting discussion afterward. A few things we touched on:
Tuesday morning was filled with reading lessons, language arts, science, Latin, and math. There were many children to teach, help, and listen to. By lunch prep time I was ready for some quiet. I banished everyone from the kitchen while I made lunch and ate a pumpkin chocolate mug cake. For total transparency, I doubled the recipe for the mug cake and used a bowl. It was my lunch and totally worth every bite. I didn't share with my kids either. During lunch and again later in the day we listened to Wonder, our book club read aloud.
The rest of Tuesday involved emailing a college about how they prefer to receive homeschool transcripts (and if they have any other specific things they require for homeschoolers beyond that), sitting on the phone on hold with a medical supplier for way too long, and piano lessons. Daddy got home an hour after dinner time (remember, he is up at 2:15am and out the door for work by 3am) and basically sat down at his computer the rest of the evening because the new semester has started and he's doing college 1 or 2 classes at a time. It feels like it will take forever (he's been doing classes for 3 years I think) and I'm not a huge fan of being a single parent during the school semesters but you do what you have to do, right? This semester is an accounting class (last semester was too). I sat down with several of the kids to watch part of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
Wednesday rolled out with a tired momma. Rebekah was awake more than once last night so my sleep was less than stellar. We did school and I just took a deep breath whenever I got frustrated with something and plastered a smile on my face, reminded my kids they are great at learning and that mommy was tired but loves learning with them.
History was a really fun lesson today on the spread of Christianity into Ireland and Saint Patrick. My little boys, who don't always choose to listen to our history stories, loved that pirates were involved in the story. My other kids (and I) loved listening to the story told with a beautiful Irish accent. We had an interesting discussion afterward. A few things we touched on:
- God speaking to people in dreams. We brainstormed examples from the scriptures. This tied in well with Joseph, son of Jacob/Israel, who also had dreams and was sold into slavery like Patrick.
- Sharing Jesus and the gospel message with others. Again, we came up with a list of examples, ranging from Ammon in the Book of Mormon and the Apostle Paul in the New Testament to daddy, who served a 2 year mission to Nevada.
- The reality of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit as separate individuals, united in purpose. This meant explaining what 'trinity' means to some Christians (as referenced in the story) and discussing why we believe differently. We also reinforced our recurring discussion that when people don't agree on something or believe differently we still love them and are friends because we are all children of God and that matters most. We can disagree without being disagreeable.
In the later afternoon I finished watching Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom with some of the kids. We got to watch some of the bonus features as well and it was fascinating to see the way they put robotics and puppetry together in the scenes for some of the actor work with dinosaurs. In the evening was youth group, Boy Scouts, and Cub Scouts. Fun and tiring all in one.
Thursday felt super relaxed at first. The learning unfolded one lesson at a time. Kids got along all morning. I didn't feel like we were in a hurry to finish something. Kids wrote poetry, created watercolor pictures, made maps, and generally just enjoyed their school work. Then Mason's toes started swelling on the leg that is in a cast. A lot. We ended up making the hour drive to the surgeon's office so they could bivalve his cast (cut it from top to bottom on both sides, loosen, and then tape at the bigger size). We go back again next week to get the cast removed and see what things look like and decide what to do next (another cast for a short time or a knee immobilizer).
On Thursday we also made reservations with an Airbnb place for a family trip next summer for 14 of us (grandma and grandpa are coming with us). We're going to Palmyra, NY to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It's amazing. I went as a teen with my own family and we went many years ago when Makayla was a tiny tot. The Pageant focuses on sharing stories from The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It is on a 10 level stage with more than 650 costumed actors. There are also historical sites in the area from our own church history to visit, and a beautiful temple. It is going to be a lot of fun!
Friday afternoon is here already. There have been science experiments, Latin parsing, math problems, reading lessons, and more listening to Wonder. Our routine has carried us through the day smoothly and we have just completed our first 6 weeks of school. Last year we did a 6 weeks on and 1 week off schedule. Right now nobody seems in need of an extended break yet so we'll just keep plugging along. I know in winter we are likely to need more breaks for illness because large families can take a month or more to get through one cold being passed around the family.
I suppose that's enough typing for now. I'm off to enjoy some family time!
Thursday felt super relaxed at first. The learning unfolded one lesson at a time. Kids got along all morning. I didn't feel like we were in a hurry to finish something. Kids wrote poetry, created watercolor pictures, made maps, and generally just enjoyed their school work. Then Mason's toes started swelling on the leg that is in a cast. A lot. We ended up making the hour drive to the surgeon's office so they could bivalve his cast (cut it from top to bottom on both sides, loosen, and then tape at the bigger size). We go back again next week to get the cast removed and see what things look like and decide what to do next (another cast for a short time or a knee immobilizer).
On Thursday we also made reservations with an Airbnb place for a family trip next summer for 14 of us (grandma and grandpa are coming with us). We're going to Palmyra, NY to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It's amazing. I went as a teen with my own family and we went many years ago when Makayla was a tiny tot. The Pageant focuses on sharing stories from The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It is on a 10 level stage with more than 650 costumed actors. There are also historical sites in the area from our own church history to visit, and a beautiful temple. It is going to be a lot of fun!
Friday afternoon is here already. There have been science experiments, Latin parsing, math problems, reading lessons, and more listening to Wonder. Our routine has carried us through the day smoothly and we have just completed our first 6 weeks of school. Last year we did a 6 weeks on and 1 week off schedule. Right now nobody seems in need of an extended break yet so we'll just keep plugging along. I know in winter we are likely to need more breaks for illness because large families can take a month or more to get through one cold being passed around the family.
I suppose that's enough typing for now. I'm off to enjoy some family time!
Sounds like a full, wonderful week. So glad they were able to make Mason more comfy, and that there wasn't anything majorly out of whack causing the swelling.
ReplyDeleteThat's a busy week. And good for you for having a double pumpkin chocolate mug cake all to yourself. Sometimes you need something like that to get you through the day.
ReplyDeleteBoy, do I understand about the doubled cake moment. :) You're so good to put on a smile and take deep breaths. I'm still learning that skill, and I thank you for setting a good example for me. I wish you joy at Cumorah, and I am praying faithfully for your Mason and his recovery. I'm sorry for this complication.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you were able to resolve the cast issue quickly. That must have been a bit scary. You all had a full week and your honesty is always wonderful to read.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn
Thanks for the test-taking tip! :) If we learn any, I'll be sure to share.
ReplyDelete