An Atypical Day
Honestly, in our house, there is no such thing as a typical day. Today was a good day though. We didn't do anything according to our "normal" routine, but a lot of things about today were pretty typical as to the kind of stuff that goes on around here.
We started our day with my alarm going off at 5:50am. I tried to snooze it so I could nurse W back to sleep and then get up at 6am to get my personal scripture study done. I hit the wrong button though and didn't wake up until 7:30.
We gathered everyone in our room at 8am for scripture time, then shooed them off to get ready for the day. We were in a hurry today for many reasons, yet the kids still insisted on acting like slugs.
At 9am we jumped in the car, skipping breakfast since no one finished getting dressed on time (does that seriously take an hour!?). We went through the checklist for needs for the day:
Does everyone have a coat? No. B & W don't have theirs. B claims he has his because it is in the garage. Mom gets the coats.
Does everyone have shoes? Yes. Are you sure? Yes.
Are those going to swimming lessons today wearing swimsuits? Yes.
Did everyone put their clean underwear in the towel bag for after swimming? Yes.
Do we actually have 6 towels in the towel bag? Yes.
Do we have enough goggles for those who want them? Yes.
Did mom pack something for everyone to eat for lunch? Yes.
Did mom pack all the sewing materials for sewing club? Yes.
Did we bring a diaper bag? Yes.
Does everyone have what they need for commonwealth? Yes.
Including show & tell? Yes.
Wow. We actually did pretty well with all that. I only had to run back in for one thing.
9:25am We arrive at our commonwealth. I remind all the kids we will be leaving early today because of swim lessons. (Because I didn't completely think through the fact that our commonwealth conflicted with the lesson times... I was just concerned with getting as many as possible into the water at the same time.)
10:50am I gather the kids and head to the car to drive to the aquatic center. Two of them are upset because they didn't get to take B & W to the car because they were finishing a project so I just took them. One of them takes forever to leave her class because she is taking notes and telling a joke.
11:05am We arrive at the pool. The four girls go straight to the family locker room, strip down, shower, and get to their classes. The four boys and I head to the lobby to eat our lunch - crackers, deli meat, cheese I slice on my leg with no plate or cutting board (but I did bring the cheese knife), CapriSuns, carrots, and cheese-itz. We do our best not to leave crumbs, but don't succeed very well.
11:40am We clean up lunch and the boys and I head for the locker room. J & J strip down, we note that the girls did a great job of putting all their things in the lockers.... but something is missing. Maybe they left it in the car.
11:55am Just as the girls finish their lessons and get out of the pool, I return from checking the car, and the locker room, and the entire pool deck. We did, in fact, leave the entire towel bag, neatly packed with all towels and everyone's underwear, on the floor in the family room. Another homeschool family lends my girls a towel to share, and my twins get in the pool for their lesson.
After the girls dress (commando) and return the borrowed towel, they head to the lobby with B to eat (I monitor them through the glass wall). W nurses to sleep and dozes on my lap.
1:00pm Once the boys are dressed (without the use of towels) and we are all back in the car we go over the rules for our sewing club. This is someone's home, standard house rules apply. Since there is only one of me and only one sewing machine, you'll need to take turns. If it is not your turn to sew, or your turn to observe, then you need to keep the younger three happy or no one will be able to sew.
2:30pm Sewing club went surprisingly well... just way too short to attempt with 5 kids and only 1 machine. We'll have to finish at home.
5:45pm Now 7 kids have done half the project for sewing club, but the kids are starting to make a huge mess of my supplies. I call it quits for the day. Club doesn't meet again for 2 weeks, so we have time to finish this later.
6:00pm While C makes dinner, K runs around the house, excitedly gathering books. Apparently she has been assigned a "climate" presentation with a classmate for her Transition class. She is getting ready to research the cultures, animals, weather, and vegetation of the Arctic.
D & C complain that they never get to do any "homework" assignments. I suggest they do a report on a state, given that they just learned the "50 Nifty United States" song and can now name all of them. They get super excited about the prospect. So I write a quick list of things I would want them to find out about the state of their choice.
After dinner C complains that D isn't letting her see the list for the state report, so I type it up and print out a few copies. Turns out J1 wants a copy too.
Suddenly dinner cleanup is abandoned as everyone gets super excited about their reports. K helps J1 find pictures to print out, and he scribbles out facts as he finds them.
C & D argue because D is hogging the computer as she types up her report.
When C finally gets a computer she needs help copying and pasting pictures she finds, but she is enjoying it.
J2 decides that he wants to do a report on birds instead of states. (But he really just wants to color some pictures of birds.) We print some pictures out for him. Then M wants some too. I accidentally print an extra page, so B gets it. I am really not sure when B figured out his colors, but suddenly he knows nearly all of them. I knew he knew which person in our family was assigned each color, but now he knows the color names too!
And now it's 8:30pm. Bedtime. And I have one kid searching for pictures on my computer, three kids working on state reports, three kids coloring pictures of birds, and one kid wandering around the house carrying the plunger because someone left the bathroom door open again.
It takes us another hour to convince everyone to put away their projects until tomorrow, and to get everyone in bed.
We started our day with my alarm going off at 5:50am. I tried to snooze it so I could nurse W back to sleep and then get up at 6am to get my personal scripture study done. I hit the wrong button though and didn't wake up until 7:30.
We gathered everyone in our room at 8am for scripture time, then shooed them off to get ready for the day. We were in a hurry today for many reasons, yet the kids still insisted on acting like slugs.
At 9am we jumped in the car, skipping breakfast since no one finished getting dressed on time (does that seriously take an hour!?). We went through the checklist for needs for the day:
Does everyone have a coat? No. B & W don't have theirs. B claims he has his because it is in the garage. Mom gets the coats.
Does everyone have shoes? Yes. Are you sure? Yes.
Are those going to swimming lessons today wearing swimsuits? Yes.
Did everyone put their clean underwear in the towel bag for after swimming? Yes.
Do we actually have 6 towels in the towel bag? Yes.
Do we have enough goggles for those who want them? Yes.
Did mom pack something for everyone to eat for lunch? Yes.
Did mom pack all the sewing materials for sewing club? Yes.
Did we bring a diaper bag? Yes.
Does everyone have what they need for commonwealth? Yes.
Including show & tell? Yes.
Wow. We actually did pretty well with all that. I only had to run back in for one thing.
9:25am We arrive at our commonwealth. I remind all the kids we will be leaving early today because of swim lessons. (Because I didn't completely think through the fact that our commonwealth conflicted with the lesson times... I was just concerned with getting as many as possible into the water at the same time.)
10:50am I gather the kids and head to the car to drive to the aquatic center. Two of them are upset because they didn't get to take B & W to the car because they were finishing a project so I just took them. One of them takes forever to leave her class because she is taking notes and telling a joke.
11:05am We arrive at the pool. The four girls go straight to the family locker room, strip down, shower, and get to their classes. The four boys and I head to the lobby to eat our lunch - crackers, deli meat, cheese I slice on my leg with no plate or cutting board (but I did bring the cheese knife), CapriSuns, carrots, and cheese-itz. We do our best not to leave crumbs, but don't succeed very well.
11:40am We clean up lunch and the boys and I head for the locker room. J & J strip down, we note that the girls did a great job of putting all their things in the lockers.... but something is missing. Maybe they left it in the car.
11:55am Just as the girls finish their lessons and get out of the pool, I return from checking the car, and the locker room, and the entire pool deck. We did, in fact, leave the entire towel bag, neatly packed with all towels and everyone's underwear, on the floor in the family room. Another homeschool family lends my girls a towel to share, and my twins get in the pool for their lesson.
After the girls dress (commando) and return the borrowed towel, they head to the lobby with B to eat (I monitor them through the glass wall). W nurses to sleep and dozes on my lap.
1:00pm Once the boys are dressed (without the use of towels) and we are all back in the car we go over the rules for our sewing club. This is someone's home, standard house rules apply. Since there is only one of me and only one sewing machine, you'll need to take turns. If it is not your turn to sew, or your turn to observe, then you need to keep the younger three happy or no one will be able to sew.
2:30pm Sewing club went surprisingly well... just way too short to attempt with 5 kids and only 1 machine. We'll have to finish at home.
5:45pm Now 7 kids have done half the project for sewing club, but the kids are starting to make a huge mess of my supplies. I call it quits for the day. Club doesn't meet again for 2 weeks, so we have time to finish this later.
6:00pm While C makes dinner, K runs around the house, excitedly gathering books. Apparently she has been assigned a "climate" presentation with a classmate for her Transition class. She is getting ready to research the cultures, animals, weather, and vegetation of the Arctic.
D & C complain that they never get to do any "homework" assignments. I suggest they do a report on a state, given that they just learned the "50 Nifty United States" song and can now name all of them. They get super excited about the prospect. So I write a quick list of things I would want them to find out about the state of their choice.
After dinner C complains that D isn't letting her see the list for the state report, so I type it up and print out a few copies. Turns out J1 wants a copy too.
Suddenly dinner cleanup is abandoned as everyone gets super excited about their reports. K helps J1 find pictures to print out, and he scribbles out facts as he finds them.
C & D argue because D is hogging the computer as she types up her report.
When C finally gets a computer she needs help copying and pasting pictures she finds, but she is enjoying it.
J2 decides that he wants to do a report on birds instead of states. (But he really just wants to color some pictures of birds.) We print some pictures out for him. Then M wants some too. I accidentally print an extra page, so B gets it. I am really not sure when B figured out his colors, but suddenly he knows nearly all of them. I knew he knew which person in our family was assigned each color, but now he knows the color names too!
And now it's 8:30pm. Bedtime. And I have one kid searching for pictures on my computer, three kids working on state reports, three kids coloring pictures of birds, and one kid wandering around the house carrying the plunger because someone left the bathroom door open again.
It takes us another hour to convince everyone to put away their projects until tomorrow, and to get everyone in bed.
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