One Sixteenth

A Day in the Life

Blame Sarah, if you like. She asked me if I would do this. I present to you ... Tuesday at the Medcalf household! If these things bore you, feel free to skip this entry.

This was a full-up school day, with 3rd grade Connor and 1st grade Aidan. It was not a particularly fun day. On the other hand, there was only one meltdown and things went smoothly. Could have been better, could have been worse. It was fairly productive, but fairly boring.

You'll notice that although the little ones (2 and 3 years old) are there with me/us all the time, they are not getting much focused attention. This is the biggest problem with the way we're spending our days. This bothers me, and I'm trying to find ways to fix it. On the other hand, I don't list all the smaller moments of the boys playing together, which they do constantly inbetween the lessons/chores/everything else.

7:30 - I wake up, late. This means no yoga this morning, which is not a good thing. Crawl quietly, gently out of bed so as not to wake Lachlan. Success! I make coffee and muffins, then wake up Jeff and the older boys and hop into the shower.

8:10 - Jeff leaves for work. I remind boys to eat breakfast. I drink coffee, eat a muffin and check email/boards/blogs.

8:20 - Lachlan awakes and wants to nurse. It's a good thing I can do that at the computer, especially as there's a good discussion on the Well-Trained Mind board about reasons for homeschooling, and whether homeschooling is disruptive to society. I want to respond, and blog about it, but know that if I go with that urge, I'll still be blogging at 10 am while the boys are running wild. I resist the urge, and decide that I'll come back to the topic that evening.

8:40 - I tell the boys to get dressed, brush teeth and pick up the floor of their room. Eventually, they do it. Connor keeps leaving his room to come talk to me about what time we're going to go to the store to buy the Star Wars DVDs, which store would be best to go to, etc. He's excited.

9:00 - We're ready for school. I have Connor start with correcting his copywork from the night before. His handwriting is getting better and he's remembering the punctuation marks, but he's still using captial and lowercase letters at random. He *knows* when to use which, he just doesn't bother. Aidan and I work on his Latin vocabulary. He's having trouble committing them to memory, so we acting them out in dramatic, funny ways. Lachlan wanders in and out, asking for a muffin, water, etc.

9:30 - Aidan takes a break. Lachlan asks for his computer game. I give Connor his Latin quiz. He knows the vocabulary well, but he can't spell anything.

9:45 - Griffin awakes. I change both little ones, leaving Lachlan with a bare bottom so we can make an attempt at potty training. Connor asks for a break. I tell him to go read (he's reading Jungle Book now, his choice). He says "Great! Reading is a good break!" I feed the little ones, and then Aidan and I make them a train track on the floor. I throw laundry in the washer.

10:20 - Aidan practices his piano scales. Connor finishes reading and I call him in to do spelling. He asks if he can have a break. No. I do phonograms, phonogram review, and begin work on the Ayres spelling list with Connor.

10:30 - We move to the living room where Griffin can snuggle Mommy while we read. I read two chapters of Bulla's Pocahontas and the Strangers, then We're Going on a Bear Hunt (twice), and a Zoobook about dolphins. We have a discussion about tuna fishing, the plight of dolphins, and the free market. The boys get caramel to dip their apples in. Griffin whines. Lachlan jumps on him. They start to fight. Griffin has to take a time-out. Lachlan pees on the floor and I don't catch him in time. The two then run off, the best of friends.

I follow and run a bath for Lachlan, who is covered in caramel.

When we got to the part in Pocahontas where we were introduced to Captain John Smith, the boys made Lost in Space jokes.

11:20 - Phonograms and phongram review with Aidan. I ask both boys to count by 2s and 3s.

11:35 - I print out pages from SOTW 3 Activity Guide, while all children run around like banshees to burn off energy. Then Lachlan catches me at the computer and nurses.

11:50 - History. I start to read a section of SOTW 3. The little ones bring me peanut butter, jelly and uncooked hot dogs while I read, so I figure I'd better fix lunch while reading about Henry Hudson's search for the Northwest Passage. They eat various combinations of pb&j and hot dogs. (No veggies today, but I push the fruit. The little ones have already eaten apples this morning.) Aidan colors the coloring pages, and we do the map activity, then eat. The little ones have the option of coloring but they choose not to. They play Buzz Lightyear Pirate instead.

The older boys decide that Henry Hudson was a crazy old man.

12:20 - They scatter. Maybe I should eat lunch. A veggie burger and a salad. Yum. I am definitely feeling the lack of yoga already. I often read while I eat lunch, but I am out of book. (I've just finished O'Brian's Blue at the Mizzen.)

I eat, clean the kitchen (Lachlan helps me unload the dishwasher), change the laundry, surf for my local Kinkos phone number, the latest on Ivan and Memogate, and to verify the Star Wars release date. Urg. We had it wrong. It's next Tuesday. Not today. Oh, I'm going to have some mighty disappointed kids on my hands.

1:30 - Although the kids are playing happily, they play rough. I rummage through the medicine cabinet to find the arnica for Griffin. Connor and Aidan go off to do their typing lessons. They get sidetracked by the lure of jumping on the bed, but do manage a lesson each.

Griffin wants to play with a certain car, but we can't find it. He is very upset. It takes me awhile to calm him down. Suddenly my living room is a mess. I call Connor and Aidan back to do our CW lesson. Meanwhile, Lachlan misses the potty again. Thank goodness for carpet steamers.

2:20 - Aidan has finished his CW and is working on copywork. He went through his narration of the model and marked the nouns and the verbs. Meanwhile, I take sentences out of Connor's narration and have him change them from statements, to questions, to commands. He also does some simple diagramming of statements and questions. He's full of energy, so he does the work loudly, bouncing, standing on his head, etc. Jeff calls and Lachlan wants to nurse. Again. Most days we're out of the house by 2 pm, and that is always the goal. Not today.

By this time, I'm irritated and grumpy. My blood sugar level is low (I did eat protein, and whole grains, and vegetables at lunch. So why is my blood sugar level low like that?). My tolerance of the boys' jumping off and on the chairs while they work, making noises and tapping pencils, to say nothing of turning the pencils into rockets, and simulating battles, is gone.

2:30 - Susie calls me to ask why I'm still home. I give Connor a dictation assignment and call it a day. Now to re-dress the little one, change diapers, pick up the apartment and leave. I think it's too muggy to go to a playground, so now that I no longer have a need to run errands, we'll probably go to the Children's Museum. On the way home we'll run by the store for vanilla and milk; then we can make cookies. And apples. We're perpetually out of apples.

Connor finishes his dictation (very well done, except for the punctuation). We all quickly go through the poem we're working on, and the Kings of England. Aidan reads a Magic School Bus book out loud while we get ready to go.

2:40 - Connor gets angry with me, so I decide they all need to be tickled.

2:50 - Finally out the door, in better moods.

6:00 - Home again, home again, jiggety jig. Notice how no one took a nap earlier? I'm trying to wean Lachlan off his naps. He's falling asleep now, though, instead of waiting for 8 pm. The kids are (gasp!) watching TV. I have not started dinner. (Notice also how no housework is mentioned, beyond one load of laundry that is still in the dryer, one run on the kitchen, and the occasional picking up?)

Jeff comes home. We eat. He and the boys do math. The cookies did not get made (we made them on Wednesday). After the older boys' bedtime I have a margarita and sit down to blog, but I am too tired to think.

Posted by Steph at September 15, 2004 10:28 PM