An Average Morning

I often get overwhelmed with the "perfection" of printed home school schedules. It's easy to start thinking that bumps only occur in my own house, and that bumps mean failure. I thought I'd jot down an outline of an average morning in my home and school as things occurred. I picked a day that I didn't have anything momentous scheduled- just a humdrum rainy February day with 7 children.

Here are my notes on half of a school day, a morning slightly off schedule and started late:

• 5:30 A.M. 2 year old and I get up to make Daddy coffee before Daddy has to leave on a work trip.
• 6:00 A.M. First breakfast and medicines. I only had about 5 hours sleep and need to get some paperwork (ugh) and some blogging (yeah) finished. I'm diametrically opposed to t.v. but I put in the Wizard of Oz for the 2 year old and 3 year old to watch anyway. I field questions from the Littles as I work to assuage my guilt.
• 7:30 A.M. I read a huge stack of picture books to 2 yo, 3 yo and a sleepy 8 yo. The 2 yo is disgruntled that one of the characters shares his name.
• 8:00 A.M. Time for second breakfast with the rest of the family. 13 yo makes cocoa and I cook oatmeal. I sneak M&M's, no one notices.
• 8:30 A.M. The three youngest boys make a massive tent in the living room. Teen daughters check in on Facebook. People start chores. I realize that 17 yo son is still asleep- he stayed up late working on a school project so I leave him be.
• 9:30 A.M. 15 yo starts baking bread. 13 yo and 10 yo start on Math-U-See assignments and 8 yo starts doing Math-It and then a math sheet I just made up. 3 yo is exhausted and parks his body on my lap to rest, it's going to be a low energy day for him. We rock and cuddle and he sips milk. I sip coffee. 2 yo joins us, my heart is full.
• 10:00 A.M. 8 yo is finished with math. I tell him if he will pickup all the spilt pennies from the dining room he can have them. He takes me up on it and decides to add it to his piggy bank and count all his change: $6.86 worth. Littles get their penny collections out and count too.
• 10:20 A.M. Littles get bored and put away their pennies then work together moving about 30 books into the tent. I can hear them chatting. 13 yo moves on to Aplologia science while 10 yo moves on to Ace Paces science and social studies. 15 yo is finishing up The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. 17 yo has risen from the dead and is finishing up his chores.
• 10:30 A.M. Littles get in a fight, 15 yo takes them to another room to build with blocks while she reads. I knead bread into loaves and start soup while 13 yo narrates to me about her science chapter. Next, 10 yo does globe work with me, while 8 yo draws mazes. After I finish globe work 8 yo starts on his reading and handwriting with me.
• 10:55 A.M. 10 yo annoys 13 yo, 13 yo annoys 10 yo. 17 yo pitches a story idea to me about time travel and 13 yo leaves to work on her blog. 2 yo comes out with his hair done in a fake mohawk. Snack time for Littles, I'm caught eating some M&M's but I'm unrepentant and I don't share.
• 11:20 A.M. 17 yo is working on a Hamlet assignment. I rock 2 yo who is crying because he fell down, while 15 yo serenades us with her guitar. 3 yo is picking up a jigsaw puzzle as he listens to the guitar. 10 yo does copy work from the Beatitudes. I simultaneously check the work of several children.
• 11:40 A.M. 8 yo finishes his work and takes off to play in tent with and 3 yo. 15 yo leaves to do Aplologia biology, 10 yo starts reading a book about horses by Marguerite Henry. I leave to finish lunch and sneak more M&M's with 2 yo asleep on my shoulder.
• 12:20 A.M. We break from schoolwork to enjoy lunch.

It turned out to be a morning full of bumps, a morning that barely matches my personal home school schedule- but it was a good morning nonetheless; full of conversation, fellowship, and thinking.

Linked to the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.