Routines

Routines, routines, routines —– I don’t function without a routine.  I dearly wish I was the type of person who could fly by the seat of her pants.  I’ve flown by the seat of my pants before.  It wasn’t pretty.  I think I  lost my pants along with my mind.

I’ve also learned that I don’t do interruptions well.  No matter how I try to take them in stride, interruptions throw me off balance and I spend the rest of the day trying to refocus.  Pathetic, I know.

I am learning that not answering the phone is a big help.  I wish I could learn how to not answer the door, especially during school, without feeling like a low-life.  It occurred to me that if I were still teaching in the public school, I would not be expected to take personal phone calls or deal with salesmen or pest control men or whomever.  Indeed, I would be frowned upon for taking care of such business when I was supposed to be teaching.

Anyway, back to trying to keep my sanity — routines.  The children are growing and learning rapidly, so our routines continue to morph, most especially with the girls.

This is the basic school routine for Rachel, my 5-year-old. . . . . . . .

I like the spread sheet with the subject in place  and extra space for writing in changes or notes.  For example, I used to have 100 Easy Lessons written under “Reading w/ Mom.”   But Rachel recently finished 100 Easy Lessons, so we have moved on to using Victory Drill, First Steps and We Learn About God in the “Reading w/ Mom” time slot.

The advantage with this method has been that Rachel looks at her routine and knows that she does “Reading w/ Mom” first, whichever book we are in at that time.  Then, she moves on to Typing, Handwriting, On the Rug and Explode the Code — each of which she can do independently with minimal assistance from me.

During this independent time, I work with 3-year-old Prairie on reading and writing.  Math is next on Rachel’s routine.  I do math on the rug with both girls together, using Professor B techniques and manipulatives — buttons, magnetic marbles, rocks, raisins, or chocolate chips.

That last subject, the Read Aloud — I was struggling to get that done each day since I started to work more intensely with my eldest on writing.  So I’m going to try passing that one off on 7 -year-old Lincoln.  He and Rachel are best buds, so I think that will work fairly well.

The above schedule is merely what is covered during the time slotted for “school.”  We also squeeze in a fair amount of history, bible, memorization, grammar, and goofiness at mealtimes.

Whew!  I’m glad that is all worked out.  Time for me to swing by the pantry for a handful of Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips to fortify myself before I tweak the boys’ school schedule a bit.

Note to Sandra and Josh — you two have totally got me hooked on that dark chocolate bar from Trader Joe’s.  Even Sidney, who said he hated dark chocolate is hooked.  But once the bar was gone, we’ve had to go back to Ghiradelli chocolate chips, since we don’t have a Trader Joe’s locally.  Y’all may have to bring us a crate of those chocolate bars at Thanksgiving.