21/22 School Year Plans

 I clicked publish on my last blog post, detailing our 20/21 school year plans, then I turned my head to answer a kid's question and by the time I turned my head back, it was time to write the 21/22 post. That's seriously how it feels. Yesterday we started the 20/21 school year, this morning we started our summer break and now tomorrow we start the 21/22 year. Sam's last year of elementary school, Henry's first year of Kindergarten. Sure. Ok. Fine. It's fine. I'm fine.

I probably say this every single year, but I'm feeling especially excited to start this year! I've put a lot of work into planning and reworking things. I like to sit down at some point, not long after we start summer break, and look back over our year to find the weak spots. Then while I'm getting our curriculum and book lists in order, I can put my focus on those weak spots and try some new things. This year our big changes are in history, art and music, organization, and scheduling. I'm feeling confident about the changes I've made and I'm really looking forward to getting started!

So this year Sam will be in 5th grade, Kate in 3rd, Henry in Kindergarten, and 2 little tag along sisters. We are still homeschooling using the Charlotte Mason method, which means formal lessons start at age 6. For Sam and Kate, with summer birthdays, that meant 1st grade. Henry won't be 6 until later in the fall, so this year is Kindergarten for him, but we will do a little more structure than we have for Kindergarten in the past. I'm not following any specific curriculum for him, just piecing a few things together, starting off easy, and increasing the amount of work he does as the year goes on. 

For Sam and Kate we are still mostly using Ambleside Online, though this year I have deviated from their schedule and book list more than I ever have in the past. The biggest thing I did was remove the main history spine they use and replaced it with some of our own things. For Kate it's a lot of smaller books instead of 1 and for Sam I chose to switch to Joy Hakim's History of US series. My main goal in tweaking the history choices is to make sure they're hearing from a variety of voices. Including indigenous and Black history is important to me because indigenous and Black history is American history. Sometimes history is uncomfortable to read. Often it's ugly. I don't want to whitewash over that. 

I've also chosen our own folk songs, hymns, artists, and composers. Ambleside has some great schedules for these subjects, and they aren't always only white men, but there were some artists that I really wanted us to cover this year and I just wanted some more control over the music, hoping the kids will connect a little more than they have in the past.

I'm organizing our school things a little differently this year too. I got plastic milk crates for their binders, math books, etc. We're going to keep those in the dining room, planning on doing most of our work in there this year. Julia is not content to play somewhere where she can't see me and/or the big kids. In the dining room she (and Anna if she wants, though she's better at independent play) can color or play with play doh or puzzles while I'm doing Kindergarten work with Henry or reading with Kate. Sam largely works independently now, but he has lots of quiet places to go to after going over things with me at the table. I also got us a big dry erase/bulletin board to hang in the dining room during school time. I thought it would be nice to be able to keep our art study displayed there all week, instead of only bringing it out while we're studying it. I will also keep our weekly schedule here, and write the date, plus our composer and artist with their dates of birth. I got us the coolest lazy susan caddy to make supplies like pencils and markers easy to access at the table. It makes my school supply loving little heart so very happy.

It's so cute and colorful!

The crates are here for now and I hate it. When we put the high chair away soon though, they'll have a more tucked away corner to live in.

This marketplace purchase last year is still amazing. All of our books are here.

In the cabinet of the big shelf I have all of our math manipulatives and all of the toddler/preschool fine motor games and activities that I've put together over the years. 

I've also solidified our schedules a little bit. I kept a lot of flexibility in some of our subjects we only do weekly before, and that was fine, but it made it too easy to skip things. Making a schedule doesn't mean I can't still be flexible, but I usually do better with a firmer plan. I also made daily and weekly schedules in page protectors inside Sam and Kate's binders, so they can check things off themselves as they go. I tried this for Sam last year, but put it up in his room at his desk. I really thought he'd utilize that quiet space every day, but he didn't do even 1 minute of school work up there last year, so the schedule went unused. This year it's right inside their binders, so it will be visible for them no matter where they do their work. I've kept our weekly reading schedules the same. Not going to fix what isn't broken. I sit down on Sundays and assign a day to each reading, based on what our week looks like.

This will go on our big bulletin board.

These are in my binder alongside the attendance and book logs we need to keep to comply with the PA homeschooling laws.

Kate's schedule in her binder

Sam's schedule in his binder

Last year, after our Bible, poetry readings, and memory work during breakfast, we split up to get dressed and do chores, then met up for Swedish Drill (I've talked a little about drill before, but it's basically structured Simon Says, gross motor skills to stretch their bodies and get the wiggles out, plus good listening practice). We followed drill with some folk tale or ancient history study all together. I really loved starting our day together like that last year, so I made some more intentional plans for group reading this year. I have 2 plans from Amber over at the Heritage Mom Blog, Melanated Tales we started and loved last year, so we'll finish that up this year. The little kids especially really loved the African folk tales. I also have Amazing Africa and we'll use that for a deep dive into the continent in the 2nd half of our year. We'll also use this time to read folk tales from other cultures and biographies of interesting people from history. I'll utilize the library heavily for this, but I have some already planned and ready to go.

We'll also continue to do nature study together (I cannot even fully express my love from Exploring Nature with Children, even 3 years in now). Sam and Kate will also be doing their own nature study using a guide from Blossom and Root to plant their own garden plot. I had planned to do this with Sam last year, but it just didn't happen. I purchased the curriculum as a pdf and actually had it printed by The Homeschool Printing Company this year and I think that will make me much more likely to actually use it.

The big 2 kids have their own geography to do, their own chapters to read, their own maps to fill, but we also do some geography all together. I love this beautiful Maps book we have. It has been out every day the past week that we've been watching the Olympics, learning the flags and locations of the countries we see competing. 

We'll continue our dabbling in French together. We've mostly just been learning words and short phrases here and there, reading a few French picture books. We'll continue with that and hopefully add in a little more later in the year.

We will also continue experimenting with handicrafts together. Last year finger knitting was a huge hit. I'd like us to do more watercolors and pastels this year. Sam has also been very into whittling and wants to try some bigger projects this year.

For 5th grade this year, Sam will be studying history from the end of the 18th century, up to the start of World War I. That's a wide span of history, but this won't be his first time through so we don't need to hit absolutely everything that happened. Hoping to give him a balanced, diverse picture of the main points. He will continue mapping and entering things into his book of centuries. Last year he ended up still using our big roll out history timeline, but this year I think he's ready to move onto his own book of centuries. All of his history readings, like his readings for all of his other subjects, will be narrated either orally or on paper

For Language Arts he has literature to read and narrate, copywork, cursive practice, journal writing, grammar, studied dictation, plus he will be doing 2 written narrations per week at the beginning of the year, hopefully working up to 3 per week.

For science, Sam will continue studying Physics and Engineering, moving into human anatomy by the end of the year. He started this curriculum from Blossom and Root last year, but we went through it slowly on purpose to make it last 2 years. He's really been enjoying this and I'm glad I embraced his personal learning style and preferences last year to deviate from Ambleside's science. This is such a good fit for him.

We are continuing with Horizons for Math, typing.com for typing (he really loved this last year!), and Getting Started With Latin. He only dipped a baby toe into Latin last year and we're feeling ready to get more into it this year. He also has drawing practice, piano practice, and weekly recitation. His crate is much more full that Kate's or Henry's. Our one binder system has worked great up until now, but last year his binder just about exploded, so this year he has a 5 subject notebook for written narrations. His binder will still have space for copywork, blank maps, math drill sheets, and blank paper for recording his science experiments and labs. Journaling is new for us this year. Everybody is excited about it so far because I let them get any notebook they wanted for it. Yes, even characters. If Mario and Luigi on the cover will get Sam excited about journal writing, I am here. for. it.

For 3rd grade, Kate is focusing on the 15th and 16th century. We're taking a new approach and using several different shorter books with pictures. I think this is going to be a good fit for Kate and it's going to help us read a wider variety of perspectives from this time. She will continue narrating orally only, mapping, and recording events on our big roll out timeline.

Kate's Language Arts will be reading and narrating literature, copywork, cursive work, and journaling. Kate is reading really well these days, so a big goal for her this year will be to start doing a few readings on her own. 

For science, in addition to our group nature study and her garden plot with Sam, Kate is studying animals and habitats. She'll also be using Drop of Water to do some fun kitchen experiments and learn some basic water science. She's excited about this because she remembers when Sam did the experiments.

Kate will also be using Horizons for math, we've been so happy with it so far. She will have weekly recitation, piano practice, and drawing practice as well. Her binder has space for copywork, blank maps, math drill sheets, and blank paper for making any extra notes or drawings for drawn narrations or geography lessons.

My Kindergarten plan for Henry is pretty simple. Phonics, math, some basic copywork, lots of nature study, tons of reading. He already knows how to write all of the letters and knows several of their sounds, so we are on our way to more regular copywork and early stages of reading. We'll start the year playing games to solidify all of the letter sounds before moving on to blends and starting to fill his word notebook and read some simple readers. I used Discover Reading with Kate and loved it so much. I am very excited to use it again with Henry. He's very excited too which is the most important thing for sure! I am going to focus on multicultural picture books for him this year, loosely using Beautiful Feet's Read Around the World program and our library. For the first half of the year we'll just read, but after Christmas I'm going to have him try orally narrating a couple times a week since he'll be 6. I'm excited because Kindergarten is exciting, but also because so far the hardest part of homeschooling has always been the kids who aren't actually doing school work. Henry starting school this year is one less non school kid to keep track of during school hours and that's no small milestone in this house!

So there we go! As always, I expect this to change and evolve quite a bit as the year goes on, but I feel confident and ready to start our year with these plans as they are. We are hoping to get some more field trips in, as safe as we can, this year. We've really missed them the last year and a half. We're getting back into extra curricular activities this year too. We are having a nice summer, but the thought of structure and planned activities and routines is so attractive to me right now! Can't wait to dive in to what will surely be another wonderful school year!

2020/2021 School Plans!

 August is my New Years. I've said it before here. I feel much more of a 'fresh start' feeling in August than I ever do on January 1st. This year, in this strange, pandemic induced, groundhog day sort of limbo we're in, August is feeling like even more of a fresh start than normal. Our final term of school last year, while nowhere near as disrupted as non-homeschoolers, was kind of an anxious mess and we hurriedly finished school 2 weeks earlier than originally planned with a gigantic sigh of relief. I threw myself into making the summer count, despite knowing it wouldn't look anything like the summers we're used to. We did it up big. Movies every afternoon, so many nights up past bedtime, camping both in the yard and at an actual campsite, loooots of marshmallows, ice cream sundaes, bubbles, hours in the pool, baking, obstacle courses in the yard, hiking. By the time we made it to August, I was feeling pretty tired and desperate for a routine, and I don't think I was alone. 

Falling back into our school routine always feels good after a summer of no (or at least less) routine. This year though, it feels like taking a stand and establishing ourselves. Okay Covid World. Let's do this. This is what our days will look like this fall and winter. We are ready. Let's do this. We know our local, not overly populated hiking trails. We know how to work the library's curbside system. We've got our masks when/if we need to go out in public. Let's go.

On top of those feelings, I'm feeling so excited for this school year because I'm changing up aspects of our curriculum. Some things I have changed or added to in order to make sure the history my kids are getting is less whitewashed and Euro-centric. I am so grateful for the homeschool bloggers, FB groups, and friends out there also on this journey that have helped me find such awesome books to enrich our schooling and bring more truth into everything we're learning. 

I also reminded myself that Ms. Charlotte Mason herself said, "Children are born persons." Not, "Children are born ready to slot into the curriculum you choose and stay there fitting happily for the rest of their school career, happily followed by each of their siblings in the same exact way." First of all, that's nowhere near as snappy and second of all, how silly is that? Of course kids are going to change and be different from one another. So, remembering that my children (namely Sam in this case) were born persons, I decided to veer off from our usual science plans and found something that looks more interesting to him while still fitting in with our family's philosophy on education.

Now, without further ado, here's our round up of school plans for this year! For reference: Sam just turned 9 and is in 4th grade, Kate is just about to turn 7 and is in 2nd grade, Henry is 4 and considered 'pre-k', Anna is almost 3 and considered 'preschool', and Julia is 9 months old. Only Sam and Kate are formally schooling this year. In this post I talk about what we do for preschool thru Kindergarten.

4th Grade

We are still largely using Ambleside Online as our main curriculum. I am substituting some free reads and have incorporated some different history spines into our schedule to make sure we are getting a full picture. Some of these history books I will later begin in 1st grade, so to catch Sam and Kate up to the sections I've marked off for 2nd and 4th, we are reading the parts marked for 1st in the morning before splitting up to individual tasks. One of these books is Turtle Island: The Story of North America's First People by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger, another is African Beginnings by James Haskins and Kathleen Benson. African Beginnings is the first book in a series that we will use coordinating with that grade's history period, Turtle Island is a longer book and I will use different portions for different years. We are also flipping through Joy Hakim's The History of US series as we do our other history readings. It's important to me that we read as much of an unbiased history as we can, but also be able to point out and call out biases when we do come across them. As part of his history instruction this year, Sam will begin keeping a Book of Centuries, marking well known people and events under the appropriate time.

We are still using copywork for handwriting practice and learning sentence structure and basic grammar. I found copywork books on Amazon this year that Sam and Kate have so far been enjoying. When those run out I'll go back to writing out sentences or short passages from other school books or poetry for them to copy. Sam already knows cursive, but prints his copywork. I have cursive practice books that he will start using later in the year to keep those skills sharp. I don't like to introduce everything in the very beginning of the year. We hold off on some things until Christmas or after. 

New for Sam this year is more formal grammar instruction. We are using grammar cards from The Good and the Beautiful and will also start playing Mad Libs later this year to work on those skills.

Horizons is still our math curriculum of choice. We are doing it a year behind so that we match up with when Horizons stops their math levels and I want to start Teaching Textbooks for higher math. However, we've been going through lessons fairly quickly, so we may skip ahead a little and start a split year. Half the year a year back, half the year on 'grade level'. We'll see how that goes.

Sam is starting some very basic Latin this year. He is pretty excited about this since he is so interested in science and animals. He has been telling me all of the Latin words he already knows so I can't wait to see how he does with this program. Getting Started With Latin comes highly recommended by other homeschool families.

For Geography, in addition to reading through the scheduled lessons in Elementary Geography and Charlotte Mason's Geography and mapping his other readings, Sam will be starting map drills this year. When I ordered The Good and the Beautiful's grammar cards, they came with a set of geography cards as well so we will use those as well as geography games from Seterra.

We'll continue with our recitation rotation of a Psalm, a passage from the Old Testament, a passage from the New Testament, and a poem to work on public speaking skills, memorization, and reading fluency. We'll also be adding in studied dictation this year. I've typed out some short-ish passages, one per week. Sam will read each passage carefully throughout the week and then will copy it down as I read it every Friday. We'll use this to make up spelling lists and to further work on grammar. 

For science and nature study this year, I've pre-ordered the 4th grade science and nature study from Blossom and Root. We haven't received the actual curriculum yet, but have purchased the books to go with it (it's a Charlotte Mason based program, so of course there's a good stack of books!) and Sam has been poring over them in his free time. He'll be studying engineering and anatomy and his nature study will be yearlong care of his own garden plot. We can't wait to get the curriculum and dive into that!

He is going to continue working through Art for Kids: Drawing and he has asked for a simple Dover drawing book for fun/extra practice.

The biggest hit for Sam after finishing our first week of school seems to be typing. He's been showing some interest in the computer after using so much Zoom all spring and summer, so I figured now was a good time for him to learn how to use it. We're just using the free program on typing.com (which I can't link to because the site is undergoing maintenance until Sunday. I'll come back to edit and link on Sunday if I remember!) It's simple and so far so good!

2nd Grade

Kate is also using mostly Ambleside Online with the same history modifications, just tailored to the period of time she's in right now. I'm also using Exploration and Conquest by Betsy Maestro because it presents a more balanced view of white people coming to North America than the books already scheduled. She is going to continue with her personal life timeline to work on better grasp of the passage of time, but midway through the year she will start marking historic events and notable people on our roll out timeline already begun by Sam.

Kate is capable of reading well, but struggles with the confidence to make her a very fluent reader. So we're using phonics cards from The Good and the Beautiful and a movable alphabet (there are some beautiful wooden ones on Etsy, but due to financial restraints, we have a foam and magnetic version found on Amazon). We also use Banagrams tiles for word building. I want to spend the beginning of the year reviewing all of the rules she already knows and then work on confidence reading simple picture books and chapter books together. She read Psalm 23 in its entirety just this morning for her weekly recitation and needed very little help. There's a fluent reader inside her, we just need to coax it out this year.

She will also be doing a copywork book I found and then copying things I've written out for her once the book is completed. Handwriting Without Tears sells great primary lined paper for handwriting practice and I like their workbooks too for extra practice. Kate will be using their beginner cursive book later on this year.

Kate's geography will also be from Elementary Geography, Charlotte Mason's Geography, and mapping her readings. We will also work on filling in a few blank maps to help her learn all of the continents, oceans, and states.

She is going to use a Dover drawing book for drawing practice, we just haven't picked which one yet!

Last year Kate memorized a poem each term for recitation, but as her reading improves, she'll move into the same recitation rotation as Sam (with her own passages) reading weekly out loud from her recitation folder.

All Together

We will be continuing our routine of Bible reading, devotions, prayers, poetry, and memory work all together over breakfast as well as our art and music study over lunch. For music study we will loosely follow Ambleside's scheduled hymn, folk song, and composer studies, but will substitute sometimes to make sure we're presenting a diverse field, same for our art study. Right now they look at our current art study on my computer while listening to the music. I read them artist and musician bios, but keep it brief. The main point right now is appreciation. Sam and Kate are also going to make their way through Alfred's beginner piano book for kids. We started it last year, but then abandoned it when end of pregnancy and then baby and then pandemic (yikes) just got to be way too much.

We have been slowly working through Cherrydale Press' French together. It's simple and very basic, conversational French. The have suggestions for more advanced instruction later on, but for now this works. We will also listen to French songs for children on YouTube.

Sam does have his own specific nature study this year, but he will still participate in our family nature study. We follow Exploring Nature with Children which has a different theme for every week of the year. We read the blurb in the main book, borrow books from the library that are on theme, and bring our focus to the theme while we're playing outside or hiking that week, marking notable finds in our nature journals.

Some handicrafts we are planning on doing together this year are continuing with Paper Sloyd, sewing practice, watercolor, pastels, soap carving, and finger knitting.

This year I purchased an African Folktales curriculum from Heritage Mom Blog and all of the beautiful books on the booklist she includes. We are reading through those together in the mornings.

We still begin our days with Swedish Drill (basically structured Simon Says). I've thought about moving it to after school, but it just works so well to get us started.

I have played around a little bit with how I schedule things this year. Sam will be more responsible for keeping track of his own tasks. I'm keeping his weekly task sheet, as well as the daily and weekly task sheets I keep for both of them in page protectors so I can just mark things off with a dry erase marker and then start fresh each week. I still keep the scheduled readings in my binder along with our attendance sheets and book logs.

This year I tried to organize and freshen up our collection of quiet baby/toddler/preschooler activities to try and give us a smoother year. I want to very strongly emphasize that I do not do any of these activities with my little guys. I still very firmly believe in staying pretty hands off until they're 6. But these are some fun activities that make them feel like they're part of our morning. I've made most of them with scraps from the recycling bin and my ideas are 100% from Pinterest. We're only a week in, but so far everything I've pulled out has been well received and helpful in buying me at least a little bit of time.

And where do I keep all of this? I change that up every year it feels like, but this year feels like the most streamlined our school things have ever been! I found this bookshelf/cabinet combo on FB Marketplace last weekend and it fits all of our stuff, plus looks pretty! I have been loving not only having everything in just one spot, but also having everything easily accessible by the kids so I don't always have to be the one fetching everything (but the 2 littlest girls can't quite open the heavy magnet cabinet doors, which is also a win!)

I think that's about it! Our first week has gone really well and I am so excited to learn alongside these kids this year. 

Our Daily Routine at the end of 2018

Last fall I wrote a post detailing what our daily routine looked like at that time and already, just one year later, when I look back at that post that particular rhythm of days seems foreign. So here is this year's installment which, I'm sure, in the fall of 2019 I will look back on and marvel how much just one year can change things!

The easiest way to make me feel frazzled and overwhelmed doing this mom thing is for us to go way off of our routine for a while. I feel lost, un-anchored, just sort of drifting along and fuzzy. I know this isn't true for everybody, some people thrive on a more spur of the moment, every day is a different adventure, kind of life. And that's great! But that's definitely not me. Right now we're coming off of several weeks of disrupted routine. Between trips and illnesses and some snow, our usual routine was nowhere to be found. Being in our normal routine this week has felt like slipping into a hot bubble bath after a really, really long day. So cozy and so comfortable. I feel like the whole week has just been one gigantic sigh of relief. I feel calmer, happier, and even the kids' behavior is markedly better. With this fresh gratitude and appreciation for our routine, now seems like the perfect time to write this post. The rhythm of our days brings me such joy and that's what is important, right? Whether you thrive on a structured day or not, the end goal for all of us should be days that bring us joy. Here's what joy looks like for me.

6:30- On a great day, when all the stars have aligned, Anna has slept through the night or only woke briefly once, nobody else has needed me in the night, and anxiety over one thing or another hasn't kept me awake at any point, I will wake up at 6:30 and have some quiet alone time downstairs. Given those specifications, I imagine nobody reading this will be surprised when I say that this doesn't happen often. When it does it is glorious and changes my whole entire day for the better. Someday, someday I will be able to make this happen more regularly. 

Sigh. It's so peaceful when it happens. Tea, devotions, journaling, reading.

7:00- We still have our 'the day starts at 7' rule, meaning anybody awake before 7 can play or read quietly in their beds until they see the 7 on the clock, at which point they can come out to start the day. More and more lately, the only one awake prior to 7 and coming out at 7 is Kate. The boys and Anna tend to sleep later (or Sam will get up at 7 and opt to stay in bed reading until 7:30). If I haven't been up since 6:30 I'll try to snag a little quiet reading time in my bed for a few minutes before getting up and getting myself ready. Alternatively, I just sleep til 7:30, read for 5 minutes (I just like to start my day by reading a page or two at least, it just sets a good tone) and then get ready. I've learned this year that I am my most productive self if I immediately wash my face, brush my teeth, make my bed, fix my hair, and get dressed in the morning. I used to wait until after breakfast, but now as soon as my feet hit the floor I do this routine. Even on mornings where I've had less than 5 hours of sleep and I feel horrible, washing my face and getting my bed made performs some magic on me and I feel like I can at least shuffle through the day. 

While I'm doing this, kids are slowly waking up and going to play. Sometimes if Anna wakes up and I'm not quite ready yet, one or two of the bigger kids will go in her room and sit and talk to her. I love it. It's the sweetest thing and so helpful! Once I'm ready for the day, I run downstairs and put away the dishes on the drying rack from dinner the previous night, open up the curtains (if Kate hasn't already, that's a morning job she does really like to do since she's usually the first kid up), and wash any dishes James left behind (usually just the coffee pot and the knife he used for his bagel). Then I go up to nurse Anna in her room before bringing her down to play with the big kids who are, by now, playing in the playroom. I get breakfast made while they play and wander in and out of the kitchen to tell me about something from a dream they had, or a fact they'd just read (Sam), or ask what we had to do that day. 

8:30/9ish- Breakfast on the table and, on school days, we read our Bible reading, our daily devotional, some poetry, and pray and practice a memory verse together. I'm usually multitasking and making my breakfast while we do this reading and sit down to eat after they've all finished. Sam and Kate go upstairs to do their morning chores (get dressed, pjs on their dresser or the hamper depending upon whether or not they'd worn them twice yet, make their beds, brush their teeth, and Sam cleans the upstairs bathroom sink). Henry goes to play in the playroom and Anna usually sits on my lap and shares my breakfast and my tea. I read a little while I eat and then wash the dishes and get Henry and Anna dressed. If Anna has been especially.... creative... with her breakfast, she gets a sink bath. (Bananas = hair gel to this girl)

9:30/10ish- The kids pick up the playroom a little. Mostly they just need to be sure the desk is clear and there's a little free space on the floor. They bring in two chairs from the dining room that we need and I get our pile of books for that day. We aim to start by 10, but if they're playing really nicely and/or I'm really into whatever I'm reading that morning, sometimes we start a little later.

10ish- This is our school 'block' of time. I make an effort to be home for a morning school block of time at least 3x a week, but ideally 4. We start with something called Swedish Drill which is basically a more structured Simon Says. We have started school days with gross motor activities for a few years now. It's a really great way to start a school day with at least halfway decent attitudes. Then, now that Kate is doing little bits of Kindergarten work, I start trading off who I work with. First I'll do some letter games with Kate (usually while nursing Anna) while Sam independently works on his copywork. Then I do a reading and narration with Sam while Kate does something in her binder (no real structure for her there, she might write letters she knows, or draw a picture, or play a matching game with clothespins, and sometimes she just goes to play dolls). Then Sam and I go over his math lesson and he works independently on that and does a page in his cursive workbook while I read a few books to Henry and Kate. Then another reading and narration with Sam while everybody else plays or listens in. By then we're pretty much finished. Anything else we save for later in the day. We stack the schoolbooks on my desk and everybody scatters to play.

11:30ish- Once we're finished school we might have a snack, or run a quick errand (I now try to schedule all of our errands on one, non-school day, but sometimes we might need to run out after school for just one small thing). If the weather is nice we'll go outside, or just the big kids will go outside and I'll stay in with the littles. This is my time to workout and do my weekly chore for that day and sometime in there I nurse Anna. If I'm lucky I'll snag a quick shower after my workout.

12:30- Lunch. During lunch I read something else for school, or we work on French words, or they do their artist or composer study. Once they're finished eating they go clean up the toys and race me while I wash lunch dishes and clean up the school books. Racing me makes them do a better job. Some days it's like pulling teeth to get them to pick up any toys at all, but some days it happens quickly and smoothly.

1:30/2ish- The big kids are settled in the playroom with the door closed and I take Anna up for a nap. When she's down I make my lunch and sit down to eat while I read or watch a show (though tv is pretty rare for me lately). The big kids come out of the playroom to ask me questions or for help fixing something/breaking up a fight, or to tell me about a bird they saw at the feeder approximately 40000 times so 'quiet time' isn't as quiet for me as it once was, but it's a good chance to recharge.

3- If we have any other (quiet) work for school, we'll do it now. Painting or drawing in their nature journals, or sewing or paper folding are good things to do now while Anna is asleep. In nice weather the big kids will go outside (and Henry is now allowed to go too, as long as he stays on the swing set where I can see him). I read a little more, or start a little dinner prep, or fold laundry, or I go outside with them. Once or twice a week I'll put on a movie for them around now.

4- I wake Anna up from her nap and nurse her. This is when we get the keyboard out for Sam to watch a piano lesson or just to practice, but not everyday. It's pretty random and sporadic actually. I'm hoping to structure this a little more in the new year. Everybody is playing now and I'm starting to prep for the evening. Dinner prep, finishing the weekly cleaning chores, tidying up any mess I made during quiet time, prep for the next day or week of school, catching up on emails (or, at this time of year, doing some online Christmas shopping), working on a menu or grocery list, finishing bullet journal spreads or filling in our schedules if it's the end of the month, working on our budget or paying bills, just busy work. Or Anna wakes up clingy, nurses forever, and then we snuggle a bit.

4:45- Around now I really like to have a snack and a cup of tea before starting dinner. A moment of zen because the rest of the day is going to be nonstop and a little chaotic just because once 5 o'clock hits something happens and kids get crazy.

5:00- I start dinner. Most days I put a Spotify playlist on the tv and the kids are running laps around the house and having a dance party while I cook. Sometimes I play a podcast for myself, sometimes I read while I'm cooking if I'm in the middle of something super good. If I haven't folded that day's laundry yet, I often try to do it at some point while dinner is cooking. The kitchen is the best place to fold laundry lately because Anna can't reach up onto the counter to "help". I do one load of our clothes every night, so it doesn't take long at all to fold it. If I have a timer going for something that's part of dinner, I race the timer while I fold. That makes me sound super weird probably.

Sometimes when they're not running around they sit like this in the hallway next to the kitchen. 

5:45/6- We eat. Sometimes James is home, sometimes he's not. I used to try to plan dinnertime around when he would be home, but it seems to work better to just have it ready by 6 and then we either eat with him or without him. Eating later just makes bedtime a mess. 

6:15/6:30- If James is home he cleans up dinner (because he's awesome) and packs his lunch and breakfast for the next day. We keep the kids in the playroom so we can have a little time to talk to one another without constant interruption (though we still end up being interrupted a whole lot, but such is life right now). If the laundry still isn't folded I fold while we talk and he cleans up. The house is loud at this time of day. The kids are all the way wound up and I always have music on. I try to play more relaxing classical music from dinnertime on. Sometimes it works, but a lot of times it doesn't. It helps me feel calmer though, so, there's that.

6:50- Here we go. It's bedtime. The kids have had several warnings (10 minutes, 5 minutes, 2 minutes) to which they always cheerfully reply, "Okay!", but it's almost never actually okay and, "It's time to clean up and get ready for bed!" is usually met with, "Awwwww! No! Not now! We haven't had enough time to play!" (You all have just read the description of their day. Tell me they don't have enough time to play *eye roll*) Just like after lunch, sometimes clean up happens easily and quickly, sometimes it's a nightmare. Sometimes Sam and Kate are trucking along, doing great, and then Henry comes along and dumps the whole Duplo bin because he, "just needed that one piece for a minute!" Although lately Henry is starting to be a little more helpful during clean up time, a lot of evenings I take him upstairs along with Anna and he looks at books in her room while she's in her crib with books and I'm putting away the laundry.

7:15/7:30- The playroom is hopefully clean by now (we are really working hard at cleaning things up when we're finished with them, before getting new things out and they don't have many toys in the playroom to begin with so, as long as there isn't a whole lot of whining and/or goofing off, they are capable of cleaning up super quickly). Sam and Kate get their pjs on and brush their teeth and either James or I do Henry and Anna. I love the nights when James is home to help out with dinner clean up and bedtime, but it's not a given so I've gotten pretty efficient doing it all myself. If it's a bath night for the little two, I give them a bath while the big kids are finishing up downstairs. On shower nights I help Kate after she's finished in the playroom and then Sam showers after her (just needs help with his hair) or I do their showers on separate nights for my sanity's sake. The days of bathing everybody on the same night are past for now. It was too chaotic. It works better to spread them out. 

7:40ish- Ideally everybody is ready for bed by now and they've put their dirty clothes in the basket I've left in the hallway. I run downstairs and throw that in the washer and then go back up and read a few books to them in Anna's room. If James is home he takes her so she doesn't yell and climb all over everybody, or try to snatch the book out of my hand. Anna is not her best self at this time of day.

8- In bed. Henry nurses for a couple minutes (though he and I are talking about not doing this anymore after Christmas). Sam and Kate may have their reading lights on as long as they are quiet and don't stay up too late. We don't have an official "lights out" time for them, but we may need to implement one soon because Sam is starting to stay up pretty late reading some nights. After a couple minutes, I have laid Henry down and I go get Anna. If James is working super late, she's been in her crib this whole time (if she's fussy Sam will sit in there with her because she isn't always okay with being alone, and then he goes to bed once I come in). If James is home he and Anna are snuggling downstairs or in our bed. I nurse and rock her and she's usually down by 8:30.

8:30/8:45- I go downstairs to switch the laundry to the dryer and then I either sit on the couch with James, reading while he watches tv, or I just go upstairs to read in bed (and James usually follows) because I'm totally beat and want to be able to pass out right away after a chapter or two. Our evenings are not very exciting right now. James works very hard and my days (and nights) with the kids are very full. The other night we were both in bed with the lights off, half asleep already, by 9. If we're a little less sleepy we'll watch something together or play a game (I can kick James' butt in Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit, but still he challenges me to a game)

So that's our day! Or our day 3-4 days a week anyway. I've been trying to be very intentional this year to make any out of the house activities on a non-school day and lump errands in then too. If we go on a field trip or something, we'll do a little school work in the afternoon so we're doing school 4 times a week. On Thursdays, we leave at 3:30 for ballet so that shortens quiet time, but since Kate has an early class this year we're home in time to not have to rush to get dinner on the table. 3 times a month Sam and James leave after dinner on Thursdays for Cub Scouts (and if James can't get home in time, I take all 4 to Scouts, but since that ends at 8, we try to avoid that). While they're there I put the other 3 to bed and Sam creeps into their room quietly when he gets home. 

I'm really, really happy with the flow of our days lately. And by lately, I mean the past several months. It feels like we've found our groove. Not that there was anything wrong with our routines in the past, we've always been a very routine oriented family, but in the past I've felt a struggle to fit everything in and things would often slide. Usually working out, sometimes the weekly cleaning chores, often laundry. This current routine doesn't feel forced or crammed at all, but mostly things are getting done when they're supposed to. It feels good to wake up in the morning and already be able to see at least the bare bones of what the day will hold and to know that at the end of the day chores and tasks will be accomplished without ever having felt rushed. Most of the time anyway! Of course there are days where bedtime rolls around and it feels like a tornado came sweeping in while I was eating breakfast and, somehow, spit me out at 7:30 in the evening, the whole day a blur. But this that I've written up is what we strive for and what we achieve most days. I'm so grateful for our slow, quiet days. So grateful for how hard James works so that I can stay home. So grateful for our homeschooling curriculum which brings so much beauty through music, art, and literature to our days. And so, so grateful for this life I have and these people I get to do it with day in and day out.