Today was not as good. Am I going to last a whole week?
Today Thumper was still really eager to go to school. She again dressed herself, folded her blankets, and bushed her teeth without prompting and was lining up outside of “school” before I was ready. Even Astroyboy requested to have my help in changing his clothes with him. Different from me nagging and chasing him down daily. I told him changing clothes was his work so he can do it at school but that’s the nice thing about having multiple kids in school. He wanted to get dressed like his sister.
Thumper wanted to write a book. She got her own paper and cut them into little rectangles. She then started writing and illustrating. That took her about an hour or so before she got distracted.
Astroyboy was bored so I directed him to the play dough and that kept him interested for an hour as well. He was bored again so I directed him to snack. Thumper had some as well. She then went back to drawing but since Astroyboy was still aimless I read 4-5 books to him. Thumper got distracted and listened in as well.
I was just looking at the clock that last hour waiting for 1pm to come. There’s nothing like bored kids and feeling like you have to entertain them. I ran upstairs at 12:30 again to wash the dishes in preparation for lunch and Astroyboy read himself in the chair until I came back down to ask them to clean up.
Cleanup is nagging time right now. Sigh
We had a LONG lunch from 1-3pm. The kids made their own Mac and Cheese with my help but then didn’t want to eat it as it didn’t taste like Trader Joe’s.
I just CRASHED after cleaning up. The kids went off to play while I took a little nap before we rushed to swim practice. Astroyboy helped me make tortilla for dinner (Practical Life!) and then it was Chinese DVDs to help them with retaining Mandarin.
Thoughts on Today:
I have to credit the 3 years of Montessori school that gets Thumper self motivated to want to do her own writing. I’m happy I read to Astroyboy. One thing I always feel guilty about was not doing nightly reading so it’s good we now get it in during school.
I love that homeschooling really means all day schooling as Astroyboy had a lot of fun making tortillas tonight. Here is definitely an area that fits with Montessori’s observations. Thumper, who could actually make the tortillas with just a little directing, does not really want to cook anymore. Whereas Astroboy, without prompting, often asks to help. This is why Practical Life is mostly in Primary classroom.
I will try:
The afternoon routine is still in a flux. We didn’t get our walk in after lunch and will probably never get it in. I was trying to figure out yesterday how to do 3 hour work period without circle time and clean up time. After asking around, I’ve decided we will try and do 3 hour uninterrupted and additional prep lunch time outside of that. We’ll work to that goal.
I’m also crashing daily after 3 hours and it drags our time out in the afternoon. I did some mental calculations yesterday to see how long children are at public/private school typically and arrived at 4.5-6 hours of instruction. That’s a lot! I was thinking maybe school 7 days a week as who says school is only for weekdays? But no matter how I count, I needed 5 hours of work time daily to be equivalent. I need to rethink it some more since we have longer school years to begin with and with two kids you get through curriculum faster anyway.
I need to set up a snack schedule because I want a variety of snack rather than arare everyday. Maybe after my breakfast schedule is set. The snacking upstairs thing I’m not sure about since it feels like they’re leaving school. But on the other hand I remembered that it’s free choice if Astroyboy really gets distracted after snack by the toys upstairs and wants to stay there. It really means I’m not making the school environment interesting for him.
