Gloria in Excelsis Deo: {SQT} Changing Up the Schedule (Again)

1. Wildlife Encounters

More bald-faced hornets in our garage, two of them killed

Two more cockroach encounters IN BEDROOMS UPSTAIRS.

Then one morning, I became understandably trapped in the laundry room when I spotted what appeared to look exactly like a brown recluse spider but was, regardless, (1) gigantic, (2) brown, (3) leggy, and (4) watching me. He was on my books (ON MY BOOKS) on the little bookshelf right at the laundry room door, so (obviously) I could not get past him. I tried twice to whack him with a paper, but he was strong enough to withstand me. I told Joseph to go wake up Daddy and ask for help, so Joseph went and delivered this message in a stage whisper to his dead-asleep dad.

"Mama needs help. There is a spider and she is trapped in the laundry room. It is too big for a tissue."

Chris came to the rescue, thinking I was silly until he beheld the beast with his own eyes, and he killed it for me, and then went researching spiders and said it looked just like a brown recluse, even though "there are no established colonies" of them in North Carolina.

The only good wildlife encounter was a lesson I gave teaching how to draw caterpillars to my three- and five-year-olds. It was probably the highlight of their school week!

2. Children's Theater

We are scheduled to see only two children's plays this year, as the biggest children's theater in the city has been showing plays increasingly offensive (to me) with loud, rockin' music and liberal messaging. So, I've switched my patronage to a wonderful, traditional community theater in a small town, where we went this Monday to see "One Hundred Dresses."

Old-fashioned dresses adorning the windows

I left my sixth-grader at home doing his rigorous school work, then sent three of my children in to watch the play, and took my three- and one-year-olds to a nearby caboose and children's library. A grand time was had by all.

It was reported that our little band of homeschoolers exhibited excellent behavior, especially in comparison to the rest of the school group patrons.

3. Improved Workstation

The experiment of putting a little table in the laundry room for John to work alone has helped him for a few weeks so, as intended, we purchased him a real desk. John built it himself, which is just such a cool thing to witness in an independent 11-year-old.

He's got his wobble stool, a white noise machine, a bright desk lamp and the natural light from the window, his books and flash cards, his own white board, and a closing door.

He loves it!

4. Tennis Tuesdays

The children are really enjoying tennis and Mary is doing special work to move up soon into the next level of class (with her older brother).

Meanwhile, I take the littlest guys to the playground, where David (14 months) discovered the slides this week.

He just kept climbing and sliding down, climbing and sliding down!

And lest we need any more evidence, here is our sixth baby at 14 months, just as much of a brave climber as all the rest.

Climbing all by himself

The past two weeks is when he has entered the phase of climbing up on the kitchen table, standing up and dancing, and then I pull him down and scold him (or put him in his high chair in 'time out'), only to have him dash to the other side of the table and repeat . . . like 15 times in a row.

It is quite tedious but I remind myself to be grateful to have a physically healthy, happy child.

5. Scholastic Scenes

After seven weeks of school and the children memorizing their schedules, I changed things this week in order to fix or improve the inevitable glitches that become apparent. Each day of the week is slightly different due to regularly scheduled activities, but I try to make the mornings especially identical, and Monday is a fairly good example day to share with readers:

6:45 Alarms go off, kids dress (It took lots of training at the end of summer for the children to learn how to get up and get dressed and make beds in 15 minutes, but most days they do great!)

7:00 Breakfast and cleaning up (Stretch goal for me: I plan to be rotating through playing the girls' Suzuki music CDs and our Math Facts CDs during breakfast daily.)

8:00 Holy Time: Older children say prayers and read assigned Bible or saint independently while I meet with the younger crew and read aloud and lead prayers

8:15 Mama leads children in Brain-Body Exercises (This is a new experiment I am trying.)

8:30 Mama gathers everyone and supervises Spelling and Penmanship. I pair up the girls to dictate spelling to each other while I dictate to John, and then I grade it all on the spot. I walk around the table supervising and correcting penmanship form for the top four kids. For years, I thought Penmanship was an independent study subject and I was wrong and am now paying for it. (Note: on Fridays when John is gone, I teach Grammar instead of Spelling and Penmanship.)

9:00 I lay David down for nap. Mary (9) accompanies Margaret (7) for her violin practice while John (11) does math and I teach Kindergarten to Joseph (5) while Thomas (3) sits on the other side of me (where he'd rather be than off playing) and does little preschool activities.

9:30 EXERCISE BREAK: I take the children outside and I take an exercise walk up and down the street so I can see the yard where the children are playing. Because Johns' math session got moved to right before Exercise Break (which he greatly desires), his math, which had been creeping from 45 minutes to 1 hour to 1.5 hours is now happily back to 45 minutes because he doesn't want to miss his exercise break. (In inclement weather, I hope-hope-hope to switch us to fun exercise videos indoors, and I've been collecting them from YouTube, where finding kids' exercise videos with the people dressed fairly modestly and without obnoxious music is a tall order, but not impossible.)

10:00 John grabs a snack and for an hour does Independent Work from his list, the subjects which do not need much of my oversight. Meanwhile, Mary prepares a snack for the rest of us while I teach History and Geography at the kitchen table.

10:30 Mary begins her music, playing piano for 45 minutes and violin for 45 minutes until lunch time. I teach a second session to Kindergarten to Joseph while Margaret is assigned daily to babysit (read: play with the child while having a servant's heart) Thomas (3)--and David (1), if he will tolerate being away from me. (Using some babysitter help is a new part of our schedule, as I'm finding I'm losing quality of teaching because of tending to littles. I've also assigned Mary (9) a one-hour block on Tuesdays to do preschool activities with the three little boys, such as teaching songs from Catholic Songs for Children and playing Play-Doh--see pics below.)

11:00 Thomas and David may watch a saint video (new introduction to the schedule: a form of babysitting) and Joseph (5) may join them after his 15-minute daily piano practice session (motivation!) with the supervision/direction of his big brother John (11). Having John teach piano daily is a new addition and is going very well so far. After John teaches piano for 15 minutes, he has his own 45-minute piano practice until lunch. Meanwhile, I am available during this hour to help Margaret during her time to do her Independent Work subjects (which are math lesson, math facts drill, science, keyboarding). If all goes well, Margaret (second grade) will be completely done with music and school by noon each day.

12:00 Lunch and recess break for one hour

1:00 I put Joseph into Quiet Time (stretch goal for me: put on educational CDs that rotate through the week among Baltimore Catechism, dramatized Bible stories, Geography States songs, and literature). I tuck 3- and 1-year-olds in for nap. Then I show up back in the kitchen for Quiet Study Time, supervising and helping Mary and John. By moving all music practice to the mornings, the afternoons are truly quiet as a pin, which we are finding very important for academic concentration (and for motherly mental health).

Mary starts with her math and then proceeds to her independent subjects: composition, math facts drill, Latin, computer skills, voice (for choir), catechism, music theory. Her independent literature and history reading is usually done at night.

John's independent subjects include: math facts drill, composition, grammar, Latin, computer skills, voice (for choir), catechism, music theory, sacred art (textbook and doing daily sketches), science, and history (textbooks and writing). His independent history-literature reading is usually done at night.

Our fourth grader is done by about 3:00 each day and our sixth grader by 4:00. They whisk off to various activities (tennis, soccer, dance) and I whisk off to making dinner and putting in another half-hour or so each night of planning school for the following day.

Mary teaching preschool activities to the three boys

Baby getting in on the action

Geography

Drawing by Joseph (5) of Jesus carrying His cross

6. MiraVia Banquet

On Thursday night, my crew attended the MiraVia Banquet (a home for unwed mothers). This gala with perhaps 1,000 attendees is the subject of much talk around here as the date draws nigh. I attend only about every other year because I don't like leaving my one-year-olds with babysitters, so this is a year I stayed home . . . but it was the first year that we allowed Margaret to attend!