Friday, March 23, 2012

Just an Average Day

I am actually writing this post at the request of a homeschooling friend.  If you are not actually a homeschooler yourself you will probably be either bored or appalled by this, so if you find yourself in that category feel free to stop reading now..... but those of us who do homeschool seem to have an endless, nearly voyeuristic curiosity to know how everyone else is doing this (at least I do), so...

Still with me anyone?  Well here it goes one day in the life of the Enright Family Homeschool.  This would be Monday.

Our day begins, unfortunately at 5:45 am when I drag my butt from bed to get the three big boys to seminary.  You have heard my seminary story before, but now I am on the driving to seminary part of our carpooling rotation.  So, yes, I am on the road by 6 am, bleary eyed, barely able to walk, but in control of a 4 ton vehicle. Lucky for all, traffic is at a minimum at that hour, and we are big enough that most people just stay clear.  Monday, after I dropped off the boys, I came home and got back in bed.  Rhys had to be at work by eight though, so I couldn't sleep in too long.

When I headed downstairs at 7:30, all 3 seminary students were still up (not necessarily a given) and starting their days in various ways (Rhys was preparing his quick breakfast, Kegan was lifting in the basement, Amik was getting a head start on his math) and-bonus-Aislin was up and making muffins. Every morning about this time I am just so thankful not to be getting my kids to school by 7:40.  Okay I just made that time up...I don't actually know when the public schools start around here any more than I know what 'grade' my children would each be in (seriously, people, just don't ask), but I have a vague idea that Aislin baking muffins in her jammies in my kitchen at 7:45 on a Monday morning would not be happening if I was rushing 8 children to several different schools everyday.  The very idea exhausts me.

After I got Rhys to work, and tried to take note of all his instructions regarding what he would need for class when I picked him up, I came home and read scriptures with the kids still at home.  We are reading the Old Testament in the mornings and Monday was Samson and Delilah and Fionn drew an adorable picture in her scripture journal of this great big man with super long hair picking up a gate and carrying it off.  Morning Scriptures are not always everybody.  Kris is frequently already working (on Monday he had left the house early), various big kids may or may not be there, but the kids under seminary age are supposed to be there and supposed to keep a journal.

After scriptures and breakfast I did a quick check that everyone knew what they had to do that morning and then I went up to walk on the treadmill.  This is an imperfect system in a big way, essentially leaving the kids to begin school without me.  As soon as it becomes light enough and warm enough I will have to move my walk back to that time between seminary and before my kids are really up and functioning.  Which means no more morning naps for me.

So, while I walk, this is what the kids do: first there is a kitchen team that has to clean up breakfast before they start school, the others can get started.  Fionn and Liam can't do much without me, so they are allowed 30 minutes on either a math game site or a reading site and then can play outside, quietly inside or draw or read.  Ronan does his reading and his math.  Amik, Aislin and Noah can do their schoolwork in any order, they have a list for the week.  Kegan and Rhys are full time college students and for the most part run their own schedules.  And this is when I am acutely aware of how lucky my children are regarding access to computers.  Essentially everyone of my kids can be on a computer at once.  Which is good, because Kegan and Rhys each have a couple online classes and everyone down to Ronan uses Kahn academy for math and papers are all written in Google Docs and shared with me (which is super awesome by the way, even Bayley can share her papers with us there).

Are you still with me?  I told you this would get boring.  So while I walked I fielded complaints about who was and who was not helping in the kitchen and helped Fionn multiple times determine what she should do next.  Ronan came up at one point to complain that he wanted to do 'book math' again, so I had him take the first test in the pre algebra book because he finished Saxon 7/6 (or is it 6/7) in January and has been doing nothing but Kahn since.  And Erin came in to say goodbye on her way to work.  This is why I walk on the treadmill if I have to walk during the day instead of early, on Monday it was also super cold and windy out, but the ability to be available to them even in the vague way I am when I am upstairs walking in the corner is a huge advantage.

At about 10:45, when I should have been on my way to get Rhys, I was frantically printing up last minute papers for Kegan and photos of the still life Kegan and Rhys needed for art that day.  Kegan and I were nearly 10 minutes later than planned to get Rhys from work.  So Rhys changed out of his lifeguard clothes in the back of the van and ate his muffin on the way to class.  We stopped downtown on the way so the boys could buy paper and pencils for their new project and I got some cheap oil pastels for a project with the little kids.  I have been in this art store once a week for the past three weeks!  On the way we discover that Rhys's portfolio doesn't contain his preliminary sketch he needs for class that day (that would be my not quite getting all the instructions right that morning about what to gather from where, but hey at least we brought him pants--they were too big, but they were pants), it is too late to go back though, so he goes to class without it.

Back at home I finally got in some math with Liam and Fionn before lunch.  Fionnula was learning two digit addition for the first time. So I got out some play money and showed her how to do 42 + 34 by counting out each number in dimes and pennies and then combining them and counting again.  We did one together and when I tried to help her with the next she pushed my hand away and said, not in a very nice tone, "I can do it!" And she did.

We did a quick clean up, lunch (which featured whatever they could find in the kitchen), another quick clean up, and then we started an art project.  Art is planned around Ronan, Liam and Fionn and as such is optional for Amik, Aislin and Noah, but even so, Noah and Aislin usually participate.  Amik prefers to just continue with his own work. We drew dinosaurs with black oil pastels and then painted them.  They were awesome and lots of fun, I will have to feature our art projects in a separate post.  Art is also quite messy, so we cleaned up yet again.  Then I listened to Fionn read out loud and checked in on what everyone else had thus far accomplished from their lists and then it was time to pick up the big boys again.

On the way to pick up the boys I talked to Bayley for a bit since she is conveniently on her way to class at the same time as I am driving on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.  And after she arrives at class she usually works on a crossword puzzle and so Kegan, Rhys and I field texts from her all the way home with crossword clues.  But half way home my phone battery, which had not fully charged the night before, probably due to the fact that I was texting Bayley well into the night and apparently pulled the cord from the wall doing so, died.  Sometimes one or more of the kids at home will ride with me to drive to and from the college but this day they didn't.

Back at home we got started on chores and dinner.  Kris surprised us all by getting home before 5 so he and I decided to go on a walk right about the same time that Rhys realized that the new sketch he had completely redone and improved at class was still at the college.  He called his art teacher who agreed to meet us back at the school at 6 to get us into the classroom before the project was tossed by a well meaning custodian.  So Kris and I took our walk, and then I left Aislin with some instructions about dinner and Rhys and I left to head back to the college about the same time Kris left for an evening board meeting.

Home again, I finished dinner, we ate late.  Clean up crew (different one) cleaned up.  We sat down to read a chapter book together.  Kris and Erin each came home somewhere in the midst of this and each arrival was accompanied by lots of chaotic greetings and hugs and yelling and showing off of dinosaur paintings, but eventually we settled down, finished our chapter, read scriptures (Book of Mormon) together and sent kids under 12 to bed with some success (which means that Liam and Ronan went to bed where they continued to make lots of noise and Fionn just mostly blew us off).  Thirty minutes later or so the next shift went to bed (that would be Amik, Aislin, Noah). Kegan, Rhys and Erin go to bed when they go to bed and it is frequently later than Kris and I.

At some point that night I managed to look at the completed work so that I knew who had to do what the next day.  Ronan aced that pre-algebra test, only missing one of the roman numeral questions and seriously--who cares?  I think I got in the hot tub.  I know I watched Doc Martin and texted Bayley and talked with Erin for a bit.

Things I didn't get done:  didn't sew, didn't even do personal scripture study, never got to science with my younger 3, honestly didn't really clean my room even, didn't make more granola like I said I would, didn't touch a violin, never had a chance to sit down with Amik to edit his writing and didn't catch up on the history or reading assignments that I insist my kids keep up on but which I frequently am far behind on, didn't call the oral surgeon to schedule that stupid wisdom teeth extraction for Kegan....  it's a long list, but you get the idea.

So, there it is, long and boring (though in the actual living of it it seemed a little more crazy and chaotic and loud than boring) our Monday, in some ways representative of a typical homeschooling day and in others...well probably our days just don't have a 'typical.'