Scheduling and other holy things...

     Scheduling is such a difficult venture.  We have to schedule appointments, we have to schedule "school", activities, therapies and so on.  I am by nature a little mix of "free spirit" and schedule hound (sounds like a multiple personality diagnosis, I know).  I want to be more free flowing and go with the flow and yet life demands more schedule than that and honestly my children NEED more than that.  In order to make things work we have to follow some sort of routine in this house.

     We are not legalistic by any means AND this sort of a schedule does NOT work for everyone, BUT for us it does and one thing I can say without a doubt:  It works for young children (babies, if you will) and big children (that could be me I am referring to...or of course my older children who are out of diapers).  I can say this with confidence after having 5 foster babies under 2 in one year.  EVERY ONE of them has slept well in both naps and nighttime once they got on a routine unless REFLUX was involved. Babies go to sleep from 10:00 am to 12 pm and 2 pm to 4 pm (these can vary by 30 minutes or so, but THEY happen or we suffer the consequences).  Life is smooth  with these naps.  They typically get up at 7:30 ish....this varies and go to bed around 7:30ish to 8:30 ish.  This has been for ALL 5 babies (6 now as of 11/2011) and has worked well (the ages have ranged from 1 month to17 months).  It may take a week or longer to get into the routine or if they are younger and take more naps then you work yours into this as they get older, but by 6 months they are on this schedule with maybe a shorter nap in there sometimes.  This is wonderful for us and helps us to work around school accordingly.

    School before that first nap time is pretty much on their own without too much help from me or sporadic help from me.  Before 10 the little ones eat, play in their highchairs and on the floor with various toys I put out to keep them playing.  These toys vary to hold their interest.  Sometimes it works and sometimes they wander around to the ball pit.  At 10 we HIT the hard academic work. I sometimes allow each child to choose which subject (there is the "free spirit") and sometimes I have to dictate the subject due to the content that needs work or because they are ignoring a subject a little too much.  We sometimes do our reading together during this time or sometimes we wait until the afternoon nap depending on the amount of reading we anticipate.  We read at least 2 books at a time and do our Bible study which can be time consuming because of the coloring that goes along with it.  We use "Picture This" and it is fantastic at getting all ages to really "see" the Bible come alive.  We LOVE to read together and could just sit all day and read sometimes!  We use Sonlight as our reading list.  Right now we are doing American History and are studying the Oregon Trail with some books borrowed from a friend.

     Time can get away from us and life can happen and will happen no matter what.  If we don't have a plan then we fall apart.  It's not just "school"...that is not the only lesson here, diligence and persistence and meeting goals.  There are so many goals here, so many life lessons.  Fortunately, I feel like even the days when "life happens" we are learning other things.  God provides lessons in life and for that we are grateful.  Some lessons are helping with sick siblings or helping with therapy with Miss France.  Sometimes we do just read. Legalism could really wreck our personal world, but a schedule does help us to stay focused and continue along a path toward our goals.  Currently, we are NOT doing school today (this post was started a while ago...today is REALLY Feb.3).  We just got home last night from Dallas where we were iced in after having Miss France's surgery postponed.  There were many lessons to be had while we were gone, but none of them were in our curriculum.  More on this later.

     Today we are nursing a few recovering children, it's my birthday and we have chosen to be lazy!  Oh boy....now I might be kicked out of the home school club!  I admitted that we are skipping school without a holiday on the calendar.   In my opinion that is the joy and freedom of homeschooling.  One child is actually ahead in MOST subjects and the other one easily catches up when needed.  We will read and do our Bible study in a little while.  So there, bible and history!  One child is actually...gasp....at a rehearsal  for Little Women at the Children's Theatre.  They realized that 3 out of the 4 sisters are home schooled and one is out of college and looking for a job.  I am in my robe....blasphemy, I know.  I am now headed to the shower and to grab our books.  I might even eat some chocolate....does that count as bonbons?  Ah, the life of luxury.  Now, I am laughing out loud for real!  Happy COLD Thursday (regardless of the date this post tells you).