Well, I Finally Did It

I made a semi-schedule today.  I got my school area really cleaned out, laid out all my curriculum, and set to work.  My schedule is very loose.  I want to be up between 5:45 and 6:30--sleeping late will cut into computer time.  Maybe that will motivate me to get my butt out of bed.  I want to have myself dressed and ready to go by 8 and then the kids fed, dressed, and cleaned by 8:30.  Then we'll do school until lunchtime with a snack break mid-morning.  I'll get the girls going on their independent work and then do Joe's school.  This will take 30-45 minutes max (I think).  Then we'll do Exploring Countries and Cultures (starting next month--more on that later) and then reading time for Hannah, individual time with Grace and then individual time with Hannah.  Hopefully, Joe will be happy to have uninterrupted computer time (all educational games of course :0)) while I work with the girls.  If all goes well we will finish up about lunchtime.  Then we will eat and then have chore time.  I'm not assigning specific chores but I will assign them as needed.  I'd love for us all to work together cleaning for 30 minutes to an hour.  After that they are free to do whatever.  I feel like this is doable but will require me to exercise some serious morning self discipline.  I've decided not to start Exploring Countries and Cultures for another month.  ECC is our curriculum for all the subjects besides Language Arts and Math.  This curriculum requires some additional books that you can get from the library and when I went to go request my books guess what???  Somebody already had them checked out AND I was third in line to get the books.  That means the person who has them can keep them for up to 3 weeks and the next 2 people can too.  I shouldn't have raved so much about how great our curriculum was.  It looks like I've convinced several other homeschoolers to use it and we are all getting started now.  So, to avoid my selfish temper I've decided to delay our starting of ECC to the beginning of October.  Hopefully, at that point I won't have to fight for the books.  It will put me behind for the year but the good thing about My Father's World is that it is not overscheduled.  We can double up on some slow days.  I'm disappointed because I was really excited about getting started but this will be better in the long run.  So, we'll have some time to really plow through some language arts and math and get into a routine.  I may also throw in a science unit study.  I have some great science studies that I haven't had a chance to use the last year or so because of using a canned curriculum.  So, we may delve into invertebrates or habitats.  What's your vote?  I'd ask my kids but I can guarantee they would disagree.  So, Patterson Prep is all set to open on Monday.  I actually feel a little bit excited about it.  I'm thinking about making a big deal about our first day back, especially since it's Joe's first day of homeschooling.  I may make some cupcakes and decorate them all cute (yeah right) or just stick with a special breakfast.  Maybe doughnuts from the bakery.  We could get up extra early and ride our bikes downtown for a doughnut and some coffee for mom and then get home and hit the books.  I think I just came up with my plan.  I always do my best planning by talking it out.  Speaking of talking...Ollie is home today (for no good reason--but the schools didn't know that when they made the decision to cancel school for today and tomorrow--these hurricanes are so shifty).  Anyway, I've been on the phone more than usual, trying to catch up before I start school next week.  When I wasn't on the phone I was deep in my own world cleaning, planning, and scheduling.  So, at dinner I apologized for being so anti-social with the fam today.  Ollie said, "at one point I was starting to get annoyed by all your talking on the phone and then I realized that there are people who love to listen to you yammer on and on and I should be thankful that it's not me."  It is a well known fact that I have a need to talk a lot and Ollie has a need for quiet so I wasn't at all insulted by this.  I was glad he didn't give me a hard time for all my yammering today.