Making the most of a busy day

Wow! Two posts in a week!  Is anyone still there?

How OUR busy science day mornings became less stressful and more productive.

My son serves at early morning Mass and we host science classes all afternoon....on the same day.  This has been going on for years and I have to admit, it's been a wee bit challenging (though not challenging enough to outweigh the benefits we receive from either of those!)

For years I tried to squeeze in reading lessons, math lessons, you know, all those things we want to do every single day.  Also add in work with the high school kids, since they are pretty much gone at co-op the following day. Problem is, it usually didn't work. Add in the fact that it would be nice if our kitchen were somewhat clean when families start arriving shortly after lunch, and it would be nice if dinner were prepped since my toddler is often glued to me while people are here (and I admit, I just like to visit with my friends too!)

Now our busy science day looks more like this:

Prayer time (unless we all make it to Mass with my son....we're working on getting there again).

Spanish Jeopardy

Reading Eggs for my 2 youngest readers

Math games for the elementary kids while I help the older kids

Frozen pizza's for lunch (little prep - little clean up!)

Quick rest time for the kids while I prep dinner.

People start arriving for science and art classes (neither of which I teach!)

So, yes, once a week our morning elementary classes consist of games.  But it's amazing how helpful it's been both in time for me and for learning for them.  It's also amazing the change it's made in our routine once a week.  

Spanish Jeopardy:

I started the 6th, 4th, 3rd, and K on Spanish second semester using Powerglide.  I love the program and it worked well years ago with my oldest kids and the neighbors who used to join us.  Once a week we play Spanish Jeopardy.   We have pieces of paper with Spanish words (and the English answer) placed face down under columns of 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 points.  The kids have divided themselves up in teams I have found them studying together to beat the other team!  It's a lot more fun to review vocabulary this way, and it also gives me an easy method of knowing when they are ready to move on or continue working with our current words a little longer.

Math Games:

I currently have the K and 3rd grader working on skip counting memory.  They each have a set of multiples to work with.  Last week the K worked on 5's and the 3rd grader worked on 3's.  So all the cards (5,10,15,...50 and 3,6,9,...30) are placed face down together and they need to collect their own set in order.

My 4th and 6th graders are also playing memory but they are matching fractions to percents.  They have the percent cards face down on one side and the fraction cards face down on the other side and draw two at a time hoping for a matched set.   This is a bit more challenging in that they have such fractions as 7/8 in the pile along with the standard 1/4, 2/3, etc.

Someone just gave us the game Equate and they pulled it out today.   That will be another option for all to play together.

Reading Eggs:

It's not free but it's worth the money (in my opinion).  I first started using this to keep my early readers reading something in the few weeks after our 8th was born.  The kids move through activities at various map levels.  The thing I like most about it is that they can't continue until they pass the activity.  Instead they have to repeat until they know the material (the knowledge level is assessed both through correct answers and time it takes to get the correct answers).    I also get progress reports.  The kids love the activities and they also earn points "eggs" which they can use to purchase game time.  My K would play this for hours at a time if I would only let him....

Interesting side note:  It was the reading games that made me question one of our children's vision.   She knew the material but could never pass a certain game in which she had to click on the correct word (written on a fish) as it moved from the right to the left of the screen.  Turns out her vision in her right eye was so bad she needed glasses just to see the big E on the chart!  (Her vision is improving...and don't even get me started on how unhappy we were to find this out when she was 7 after years of passing her vision test at the pediatrician with flying colors.  They have since changed their method for vision screenings and instead of covering one eye with the "spoon" they put an eye patch it. - no chance of peeking)

All this gives me some time to help my older kids with anything they need to finish up before co-op the next day. 

Beginning Again. Again.

After first quarter I always take some time to assess how things are going.  Are we moving at an appropriate pace?  Is there anyone getting lost in the shuffle?  Should anyone be doing more?  Etc.  It seems this year that we barely got through first quarter and life got a little complicated.  Quarter 2 took a long time.  In addition to Thanksgiving, Christmas, a child just not feeling well and needing extra mommy time and doctor visits, and then ending up hospitalized for over a week....well let's just say that we are happy to start second semester with a more normalized routine.  OK, as normal as we can get when you throw in toddler ear infections, taxes, etc.  You know.  Life :)






Anyway, I was still struggling with how to make it all work as we made our way through second quarter with kids in 10th, 9th, 6th, 4th, 3rd, K, a toddler, and college student coming and going.  I asked a good friend of mine who has 4 kids.  Because really, regardless of the number of kids we have we all struggle to schedule everything in.  Her first sentence was something like, "First I fit them into my schedule."  What?!  Why had I never thought of that before?  Every year I would make up their schedules and try to tri-locate.  It never worked.  For the last couple weeks I have been creating their individual schedules and one for me at the same time.  [I usually try something for more than a "few" weeks before telling people how great it works...but this is really something!]




The first week I saw my problem right away.  4 math lessons, 4 spelling lessons, 4 grammar lessons, 4 reading lessons, 3 writing lessons, religion class, vocab. Those were just the elementary kids (and yes, they do more than that.  That's just on their mom time list.)   THAT was Monday. I still had to work with my high schoolers to discuss the upcoming plan for the week and their expectations (they have lists too, but due to the nature of their work it works best to spend some time discussing things up front - and fortunately they are both doing the same work for their Greek Studies classes).


I realized I was trying to do everything and not doing anything well.  It takes a little more prep time, but I spent some time looking at their assignments quickly.  6th grader:  If I spend 45 minutes with him what can we accomplish.  M's math was a brand new concept and I expected it to be challenging.  A writing lesson was important to keep on track for the week.  But the grammar and spelling lessons could wait until the next day when his math was more of a review page.  Continue to the next child.



Put it all together and what does the day/week look like for me?  Remind myself that my high schoolers take more time on M and F.   Is this doable?  What else should I move?    I also highlight everything on MY list that requires prep.  I don't get everything done on the weekend (photocopies, etc.) but I can have one of the kids copy Spanish pages during a break if I have it written down.




My high school students (enrolled with STAA) are currently studying the Greek Lit (Iliad), Greek History (Heroditus:  Histories), Old Testament, and Essay Writing (which is usually related to Lit, History, or O.T.)  A lot of their work is discussion or written work.  In other words....I need to have at least an understanding of the material they are covering.  Instead of running to grab their books to see how many chapters I had to read of the Iliad before our discussion in the morning (not fun!), I added that to the bottom of my list as well.




I am praying for a more peaceful school routine, and I think we finally hit on something effective here.  Still need to work in some fun stuff for our 2 year old because that's just the kind of gal she is :)  Give me something NEW to do!




Praying for a peaceful rest of the school year for you too.


Next post....how our chaotic/stressful T mornings have become opportunities for fun AND learning!

Feast of St. Nicholas

This morning started with me jumping out of bed and hour later than usual...the boots...the boots...I must check to make sure St. Nicholas filled didn't forget out house this year! (our kids put boots out - maybe they want more stuff - maybe it's simply cold and the shoes are put away).  While outside, the door opened and our 8 year old asked what I was doing.  ahhhhh just checking to make sure there weren't any gifts left that needed to be taken in out of the cold (I think it was -6 F here this morning).  That seemed to suffice, and she suggested we take everyone's in.

Two years ago my husband and I had a 3 day stay at the hospital with our 5 day old baby.  We were gone on Dec. 6.  The kids were disappointed when they realized St. Nicholas missed us.  Thankfully, our oldest (17 then) explained that since we just moved, he didn't have our new address.  Whew!  That took care of it.  And when we brought 1 week old Abigail home with us to stay on Dec. 8 - the missed gifts were forgotten.  They were smitten with their sister and happy to have life back to "normal."

Playmobil Greek History - Trojan War

Years ago, our older kids re-enacted The Civil War with Playmobil characters. It was a hit. We've been studying Greek History this year and the middle kids have been asking to do the same. It was well worth the time. The discussions that ensued showed me that they really did learn by playing.

Paris took Helen

Paris took Helen to Troy

Before Helen became King Menelaus's wife - the kings had vowed to help get Helen back should she ever be taken from whoever married her.  So he called all the kings together to help him to get her back. 

Odysseus didn't want to join the Trojan war because he was told that if he did he wouldn't return home for 20 years.  So he pretended to be crazy and plowed the beach and planted salt.  Someone put his son in front of the plow to test him, and since he avoided running over his son, they knew he wasn't crazy.

Achilles's mother, Thetis, sent him to an island and dressed him as a girl.  She believed that if he fought in the Trojan War that he would die.

Odysseus discovered that he wasn't a girl when a strong wind blew in and all the "other" girls ran.  Achilles took up arms.

Odysseus and Achilles joined the fight with Troy

The Trojans saw them coming.

Achilles mourning the death of his friend Patroclus (who was killed by Apollo)

Achilles avenged Patroclus's death and killed Paris's brother, Hector.

Paris mourned the death of Hector.

Paris then avenged Hector's death by killing Archilles.  He found the only spot he was vulnerable, his heel.  (When Achilles was a baby, immortal Thetis dipped her son into the River Styx to make him immortal also, she held him by his heel, so that is the only part that didn't touch the water...and that was the only part that was vulnerable.)

The Queen of Troy and Helen watched from a safe distance

The Greeks built the Trojan horse, and secretly had some men climb inside.

Then they pretended to sail away - as if they were giving up.  But they weren't, they were hiding on the other side of an island, out of sight.

The Trojans were told the horse was a gift and they pushed and pulled it inside the city gates.

The Trojans celebrated that night with strong drinks.  And while they were sleeping the Greeks climbed out of the horse and opened the gates.  Those on the ship had sailed back and helped in the fight inside the city walls.

King Menelaus and Helen left.

The Rightstart Lightbulb

I used to use Righstart Math but stopped years ago...mainly because it takes more teacher time than most other programs I've seen, and I was also teaching a number of kids how to read.

But this is a program I refused to get rid of.  It's that good.  Even though I didn't know if I would ever use it again, I kept it.  I kept them all!

I pulled out one of the early levels of Righstart  at the beginning of the year for my 3rd grader who finds math frustrating.  It's finally making sense!!!

I pulled Level E out this week for my 4th grader.  He's fairly intuitive when it comes to math.  But give him 20 minutes of problems and it might take him an hour.  He's bored.  It was torture.  I couldn't really skip ahead any farther than he already is, he doesn't yet know the material.  He was a little uncertain as to whether or not I was making a good decision here....I don't normally switch gears mid year.  But I am so glad I did!  He is loving it!  He is doing extra work in his spare time for fun!  It does help that the book starts with Magic Squares.  He was particularly impressed that there is a painting by Durer from 1514 with a 4X4 Magic Square.  He is excited again about math.  And that makes the extra teaching time worth it!!!

A taste of winter

We've had a small taste of winter here.....just enough to remind us to get the yard work done NOW.  The snow has melted, the garden has been "flattened", the compost piles moved around, miscellaneous outside items have been washed.  This week we still need to empty the hoses, store the wrought iron outdoor furniture, and get our chicken tractor ready....Thanks to last week's snow....we won't put it off any longer.

Our chicken tractor has not yet been moved to it's winter location.



My favorite place to sit outside - need to get our bench, and more, out of the elements.

We have a hill right next to our house.   We actually didn't have enough snow to sled on, the kids hauled some from the driveway and pulled some off the roof.

Quarter 1 Reflection: After my "MEA" break

So my planned MEA break to reassess our school plans didn't go as planned.  But then, I should have realized that.  One of the challenges we have been having this year is that things too often don't go as planned.  Why should my break week be any different?

Well, we've had a bountiful crop of apples this year.  It would be such a shame to let those go to waste.  We've given many apples away, but we also had 48 canning jars sitting in the kitchen waiting to be used for applesauce.  The "plan" was for the high school kids to continue working while the elementary age kids and I took a break from schoolwork.  They would do a lot of the canning, I would do a lot of the planning.   The kids are great, I could not have gotten that much done without them.  But they could not have gotten that much done without me either.  At first my planning to a backseat to canning and my thoughts turned to anger.  Seriously....how am I supposed to get anything done!  But now I think it was providence. 

I am a scheduler.  I like to move things around and make everything fit into our nice tidy little day.  I use the ideas from Managers of their Homes but do it all in my spreadsheets instead.  I've done it this way for years. I did get some time on Monday to work through things and decided we would have to start 90 minutes earlier and reshuffle a lot of things to get everything done.  Yeah....until I can find a way to get my K and 3rd grader to bed 90 minutes earlier....I don't think that's a smart plan.  Instead, while canning applesauce, I mulled it all over, and talked with a few friends, and did a lot more  mulling it over.

I redid the kids' schedules and told them all that I was going to try something brand new and we would do it for TWO weeks even if we didn't like it...because ONE week might not be enough time to really check it out.  You would think after homeschooling for 15 years that I would have seen the beauty in this....instead if always made me run.  I stuck with my old color scheme on their schedules (black - do it alone, red - do it with Mom, blue - do it as a family).  And this time I put the black items on top of the  list....so they didn't seem like an after thought that I wasn't really all that concerned about.  Now, in the morning everyone starts their solo work while I work with my Kindergartner.  When he's done he gets to play with his 23 mo old sister and I move on to work with the 3rd grader.  I just keep moving up the line.  If they get done with their solo work early they are to do their chores or ask me what they can help with - it's not play time yet.  (This has kept everyone on track - anyone else have the problem of going off somewhere quiet to give a reading lesson only to find out one older child (correctly) went to help the little ones with something and the next thing you know everyone is playing with the little ones???)  This has also helped with timing.   If I get pulled away because Abigail just needs her mamma, or someone gets hurt, etc. that isn't "infringing" on someone's time.  My kids get frustrated (and rightly so) when I have to step away from my 20 minute reading time with them or something to go attend to something else.  Hmmm...do I come back to them and push everyone else back, do we push back lunch, etc.  (wouldn't be so bad if this just happened once a day ;)  )  But now they know I will help them next.  If I get interrupted by something else, they know I am coming back and will help them when I am done.

No, this isn't perfect.  I do need to somehow squeeze my 10th grader into the mornings since he's usually gone for a few hours most afternoons.  My 6th grader has needed to be flexible because sometimes he gets helped before lunch and sometimes after.  My 9th grader has the afternoon naptime slot with fewer interruptions - which is really ideal for her, but she's gone 2 days a week at that time.  The 3 younger students always get done in the morning.  Monday afternoon is history, Tuesday afternoon is science, Wed afternoon is writing instruction, Thurs is temporarily busy with Lego League, and Friday afternoon is dedicated to time with the high schoolers.  Religion is floating at this point - but will settle into Thurs. 

So, my break started out looking bleak and frustrating.....my break was supposed to be time for me to reassess!  The apple canning turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  I didn't have time to write, but I had time to think.

Hope this works out.