...my solution to all life's problems is get up and out of bed before the kids! This may seem a no-brainer, but S gets up really early. That is just his natural rhythm and something he has in common with his dad. He is an Early Bird in search of worms. But I'm the Second Mouse that gets the cheese, much like IJ. We like to sleep a little later. Normally I would get up at 7:00 or 7:30. But to beat the day I have to set the alarm and get up at 6:30. And this half hour makes a huge difference! I don't always beat S up, but at least I have a head start on everyone else. I start the porridge/oatmeal while I make my coffee, turn off the stove, and let breakfast sit and cook on its own heat until people are ready to eat.
Part of starting my day early is starting the boys' days early. While I'm still waking up and drinking my coffee, I have S read out loud to me. Then I give him his breakfast and wake IJ up and have him read out loud to me (while still waking up myself and drinking my coffee). But I have to be careful; if E or F wake up, my day gets a little crazy (which happened today when F woke up). The hard part of homeschooling is keeping the preschooler and toddler quiet and out of trouble! So the boys and I work as quickly as we can on language arts and math before the girls get up. We were done with LA (reading, writing, penmanship, and grammar), geography, critical thinking (IJ only), and math by 8:45 when E came skipping down the hallway.
The boys like this plan so far. We are still in our experimental phase. And there are lots of other parts to my plan as well. But getting everything done early means they get to play earlier and for longer periods of time without interruptions (from me).
Since the computer is often a factor in my inability to get anything done (can you say side tracked?), I'm signing off for now. IJ wants to play Mancala with me!
