Ok, here is a typical summer-school day, we do library visits every Weds afternoon, swimming at the Y on Thurs and when it is not 110 degrees we go to the park on Friday. The traditional school year is a little more pre-planned but similar, except Scote has football on Saturday. Also, my husband is perpetually on one deployment or another (this year Iraq, next year Afghanistan) We don't see him much but when we do we usually stop everything but reading when he is home, which is only a few weeks to a month, thats why we do summer-school.
9:00 am Kids start waking up and usually check on their ongoing science observations and pets first thing. (Right now those consist of 2 newly metamorphed leopard frogs, a firebelly toad who may or may not eat them, newly hatched baby fish (fry) in the big tank with their parents, our rabbit, Rosey, and their seedlings (mostly different kinds of beans). I usually supervise this from the couch and if something exciting has happened I tell them to write it in their journals and make a diagram.) while I guzzle caffeine until someone screams that one of the frogs got eaten so I get up and find him behind the filter or under a rock.
9:15 I change Ugha's pull-up, do the potty talk, and bug other kids to dress. Dodo comes out in Scote's Quidditch Shirt and a tutu, Scote naked with a pair of spiderman undies on his head. They giggle insanely. Scote streaks through the house screaming "I'm Freeeeee." I tell Dodo to start reading and I manually rearrange Scote and tell him to get a book. Dodo reads about three to ten picture books a day out of choice (think Caldecott, not easy reader), day and evening, plus at least chapter or two from a chapter book ( Classics, my favorites from when I was a girl, and new favorites like Harry Potter or A Series of Unfortunate Events.)
I ask Ugha what she wants to do, she says, "No Ugha, Poffer Dutdoo." Professor Dutdoo is what she calls herself when she plays at the rice table ( a rubbermaid container with a hinged lid, like for sweaters under the bed, on a low table with dry rice and measuring stuff, spoons etc), and Saint Legume of the Beans help anyone who doesn't refer to her as Professor Dutdoo when she is there. (Shiver) I set her up over there and check the others. Ugha immediately starts mumbling to herself about teletubbies and cheese. Others are reading on the couch.
9:30 I make eggs, Scote gets up from reading and bugs to make toast. I give in.
9:45 We eat. Scote takes his eggs over to sit in front of the frog tank, Professor Dutdoo eats two bites and goes back to work. I eat in front of the computer, checking email or playing literati.
10:00 Dodo asks to take a test on her book online at Reading Adventure (its like accelerated reader, but free). The tests aren't always well written, and at least once she has gotten points off for the correct answer, but when she gets enough points she will get free 6 month subscription of Highlights Magazine, so we grin and bear it.
I sit and listen to Scote read from the Dick and Jane Treasury.
10:15 Scote and I play reading legos (see earlier post), Professor Dutdoo is still enthralled at the rice table, making a "burrbay cake". Dodo finsihes her test, and goes off to find another book.
10:30 I tell Scote to do "projects" (child directed learning: he picks from the stuff on our shelves, or plays tinkertoys or trains in his room) and Dodo and I do math. I do a short lesson about whatever it is we are learning ( we are using Mastering Mathematics program because it is a complete curriculum for math from 1st to 8th, and is set up very nicely for acceleration and compacting. After we finish (at this rate about two years) I plan to try her in Saxon one year just to be sure she's got it, before we start Algebra. ) and she does the work, we check it together. She is a natural at math, so she tends to enjoy it. I remember loathing learning the times tables but she couldn't wait! We are also going through Dandylion's Primarily Math (problem solving unit). Some days we do math games like multiplication checkers or use manipulatives.
11:00 Kids flip flop and I do a lesson with Scote, math is his favorite, but we don't do it everyday, I sometimes do handwriting, phonics or Kindergarten American citizenship during this time.) Ugha has become Ugha again, and I get her involved in something else if she doesn't pick something on her own. Today I give her a small box of clothespins and show her how to open and close them and stick them around the top of the box.
11:30 I make canned chicken soup with fishie crackers and cheddar cheese. Ugha wants Yumsters yogurt and a banana instead. I say, "Soup." She screeches, "No, Woop. Hay Woop!" I tell her she does not hate soup and threaten to put her in her baby cage (crib). She says, "Oh yeah, Woop! No hay woop." in a conversational voice, and toddles to the table.
Dodo does some Rosetta Stone Latin, Logic with the Zoombinis, or Writing Blaster on the computer. Scote plays with wooden blocks for a few minutes, then does handstands while howling, "Look, Mom! Watch Mom! Look at me!!" every second. He is extremely proud of this skill since it is one of few things he can do that Dodo can't. She is spastically uncoordinated and hates sports (like me, unfortunately)
12:00 Kids eat soup, I make myself a ham and swiss on french bread with ice cold pickles.
12:30 I say, "Go outside."
They say, "There are ants! And besides it's HOT!"
"We want to stay with you!!"
"Play a game with us! Teach us Chinese! Explain how the car engine works!"
"Hay ands! Poo-Poo Ands!"
I eye my own stack of library books, shiny dustjackets glinting in a shaft of sunlight. Drastic measures are needed.
"You can fill the baby pool and make mudpies."
"Horray!"
I get a peaceful hour curled up with Nietzsche.
1:30 Kids get hosed off, redressed and sent back to "school" Scote does TOPS Lentil Science (see previous post) and Dodo does cursive from Handwriting without Tears, which she loves. Ugha colors, accidentally rips a page from her Elmo coloring book and wants to "Goo it! Goo Elmo Buh!" I offer tape, she says, "No tay! Hay tay. Ugha goo!" So I let her have a tiny bottle of glue and she spends the next twenty minutes happily covering the entire book and part of the table with it.
1:50 Dodo does Lentils and Scote and Ugha let the rabbit out and chase him around. He loves the attention and shows off by kicking up his legs and playing hide and seek. Dodo abandons the lentils and joins the chase.
2:00 Bun back in cage, Dodo back to lentils. She is comparing volume measurements using inequalities, (<>). She finishes up, cleans up the lentil box and we do another lesson, either History (SOTW 1, kingfisher and Usborne, library books, standard TWTM), grammar from Rod and Staff 3(OK, but very Amishy), or maybe a science experiment or book and discussion. Little ones are supposed to be cleaning the blocks from earlier but instead have gotten out the marble track blocks too and are building marble tracks. I consider forcing them to clean but they are very absorbed so I let it go until later.
2:45 I catch the little ones playing dollhouse, I make them go back and clean the blocks and then I sit Scote in front of Between the Lions (PBS KIDS, reading show) and Ugha back in her cage for a nap. I ask Dodo what she wants to do and she says she wants to write a poem about Scote wearing underwear on his head. We talk about kinds of poetry and I pull out the Poetry book and explain different rhyming schemes, iambic pentameter etc. Her eyes glaze over. She is on the verge of saying nevermind. I back off and just I tell her she has to use nice handwriting and spelling. "Aww man." She says. "You can always do Writing Strands, " I say. She hates it right now, so I don't force it. She does alot of writing on her own for fun, plus some of her own narrations (the rest I type while she dictates). Her writing is very creative and elaborate but on she rushes through with very sloppy writing and careless spelling mistakes, but I don't want to turn her off to writing by pushing too hard. I still have hopes for the WS program, maybe next year, I really like it.
3:10 I try to sneak in another game of literati but Ugha escapes the cage and plops on my lap with a book. "Read me, Mama!" So I go through Usborne's first 1000 Words with her three times, me getting progressively more bored each time, her more interested, repeating whatever I say. I sigh and continue, wishing for kids with normal attention spans.
3:45 I peel Ugha off my lap with promises of bananas. She gets a change.
3:50 Kids eat fruit.
4:00 Scote and Dodo play chess, which erupts into a full scale war when Dodo wins. Goat can't bear to not be perfect at everything. I pry them apart and he becomes reduced to a blubbering mess so I put him in his room, explain that Dodo is almost 3 years older and most 4 year olds can't even play chess at all but he isn't buying it. I take out the Marvelous Mosaics Puzzle Game (by Learning Resources) and he perks up and sits on the floor to play. Dodo has pulled her books from her dollhouse bookshelf (at least 100 picture books and about 50 chapter books) and strewn them across the floor.
"What's happening in here?"
"I want to alphabetize them by title, so I can find them."
I explain about libraries doing it by author but she shrugs and says, "My way is better, sometimes you can't remember the author. Don't you know how hard it is to find a good book there? You have to pull out every one!"
"Ok," I say, "But no way can they can't stay on the floor like this."
"Yeah, Mom. I
know that."
4:15 Ugha and Scote are playing marching band with Ugha's drum and Scote's recorder. They are not natural musicians, sorry to say. I chug a few Cokes in the hopes of staving off a migraine.
Dodo shrieks,"Go away! Get out of my room! Stupid books! Arrghhh! This is too hard, why are there so many? Stop buying me so many stupid books!"
"Ok, if you don't like them give them to Scote."
"Arrghhhhhhhhhhh!!! You know I do,
Mom!"
4:20 Screeching sounds of frustration.
4:25 "Do you want help?"
"No!"
4:30 More screeching, this time accompanied by heavy breathing and bangs.
"It fell over, I had it almost done and then the stupid stack fell and now I have to START OVER!!! Arghhh.."
4:31 "You don't have to."
"Yes, I do!"
4:32 "You can just put them back and try again another time."
"No I can't. I can't, I can't!"
4:35 Sounds of crying. "Come have a cookie."
"No."
"Want help?"
"No!"
4:45 Dodo finally scraggles out, looking like she went through a war. "It's done." She collapses on the couch, panting. "Remind me never to do that again. Ever. Can I listen to The Wizard of Oz?"
5:00 I start dinner.
6:00 Dinner's finished, Kids can watch movies, but not regular TV unless I say.
7:00 We lay out the library books and vote with secret ballots under the covers. I read the winning books, tonight they picked a biography of Albert Einstein's childhood and Take Me Out Of the Bathtub (funny poems). I read them, then we talk about what's happening with Mrs Frisby, Dodo looks up some words from the night before and writes them down on a worksheet, and I read another chapter.
7-10:00 Scote watches movies, Dodo usually wants to read instead, except on Wednesday when she has new movies from the library). Ugha and Scote fall asleep, but Sonia keeps reading. She never needed much sleep, even as a baby. (Boy was that a pain!)
-EH
