Getting Ready for the New Year

Getting ready for the new school year has been especially difficult this year for several reasons.  One) I hate the library system in Weber County and can't decide whether or not to order my books from Davis and plan on driving once a month to Clearfield, or toughen up and really transition to using a Weber County location.  This dilemma has resulted in my not requesting any books to prepare for the first few units of the new year and so I am much farther behind than normal at this stage.  

Two) I'm still trying to organize the new house.  While this is mostly done, it still feels like I can't cope with anything because I have stacks of books on my desk and boxes around my room, and my husband's piles of antiquated technology that he doesn't use but won't get rid of rounding out the disaster that is my bedroom/office.  I really can't handle clutter--it makes me feel like I am drowning.  

Three) I don't know how to tackle the Renaissance.  I know I want to do a lot with art (but I know nothing about art) and famous people like Leonardo (obviously) but I don't know much about anyone besides Leonardo.  I haven't found any good book lists to put together Miriam's, Cowen's, and Emeline's school reading lists, and I don't know about many good historical fiction books from my own personal collection or personal reading.  Because I'm not sure how to tackle the time period and because I don't have one hundred library books on the subject to browse through, I find it hard to progress to putting together an actual plan of study.

Four) I'm pregnant.  This is really the crux of the problem.  We found out we're having a girl (yay) and I'm thrilled about her and finishing our family and all that good stuff, but I really struggle when I'm pregnant.  I mostly just want to stay in bed and pretend I don't have children.  Accomplishing anything is a huge ordeal.  Thus, I'm waaaaaayyyyy behind.  

Now, you sweet people will tell me that the baby is the lesson and it is fine if we don't do much school.  I agree with you.  However, it is also true that children are happier with a schedule and limited free time.  Another truth is that I feel crummy unless I'm accomplishing something.  Type A and all that.  So for everyone's emotional health, I really do need to force myself to continue moving forward with all my homeschooling, children, and church responsibilities.  

Some of the worst parts of my to-do list have been checked off.  Two days ago I went through every stitch of clothing in the house (excepting the adult sizes) including all the hand-me-down boxes and created a master list of what we need for children this fall.  I hate doing that job, but God is merciful and my list of what we need is much, much shorter than I anticipated.  

I also did all the laundry and made the kids do another deep cleaning of the downstairs.  (One huge drawback to a larger home is that the kids can spread out and wreak more havoc in more places without my noticing.)  I think I even made dinner . . . nope, camping leftovers, but it was tasty.

Yesterday I did make dinner, thank you very much.  I also created a new chore chart and school schedule.  That was important.  Last year I implemented an idea I got from Latter-day Homeschooling and assigned everyone the same chores for a year.  It worked beautifully for us.  It has been a year and a house change and a new chore chart was desperately needed.  Here's what our chart looks like:

2014-2015 School Year Chore Chart

Miriam:

Keep bedroom clean every day

Morning chore: make breakfast Monday-Wednesday and also Friday

Evening chore: Help Eli clean and tidy the downstairs, mop steps by side door

Dish night: Friday

Supper Prep night: Monday

Saturday: vacuum downstairs, mop downstairs, downstairs bathroom, kitchen cupboards up, lawn

Cowen:

Keep bedroom clean every day

Morning chore: tidy bathrooms

Evening chore: dog poo, feed dogs

Dish night: Tuesday

Supper Prep night: Wednesday

Saturday: upstairs bathroom, kitchen cupboards down, lawn

Emeline:

Keep bedroom clean every day

Morning chore: tidy and vacuum upstairs

Evening chore: tidy upstairs

Dish night: Wednesday

Supper Prep: Tuesday

Saturday: dust and vacuum upstairs, water plant, mop dining room

Eli:

Keep bedroom clean every day

Morning chore: feed dogs, tidy downstairs

Evening chore: tidy downstairs

Supper Prep: Thursday

Saturday: dust and tidy downstairs, scrub kitchen sink

If you'll notice, Miriam was assigned cooking breakfast for the year.  That will hopefully solve a pressing school problem: my not taking time to help Cowen and Emeline with their piano practice as much as I should.  With this new schedule, I can help with piano practicing while breakfast is being made, then Miriam can practice while the rest of us do the breakfast dishes and our most important subject (piano) will be done by 10:00 am and I will feel like we accomplished great things and feel more motivated to keep going.  Awesome.

Harriet does do chores, but it is mostly helping pick up books and toys and keeping her room clean.  I might hang up a chore chart with pockets for her to help her remember to brush her teeth and make her bed--things like that.  She'd like that.

Our school schedule isn't very different from last year except for one major change--all three of my oldest kids will be working on language arts.  We've done a little spelling and handwriting in the past, but I don't start actual grammar/writing kinds of things until 3rd grade.  I didn't start Cowen in LA last year because I knew it would be easier to wait and teach him and Emeline at the same time.  So, the schedule needed a LA slot.  I'll tell you more about my LA plans in a different, less lengthy, post, but I'm pretty excited about it.

Here's Tuesday of our schedule.  If my hubby was here he could show me how to make an excel document look nice but I'm just going to cut and paste and hope for the best.

If any of you have any brilliant Renaissance ideas--lay them on me.  I hope your preparations are going much more smoothly than mine!!

	Mom	Miriam	Cowen	Emeline	Eli
7:00 AM
7:30 AM	bath/dress/hair	bath/dress/hair	bath/dress/hair	bath/dress/hair	bath/dress/hair
8:00 AM	:piano	make breakfast	:piano	:computer work	chores
8:30 AM	:piano	make breakfast	:computer work	:piano	chores
9:00 AM	breakfast	breakfast	breakfast	breakfast	breakfast
9:30 AM	chores	:piano	chores	chores	chores
10:00 AM	:Cowen read	:piano	:read	:school reading	play
10:30 AM	:Eli read	:computer work	:Walk with Wilson	:Walk with Wilson	:read
11:00 AM	:Eli piano	:Spanish/French	play	play	:piano/computer
11:30 AM	:grammar/LA	:LA	:LA	:LA	play
12:00 PM	:history/science	:history/science	:history/science	:history/science	:history/science
12:30 PM	:history/science	:history/science	:history/science	:history/science	:history/science
1:00 PM	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch
1:30 PM	devotional	devotional	devotional	devotional	devotional
2:00 PM	:scriptures	:scriptures	:scriptures	:scriptures	:scriptures
2:30 PM	:math	:math	:math	play	play
3:00 PM	:math	play	play	:math	:math
3:30 PM		play	play	play	play
4:00 PM		play	play	play	play
4:30 PM		play	Scouts	play	play
5:00 PM		Activity Days	Scouts	play	play
5:30 PM	dinner prep	Activity Days	play	dinner prep	play
6:00 PM	dinner prep	chores	chore	dinner prep	chores
6:30 PM	supper	supper	supper	supper	supper
7:00 PM		bed prep	Dishes	bed prep	bed prep
7:30 PM	bed prep	:school reading	bed	bed	bed
8:00 PM		read in bed	bed	bed	bed
8:30 PM		bed	bed	bed	bed