I don't think we have ever started school before Labor Day, until this year. I was doing a lot of planning and praying about our school year, and I just felt like we needed to start earlier this year. After I picked our start date, we found out the date for Yoda to get tubes in his ears. I was still undeterred. A late start one day: we could do it! So we forged ahead, and started school this past Monday, Aug. 31.
The first day was great. We had a new schedule, new chore charts and system, and our new curriculum. I even changed where we did school for the morning. Good that the first day went well, because it has been all downhill ever since!
On Tuesday, Yoda got his tubes in his ears. And I was so exhausted that I had to take a nap before lunch! We still got most of our school work done.
On Wednesday, Yoda spent part of the morning screaming bloody murder, and I was chanting to myself, "The baby Is the lesson, the baby Is the lesson!" Once that was over, it seemed hard to get back on schedule and get going again. But we did and again, we got most of our school work done.
Wednesday evening it rained very hard. VERY HARD. And our playroom downstairs flooded. Ugh... If you know me in real life, you know how many times we have had water trouble in the past year or so. And how sick we are of water problems!!! Anyways, my two oldest boys were up until early in the morning helping to wash towels, shop vac, and sop up water.
Thursday started our Community Bible Study, which is wonderful and we are studying the book of Revelations this year. The oldest two were so tired, and when we came home, they had a list of things to work on for the water problem, and then they took naps. So, they didn't get much school work done, other than life lessons.
Friday was a bit chaotic without the use of the playroom for the two youngest to play in during the morning book work time. But, we got all of our schoolwork done.
A few things have gone very well. I really like my new schedule, courtesy of the Maxwell's book, Managers of Their Homes. Instead of stressing me out to have such an itemized schedule, it has helped me to focus on what needs to be done at specific times and not worry about the big picture. Just little bits at a time. I have also had the younger kids paired up with an older kid for reading books. This has gone very well, and was a highlight for the younger kids. One pair has been reading a book together after school as they like their book so well.
Now I have the long weekend to tweak the schedule, finish drying out the playroom, and be ready to go again next week. Here is hoping next week goes smoother!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Sounds about right for a first week! ;-) Keep on' keepin' on!!
ReplyDeleteMOTH really helped me too!
You are a better mom than I. I would have thrown school out the door and tried again this week!
ReplyDeleteWe had our share of water problems when we bought our house. We had an inspection that turned up nothing. The house had been vacant for 6 months as it was an estate sale. We bought at the end of a long drought and were here two weeks before the flood. After that each subsequent rain left several feet of water in our basement. We spent many a night, all night trying to dry it out. We went on like that for a year and a half, unable to do anything about the problem. (We had a layoff, a new baby, an additional pregnancy and new baby, a chronically ill child and other even more pressing house issues that had to be dealt with first...all in that 18 months) Finally, we were on vacation when hurricane Isabelle came through and left our house with no power for days and several feet of water in our basement. My dear brother dealt with all the issues in our absence. Because of the hurricane we were unable to stay in our hotel and spent 18 hours in a car with an exhausted and screaming new born. (The only time I can recall not enjoying a road trip with the family). We were exhausted and hungry and needed the facilities and there was no place to stop. Because of the damage from the hurricane we had to drive inland off the highway where there was NOTHING. We finally got home put the kids to bed and collapsed. Our eyes were not closed for an hour before the rain started. In a matter of minutes we heard the familiar sound of water flooding into the basement. We spent the next 6 or 8 hours with the shop vac and buckets trying to keep it out. I can not tell you how much I murmured at my dear husband in those hours. The rain stopped. He dressed and made the horrible commute to his office. Worked all day. Made the wretched commute back home. And got a shovel. We dug and dug that night until past dark and the next to put in trenches to divert the rain. We were never going to bale another drop of water. It worked...but I am still in awe of the power of water!
Praying that you will soon find an answer to your trouble.
kat
Well, you are being a creative home school mom. That seems to be the way some homeschool days go. Life lessons are good. They don't get many of those at school. Well, not good wholesome ones anyway.
ReplyDeletehang in there and I'll pray about your basement. So sorry that happened.
I have an award for you my loyal friend. Even if you have received it I wanted to give it to you myself.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting and encouraging me,
Nannette
Don't know if you have one or not but Tim put a sump pump in our basement after our first major rainfall as our (brand new) house is about a foot above the water table line. And we haven't had water in the basement since. Maybe this is something you all can look into. If I remember correctly it only cost about $150.00 and he did the work himself. We even had an engineer friend come over and tell us it was one of the best home jobs he has ever seen. Just a thought. Hope things go smoother this week. PS How is Yoda doing now?
ReplyDelete