Summer Home School 2012 Begins

We started Summer Home School 2012 on Memorial Day - that's right!  We are on Day 3 and we are settling into the routine.  I am exhausted!


Our day is scheduled to run like this:


8:50 - Morning Meeting (this includes an overview of the day, saying the Pledge of Allegiance, putting out the flag, sometimes a story (today was How Full is Your Bucket for kids), sometimes we do sharing).


9:00- 10:15 - Spelling, Grammar, and Religion (today, Luke had a spelling test, Paul worked on his letters on the iPad, Ruth made mischief and we discussed church manners...we ended with a field trip to tour our church.  We looked for the stories in the stained glass window, the candle by the tabernacle, the alter, etc.  The  children were all very well-behaved.)


10:15 - 11:00 Snack and Reading (today they had peanut-butter crackers and yogurt raisins and we read from Luke's reader...he reads a page to us and I read a page to us).


11:00 - 3:45 Play, lunch, nap/rest, snack (we generally get in our swimsuits and play outside - jump on the trampoline, ride bikes, etc. and then, when we get too hot, we jump in the pool.  Lunch time is around noon and nap/rest is from 1:00 - 3:00 or 3:30).


3:45 - 4:30 Math and Science (Paul is good with his numbers and adding...getting decent at subtracting, Luke is still doing some review work, yesterday we started our science lesson about simple machines...we learned about the inclined plane...Luke "already knows this" and Paul has been spotting inclined planes all over the place).


4:30 M and W it is time to leave for TaeKwonDo and other days we do a craft.


And that is the end of the day.  During nap/rest, I grade papers for one of my online classes.  Before Morning Meeting, I post to my other online classes and do something related to cleaning the house.  I find this pace a bit exhausting, but I think I'll get used to it and this is what I *want* to be doing.  I think the boys have plenty of play time built in.  We are flying through Luke's curriculum...for grammar we are on Week 4 already, for math and science we are into Week 3.  I don't know if I am not providing the instruction the curriculum intends or if it just supposes you will get very little done in a day?  I'm not too concerned, we're just going forward at a comfortable and challenging pace. 


The biggest challenge is for me to do all of this with a cheerful heart.  I admit that I get annoyed by the constant noise, talking in strange voices, backtalk, bickering, etc.  We (and I mean I as much as they) need to figure out how to be loving to one another...we love each other, but we aren't always loving.