You may have noticed that here it is, the middle of November, and the last time I posted was on the 2nd. No, I haven't actually been slacking with our schedules and just not posting. I've actually been sticking to it pretty well.
But since I've been doing pretty well and not posting, I think I'm going to stop posting our daily activities on this. It got pretty boring to read anyway. From now on, I'm probably going to only post if there's something really cool we've done or there's something I want to share. But if I find myself slacking more and more, I'll start posting more again just to keep myself on track. So if you use Google Reader, then you will be able to see when I've posted without having to keep checking. If you don't, well, you can keep checking, but there probably won't be new posts very often.
If you have any thoughts or suggestions on activities or things that have worked for you with your kids, still feel free to post comments or to email me. If there are really good suggestions, I may put them in a regular post so everyone can see.
Thanks!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Not as much slacking
Last week seemed much better. It was a short week with the kids being out of school on Thursday and Friday and their dad staying home with them too, but I felt like more was accomplished. If only I could remember all the details...
On Monday we did have a typical morning with chores, reading time, learning time, etc. It was pretty cold out though, so any outdoor play that the kids wanted to do (and they did) didn't get done. For art time the boys colored some Halloween pictures and had a pretty good time doing it.
On Tuesday the kids ended up going to their cousins' house to play while I ran some errands to get ready for our little family party for their dad's birthday and to start baking the cake. When I brought them back home, they were pretty happy to try to help a bit, in between some learning time and some more coloring.
On Wednesday, their cousins came to our house to play. They had a good time, and we even read a couple books together during their play time.
Then we had our long weekend, which was pretty fun.
On Monday, we did an extended chore time. After the long weekend, the house had gotten a bit messier than it usually does. But we still managed to get in our regular reading time too. After we dropped D off at the bus, we walked down to the park to play for a bit. It had been a while since we had walked down, since the kids had been sick and it had gotten a bit cold. They had a good time, and it felt good to go on the walk. After the walk to the park, they had some learning time before and after lunch, then we went outside to play again, mostly so I could rake and clean up the yard a bit. They always want to help with that one too, so it's kind of fun. It won't be too much longer before it gets too cold to spend much time outside.
On Monday we did have a typical morning with chores, reading time, learning time, etc. It was pretty cold out though, so any outdoor play that the kids wanted to do (and they did) didn't get done. For art time the boys colored some Halloween pictures and had a pretty good time doing it.
On Tuesday the kids ended up going to their cousins' house to play while I ran some errands to get ready for our little family party for their dad's birthday and to start baking the cake. When I brought them back home, they were pretty happy to try to help a bit, in between some learning time and some more coloring.
On Wednesday, their cousins came to our house to play. They had a good time, and we even read a couple books together during their play time.
Then we had our long weekend, which was pretty fun.
On Monday, we did an extended chore time. After the long weekend, the house had gotten a bit messier than it usually does. But we still managed to get in our regular reading time too. After we dropped D off at the bus, we walked down to the park to play for a bit. It had been a while since we had walked down, since the kids had been sick and it had gotten a bit cold. They had a good time, and it felt good to go on the walk. After the walk to the park, they had some learning time before and after lunch, then we went outside to play again, mostly so I could rake and clean up the yard a bit. They always want to help with that one too, so it's kind of fun. It won't be too much longer before it gets too cold to spend much time outside.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Will it ever end?
I was so excited because on Wednesday D was finally able to go back to school after having missed a week. We started out good with our chores then story time.
After we got D off on the bus, we went home to get some things ready and then went on another outing to the zoo. Boy, it seems like we go to the zoo a lot. But with the year passes and with the kids who really, really like the zoo, we end up going there. The only bad thing about going to the zoo was when we first got there and W was a little bit carsick and threw up in the parking lot. I was going to just turn around and have us go home, but he really wanted to stay, so I told him we could try it for a bit. Getting out in the fresh air helped him feel a lot better.
The zoo trip made us be pretty late, so the kids were still eating their late lunch when the others came home on the bus. I helped them with their homework, then they had a little time to jump on the trampoline before we had to take D to soccer practice.
Unfortunately, D woke up in the night with a really bad earache, so I had to take him to the doctor on Thursday morning to confirm that yes, he did have an ear infection. So after we picked up the prescription for him, we rented a few movies and I let them have a movie day. The poor kid really didn't feel well with that ear hurting him so much.
On Friday, the kids didn't have school and didn't want to leave to do something fun because they wanted to take advantage of having the trampoline that is still a novelty to them. So they spent probably half the day outside jumping and playing on the trampoline. Before long it's going to be too cold to go out and jump on it very often, so I let them do as much of that now as they can, within reason.
So yes, I felt like Thursday and Friday were a bit on the slacker side again, but I did get a lot of cleaning done on Friday, so that was good at least.
After we got D off on the bus, we went home to get some things ready and then went on another outing to the zoo. Boy, it seems like we go to the zoo a lot. But with the year passes and with the kids who really, really like the zoo, we end up going there. The only bad thing about going to the zoo was when we first got there and W was a little bit carsick and threw up in the parking lot. I was going to just turn around and have us go home, but he really wanted to stay, so I told him we could try it for a bit. Getting out in the fresh air helped him feel a lot better.
The zoo trip made us be pretty late, so the kids were still eating their late lunch when the others came home on the bus. I helped them with their homework, then they had a little time to jump on the trampoline before we had to take D to soccer practice.
Unfortunately, D woke up in the night with a really bad earache, so I had to take him to the doctor on Thursday morning to confirm that yes, he did have an ear infection. So after we picked up the prescription for him, we rented a few movies and I let them have a movie day. The poor kid really didn't feel well with that ear hurting him so much.
On Friday, the kids didn't have school and didn't want to leave to do something fun because they wanted to take advantage of having the trampoline that is still a novelty to them. So they spent probably half the day outside jumping and playing on the trampoline. Before long it's going to be too cold to go out and jump on it very often, so I let them do as much of that now as they can, within reason.
So yes, I felt like Thursday and Friday were a bit on the slacker side again, but I did get a lot of cleaning done on Friday, so that was good at least.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Yes, more slacking
So on Wednesday I had all my kids home because of the flu, and yes, I let it be an excuse to slack a little bit. Okay, a lot. But I did try to at least do one thing with the kids each day so it wasn't a total slacker day.
And it's been so long and all the days blend in together, that I can't remember what we did on Wednesday. We did do a story time, but I can't remember what else. Sorry about that.
B actually went back to school on Thursday, so D was the only one who was supposed to have gone to school and didn't. We did a story time as usual on Thursday and I let them have a bit of a learning time on starfall.com again. D likes to get on there and write down the words that he sees. I think it's good practice for him. Later in the day, we rearranged the furniture in our family room a little bit. So can we call that art time?
On Friday, D was still home, but was feeling a bit better, so we did a learning time in the morning and did a story time outside in the afternoon. After the story time, the kids had a good time looking for some different fall leaves.
On Sunday D was hit with a fever again that lasted most of the day Monday as well, so he stayed home once again. It was also a laundry day for me, as usual, so I let the kids play while I would do laundry. It had been raining a bit in the morning, so when W kept begging to let him jump on the trampoline, I couldn't let him. B and H did for a while after B came home from school though. But once again, we did our story time and did a bit of a game time on Monday. But it was still a slacker day.
Tuesday was actually much better, even though D was still home from school. His school has a policy with the whole swine flu thing that if they are sick with a fever, they're not supposed to return to school until they have been fever-free for 24 hours without medication. And since he still had a fever on Monday night, he stayed home on Tuesday. But since he was feeling better, it made it easier to actually make sure we did things.
We had our story time as usual, although I will admit that in the morning I let them have a little more free play than I usually do. But we did a real art time where we got some construction paper and made pumpkins and then put them up the front windows. They had a good time gluing eyes and noses and mouths on their pumpkins. And then had a really good time going outside to see the pumpkins up on the windows.
But hopefully now that everyone seems to be over this flu for the most part (knock on wood) we'll be able to get back to our routine. I certainly hope so.
And it's been so long and all the days blend in together, that I can't remember what we did on Wednesday. We did do a story time, but I can't remember what else. Sorry about that.
B actually went back to school on Thursday, so D was the only one who was supposed to have gone to school and didn't. We did a story time as usual on Thursday and I let them have a bit of a learning time on starfall.com again. D likes to get on there and write down the words that he sees. I think it's good practice for him. Later in the day, we rearranged the furniture in our family room a little bit. So can we call that art time?
On Friday, D was still home, but was feeling a bit better, so we did a learning time in the morning and did a story time outside in the afternoon. After the story time, the kids had a good time looking for some different fall leaves.
On Sunday D was hit with a fever again that lasted most of the day Monday as well, so he stayed home once again. It was also a laundry day for me, as usual, so I let the kids play while I would do laundry. It had been raining a bit in the morning, so when W kept begging to let him jump on the trampoline, I couldn't let him. B and H did for a while after B came home from school though. But once again, we did our story time and did a bit of a game time on Monday. But it was still a slacker day.
Tuesday was actually much better, even though D was still home from school. His school has a policy with the whole swine flu thing that if they are sick with a fever, they're not supposed to return to school until they have been fever-free for 24 hours without medication. And since he still had a fever on Monday night, he stayed home on Tuesday. But since he was feeling better, it made it easier to actually make sure we did things.
We had our story time as usual, although I will admit that in the morning I let them have a little more free play than I usually do. But we did a real art time where we got some construction paper and made pumpkins and then put them up the front windows. They had a good time gluing eyes and noses and mouths on their pumpkins. And then had a really good time going outside to see the pumpkins up on the windows.
But hopefully now that everyone seems to be over this flu for the most part (knock on wood) we'll be able to get back to our routine. I certainly hope so.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Spooky Ghosts
Tuesday ended up being much better. I didn't slack off much at all. Even though I was tempted to because B was home sick.
Because B was home sick, I did take the opportunity to sleep in a little bit, although not much. But that did put us back a little bit in our morning routine. But we still got in a good story time, which was even helped by B who wanted to read to his brothers.
After we dropped D off at the bus, we came back and did our art time. For art time, we got plastic grocery sacks and made ghosts to decorate a tree outside for Halloween. The kids were very, very excited to be able to make them. Their favorite part was drawing faces on the sacks after we had them stuffed and shaped. W kept carrying his around and was excited to see it up on the tree after we made them all.
After lunch and a little free play time, we put together some puzzles and then had a learning time. I was impressed how W knows all his letters now and even knows their sounds. He was trying to sound out the word "jump" and was getting pretty close. And H is getting better with letters and knows quite a few. He wants to know them like his brothers, so he loves learning the letters.
It's amazing how much I feel like I'm a better mom when we actually stick to the schedule and I resist the impulse to be lazy, even when we've got some sick kids at home. Now if I can just remember that so I'll keep it up....
Because B was home sick, I did take the opportunity to sleep in a little bit, although not much. But that did put us back a little bit in our morning routine. But we still got in a good story time, which was even helped by B who wanted to read to his brothers.
After we dropped D off at the bus, we came back and did our art time. For art time, we got plastic grocery sacks and made ghosts to decorate a tree outside for Halloween. The kids were very, very excited to be able to make them. Their favorite part was drawing faces on the sacks after we had them stuffed and shaped. W kept carrying his around and was excited to see it up on the tree after we made them all.
After lunch and a little free play time, we put together some puzzles and then had a learning time. I was impressed how W knows all his letters now and even knows their sounds. He was trying to sound out the word "jump" and was getting pretty close. And H is getting better with letters and knows quite a few. He wants to know them like his brothers, so he loves learning the letters.
It's amazing how much I feel like I'm a better mom when we actually stick to the schedule and I resist the impulse to be lazy, even when we've got some sick kids at home. Now if I can just remember that so I'll keep it up....
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thursday, Friday, and Monday
Okay, wow. I hadn't realized that I only reported once last week. For some reason I thought I had just left off Friday's. But I guess 3 days isn't too bad. I'm sure that if I keep letting 3 days slide though, soon it will turn to 4, then I'll just be reporting once a week. And while that might be good for my 2 readers who I'm sure get a little bit bored reading about my days, it might facilitate a bit of slacking off in the schedule on my part.
The end of the week last week did continue with my slacking a bit. Thursday's morning was thrown off by a doctor appointment for my youngest, so we didn't get our reading time in for the morning. We did do it later though, so at least that.
After the doctor appointment, I started getting so I wasn't feeling well again, so for the most part, it was a lazy afternoon. Especially since once again, H and A were both sleeping at the same time. And luckily for me, W was watching his favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz. So I did get to rest a bit. Of course, it was a Thursday and that's usually when my kids get to go play at their cousins' house and I get to do whatever. But since they had played there in the morning and their cousins had missed their time to play here, it ended up not happening.
I still wasn't feeling totally great on Friday, but we managed to have our normal morning routine and even did some art time with the kids coloring some Halloween pictures. D came home from school and saw some of the pictures they had colored and wanted to color one of his own too. He thought they were pretty cool.
On Monday we had a normal morning, although we almost missed the bus when we took D there. After the bus, we went down to the park to play for a bit, even though it was windy and cold. Of course that's when they wanted to stay and play longer than they usually do.
And yes, Monday afternoon had a little more slacking. I had some laundry to fold and put away, so while the kids were watching a Star Wars movie that was on TV, I did that. Okay, it was while W was watching it, since H thinks he has to follow me around everywhere and sat on my lap while I folded the laundry and had me read him some more books. After that was done, we just went outside to play for a bit until their older brothers got home from school.
Hopefully I'll do better tomorrow.
The end of the week last week did continue with my slacking a bit. Thursday's morning was thrown off by a doctor appointment for my youngest, so we didn't get our reading time in for the morning. We did do it later though, so at least that.
After the doctor appointment, I started getting so I wasn't feeling well again, so for the most part, it was a lazy afternoon. Especially since once again, H and A were both sleeping at the same time. And luckily for me, W was watching his favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz. So I did get to rest a bit. Of course, it was a Thursday and that's usually when my kids get to go play at their cousins' house and I get to do whatever. But since they had played there in the morning and their cousins had missed their time to play here, it ended up not happening.
I still wasn't feeling totally great on Friday, but we managed to have our normal morning routine and even did some art time with the kids coloring some Halloween pictures. D came home from school and saw some of the pictures they had colored and wanted to color one of his own too. He thought they were pretty cool.
On Monday we had a normal morning, although we almost missed the bus when we took D there. After the bus, we went down to the park to play for a bit, even though it was windy and cold. Of course that's when they wanted to stay and play longer than they usually do.
And yes, Monday afternoon had a little more slacking. I had some laundry to fold and put away, so while the kids were watching a Star Wars movie that was on TV, I did that. Okay, it was while W was watching it, since H thinks he has to follow me around everywhere and sat on my lap while I folded the laundry and had me read him some more books. After that was done, we just went outside to play for a bit until their older brothers got home from school.
Hopefully I'll do better tomorrow.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
I feel like a total slacker this week since we haven't been really doing any activities in the afternoon before Wednesday, although I probably should only feel like a slacker for Tuesday.
On Monday we did our usual morning with story time and chores and the like. On Monday afternoon, I had to take B back to the doctor to get his lip checked where they had removed the growth, so that kind of killed the afternoon as far as doing activities.
On Tuesday, we did our normal morning, and would have done their cousin day, but their cousins ended up going down for naps instead. So I could have done an activity, but I was feeling a bit sick with a cold, so while W played games on the computer, I took a bit of a nap with H (who was also feeling a bit sick and had gotten up for a while in the middle of the night).
Wednesday went a bit better. We did our usual morning story time and chores and then took D to the bus stop. After the bus came, we went to the library for their story time there and the kids seemed to have a good time again. After lunch and a short free play time, we got out a board game (Candyland) and played that before we did an art time where they got to color Halloween pictures. W is a bit obsessed with Halloween this year. He always wants to go to the Halloween store to look at costumes and decorations, and he always asks if it's Halloween yet. I think it's going to be a long month.
On Monday we did our usual morning with story time and chores and the like. On Monday afternoon, I had to take B back to the doctor to get his lip checked where they had removed the growth, so that kind of killed the afternoon as far as doing activities.
On Tuesday, we did our normal morning, and would have done their cousin day, but their cousins ended up going down for naps instead. So I could have done an activity, but I was feeling a bit sick with a cold, so while W played games on the computer, I took a bit of a nap with H (who was also feeling a bit sick and had gotten up for a while in the middle of the night).
Wednesday went a bit better. We did our usual morning story time and chores and then took D to the bus stop. After the bus came, we went to the library for their story time there and the kids seemed to have a good time again. After lunch and a short free play time, we got out a board game (Candyland) and played that before we did an art time where they got to color Halloween pictures. W is a bit obsessed with Halloween this year. He always wants to go to the Halloween store to look at costumes and decorations, and he always asks if it's Halloween yet. I think it's going to be a long month.
Friday, October 2, 2009
A little lazy?
Okay, I feel like I've been a little lazy lately, since we haven't had a good art or music time this week.
On Wednesday after we dropped D off at the bus, I took the other 3 to the library for their story time there. They seemed to have a lot of fun, so I may keep taking them there. Later in the afternoon, we made chocolate chip cookies instead of doing a different activity.
On Thursday they got to go play with their cousins. I had all sorts of plans of what I would do while they were gone, but I got a haircut and went to the store and ended up taking a lot longer than I planned, so I didn't have time for anything else before the older kids got off the bus. It really was very nice being able to go and do that without the kids though.
Today (Friday), was really my lazy day. I let the kids play a couple games on the computer while I cleaned a bit and then made some treats for a girls' night out. I also did some laundry while I was doing that. Then I finally had some lunch and took a little bit of a break while they were playing with toys together (and the baby was napping). So I really could have done more, but didn't. I think I may have decided to start potty training H though, since he acts as if he wants to try a bit. We'll see if I stick to it after this weekend or decide to let him stay in diapers for a little longer.
On Wednesday after we dropped D off at the bus, I took the other 3 to the library for their story time there. They seemed to have a lot of fun, so I may keep taking them there. Later in the afternoon, we made chocolate chip cookies instead of doing a different activity.
On Thursday they got to go play with their cousins. I had all sorts of plans of what I would do while they were gone, but I got a haircut and went to the store and ended up taking a lot longer than I planned, so I didn't have time for anything else before the older kids got off the bus. It really was very nice being able to go and do that without the kids though.
Today (Friday), was really my lazy day. I let the kids play a couple games on the computer while I cleaned a bit and then made some treats for a girls' night out. I also did some laundry while I was doing that. Then I finally had some lunch and took a little bit of a break while they were playing with toys together (and the baby was napping). So I really could have done more, but didn't. I think I may have decided to start potty training H though, since he acts as if he wants to try a bit. We'll see if I stick to it after this weekend or decide to let him stay in diapers for a little longer.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday and Monday
Friday was a pretty normal day. We did a music time on Friday and didn't really have an outing day since we had other things going on. I guess you could call the visit to the park on Thursday an outing day since it wasn't our usual park and we spent more time there.
On Monday, instead of having an art or music time, the kids got to go to their cousin's house while I had to go take B to the doctor to get his growth (a mucous seal) removed from the inside of his lip. He did really well and sat still and calm while they removed it. The doctor said he deserved an extra special Christmas present this year because he did so well and didn't have to have it done in the hospital and saved us lots of money. It just totally cracked me up that they were holding onto his lip and cutting it off and he just kept talking. "I don't feel that at all!"
We did walk to the park on our adventure walk on Monday, partly because it's the last warm (okay, hot) day before we get a nice cold front coming through. I am all sorts of excited for the cooler weather, but it will make it a little harder to do things outside.
On Monday, instead of having an art or music time, the kids got to go to their cousin's house while I had to go take B to the doctor to get his growth (a mucous seal) removed from the inside of his lip. He did really well and sat still and calm while they removed it. The doctor said he deserved an extra special Christmas present this year because he did so well and didn't have to have it done in the hospital and saved us lots of money. It just totally cracked me up that they were holding onto his lip and cutting it off and he just kept talking. "I don't feel that at all!"
We did walk to the park on our adventure walk on Monday, partly because it's the last warm (okay, hot) day before we get a nice cold front coming through. I am all sorts of excited for the cooler weather, but it will make it a little harder to do things outside.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Doctors, doctors, and more doctors
It really seems like this week is the week of doctors. We had a normal morning on Wednesday, but in the afternoon I took H and B to the ENT. H's ears looked great and B goes back on Monday to get his growth on his lip removed. The doctor would have done it then, but D was coming off the bus in a half hour, so I needed to make sure I got home. We originally scheduled it for Thursday, but they couldn't get in touch with our insurance company to pre-authorize it and it was scheduled for Monday instead. B is funny. Even though his appointment is at 1:45 on Monday, he wants to go back to school after.
On Thursday we had a normal morning again. After we dropped D off on his bus, we came home and had a bit of a learning time before we went to the park so I could do my visiting teaching while the kids all played. Of course the kids would all come over and want attention as we would start talking, but it was still nice. H cracked me up and came over to me about a half hour after we got there and said, "Mama, let's go." He was done playing and wanted to go right then. I did get him to play a little bit longer though.
We did art time on Thursday and I had them color some dinosaur pictures again. H picked his picture because he wanted to color an ostrich and so his dinosaur was one with a beak and a long neck and walked on two legs. So that was his ostrich. Silly kid.
And as an added bonus, when B and D came home, they had slips of paper from the bus company saying that their bus was changing its (they put it's, so my husband said we should call them and say they shouldn't be allowed to change since they can't spell properly) route. The address they had for pick-up and drop-off happened to be our address. I thought at first that they were going to start picking up all the kids at their houses, but no, they're just picking up all the kids right in front of my house. That's really nice for before the snow starts coming. Now I won't have to get all 5 kids and walk down to the bus stop (or drive, but we usually walk). I can just wave bye to them from my front door. The kindergarten bus still picks them up from the same spot though, so I will have to take D over there, but it's a little easier to get us all over there then. I'm sure I'll be driving him over in the snow. When B was in kindergarten, we only had one car, so I'd have to walk him over to the bus stop. That year H ended up getting pneumonia. Now that we have two cars, I'll be driving to the bus stop when it's that cold and snowy.
On Thursday we had a normal morning again. After we dropped D off on his bus, we came home and had a bit of a learning time before we went to the park so I could do my visiting teaching while the kids all played. Of course the kids would all come over and want attention as we would start talking, but it was still nice. H cracked me up and came over to me about a half hour after we got there and said, "Mama, let's go." He was done playing and wanted to go right then. I did get him to play a little bit longer though.
We did art time on Thursday and I had them color some dinosaur pictures again. H picked his picture because he wanted to color an ostrich and so his dinosaur was one with a beak and a long neck and walked on two legs. So that was his ostrich. Silly kid.
And as an added bonus, when B and D came home, they had slips of paper from the bus company saying that their bus was changing its (they put it's, so my husband said we should call them and say they shouldn't be allowed to change since they can't spell properly) route. The address they had for pick-up and drop-off happened to be our address. I thought at first that they were going to start picking up all the kids at their houses, but no, they're just picking up all the kids right in front of my house. That's really nice for before the snow starts coming. Now I won't have to get all 5 kids and walk down to the bus stop (or drive, but we usually walk). I can just wave bye to them from my front door. The kindergarten bus still picks them up from the same spot though, so I will have to take D over there, but it's a little easier to get us all over there then. I'm sure I'll be driving him over in the snow. When B was in kindergarten, we only had one car, so I'd have to walk him over to the bus stop. That year H ended up getting pneumonia. Now that we have two cars, I'll be driving to the bus stop when it's that cold and snowy.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
New trades
Our routine is starting to adjust this week, but it's not going to be a huge change. One of the changes this week will be a regular change, but a few changes for this week are for this week only.
Monday however, was a normal day. We did go to the store after dropping D off at the bus, so while not uncommon, it wasn't a regularly scheduled activity. Other than that change, we had our normal chores, reading time, learning time, play time, and art time. I did think it was kind of funny that after art time (just coloring this time), H got out our learning time flash cards and brought them over to me because he wanted to do more learning time.
Tuesday's schedule was thrown off right from the start. B had a doctor appointment at 9:00, so he didn't go to school in the morning like he usually does. I took him to the doctor to have a growth he has on the inside of his bottom lip checked out. Turns out that it's an oral fibroma that might go away on its own, but the doctor thinks we should get it removed. So we have an appointment with the ENT on Wednesday to have him look at it and schedule its removal. The handy thing is that I already had an appointment scheduled with the ENT for H to get his tubes checked, and they were able to schedule B's appointment right after his.
After I dropped B off at school, I picked up the other kids from their aunt's house. By the time we got home, we didn't have a lot of time before we needed to take D to the bus, so the kids basically just played a little bit. After we took D to the bus, we came home and had a learning time, then lunch.
After lunch is where the change came that's going to be more of a regular change. Once a week their cousins will be coming over to play for a couple of hours, then on another day once a week, they will be going to their cousins' house for a couple of hours. That's going to be really nice for their moms because we'll get to do things without the kids: running errands, cleaning the house, taking a nap, whatever. So their moms will get a nice break for a bit and they'll get the chance to play with their cousins.
Their cousins went home just as B and D were coming home from school, so we did homework, which included a story time since we missed it in the morning, then the kids were able to play for a while before dinner.
I'm looking forward to the changes and also am looking forward to getting all these doctor appointments over with so we can get back to our regular routine.
Monday however, was a normal day. We did go to the store after dropping D off at the bus, so while not uncommon, it wasn't a regularly scheduled activity. Other than that change, we had our normal chores, reading time, learning time, play time, and art time. I did think it was kind of funny that after art time (just coloring this time), H got out our learning time flash cards and brought them over to me because he wanted to do more learning time.
Tuesday's schedule was thrown off right from the start. B had a doctor appointment at 9:00, so he didn't go to school in the morning like he usually does. I took him to the doctor to have a growth he has on the inside of his bottom lip checked out. Turns out that it's an oral fibroma that might go away on its own, but the doctor thinks we should get it removed. So we have an appointment with the ENT on Wednesday to have him look at it and schedule its removal. The handy thing is that I already had an appointment scheduled with the ENT for H to get his tubes checked, and they were able to schedule B's appointment right after his.
After I dropped B off at school, I picked up the other kids from their aunt's house. By the time we got home, we didn't have a lot of time before we needed to take D to the bus, so the kids basically just played a little bit. After we took D to the bus, we came home and had a learning time, then lunch.
After lunch is where the change came that's going to be more of a regular change. Once a week their cousins will be coming over to play for a couple of hours, then on another day once a week, they will be going to their cousins' house for a couple of hours. That's going to be really nice for their moms because we'll get to do things without the kids: running errands, cleaning the house, taking a nap, whatever. So their moms will get a nice break for a bit and they'll get the chance to play with their cousins.
Their cousins went home just as B and D were coming home from school, so we did homework, which included a story time since we missed it in the morning, then the kids were able to play for a while before dinner.
I'm looking forward to the changes and also am looking forward to getting all these doctor appointments over with so we can get back to our regular routine.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Water art and outing day
Thursday was a pretty good day, with our typical morning of chores followed by reading time, especially since we actually were able to get it all done earlier and had it done by the time my visiting teachers came by for a short, but chaotic thanks to D and W, visit.
After we took D to the bus, we went on another adventure walk to the park. It amazes me with how long it sometimes takes to walk to the park, especially when W is riding his big wheel. And it cracks me up that now that B and D are in school and aren't coming with us on the adventure walks, the kids are always looking for monkeys and tigers. When they see them they throw bananas and meat so that the animals won't get us. With that typical choice, it's no surprise that they love going to the zoo and don't seem to get tired of it.
After lunch and a free play time, we did a short learning time, followed by an art time. Sticking with the order of the days, it should have been a music day, but since we had seemed to miss our art times on art days, I decided to let us do art. We took cups of water and some sponges outside and painted pictures on the driveway with water. We were still outside doing it when D, who had run ahead of B, got home from school and saw us and wanted to join in. So we did that for a couple of minutes before we came in and checked backpacks and stuff. After that, we went back outside for some outside play.
If you have any good suggestions for activities to do during art time or music time or even just during play, please feel free to comment and let me know. I'm always up for suggestions so that we're not always doing the same things.
Friday was our outing day for the week, since B and D didn't have school. For our outing, we went first to a park to play for a little while, then we met their dad for lunch. After lunch, we went, of course, to the zoo. We had gone there last at the beginning of the week last week, and since then they had actually gotten a couple of new exhibits, so that was fun. B was having a good time reading a book he has about the solar system, so he spent the whole time we were traveling in the van reading that book and telling me about it.
When we got home, we had some ice cream cones and the kids played outside for a bit. I had B and D go around the block on their scooters while I timed them to see how fast they could do it, which was just over 3 minutes. W decided he wanted to go with them and went even though I had told him not to, so he got to spend the rest of the night in his room, only coming down for dinner.
One thing I like about this schedule is that it gets us up and active. We're always doing different things and not just sitting around. If you know my kids, you know they don't just sit around anyway, but at least it's good for me.
After we took D to the bus, we went on another adventure walk to the park. It amazes me with how long it sometimes takes to walk to the park, especially when W is riding his big wheel. And it cracks me up that now that B and D are in school and aren't coming with us on the adventure walks, the kids are always looking for monkeys and tigers. When they see them they throw bananas and meat so that the animals won't get us. With that typical choice, it's no surprise that they love going to the zoo and don't seem to get tired of it.
After lunch and a free play time, we did a short learning time, followed by an art time. Sticking with the order of the days, it should have been a music day, but since we had seemed to miss our art times on art days, I decided to let us do art. We took cups of water and some sponges outside and painted pictures on the driveway with water. We were still outside doing it when D, who had run ahead of B, got home from school and saw us and wanted to join in. So we did that for a couple of minutes before we came in and checked backpacks and stuff. After that, we went back outside for some outside play.
If you have any good suggestions for activities to do during art time or music time or even just during play, please feel free to comment and let me know. I'm always up for suggestions so that we're not always doing the same things.
Friday was our outing day for the week, since B and D didn't have school. For our outing, we went first to a park to play for a little while, then we met their dad for lunch. After lunch, we went, of course, to the zoo. We had gone there last at the beginning of the week last week, and since then they had actually gotten a couple of new exhibits, so that was fun. B was having a good time reading a book he has about the solar system, so he spent the whole time we were traveling in the van reading that book and telling me about it.
When we got home, we had some ice cream cones and the kids played outside for a bit. I had B and D go around the block on their scooters while I timed them to see how fast they could do it, which was just over 3 minutes. W decided he wanted to go with them and went even though I had told him not to, so he got to spend the rest of the night in his room, only coming down for dinner.
One thing I like about this schedule is that it gets us up and active. We're always doing different things and not just sitting around. If you know my kids, you know they don't just sit around anyway, but at least it's good for me.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Another single post for two days
There seems to be a trend in my slacking in actually recording every day what we've been doing. But that's okay, since I do get to it eventually and just knowing that I will need to record it eventually still keeps me motivated. Our schedule has become more of a habit and established routine lately, so I think I'd actually keep it up now if I didn't keep up with the blog. But just in case I would end up stopping, I will still continue to record it.
We didn't really do an adventure walk on Tuesday like we usually do. The kids still made up games as we'd walk to and from the bus stop though, so at least we did get some walking and playing in.
Usually we will come home from dropping B off at the bus and then we'll eat breakfast, get dressed, and do our chores. It's amazing how long that can take sometimes. But after the chores are done (basically after all the toys are cleaned up), we have our story time. It's kind of nice because part of D's homework is to read at least 20 minutes 5 times a week, so we get to get it done before he goes to school. Then any other homework he may have (which he usually doesn't, but occasionally he will) we can do after he gets home from school. After the story time, I give them about a half hour to play before we need to take D to the bus for school. And for these last two days, that's exactly what happened.
On Tuesday after we got back from taking D to the bus, we sat down and did our learning time with the flash cards first. W and H are getting pretty good at recognizing all the numbers from 1-100, though of course, W is better at it, since he's older. And I was really impressed when W knew all of the letters except for J and U. He usually has a hard time remembering M and N too, but he knew those this time. So after we did the flash cards, I had him go on starfall.com again and work especially on J and U.
After lunch and another free play time, we had music time. We listened and danced to some music, then left it on while we made some cookies together. By the time the cookies were all done, it was time for the older two to get home from school. It really is amazing how quickly that goes.
On Wednesday after we got back from the bus, W and H wanted to play outside, so I decided that I would let them do that. To make it a little more productive for me, I decided to mow the front lawn while they were playing. Then our lawnmower started smoking, so I put it away and went over to borrow one from my sister-in-law who lives just around the corner, which is basically 3 houses away. The kids decided they wanted to stay and play with their cousins for a bit while I mowed the lawn, which actually turned out pretty well. Their one cousin decided he needed to come home with us when we left, so while they were all running up and back on the sidewalk, we chatted for a bit. Because of that, we ended up having a pretty late lunch and free play.
After the free play, the boys wanted to do a starfall learning time rather than do an art time, so I decided to let them. They were still doing that when B and D walked in the door from school, and kept doing it while I helped B and D do their homework. B also has to read for part of his homework, so he read a story to his younger brothers.
So we had another couple of good days. Usually I keep our outing day on Wednesday (or try to), but B and D don't have school on Friday, so I thought I'd wait and do our outing day then so they can go with us. It will probably be another trip to the zoo, since the kids love that and they have a couple new animals that B and D haven't been able to see yet.
We didn't really do an adventure walk on Tuesday like we usually do. The kids still made up games as we'd walk to and from the bus stop though, so at least we did get some walking and playing in.
Usually we will come home from dropping B off at the bus and then we'll eat breakfast, get dressed, and do our chores. It's amazing how long that can take sometimes. But after the chores are done (basically after all the toys are cleaned up), we have our story time. It's kind of nice because part of D's homework is to read at least 20 minutes 5 times a week, so we get to get it done before he goes to school. Then any other homework he may have (which he usually doesn't, but occasionally he will) we can do after he gets home from school. After the story time, I give them about a half hour to play before we need to take D to the bus for school. And for these last two days, that's exactly what happened.
On Tuesday after we got back from taking D to the bus, we sat down and did our learning time with the flash cards first. W and H are getting pretty good at recognizing all the numbers from 1-100, though of course, W is better at it, since he's older. And I was really impressed when W knew all of the letters except for J and U. He usually has a hard time remembering M and N too, but he knew those this time. So after we did the flash cards, I had him go on starfall.com again and work especially on J and U.
After lunch and another free play time, we had music time. We listened and danced to some music, then left it on while we made some cookies together. By the time the cookies were all done, it was time for the older two to get home from school. It really is amazing how quickly that goes.
On Wednesday after we got back from the bus, W and H wanted to play outside, so I decided that I would let them do that. To make it a little more productive for me, I decided to mow the front lawn while they were playing. Then our lawnmower started smoking, so I put it away and went over to borrow one from my sister-in-law who lives just around the corner, which is basically 3 houses away. The kids decided they wanted to stay and play with their cousins for a bit while I mowed the lawn, which actually turned out pretty well. Their one cousin decided he needed to come home with us when we left, so while they were all running up and back on the sidewalk, we chatted for a bit. Because of that, we ended up having a pretty late lunch and free play.
After the free play, the boys wanted to do a starfall learning time rather than do an art time, so I decided to let them. They were still doing that when B and D walked in the door from school, and kept doing it while I helped B and D do their homework. B also has to read for part of his homework, so he read a story to his younger brothers.
So we had another couple of good days. Usually I keep our outing day on Wednesday (or try to), but B and D don't have school on Friday, so I thought I'd wait and do our outing day then so they can go with us. It will probably be another trip to the zoo, since the kids love that and they have a couple new animals that B and D haven't been able to see yet.
Monday, September 14, 2009
3 days, 1 post
Wow, I didn't realize that I had slacked off quite this much and haven't posted about Thursday or Friday. I guess maybe I should actually check a little more often.
Thursday and Friday both went pretty well. On Thursday we did another adventure walk to the park. It was kind of funny because W had wanted to go right when we did for it, but then didn't remember to start looking for his adventure stuff until we were almost to the park.
Later in the afternoon, we colored some pictures for art time and then played a board game until it was time to go pick up the older 2 from the school bus.
On Friday I took the younger 3 to the library after we took D to the bus. That particular trip made me not want to take them back to the library for a very, very long time, but we did get a couple of fun books to read with them for story time.
After a learning time and play time, we did a music time where we played and danced and sang. They seemed to have a good time.
Today we did another adventure walk after we dropped D off a the bus. We took the dog with us this time, which I don't do often because he's got such bad hips. Whenever we do though, we get lots of looks and lots of comments. He's a very large dog and very pretty. It's more the size that gets us the stares though. When the dog is taller than the stroller I'm pushing, it's not surprising.
For some reason, it took us longer on today's adventure walk, so by the time we got home and had some lunch and some play time, it was time to go pick up the others from the bus. At least they did get some learning time in and we always get story time in the mornings and throughout the day, especially with H. He loves books and is always bringing me some to read to him. Especially "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You Hear?" and "Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You See?" He has those two memorized and usually ends up telling them to us rather than having us read them to him. He's very cute and very silly.
Thursday and Friday both went pretty well. On Thursday we did another adventure walk to the park. It was kind of funny because W had wanted to go right when we did for it, but then didn't remember to start looking for his adventure stuff until we were almost to the park.
Later in the afternoon, we colored some pictures for art time and then played a board game until it was time to go pick up the older 2 from the school bus.
On Friday I took the younger 3 to the library after we took D to the bus. That particular trip made me not want to take them back to the library for a very, very long time, but we did get a couple of fun books to read with them for story time.
After a learning time and play time, we did a music time where we played and danced and sang. They seemed to have a good time.
Today we did another adventure walk after we dropped D off a the bus. We took the dog with us this time, which I don't do often because he's got such bad hips. Whenever we do though, we get lots of looks and lots of comments. He's a very large dog and very pretty. It's more the size that gets us the stares though. When the dog is taller than the stroller I'm pushing, it's not surprising.
For some reason, it took us longer on today's adventure walk, so by the time we got home and had some lunch and some play time, it was time to go pick up the others from the bus. At least they did get some learning time in and we always get story time in the mornings and throughout the day, especially with H. He loves books and is always bringing me some to read to him. Especially "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You Hear?" and "Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You See?" He has those two memorized and usually ends up telling them to us rather than having us read them to him. He's very cute and very silly.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
2 days, 1 post
For some reason, it's hard for me to actually get in a report every day of what we did. I was originally going to do them at night after the kids were in bed, but I typically don't want to spend that time on the computer. I'd actually rather just be able to relax and read a book or watch tv or something like that. So there will be times like this time where I combine a couple of days' worth into one post. I'm sure no one will really mind.
Since it was actually a bit cooler yesterday, we did our outing day then. We dropped D off at the bus stop and then headed out to the zoo. Since there were just the 3 kids, we were actually able to take a little more time looking at each of the animals. It's amazing sometimes how much difference there is when one goes places with 2 less children. Sometimes the difference is good, sometimes it's bad. This time was a little of both. Well, it wasn't bad, but I missed having the other two there for their fun comments and missed being able to spend time with them. But I did really enjoy taking just the 3. It wasn't necessarily easier, but it seemed that way when I had 2 less kids to try to keep track of.
We had a good reading time and learning time yesterday too, but we usually do.
Today was pretty good too, but we didn't really get a good activity in, other than the trip to the store to get more milk and dog food. We did stop at the park on the way back so the kids could play for a minute, but they weren't all that interested in playing much today.
H fell asleep for a bit this afternoon though, so I had some good one-on-one time with W for about a half hour. We played a game on the computer together and had a bit of a learning time.
This morning's reading time was pretty good. It was one where they kept bringing more books or wanting me to read the books over again. With the ABC books, I'm always impressed with how well they know their letters. D is getting pretty good with the help of school and will hear words on the television or somewhere and tell me what letter it starts with. W knows almost all of his letters now, even some that I thought he didn't know. It's amazing to me sometimes how quickly kids can learn.
Since it was actually a bit cooler yesterday, we did our outing day then. We dropped D off at the bus stop and then headed out to the zoo. Since there were just the 3 kids, we were actually able to take a little more time looking at each of the animals. It's amazing sometimes how much difference there is when one goes places with 2 less children. Sometimes the difference is good, sometimes it's bad. This time was a little of both. Well, it wasn't bad, but I missed having the other two there for their fun comments and missed being able to spend time with them. But I did really enjoy taking just the 3. It wasn't necessarily easier, but it seemed that way when I had 2 less kids to try to keep track of.
We had a good reading time and learning time yesterday too, but we usually do.
Today was pretty good too, but we didn't really get a good activity in, other than the trip to the store to get more milk and dog food. We did stop at the park on the way back so the kids could play for a minute, but they weren't all that interested in playing much today.
H fell asleep for a bit this afternoon though, so I had some good one-on-one time with W for about a half hour. We played a game on the computer together and had a bit of a learning time.
This morning's reading time was pretty good. It was one where they kept bringing more books or wanting me to read the books over again. With the ABC books, I'm always impressed with how well they know their letters. D is getting pretty good with the help of school and will hear words on the television or somewhere and tell me what letter it starts with. W knows almost all of his letters now, even some that I thought he didn't know. It's amazing to me sometimes how quickly kids can learn.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Dance and play
Friday was a pretty good day as far as the routine has been going.
We had a good story time, we went on another adventure walk to the park. We had music time since it was a Friday.
The kids were pretty excited to do music time and kept asking me to turn on the music. We started out dancing a bit to it, but we mostly ended up playing "Ring Around the Rosies" and "climb on Mommy's back" while the music was playing in the background. It ended up being a lot of fun though. Since the older two kids were in school, it gave us some good play time with the younger ones.
After music time, we made some cookies so the older kids could have a fun treat when they got home from school. It was a fun way to start the long weekend.
We had a good story time, we went on another adventure walk to the park. We had music time since it was a Friday.
The kids were pretty excited to do music time and kept asking me to turn on the music. We started out dancing a bit to it, but we mostly ended up playing "Ring Around the Rosies" and "climb on Mommy's back" while the music was playing in the background. It ended up being a lot of fun though. Since the older two kids were in school, it gave us some good play time with the younger ones.
After music time, we made some cookies so the older kids could have a fun treat when they got home from school. It was a fun way to start the long weekend.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Dinosaur art
Thursday was pretty similar to Wednesday, but we didn't go to the lake on an outing. We did do an adventure walk to the park after we dropped D off at the bus stop. It was kind of funny watching W and H not really know what to do as much without their older brothers there to play with.
For art time on Thursday, I pulled out one of the giant coloring books we have with dinosaurs and let them each pick a picture or two to color and we all sat and colored together. W kept making up stories about his dinosaurs as he would color, so it was fun to see. H has a typical 2 year-old attention span, so he'd run off for a bit, come back and color, go run off, come back and color, etc. It was fun though.
So another successful day. And I think we're starting to get a good routine going with the other kids in school.
For art time on Thursday, I pulled out one of the giant coloring books we have with dinosaurs and let them each pick a picture or two to color and we all sat and colored together. W kept making up stories about his dinosaurs as he would color, so it was fun to see. H has a typical 2 year-old attention span, so he'd run off for a bit, come back and color, go run off, come back and color, etc. It was fun though.
So another successful day. And I think we're starting to get a good routine going with the other kids in school.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Another outing
As I thought would happen, Tuesday was kind of a bust. Yes, I did read them a few stories, but mostly they played with toys and things during the day. And they did get in some time on starfall, learning letters.
Wednesday went much better though. I switched things around a little bit though. After we took B to the bus and then had breakfast and did chores, we did story time. I figured that D is supposed to have at least 20 minutes a day of reading for school anyway, so it was a good time to do it and help him be ready for more later in the day. I wanted to do it earlier, especially when I knew that we wouldn't have much time after school with D having soccer practice.
We drove D to school instead of having him ride the bus, just because the ride to school is a really, really long one as they pick up all the kindergarten kids who ride the bus. And I didn't want him to be on the bus and then revert to his diarrhea of the day before and not be able to get to a bathroom. After we dropped D off at the bus, we stopped by a bookstore to look for a cd I wanted to get, but they didn't have it there. Then we went on our weekly outing.
This time we basically just took a drive over to the lake. They have a visitor's center at the lake since it's also a wild animal preserve, but we decided not to go in since we hadn't really come prepared with a stroller for the baby. Instead, we parked near the boat launch and then walked down to their docks to look at the water. It had a nice film of algae in it, so I was glad we weren't planning on swimming that day. We watched a couple of fish jump for bugs and looked at some birds that were hanging out in the water. I think next time we'll be a little more prepared and bring the stroller with us so we can check out the visitor's center.
After we left the lake, we went for a bit of a drive past some orchards and then around the one edge of the lake. H's favorite part was when we passed by a field that had a bunch of goats in it. He really wanted to see more goats.
After the drive, we came home for some lunch and they had a free play time for a bit. I let the kids color for a bit after some free play before it was time to go pick up the older kids from the bus. The older kids surprised us by getting home earlier than they had been, so they were almost home by the time we were starting to leave. But we went for a little walk as they got home so B's friend could ask his grandpa if he could come over and play. That one caused a bit of panic for his friend's grandpa, since his friend got off on his stop and is supposed to get off on the next stop. But after a bit of a tongue-lashing about not going places without checking in first, B's friend was able to come play until we had to leave for soccer practice.
It's amazing how quickly the day goes sometimes when the older kids are in school. It seems sometimes as though we've barely taken them to the bus to go to school, when it's suddenly time to pick them up. And they're all growing up too fast.
Wednesday went much better though. I switched things around a little bit though. After we took B to the bus and then had breakfast and did chores, we did story time. I figured that D is supposed to have at least 20 minutes a day of reading for school anyway, so it was a good time to do it and help him be ready for more later in the day. I wanted to do it earlier, especially when I knew that we wouldn't have much time after school with D having soccer practice.
We drove D to school instead of having him ride the bus, just because the ride to school is a really, really long one as they pick up all the kindergarten kids who ride the bus. And I didn't want him to be on the bus and then revert to his diarrhea of the day before and not be able to get to a bathroom. After we dropped D off at the bus, we stopped by a bookstore to look for a cd I wanted to get, but they didn't have it there. Then we went on our weekly outing.
This time we basically just took a drive over to the lake. They have a visitor's center at the lake since it's also a wild animal preserve, but we decided not to go in since we hadn't really come prepared with a stroller for the baby. Instead, we parked near the boat launch and then walked down to their docks to look at the water. It had a nice film of algae in it, so I was glad we weren't planning on swimming that day. We watched a couple of fish jump for bugs and looked at some birds that were hanging out in the water. I think next time we'll be a little more prepared and bring the stroller with us so we can check out the visitor's center.
After we left the lake, we went for a bit of a drive past some orchards and then around the one edge of the lake. H's favorite part was when we passed by a field that had a bunch of goats in it. He really wanted to see more goats.
After the drive, we came home for some lunch and they had a free play time for a bit. I let the kids color for a bit after some free play before it was time to go pick up the older kids from the bus. The older kids surprised us by getting home earlier than they had been, so they were almost home by the time we were starting to leave. But we went for a little walk as they got home so B's friend could ask his grandpa if he could come over and play. That one caused a bit of panic for his friend's grandpa, since his friend got off on his stop and is supposed to get off on the next stop. But after a bit of a tongue-lashing about not going places without checking in first, B's friend was able to come play until we had to leave for soccer practice.
It's amazing how quickly the day goes sometimes when the older kids are in school. It seems sometimes as though we've barely taken them to the bus to go to school, when it's suddenly time to pick them up. And they're all growing up too fast.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Monday's work
We ended up having a better day on Monday than I thought we would. B was actually feeling okay and could have gone to school, but I still think it was better that we kept him home just in case he was still contagious our would get it again.
We had a pretty good learning time, playing on starfall.com again. H is getting so he really likes watching it and learning letters too.
For game and then art time, we got a puzzle out and were putting it together. I was impressed with how often W was able to find the pieces that fit together, even though he just turned 4. He always thought it was pretty cool when he found some that fit. We even still worked on it for a little bit when D got home from school and had it about 3/4 of the way done when H decided to knock it off the table and break it apart.
And we even did get a few books read too, so it ended up being a pretty successful day.
Today however, will not be. W and H both threw up again last night, D has diarrhea, and so does his mom. So it will probably be a movie day. But we'll see how everyone is feeling a little later.
We had a pretty good learning time, playing on starfall.com again. H is getting so he really likes watching it and learning letters too.
For game and then art time, we got a puzzle out and were putting it together. I was impressed with how often W was able to find the pieces that fit together, even though he just turned 4. He always thought it was pretty cool when he found some that fit. We even still worked on it for a little bit when D got home from school and had it about 3/4 of the way done when H decided to knock it off the table and break it apart.
And we even did get a few books read too, so it ended up being a pretty successful day.
Today however, will not be. W and H both threw up again last night, D has diarrhea, and so does his mom. So it will probably be a movie day. But we'll see how everyone is feeling a little later.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Some long awaited music
Friday turned out to be a pretty good day as far as the scheduling thing went.
We did chores, then had a learning time before it was time to take D to the bus. After the bus, I needed some stuff from another store, so we stopped by there, then did lunch and some free time. After free time, we started some music time. It seems like it's been a while since we've done an actual music time. For music time, we finally got out the paper plate things we had made and did some different beats for those, then we practiced some of the songs that the older kids will be singing in church in a couple of weeks. We only had about a half hour until the bus was coming after we finished music time, so I let W and H color for a bit.
Unfortunately, I got sick around that time and threw up after we got back from the bus, so the rest of the day wasn't happening. I think we did still read a couple of books though. But then we had a weekend full of sick kids after that, even for W's birthday on Sunday.
And today I kept B home from school because he threw up in the night last night, so I'm thinking a good portion of today will probably be a bit shot. Hopefully we'll still get some of the stuff in though.
We did chores, then had a learning time before it was time to take D to the bus. After the bus, I needed some stuff from another store, so we stopped by there, then did lunch and some free time. After free time, we started some music time. It seems like it's been a while since we've done an actual music time. For music time, we finally got out the paper plate things we had made and did some different beats for those, then we practiced some of the songs that the older kids will be singing in church in a couple of weeks. We only had about a half hour until the bus was coming after we finished music time, so I let W and H color for a bit.
Unfortunately, I got sick around that time and threw up after we got back from the bus, so the rest of the day wasn't happening. I think we did still read a couple of books though. But then we had a weekend full of sick kids after that, even for W's birthday on Sunday.
And today I kept B home from school because he threw up in the night last night, so I'm thinking a good portion of today will probably be a bit shot. Hopefully we'll still get some of the stuff in though.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
We be jammin'
So there's one thing about my scheduling that I've wanted to make sure I could do, and that's to be a little bit flexible. If I wanted to have us do something a little different, I didn't want to be so obsessive about the schedule that I wouldn't let us do something a little spontaneous. So far I think I've succeeded with that.
It really did seem different today having both B and D away at school. It's a little bittersweet. I have to admit that I really did like the quiet, especially when both H and A were taking naps at the same time, so W was the only one awake. Talk about a change. But at the same time, I know that it's not going to be very long before my house is always quiet because they've grown up and moved on, probably before I'm ready for it. And I'm sure that when the time comes, I'll worry about whether or not I've done enough to prepare them for what lies in store, if I've taught them enough or let them experience enough. That's part of the reason I decided to do this schedule. I wanted to be able to look back and know that at least I tried and did my best.
The morning went pretty fast between the time we dropped B off at the bus stop and it was time to take D to the bus. I had been hoping to be able to do our adventure walk down to the park again for a bit, but breakfast and chores and those things ended up taking up most of the time. We did get to do a bit of our adventure walk while we were taking D to the bus stop though. It's really not far at all to take him to the bus stop, but we walked a little further and played a bit.
After we dropped D off, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I only had 3 kids with me and go to the store. It's amazing how much easier it is to take 3 kids to the store than to take 5. Most of the time I wait until my husband is home from work and either send him with a list or leave him with the kids while I go. The former seems to be what happens more often lately, which is actually pretty nice, since neither of us like to go shopping. So my husband is pretty nice to be willing to do it for me, even after a long and hard day at work.
H and A slept through our afternoon bit of learning time, but that meant that W got to take more time having fun with it. Quite often for our learning time, we'll either do flash cards with letters or numbers on them or we'll go visit www.starfall.com and he'll do the letter blocks or other activities there. He was even singing one of their songs while he was taking a bath before bed tonight, so that was fun.
While H and A were asleep, I took the opportunity to do a one-on-one activity with W. We made strawberry jam together. Not really a big thing, but he seemed to have a good time putting strawberries in the blender and helping me pour the ingredients into their bowls. He also did a pretty good job of stirring when it needed to be stirred. He was pretty excited to be able to tell D that we made some jam, since we were almost out of some and it's D's favorite.
After B and D got home from school, we did our story time and then they had some free play before dinner and baths. It's amazing how much fun it can be sometimes to have my kids sitting around me while I'm reading a book to them, especially when they really get into the story and react at different parts. Simple joys.
So with all that I did, I also did a few loads of laundry, fixed my vacuum cleaner, and unclogged the kids' bathroom toilet by taking the toilet off and using the toilet auger to be able to get the 5 big blocks out of there that H had managed to flush down it. The latter there would have been a lot more impressive if I hadn't managed to crack the tank in the process (it's a long story, but we'll just say I was tightening a bolt and thought I had a lot more time before I had to start to worry about that than I actually did).
I love being a mom.
It really did seem different today having both B and D away at school. It's a little bittersweet. I have to admit that I really did like the quiet, especially when both H and A were taking naps at the same time, so W was the only one awake. Talk about a change. But at the same time, I know that it's not going to be very long before my house is always quiet because they've grown up and moved on, probably before I'm ready for it. And I'm sure that when the time comes, I'll worry about whether or not I've done enough to prepare them for what lies in store, if I've taught them enough or let them experience enough. That's part of the reason I decided to do this schedule. I wanted to be able to look back and know that at least I tried and did my best.
The morning went pretty fast between the time we dropped B off at the bus stop and it was time to take D to the bus. I had been hoping to be able to do our adventure walk down to the park again for a bit, but breakfast and chores and those things ended up taking up most of the time. We did get to do a bit of our adventure walk while we were taking D to the bus stop though. It's really not far at all to take him to the bus stop, but we walked a little further and played a bit.
After we dropped D off, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I only had 3 kids with me and go to the store. It's amazing how much easier it is to take 3 kids to the store than to take 5. Most of the time I wait until my husband is home from work and either send him with a list or leave him with the kids while I go. The former seems to be what happens more often lately, which is actually pretty nice, since neither of us like to go shopping. So my husband is pretty nice to be willing to do it for me, even after a long and hard day at work.
H and A slept through our afternoon bit of learning time, but that meant that W got to take more time having fun with it. Quite often for our learning time, we'll either do flash cards with letters or numbers on them or we'll go visit www.starfall.com and he'll do the letter blocks or other activities there. He was even singing one of their songs while he was taking a bath before bed tonight, so that was fun.
While H and A were asleep, I took the opportunity to do a one-on-one activity with W. We made strawberry jam together. Not really a big thing, but he seemed to have a good time putting strawberries in the blender and helping me pour the ingredients into their bowls. He also did a pretty good job of stirring when it needed to be stirred. He was pretty excited to be able to tell D that we made some jam, since we were almost out of some and it's D's favorite.
After B and D got home from school, we did our story time and then they had some free play before dinner and baths. It's amazing how much fun it can be sometimes to have my kids sitting around me while I'm reading a book to them, especially when they really get into the story and react at different parts. Simple joys.
So with all that I did, I also did a few loads of laundry, fixed my vacuum cleaner, and unclogged the kids' bathroom toilet by taking the toilet off and using the toilet auger to be able to get the 5 big blocks out of there that H had managed to flush down it. The latter there would have been a lot more impressive if I hadn't managed to crack the tank in the process (it's a long story, but we'll just say I was tightening a bolt and thought I had a lot more time before I had to start to worry about that than I actually did).
I love being a mom.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Not yet
Today was D's first real day of school, so adjustments will be starting. But today wasn't a normal day, since we left the house for a couple of hours to go visiting teaching after we dropped D off at the bus stop and watched it drive away.
We made taking D to the bus today as part of our adventure walk, so we did get that in. We also had a good learning time and a good story time. But the day was broken up by the 3 trips to the bus stop. It will be interesting to figure out the adjustments when we have a regular day, which should be tomorrow.
We made taking D to the bus today as part of our adventure walk, so we did get that in. We also had a good learning time and a good story time. But the day was broken up by the 3 trips to the bus stop. It will be interesting to figure out the adjustments when we have a regular day, which should be tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
First day of school
So with the first day of school being today, we did have to do things a little differently from normal, although it really didn't throw things off too much. The first adjustment was pretty early though. Instead of getting up, eating breakfast, getting dressed, then doing chores, we got up, got dressed, walked B to the bus stop, then came home and ate breakfast and then did chores.
We did our adventure walk to the park today. D said he killed 300 werewolves on the way there. W just killed a few zombies. They're silly boys.
We did our learning time after the adventure walk, then took some time to make some sugar cookies before lunch. I had been promising the kids that we'd make cookies for a few days now, so we finally took the time to do it.
After free time it was time to take D over to the school for his kindergarten orientation. When we got back from that, we made frosting for our cookies, frosted them, then walked back over to the bus stop to pick up B after school.
The nice thing with when we typically do reading/story time is that it comes during the time the older kids would be doing their homework. And their homework usually consists of reading for 20 minutes. So they just do what they would have done anyway.
Wednesday will be a bigger adjustment, having D leave for school in the middle of the day, so we'll see how it goes after then.
We did our adventure walk to the park today. D said he killed 300 werewolves on the way there. W just killed a few zombies. They're silly boys.
We did our learning time after the adventure walk, then took some time to make some sugar cookies before lunch. I had been promising the kids that we'd make cookies for a few days now, so we finally took the time to do it.
After free time it was time to take D over to the school for his kindergarten orientation. When we got back from that, we made frosting for our cookies, frosted them, then walked back over to the bus stop to pick up B after school.
The nice thing with when we typically do reading/story time is that it comes during the time the older kids would be doing their homework. And their homework usually consists of reading for 20 minutes. So they just do what they would have done anyway.
Wednesday will be a bigger adjustment, having D leave for school in the middle of the day, so we'll see how it goes after then.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Last day before school
It seems so strange that school is already starting on Tuesday, so I have to adjust the schedule a bit. But that's okay.
You may be wondering why there's no post for Friday. Yeah, Friday didn't work out so well. We actually spent a bit more time than usual cleaning since we had family staying overnight that night. And D got up and ate breakfast, then fell back asleep on the couch until noon. I figured if he was actually sleeping, he probably needed it, so I let him sleep. We did manage to get in a story time at least, so that was something.
Since today was the last day before school starts, I decided that we'd have another outing day and try to make it a pretty fun last day of summer break for them. We decided to go to the local fish and game nature center. There are some nice paths to walk and ponds and gardens. The kids really like the ponds, especially the viewing windows where they can see the fish in the water from the side and watch the fish swimming past them. And there are some pretty big fish in there, so it's fun to see. I do think their favorite part was when we walked by the river and they got to see a snake. Yes, D tried stepping on its tail to make it have to stay there so he could really see it, but it took off pretty fast. Those things can really move. W was a bit upset because he didn't get to see it and wanted us to go find it.
Our outing took more time than I thought it would, so by the time we got home and had some free play, it was time to go over to the school for their meet the teacher night. The day went pretty fast and it will be interesting to see how we end up working things out when school is in session.
You may be wondering why there's no post for Friday. Yeah, Friday didn't work out so well. We actually spent a bit more time than usual cleaning since we had family staying overnight that night. And D got up and ate breakfast, then fell back asleep on the couch until noon. I figured if he was actually sleeping, he probably needed it, so I let him sleep. We did manage to get in a story time at least, so that was something.
Since today was the last day before school starts, I decided that we'd have another outing day and try to make it a pretty fun last day of summer break for them. We decided to go to the local fish and game nature center. There are some nice paths to walk and ponds and gardens. The kids really like the ponds, especially the viewing windows where they can see the fish in the water from the side and watch the fish swimming past them. And there are some pretty big fish in there, so it's fun to see. I do think their favorite part was when we walked by the river and they got to see a snake. Yes, D tried stepping on its tail to make it have to stay there so he could really see it, but it took off pretty fast. Those things can really move. W was a bit upset because he didn't get to see it and wanted us to go find it.
Our outing took more time than I thought it would, so by the time we got home and had some free play, it was time to go over to the school for their meet the teacher night. The day went pretty fast and it will be interesting to see how we end up working things out when school is in session.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Coloring themselves
It took a bit to get started this morning. It was another of those mornings where they just really didn't want to do their chores, so they'd get distracted cleaning up their toys by starting to play with them, so it took probably 2 hours for them to actually get everything cleaned up.
On today's adventure walk, they decided that we were hunting for thieves who would use robotic bees to look for things to steal. They would find little notes and information along the way, especially at any houses in our neighborhood that are up for sell, that would give tips on how to trap the thieves. And of course, they all had to take turns telling me what the notes said. Kids have really good imaginations sometimes.
I got an email today that talked about how a three year-old, almost four year-old (the age W is right now) can begin to understand that those lines and markings in books and papers actually form words and numbers. I'm thinking they're being conservative on their estimations, since when we do learning time, W is pretty good at knowing almost all his letters and can recognize numbers up to 100 already, although sometimes he needs some help remembering that 91 is ninety-one, not nine-one. And I really kind of assume that my kids are about average intellectually, so it's not some amazing thing that he can do that. B did teach himself how to read before he started Kindergarten though. But D still doesn't know quite all of the letters and he starts Kindergarten next week. So kids all develop and learn at different rates.
For art time today, I took some construction plan paper (I don't know if there's a formal term for it...they're just big sheets of paper that are about 3 feet long and 2 feet wide) and had each of the kids lie on them while I traced the outlines of their bodies and then let them color them. They all kept wanting me to come see how they colored theirs, and they all did things differently. Although if they saw something someone else was doing that they thought was pretty cool, they'd do that too. After D put 8 pairs of eyes on himself, the rest of them decided that maybe theirs needed eyes too. It was pretty funny. H keeps taking his picture and lying down by it. He thinks it's pretty cool to have a picture as big as he is. Since B and D are both a bit too long for the paper, they both bent their legs and came up with pictures that look like they're jumping. I was going to just let their legs be cut off, but they wanted to have their whole bodies on there, and that's what we came up with.
So another slow start, but an ultimately successful day.
On today's adventure walk, they decided that we were hunting for thieves who would use robotic bees to look for things to steal. They would find little notes and information along the way, especially at any houses in our neighborhood that are up for sell, that would give tips on how to trap the thieves. And of course, they all had to take turns telling me what the notes said. Kids have really good imaginations sometimes.
I got an email today that talked about how a three year-old, almost four year-old (the age W is right now) can begin to understand that those lines and markings in books and papers actually form words and numbers. I'm thinking they're being conservative on their estimations, since when we do learning time, W is pretty good at knowing almost all his letters and can recognize numbers up to 100 already, although sometimes he needs some help remembering that 91 is ninety-one, not nine-one. And I really kind of assume that my kids are about average intellectually, so it's not some amazing thing that he can do that. B did teach himself how to read before he started Kindergarten though. But D still doesn't know quite all of the letters and he starts Kindergarten next week. So kids all develop and learn at different rates.
For art time today, I took some construction plan paper (I don't know if there's a formal term for it...they're just big sheets of paper that are about 3 feet long and 2 feet wide) and had each of the kids lie on them while I traced the outlines of their bodies and then let them color them. They all kept wanting me to come see how they colored theirs, and they all did things differently. Although if they saw something someone else was doing that they thought was pretty cool, they'd do that too. After D put 8 pairs of eyes on himself, the rest of them decided that maybe theirs needed eyes too. It was pretty funny. H keeps taking his picture and lying down by it. He thinks it's pretty cool to have a picture as big as he is. Since B and D are both a bit too long for the paper, they both bent their legs and came up with pictures that look like they're jumping. I was going to just let their legs be cut off, but they wanted to have their whole bodies on there, and that's what we came up with.
So another slow start, but an ultimately successful day.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Zoo day!
It's sad for me to realize that today was the last Wednesday Outing Day before my kids are back in school. This summer has gone by so quickly, especially these last few weeks. I've loved having all my kids around and am going to miss them while they're away at school. But at the same time, it's nice that they'll be back in school. There are times when they've been teasing their siblings or something along those lines that have made me wish they could have been at school then. It's just nice that more often than not, I've been glad to have them around.
So anyway, as you can tell from the title, we went to the zoo for our outing day. We go often enough to the zoo that we bought a zoo pass. Even with half of our kids being young enough to get in free, it still ends up saving us money to buy the zoo pass. And having it, we're more likely to go spend a day at the zoo and getting out to do something than if we didn't have it. My kids love going to the zoo, even though they've seen all the animals before. And since H is only 2, he's really fun to take. He gets so excited to see each kind of animal and tells all the people around him what he's seeing.
After we finished seeing all the animals at the zoo, we had a picnic on the big lawn area they have across the parking lot. Just simple sandwiches, chips, and string cheese, but the kids all said that was actually their favorite part of our outing. They got to play hide and seek tag around the trees and just had a good time. Yes, you read that right. Hide and seek tag. The seeker would have to tag the people after they were found to determine who was the next seeker. It was fun to watch them play.
After a little bit of free play time when we got home, we had a game time and then a longer story time. I always think it's a good thing when my kids want us to read more, so I'm willing to keep reading and not cut it short. I know I love reading and hope they'll develop that same love as they get older.
So anyway, as you can tell from the title, we went to the zoo for our outing day. We go often enough to the zoo that we bought a zoo pass. Even with half of our kids being young enough to get in free, it still ends up saving us money to buy the zoo pass. And having it, we're more likely to go spend a day at the zoo and getting out to do something than if we didn't have it. My kids love going to the zoo, even though they've seen all the animals before. And since H is only 2, he's really fun to take. He gets so excited to see each kind of animal and tells all the people around him what he's seeing.
After we finished seeing all the animals at the zoo, we had a picnic on the big lawn area they have across the parking lot. Just simple sandwiches, chips, and string cheese, but the kids all said that was actually their favorite part of our outing. They got to play hide and seek tag around the trees and just had a good time. Yes, you read that right. Hide and seek tag. The seeker would have to tag the people after they were found to determine who was the next seeker. It was fun to watch them play.
After a little bit of free play time when we got home, we had a game time and then a longer story time. I always think it's a good thing when my kids want us to read more, so I'm willing to keep reading and not cut it short. I know I love reading and hope they'll develop that same love as they get older.
National cupcake day
Usually on Tuesdays we have music day, but since it was National Cupcake Day, we decided to make and decorate some cupcakes to celebrate. Hey, any excuse for a cupcake, right? Usually I'm pretty obsessive about the way things get done, especially when they have the potential to get pretty messy, but I decided to let the kids do most of the work themselves, from turning on the oven to filling the cupcake cups. They actually seemed to have a good time doing it, but they did have me help them fill the cups. And the bonus was that we got to eat the rewards of our work after.
Other than switching from music to cupcakes, it was a pretty typical day. B was especially good in the morning and did all his chores before I could have a chance to remind him to do them.
So it's all still going well. :)
Other than switching from music to cupcakes, it was a pretty typical day. B was especially good in the morning and did all his chores before I could have a chance to remind him to do them.
So it's all still going well. :)
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Cardboard boxes and duct tape
This week started out pretty good. We had a typical Monday with an adventure walk (hunting ghosts and mud monsters this time), game time, story time, and of course, art time.
We made a cardboard box house for art time. We broke down a bunch of cardboard boxes that we had, picked a wall in our house, and started building a cardboard house by it. We taped the boxes together for walls and taped them to the wall and then used another box for the roof. Since we used diaper boxes, we did them with the picture side in so the kids could use their crayons after it was set up and decorate the outside walls. They seemed to have a good time building it, and it was a nice change from just coloring pictures. Of course, they had as much or more fun destroying it after it was all built and have since used the boxes as stair sleds.
One nice thing lately is that the kids seem to be getting the hang of this routine and will do their morning chores before I even need to ask them to do them. Sometimes it will still take them a while, and sometimes there's still some grumbling about it, but they're getting used to and anticipating the things they need to do.
I only wish I had started this earlier in the summer, since school starts for the 2 oldest next week. That will mean an adjustment in the daily schedule, but might make it easier in some ways, since I won't have to try to cater things to both the older and the younger kids.
We made a cardboard box house for art time. We broke down a bunch of cardboard boxes that we had, picked a wall in our house, and started building a cardboard house by it. We taped the boxes together for walls and taped them to the wall and then used another box for the roof. Since we used diaper boxes, we did them with the picture side in so the kids could use their crayons after it was set up and decorate the outside walls. They seemed to have a good time building it, and it was a nice change from just coloring pictures. Of course, they had as much or more fun destroying it after it was all built and have since used the boxes as stair sleds.
One nice thing lately is that the kids seem to be getting the hang of this routine and will do their morning chores before I even need to ask them to do them. Sometimes it will still take them a while, and sometimes there's still some grumbling about it, but they're getting used to and anticipating the things they need to do.
I only wish I had started this earlier in the summer, since school starts for the 2 oldest next week. That will mean an adjustment in the daily schedule, but might make it easier in some ways, since I won't have to try to cater things to both the older and the younger kids.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Week 2, Day 4
Thursday started out pretty well. We cleaned up and then went on another adventure walk. My kids choose interesting subjects to search for when we go on these walks. This time, we were chasing after the zombies who stole all our food. Along the way, B would find more information on how to defeat them, such as hitting them with chicken wings. And they actually wanted to walk further than I thought they would, so it wasn't as fast as an adventure as I thought.
We had our usual learning time and lunch and all that fun stuff. For art time, we colored the back side of some plates and glued them together with unpopped popcorn kernels inside to make something we can use for our next music time. They seemed to have a good time with that, but B and D both got themselves put into time out for quite a while after they played with the glue gun in the less than 30 seconds I had gone to get another glue stick. B had squirted some out onto the paper I had below it to catch the drippings and D decided that it would be fun to put the paper with the big glob of hot glue on H's leg, burning him. And some skin came off with the glue when I pulled that off. And it didn't help that H had a fever of close to 103 at the time, either.
We did get in a bit of a story time after the hot glue incident, but not very long. And that incident kind of messed up the rest of the day, which was almost over anyway.
Oh, and my parents are in town right now, so I won't be doing a post for Friday, since we won't really be sticking to the schedule on Friday.
We had our usual learning time and lunch and all that fun stuff. For art time, we colored the back side of some plates and glued them together with unpopped popcorn kernels inside to make something we can use for our next music time. They seemed to have a good time with that, but B and D both got themselves put into time out for quite a while after they played with the glue gun in the less than 30 seconds I had gone to get another glue stick. B had squirted some out onto the paper I had below it to catch the drippings and D decided that it would be fun to put the paper with the big glob of hot glue on H's leg, burning him. And some skin came off with the glue when I pulled that off. And it didn't help that H had a fever of close to 103 at the time, either.
We did get in a bit of a story time after the hot glue incident, but not very long. And that incident kind of messed up the rest of the day, which was almost over anyway.
Oh, and my parents are in town right now, so I won't be doing a post for Friday, since we won't really be sticking to the schedule on Friday.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Week 2, Day 3
There continues to be a bit of grumbling occasionally, but once we get into activities, the kids seem to have fun.
We cheated a little and went to the play group at the park instead of doing music time. I just keep thinking that it won't be long before it will really get too cold to spend a lot of time outside, so we might as well take advantage of it while we can. Plus, they got the added bonus of being able to socialize and play with other kids. That's something they actually don't get to do a whole lot. I remember when I was growing up and all the kids were home during the summer, so there were always a lot of kids to play with. But times have changed. With more women working and not staying home with their kids, there aren't a lot of kids out playing. My kids' best friends are usually at day care instead of home to have someone to go play with. I think that's a little bit sad, and one aspect of the whole women's lib movement that is more of a drawback. But that's just my opinion.
At game time, we played UNO. Most of my kids are younger than the recommended age for that, but they really seem to understand how to play it. And I figure, if nothing else, they are more familiar with numbers and patterns as they play. They have a good time playing it, especially when they beat Mom.
So overall, I'd say we had another fairly successful day.
We cheated a little and went to the play group at the park instead of doing music time. I just keep thinking that it won't be long before it will really get too cold to spend a lot of time outside, so we might as well take advantage of it while we can. Plus, they got the added bonus of being able to socialize and play with other kids. That's something they actually don't get to do a whole lot. I remember when I was growing up and all the kids were home during the summer, so there were always a lot of kids to play with. But times have changed. With more women working and not staying home with their kids, there aren't a lot of kids out playing. My kids' best friends are usually at day care instead of home to have someone to go play with. I think that's a little bit sad, and one aspect of the whole women's lib movement that is more of a drawback. But that's just my opinion.
At game time, we played UNO. Most of my kids are younger than the recommended age for that, but they really seem to understand how to play it. And I figure, if nothing else, they are more familiar with numbers and patterns as they play. They have a good time playing it, especially when they beat Mom.
So overall, I'd say we had another fairly successful day.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Week 2, Day 2
Tuesday was one of those days where sometimes everything went smoothly, sometimes it didn't.
We switched outing day to Tuesday so we could go to the last free movie of this summer at the local theater. They were showing Madagascar 2 and the kids have wanted to see that and hadn't yet, so we went. They all really liked the movie and it was fun, despite W's whining through parts of it and H's not wanting to sit still (not uncommon for a 2 year-old). And of course, A fell asleep right before we left, woke up when we got there, and fell back asleep when it was time to go. While they were all mostly good, it would have been nice to have had an extra pair of hands there to help occasionally. But it wasn't bad.
One part where it didn't work out so well was when it took them an hour to clean up their toys after free time. I need to figure out a way to get them to do that faster. Since they were B's toys, I would have had the rest of us move on to game time while he cleaned up, but everyone else was playing with them too, so it wouldn't have been fair to not let him play when everyone else helped make the mess. Any suggestions on that one would be nice. It was just one of those situations where some of my tricks, like playing songs and having them try to get everything done before the song ends, wouldn't have really worked.
They all enjoyed story time again, although there was a bit of a hassle getting to it. When I told them to go pick out some books while I was working on getting a first part of dinner started, somehow they decided that it meant, "go find the baby oil and squirt it at each other, on the walls, and on the floor." That made for a very cranky mom, let me tell you. But once it was all cleaned up (and they still have oil in their hair, despite several washings), we had a fairly decent story time. And they were better at cleaning up the books after it was over.
It was a day where I was very glad when bedtime came around, although there was a nice accident at bedtime when H tried climbing on D's bed from B's bed and fell and scraped up his back nicely. I'm hoping Wednesday goes better.
We switched outing day to Tuesday so we could go to the last free movie of this summer at the local theater. They were showing Madagascar 2 and the kids have wanted to see that and hadn't yet, so we went. They all really liked the movie and it was fun, despite W's whining through parts of it and H's not wanting to sit still (not uncommon for a 2 year-old). And of course, A fell asleep right before we left, woke up when we got there, and fell back asleep when it was time to go. While they were all mostly good, it would have been nice to have had an extra pair of hands there to help occasionally. But it wasn't bad.
One part where it didn't work out so well was when it took them an hour to clean up their toys after free time. I need to figure out a way to get them to do that faster. Since they were B's toys, I would have had the rest of us move on to game time while he cleaned up, but everyone else was playing with them too, so it wouldn't have been fair to not let him play when everyone else helped make the mess. Any suggestions on that one would be nice. It was just one of those situations where some of my tricks, like playing songs and having them try to get everything done before the song ends, wouldn't have really worked.
They all enjoyed story time again, although there was a bit of a hassle getting to it. When I told them to go pick out some books while I was working on getting a first part of dinner started, somehow they decided that it meant, "go find the baby oil and squirt it at each other, on the walls, and on the floor." That made for a very cranky mom, let me tell you. But once it was all cleaned up (and they still have oil in their hair, despite several washings), we had a fairly decent story time. And they were better at cleaning up the books after it was over.
It was a day where I was very glad when bedtime came around, although there was a nice accident at bedtime when H tried climbing on D's bed from B's bed and fell and scraped up his back nicely. I'm hoping Wednesday goes better.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Week 2, Day 1
Today was another day where sometimes everything went smoothly and sometimes there was a bit of rebellion. But we worked through it and the rebellion would be short-lived.
We went on another adventure walk today, this time combining W's and D's wishes. We went on our way to find Pirate Island and to help the pirates fight off the bears that were overtaking the place. Pirate Island was a small park that is at the end of a neighboring subdivision, although the subdivisions are connected. So not only did the kids get to have a bit of fun, we got the added bonus of getting a bit of exercise with the close to 2 mile round trip walk.
It was art day again today, but with the longer walk, time was a bit shorter than usual, so they once again just colored in their notebooks. I was doing some laundry, so I took the opportunity to fold and put some away while they were coloring. That was also how I spent their free play time and the time when they were cleaning up the books after story time. With 5 kids in the family, we can end up with a lot of laundry sometimes. That's why I end up doing laundry 3 days out of the week usually. Sometimes it's more often than that.
I really think the kids are doing well so far with this whole scheduling thing. Already they seem to not want to watch as much TV, even when they can during free time. They'd rather get out their toys and play. And the piles and piles of books they wanted me to read today were fun to see, even though we didn't get through all of them. It makes me feel a little bad that I wasn't more dedicated to doing this earlier.
We went on another adventure walk today, this time combining W's and D's wishes. We went on our way to find Pirate Island and to help the pirates fight off the bears that were overtaking the place. Pirate Island was a small park that is at the end of a neighboring subdivision, although the subdivisions are connected. So not only did the kids get to have a bit of fun, we got the added bonus of getting a bit of exercise with the close to 2 mile round trip walk.
It was art day again today, but with the longer walk, time was a bit shorter than usual, so they once again just colored in their notebooks. I was doing some laundry, so I took the opportunity to fold and put some away while they were coloring. That was also how I spent their free play time and the time when they were cleaning up the books after story time. With 5 kids in the family, we can end up with a lot of laundry sometimes. That's why I end up doing laundry 3 days out of the week usually. Sometimes it's more often than that.
I really think the kids are doing well so far with this whole scheduling thing. Already they seem to not want to watch as much TV, even when they can during free time. They'd rather get out their toys and play. And the piles and piles of books they wanted me to read today were fun to see, even though we didn't get through all of them. It makes me feel a little bad that I wasn't more dedicated to doing this earlier.
Friday, August 7, 2009
End of the first full week
After a shaky start, today hasn't turned out too bad. When I finally got the kids to come downstairs to actually do stuff, they seemed to have fun.
After chores in the morning, we do a learning time. Usually I try to help the younger kids learn their letters and numbers, and I did start with that. We didn't do that for very long today though, and went on to learning about cats and spiders (they picked what we learned about today). Since I have boys, they were more interested in the spiders. And then thought it was pretty cool and funny when they went into the bathroom after and there was a spider climbing up the wall.
We had music time today and pulled out different things we could make instruments out of: a metal plant holder, empty milk cartons with some unpopped popcorn kernels, a 2-liter bottle filled partway with water, and some spoons. After we made a lot of noise with those, I pulled out our seldom-used guitar and showed them how each string plays a different note and how you can change the pitch of the notes by pushing on the strings. They really had a lot of fun strumming on it and all wanted their turn strumming with the pick. They did get a little impatient waiting their turn and would get a little mad fighting over that, but for the most part they were very cooperative.
I think for the most part, it's been a very successful first week. I haven't been as lazy as I was before and my kids seem to get into less trouble and fight less when we're doing these things. Sure, they still get in trouble occasionally, and they still fight, but it's less often than before. Or maybe I'm just more patient with them. In either case, I'd say it's a good thing.
Since their dad is working late tonight, we're going to have a movie night after dinner with popcorn and maybe chocolate milkshakes. I think they're excited to play with Mom.
After chores in the morning, we do a learning time. Usually I try to help the younger kids learn their letters and numbers, and I did start with that. We didn't do that for very long today though, and went on to learning about cats and spiders (they picked what we learned about today). Since I have boys, they were more interested in the spiders. And then thought it was pretty cool and funny when they went into the bathroom after and there was a spider climbing up the wall.
We had music time today and pulled out different things we could make instruments out of: a metal plant holder, empty milk cartons with some unpopped popcorn kernels, a 2-liter bottle filled partway with water, and some spoons. After we made a lot of noise with those, I pulled out our seldom-used guitar and showed them how each string plays a different note and how you can change the pitch of the notes by pushing on the strings. They really had a lot of fun strumming on it and all wanted their turn strumming with the pick. They did get a little impatient waiting their turn and would get a little mad fighting over that, but for the most part they were very cooperative.
I think for the most part, it's been a very successful first week. I haven't been as lazy as I was before and my kids seem to get into less trouble and fight less when we're doing these things. Sure, they still get in trouble occasionally, and they still fight, but it's less often than before. Or maybe I'm just more patient with them. In either case, I'd say it's a good thing.
Since their dad is working late tonight, we're going to have a movie night after dinner with popcorn and maybe chocolate milkshakes. I think they're excited to play with Mom.
Thursday's day
Yesterday seemed to work out pretty well. Some things took longer than they should have, but that's okay. We didn't get to do the normal schedule, since I had to take my youngest in for her well child check-up, but that actually just made the day go faster.
Since it was Thursday, that meant it was art day. They still just colored and had a good time doing it. I spent most of art time printing out coloring pages for them to do. They kept wanting more and more. And then of course, they wanted to put their colored pictures up on the wall. By themselves. With thumbtacks. Lots of thumbtacks.
They seem to really enjoy story time lately. They'll have us read together for an hour and a half usually. And lately they always want to start with "Wacky Wednesday" by Dr. Seuss. They like finding all the wacky things in the pictures.
And today so far isn't going as well. The kids are rebelling a bit, and sometimes I just don't feel like fighting them. Really, they're just doing things a little slower than usual, so it's not too bad. They did actually clean up their toys (and have probably made a mess with them again already) and made their beds and did all that part that I asked them to. They've just been avoiding coming down when I've called them to move on to the next item. I think I'll just blame it on the fact that we're into our second day of rain here, and that always seems to affect their moods. Hopefully it will get better though, especially since their dad is working late tonight.
Since it was Thursday, that meant it was art day. They still just colored and had a good time doing it. I spent most of art time printing out coloring pages for them to do. They kept wanting more and more. And then of course, they wanted to put their colored pictures up on the wall. By themselves. With thumbtacks. Lots of thumbtacks.
They seem to really enjoy story time lately. They'll have us read together for an hour and a half usually. And lately they always want to start with "Wacky Wednesday" by Dr. Seuss. They like finding all the wacky things in the pictures.
And today so far isn't going as well. The kids are rebelling a bit, and sometimes I just don't feel like fighting them. Really, they're just doing things a little slower than usual, so it's not too bad. They did actually clean up their toys (and have probably made a mess with them again already) and made their beds and did all that part that I asked them to. They've just been avoiding coming down when I've called them to move on to the next item. I think I'll just blame it on the fact that we're into our second day of rain here, and that always seems to affect their moods. Hopefully it will get better though, especially since their dad is working late tonight.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Another day
So on Tuesday my kids ended up basically having a free day because I wasn't feeling well. They still had a few things they had to do, but for the rest of the day they were able to just play. It's a good thing they can entertain themselves pretty well.
Yesterday ended up being a good day, despite the fact that it took the kids twice as long to do their cleaning as it should have. I guess they liked cleaning up toys, since they dumped out a couple of their toy containers after they had cleaned up almost all their toys. Silly kids.
Since it was Wednesday, it was out outing day. We went to the park for our outing. Well, two parks, actually. Our church has a play group on Wednesday mornings at a park in one of the subdivisions, so we showed up at the end of that. They have a wooden step/walkway thing at the park there, and it was missing one of the wood planks. The boys made sure they showed me that it was missing, but apparently H forgot about it, since a few minutes later, he was walking across the walkway and stepped right into the hole where the plank should have been, hitting his chin on the way down. He's got a nice scraped-up chin now. After the short time at the play group, the boys wanted to go to the park that had teeter totters, but they were redoing their bark chips in it, so they had taken the teeter totters down. I decided to take them to the park by where the kids had taken their swimming lessons. They had a good time playing on all the equipment and with some of the other kids there. The park there has a toy that I don't think I've ever seen at another park. It's a long almost boat-like toy with benches on either end, and they can rock it and make it slide back and forth. They spent most of their time playing on that one.
Later in the day, we had our game time, story time, and we did a music time, since we had missed it the day before when I wasn't feeling well. I was just going to skip music time, but B really wanted us to do it, so we did. This time, we just put on different kinds of music and danced. Sometimes I'd have the kids clap to the beat and sometimes we'd all grab hands and spin in circles.
It was another fun day.
Yesterday ended up being a good day, despite the fact that it took the kids twice as long to do their cleaning as it should have. I guess they liked cleaning up toys, since they dumped out a couple of their toy containers after they had cleaned up almost all their toys. Silly kids.
Since it was Wednesday, it was out outing day. We went to the park for our outing. Well, two parks, actually. Our church has a play group on Wednesday mornings at a park in one of the subdivisions, so we showed up at the end of that. They have a wooden step/walkway thing at the park there, and it was missing one of the wood planks. The boys made sure they showed me that it was missing, but apparently H forgot about it, since a few minutes later, he was walking across the walkway and stepped right into the hole where the plank should have been, hitting his chin on the way down. He's got a nice scraped-up chin now. After the short time at the play group, the boys wanted to go to the park that had teeter totters, but they were redoing their bark chips in it, so they had taken the teeter totters down. I decided to take them to the park by where the kids had taken their swimming lessons. They had a good time playing on all the equipment and with some of the other kids there. The park there has a toy that I don't think I've ever seen at another park. It's a long almost boat-like toy with benches on either end, and they can rock it and make it slide back and forth. They spent most of their time playing on that one.
Later in the day, we had our game time, story time, and we did a music time, since we had missed it the day before when I wasn't feeling well. I was just going to skip music time, but B really wanted us to do it, so we did. This time, we just put on different kinds of music and danced. Sometimes I'd have the kids clap to the beat and sometimes we'd all grab hands and spin in circles.
It was another fun day.
Monday, August 3, 2009
First Real Day
So today was the first day where I tried to actually follow the schedule. I do have to admit that no, I still haven't done the white board with the schedule so the kids know what's coming up. I really do want to get it up, but I hesitate to bring the white board in, since it's got the pen holder thingy on the bottom (what is that thing called anyway?) and I'm sure that if it's up on the wall in our house, I'm going to constantly be running into it and giving myself bruises.
I actually felt like I was coming closer to being a supermom today though. I still had to deal with kids who didn't necessarily want to do what we were doing, but when they got into it, they had a good time. Just for an example of what I did today, I did 4 loads of laundry, we straightened the house, we went on a giant troll hunt, we colored pictures and built houses out of Jenga blocks, and we had story time. Throw in mealtimes and a couple of snack times and a few other little things, and you have my day. It was a fun day though.
The giant troll hunt was our outdoor activity this morning. Basically, we took the dog on a walk and I let the kids each pick a direction when we'd get to a new street and had them choose what we were going to go find. They picked a giant troll. He lived in a volcano. Along the way, we had to go through the mosquito forest and had to find our magic wands and had to avoid turning into trolls ourselves. Our goal in finding the giant troll was to find out if he was a mean troll and we'd have to fight and defeat him or if he was a nice troll who was going to give us Otter Pops. The volcano ended up being back at our house. Hopefully it won't burn up with all that lava. And of course, the giant troll ended up being very nice and even set out a blanket for us to eat our Otter Pops out on the grass in the front. W keeps asking if we can go on another adventure. This time he wants it to be a pirate adventure.
So again I feel good about the day and am really glad I've decided to do this. I've already made a few adjustments to my original schedule, but I knew I'd end up doing that as I tried things. Hopefully more things will work than don't.
I actually felt like I was coming closer to being a supermom today though. I still had to deal with kids who didn't necessarily want to do what we were doing, but when they got into it, they had a good time. Just for an example of what I did today, I did 4 loads of laundry, we straightened the house, we went on a giant troll hunt, we colored pictures and built houses out of Jenga blocks, and we had story time. Throw in mealtimes and a couple of snack times and a few other little things, and you have my day. It was a fun day though.
The giant troll hunt was our outdoor activity this morning. Basically, we took the dog on a walk and I let the kids each pick a direction when we'd get to a new street and had them choose what we were going to go find. They picked a giant troll. He lived in a volcano. Along the way, we had to go through the mosquito forest and had to find our magic wands and had to avoid turning into trolls ourselves. Our goal in finding the giant troll was to find out if he was a mean troll and we'd have to fight and defeat him or if he was a nice troll who was going to give us Otter Pops. The volcano ended up being back at our house. Hopefully it won't burn up with all that lava. And of course, the giant troll ended up being very nice and even set out a blanket for us to eat our Otter Pops out on the grass in the front. W keeps asking if we can go on another adventure. This time he wants it to be a pirate adventure.
So again I feel good about the day and am really glad I've decided to do this. I've already made a few adjustments to my original schedule, but I knew I'd end up doing that as I tried things. Hopefully more things will work than don't.
Friday, July 31, 2009
It's Getting There
I still don't have everything all up and running yet. I'm hoping to get the board up this weekend and really get it going next week. But I have done better in the afternoons at least with actually kind of following the plan.
Yesterday afternoon actually went really well. B kept asking what we were going to do next; he was pretty excited to have a schedule and know that there would be more. We did a game time after lunch, playing dominoes and Memory, and the kids all seemed to really like that, even if we did have to distract the 2 year old with other things so he wouldn't mess up the games. He liked participating where he could though.
After game time, we had an art time, where we all just drew and colored pictures in notebooks. I would tell them something to draw, then let them draw whatever their imagination dictated. My boys, being boys, drew monsters. With lots and lots of legs and eyes and arms. They were probably a little too realistic, as my second-oldest had a nightmare last night. And it was pretty funny to see my oldest boy's reaction when I told him to draw a rainbow. Apparently drawing rainbows is only for girls. He can like looking at rainbows, but can't like drawing them. D had no problem drawing one though. Of course, when he was younger, before he cared so much what other people thought, his favorite color was pink.
After art time, we had our story and reading time. This time it went much better, and they were back to how they usually are when it's time for stories. They were all interested and listened and helped each other pick out books. B is the only one who can read so far, so he had a good time reading some of the stories to his brothers and sister.
After we finished with story time and cleaned everything up, we all got on our shoes and got the leash on the dog and went for a walk. It was hot out and our poor gimpy dog has bad hips, so it wasn't a long walk, but the kids all came in the house very excited to be able to tell their dad how their day had gone. It was fun seeing how much they had enjoyed their day, and it gave me more motivation to keep at it.
I didn't do as well today, but we did still kept up with some of the regular activities. We didn't do as much as normal, since I had to take W to the doctor in the afternoon.
One of the main differences was that we did music time instead of art time. Again, I kept it simple, and we got out some pots and some wooden spoons and stainless spoons and a few other household objects and played the drums. We played a few games with the drumming to keep it interesting, too. When the kids started getting bored with the drums, we sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" so everyone could sing along. I sang them a variation to the song that I made up, and they all had me sing it over and over again. My variation goes like this:
The itsy bitsy spider crawled up _______'s leg (enter a name in the blank)
Down came his hand and brushed the spider away
When the spider recovered, it wanted to try again,
But the itsy bitsy spider tickled _______ instead.
I'm sure you can imagine the actions I do as we sing this version. My kids all like doing their part where they brush the spider off their legs, but their favorite part is the end where they all get tickled. It's amazing how often one can hear the word, "again" when doing something like this. They even had me demonstrate the song to their dad when he got home from work, which is kind of funny, since it's not the first time I've done it that way to them.
I will admit that there are several times throughout each day when I think that I can give them just a few more minutes (or even up to an hour) of their free time and I can sit and try to relax (but really, when do I ever really get to relax before bedtime?), but I've also found how good it feels when I don't give in to that thought and get up and do more structured activities with my kids. Sure, I'm tired. Sure, there are things I would like to be able to do on my own. But my kids won't stay young for very long. Before I know it, they'll be grown up and move out of the house and start families of their own. So I want to make sure I can take advantage of all the time I can get with them and hope I don't mess them up too much.
Yesterday afternoon actually went really well. B kept asking what we were going to do next; he was pretty excited to have a schedule and know that there would be more. We did a game time after lunch, playing dominoes and Memory, and the kids all seemed to really like that, even if we did have to distract the 2 year old with other things so he wouldn't mess up the games. He liked participating where he could though.
After game time, we had an art time, where we all just drew and colored pictures in notebooks. I would tell them something to draw, then let them draw whatever their imagination dictated. My boys, being boys, drew monsters. With lots and lots of legs and eyes and arms. They were probably a little too realistic, as my second-oldest had a nightmare last night. And it was pretty funny to see my oldest boy's reaction when I told him to draw a rainbow. Apparently drawing rainbows is only for girls. He can like looking at rainbows, but can't like drawing them. D had no problem drawing one though. Of course, when he was younger, before he cared so much what other people thought, his favorite color was pink.
After art time, we had our story and reading time. This time it went much better, and they were back to how they usually are when it's time for stories. They were all interested and listened and helped each other pick out books. B is the only one who can read so far, so he had a good time reading some of the stories to his brothers and sister.
After we finished with story time and cleaned everything up, we all got on our shoes and got the leash on the dog and went for a walk. It was hot out and our poor gimpy dog has bad hips, so it wasn't a long walk, but the kids all came in the house very excited to be able to tell their dad how their day had gone. It was fun seeing how much they had enjoyed their day, and it gave me more motivation to keep at it.
I didn't do as well today, but we did still kept up with some of the regular activities. We didn't do as much as normal, since I had to take W to the doctor in the afternoon.
One of the main differences was that we did music time instead of art time. Again, I kept it simple, and we got out some pots and some wooden spoons and stainless spoons and a few other household objects and played the drums. We played a few games with the drumming to keep it interesting, too. When the kids started getting bored with the drums, we sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" so everyone could sing along. I sang them a variation to the song that I made up, and they all had me sing it over and over again. My variation goes like this:
The itsy bitsy spider crawled up _______'s leg (enter a name in the blank)
Down came his hand and brushed the spider away
When the spider recovered, it wanted to try again,
But the itsy bitsy spider tickled _______ instead.
I'm sure you can imagine the actions I do as we sing this version. My kids all like doing their part where they brush the spider off their legs, but their favorite part is the end where they all get tickled. It's amazing how often one can hear the word, "again" when doing something like this. They even had me demonstrate the song to their dad when he got home from work, which is kind of funny, since it's not the first time I've done it that way to them.
I will admit that there are several times throughout each day when I think that I can give them just a few more minutes (or even up to an hour) of their free time and I can sit and try to relax (but really, when do I ever really get to relax before bedtime?), but I've also found how good it feels when I don't give in to that thought and get up and do more structured activities with my kids. Sure, I'm tired. Sure, there are things I would like to be able to do on my own. But my kids won't stay young for very long. Before I know it, they'll be grown up and move out of the house and start families of their own. So I want to make sure I can take advantage of all the time I can get with them and hope I don't mess them up too much.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Getting Started 2
So last night after the kids were in bed, I went to the store to stock up on a few supplies so when we actually do art projects or whatever, I'll have the things we need to do them. I also got new dry erase markers for our white board and am getting closer to having everything ready to jump right in on the routines.
Unfortunately, I already am dragging my feet a bit and keep wondering why I wanted to do this in the first place. So it's a good thing I'm making myself report in this blog, or I'd probably have stopped before I started, and I still think it will help my kids be happier and will help things go smoother through the day.
I did have the kids start on a few of the things yesterday. While they usually like reading and story time, for some reason they didn't want to do it yesterday, so it took twice as long as it usually does. I do kind of expect to get some resistance to the changes, but I didn't really expect them to rebel at that particular one. I'm hoping it goes better today.
Their favorite part was the outside play time, even though they complained that it would be too hot. And yes, I usually do make them go play outside at some point during the day, so this wasn't new. I think they liked it better this time because I turned on the sprinklers and let them run through them in their clothes. They dried off after with scooter races.
So here's hoping it keeps getting smoother as we get into it and get organized better.
Unfortunately, I already am dragging my feet a bit and keep wondering why I wanted to do this in the first place. So it's a good thing I'm making myself report in this blog, or I'd probably have stopped before I started, and I still think it will help my kids be happier and will help things go smoother through the day.
I did have the kids start on a few of the things yesterday. While they usually like reading and story time, for some reason they didn't want to do it yesterday, so it took twice as long as it usually does. I do kind of expect to get some resistance to the changes, but I didn't really expect them to rebel at that particular one. I'm hoping it goes better today.
Their favorite part was the outside play time, even though they complained that it would be too hot. And yes, I usually do make them go play outside at some point during the day, so this wasn't new. I think they liked it better this time because I turned on the sprinklers and let them run through them in their clothes. They dried off after with scooter races.
So here's hoping it keeps getting smoother as we get into it and get organized better.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Getting Started
I'm creating this blog here so I have some sort of accountability for my plan. My plan is kind of a change in parenting style.
I am a stay-at-home mom to 5 kids, 4 boys and a girl. I will be the first to admit that I'm pretty lazy when it comes to parenting. Yes, I'm the mom who lets her kids watch way too much TV and play way too many video games. But I've decided to change and give my kids more structure in their day before they all get too old for it to have any affect. My kids are all pretty good for the most part, but they definitely have their moments. It doesn't help when several of them have pretty strong ADHD tendencies. And with everything I've read about ADHD, having structure is important in helping them learn to control their impulses and focus when they really need to.
I'm just now starting to get my plan in place, but it's a work in progress and I'm sure we'll have adjustments along the way. I have sketched out a rough weekly schedule with times set for certain things, such as chores, reading/story times, and meal times. And two days a week we'll have Art Day, where we do an art project of some sort together, even if it's just coloring in some notebooks, and two days a week we'll have Music Day, where we do some sort of music activity, whether it be listening to music and dancing around the room, singing songs together, or banging on the pots and pans. One day a week we'll have an outing day where we will go do some activity, like going to the zoo or the park or a museum. It's not going to be big, and it's definitely not going to be expensive. I can't afford expensive. Free is best, but we'll go for cheap too.
We have a big white board that we're going to post on the wall in our kitchen with the schedule mapped out for the kids. So they'll be able to look at the board and know what the plan is to do at any time. And hopefully it will help keep me on track too. Of course, we will be flexible. Sometimes things end up taking more time than others, but I think if we try to stick to the structure as well as we can, it will end up working out well. It will probably be a bit of a trial at first though. Kids will rebel, Mom will want to play on the computer like she usually does, all that fun stuff. I think it will be better for us all this way though. It's worth a shot anyway, right?
So my plan is to post a daily entry at the end of each day with how things went: what worked and what didn't, reactions the kids had, all that. Feel free to comment any suggestions for things to do, any words of encouragement, things that have worked for you, or something that comes to mind. Please keep it clean and keep it kind. And enjoy.
I am a stay-at-home mom to 5 kids, 4 boys and a girl. I will be the first to admit that I'm pretty lazy when it comes to parenting. Yes, I'm the mom who lets her kids watch way too much TV and play way too many video games. But I've decided to change and give my kids more structure in their day before they all get too old for it to have any affect. My kids are all pretty good for the most part, but they definitely have their moments. It doesn't help when several of them have pretty strong ADHD tendencies. And with everything I've read about ADHD, having structure is important in helping them learn to control their impulses and focus when they really need to.
I'm just now starting to get my plan in place, but it's a work in progress and I'm sure we'll have adjustments along the way. I have sketched out a rough weekly schedule with times set for certain things, such as chores, reading/story times, and meal times. And two days a week we'll have Art Day, where we do an art project of some sort together, even if it's just coloring in some notebooks, and two days a week we'll have Music Day, where we do some sort of music activity, whether it be listening to music and dancing around the room, singing songs together, or banging on the pots and pans. One day a week we'll have an outing day where we will go do some activity, like going to the zoo or the park or a museum. It's not going to be big, and it's definitely not going to be expensive. I can't afford expensive. Free is best, but we'll go for cheap too.
We have a big white board that we're going to post on the wall in our kitchen with the schedule mapped out for the kids. So they'll be able to look at the board and know what the plan is to do at any time. And hopefully it will help keep me on track too. Of course, we will be flexible. Sometimes things end up taking more time than others, but I think if we try to stick to the structure as well as we can, it will end up working out well. It will probably be a bit of a trial at first though. Kids will rebel, Mom will want to play on the computer like she usually does, all that fun stuff. I think it will be better for us all this way though. It's worth a shot anyway, right?
So my plan is to post a daily entry at the end of each day with how things went: what worked and what didn't, reactions the kids had, all that. Feel free to comment any suggestions for things to do, any words of encouragement, things that have worked for you, or something that comes to mind. Please keep it clean and keep it kind. And enjoy.
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