An Exciting Week Ahead

I am really excited for the start of this week. We are starting into full-schedule school mode. Although our official first day was last Wednesday, we didn't really begin much of the actual work. I introduced things to the kids so that they would be comfortable with all their new books once we got into it for real. Isabelle also read "The Boxcar Children" for her first unit in Learning Language Arts Through Literature.

I also created a new schedule for us. We went without a schedule throughout the summer. At that time, I realized I don't function as well when I feel over-scheduled. However, the kids really thrive on a schedule. So we're compromising. We'll have a loose structure throughout the day, mainly as it applies to the kids, and I'll continue to work off of daily to-do lists.

This should give us the best of both worlds, I hope. The kids will be happy knowing what is coming next in their day and I'll not feel the need to rebel against my too-heavily scheduled time.

Here is the schedule we'll be using:

• 8:30 - Morning chores
• 9:00 - Breakfast
• 9:30 - Isabelle: start school; Alex, Olivia & Gracie: play time/help mom in the kitchen
• 10:30 - Alex, Olivia & Gracie - Leap Frog videos (Isabelle - school cont.)
  
• 11:00 - Alex & Olivia school; Gracie - coloring, rotating toy time, stories w/ A&O (Isabelle - school cont.)
  
• 12:00 - Alex, Olivia & Gracie - Playtime (Isabelle - school cont.)
  
• 1:00 - Lunch & family devotions with dad
• 2:00 - Alex, Olivia - table time activities; Gracie - nap; Isabelle - finish up any schoolwork/free time
• 3:30 - Isabelle one on one computer time with Alex or Olivia
• 4:00 - Isabelle - computer time; Alex, Olivia & Gracie - help mom fold laundry, tv time, playtime
• 5:30 - Clean-up time; showers/baths
  
• 6:30 - Dinner
• 7:30-8:00 - kids bedtime

We'll see how this works for now and make any adjustments that we need.