I’m feeling my way towards a system. There are tasks I can only do with both hands (like take a shower and cook diner). These things happen when K is napping, being held by someone else, or lying on a quilt near her brothers while they entertain her – them playing Legos is entertaining enough as far as she is concerned, if she is comfortable in other regards. Of the schooling tasks, I can’t demonstrate new ocarina tunes one handed, but it turns out I can write on a white board while holding her, so spelling dictation is working fine. I can’t type B’s writing compositions for him one handed, or help him with his penmanship (the reason I type for him) so those we sneak in quickly when K nods off.
K thinks her baby carrier is great if I’m outside walking, but frustrating if we are sitting still. So much for my idea I’d wear her during school time and get my hands free that way.
We need to speed up in math, penmanship and composition, we are making lovely progress in history, Latin (of course, my Mom does that, so they are on schedule) drawing and oddly enough spelling, I guess I tried to speed up on that before baby came, so we’d have some slack. I’ve decided that we will skip this year’s grammar and composition spelling enrichments in the WISE guide, because Latin covers grammar, and we are using Writing Stands for the compositions, so that’s redundant. I have to skip SOMETHING. We’ve actually finished the part of the drawing book that I meant to finish, so we can call Art good for this year, though I do mean to have B draw some, when we observe the various weeds and perenials I’m starting on with the Handbook of Nature Study. I know the guys would rather we hatched dragon fly nymphs, but I don’t have space for a 1 gallon jug of pond water in my kitchen – not this year, K is exciting, organic and messy enough!
Since I can’t predict when K will nod off yet, and I think she’s too young to have a schedule nudged on her, I can’t quite tell the boys exactly when we will do our assignments. This frustrates them a bit, they love to know when they will be done. This frustrates me a lot, I love to plan my work and work my plan. So the chart is sitting idle on the wall.
B’s status as a reader of his own grade level (new since my trip to China last Fall) means I can give him assignments to work on by himself. This doesn’t make life as convenient as I’d anticipated however: he is a talker. Or to put it in educationese: his primary learning modality is aural/oral. So, if he discusses things first, away he goes, if he reads it, ponders it, and looks at it during nap time…well, looking out the window is just as productive, oh my, when did you all wake up?
Well, just in case K is NOT our last baby, I’m taking notes about how we are doing little baby logistics, so next time I can say, "Oh that’s how we did that!" Of course, next time we shouldn’t have the chicken pox all together, and I’ll have even more helpful older children. Life got much harder to manage when B was laid up, no helpful lad to take out the recycling, entertain his brother, run errands to the neighbor’s house, vacuum, clear the table, fill the dishwasher, wash his and his brother’s laundry, pick up his bedroom.
This afternoon we will celebrate not being contagious anymore by walking to the park and library. The boys were going to ride their bikes too, but B just informed me his front wheel is out of alignment. This is Daddy fix it territory.
I’m going to do some sewing before K wakes up, DH comes home for lunch and the boys get tired of playing outside.
My musings on our homeschool, coop, figuring out what my educational philosophy is anyway, and will I ever make curtains for the rest of the appartment?
