While I’ve been downsizing in preparation of an upcoming move I came across this piece of writing that describes a homeschooling day–TWENTY YEARS AGO!!! Enjoy!
I am awakened by Ralph (age 3) in the hallway at 4:30 a.m., sounding distressed. Apparently he woke up feeling sick, went to the bathroom to get a towel, and now wants me to hold him while he thinks about throwing up. After a few minutes of empty gurgles he slumps against me, and I put him in my bed for the rest of the night (husband Loren is in Thailand). Where did he learn to get a towel? None of the other kids would have thought about such a thing…
At 6:45 I hear Delnora (age 17) getting herself ready for public school. She is a senior at Long Reach High School. Usually a few friends gather in our hall and dining room and wait for her. I keep my pajama-clad self upstairs until they’ve cleared out. I also hear a familiar truck out on the street and realize that I have forgotten to get the recycling to the curb.
At 7:15 my early risers, Nancy (age 6) and Margaret (age 9) are up and ready to watch their two morning cartoons before school. I spend a few minutes checking the email, and I’m happy to see Loren’s sister now has email and has sent a cheery note. I write her a return letter.
Patty (age 11) is now up without any fussing, which is unusual; she is almost always the last and hardest to get going each morning. But I made the twins go to bed earlier than normal to recover from a “sleep”-over on Friday night. At 8:15 I go tell Shannon (age 11) to get up.
As the girls finish their breakfast I tidy our schoolroom (the dining room) and write today’s list of assignments on our dry erase board. Normally I have the whole week laid out on a computer-generated assignment sheet, but I spent Sunday night watching a video with Delnora instead of doing my usual lesson planning. Besides, I’m using this week to transition from what we’ve been doing to what I wish we were doing. It finally dawned on me that I don’t have to wait until September to change course if things aren’t going as well as I want them to! We have been following a curriculum called “Prepare and Pray” based on the book Swiss Family Robinson. I like the book and the accompanying activities, but it is all too scattered for my tastes–one day we’re learning about poisonous snakes, another day we’re doing caves, another day slavery in the Colonies. I’d rather live with material for a week or more. So we’re going to finish reading Swiss Family Robinson during this week, and then spend the rest of the year on two-week mini-units of my choosing. I have already purchased a packaged study about tigers from the National Geographic Society that was advertised in a teaching magazine, but otherwise I’ll just pull together my own books, projects, and videos.
On the dry erase board I write: Math, Writing, Bible, Read something, Swiss Family Robinson, Spelling, Music. I leave places for Margaret, Shannon, and Patty to check off each subject when it is finished. Patty starts in on her writing assignment from “Wordsmith Apprentice.” We had completed half of this book last year, but I was using a more traditional grammar and writing textbook for 6th grade this year, and by March we are totally convinced we all hate it. Shannon joins her and they are both eager to try something different. They begin working on an ad for Columbia Presbyterian Church, using descriptive adjectives. After they’re done they compare their work with each other, and I show them real ads for churches in both the Columbia Flyer and the Columbia yellow pages.
I spend a few minutes folding some of the laundry. We run about 10 loads on the weekend when the electricity is cheapest, and my folding area is the living room carpet. I call it “Mount Laundry.” I had polished up the living room to perfection yesterday, but like moths to a flame, the littler kids had gravitated to the one lovely clean room in the house while I was watching the movie last night, and several creative projects have now taken over.
I grab Nancy who is in first grade and have her read to me on the sofa somewhere in the middle of cardboard box houses and scattered dress-ups and Ralph’s Brio train set. She reads one easy reader book from the library or our own bookshelves and then 4 short stories from the Horizon K reader. She cheerfully does a couple of accompanying workbook pages that reinforce her phonics, and she does about 1/4 of the handwriting page which is enough for her at this time. She is then free to play for a while.
It occurs to me that Ralph is still up in my bed. He is running a low grade fever but not complaining. He follows me to the kitchen where he eats his waffles from the toaster and demands yellow juice, which puzzles me until I realize that the rest of us call it “orange” juice. I discover that Margaret loaded the dishwasher last night as requested but did not actually run it, so I shuffle dishes and squeeze a few more in from breakfast and start that. I add some more toys to the pile at the bottom of the stairs that the girls are going to sort through and put away later.
I find both parts of the scotch tape dispenser. I have lost the Battle of Misplaced Office Supplies. We have resorted to having 2 staplers, 2 tape dispensers, 12 pairs of scissors, 40 pens, and 40 pencils, in the glorious hope of actually being able to locate one of these items when needed. I have, however, managed to get through 19 years of married life with the original 3-hole punch. A small victory.
At 10 a.m. Shannon is reading lying down on the sofa, trying to catch up on some 100 pages that she didn’t do last week in Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze. Margaret read some poems from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes and is now playing hangman on the dry erase board with Ralph, who is getting very frustrated, of course, since he can only think of a few letters, and doesn’t read at all. The answer is “Funny Mom.” Patty already read from her most recent Redwall book, The Bellmaker, and has finished all her school work that she can do by herself. She jumps rope in the hall. Nancy is dancing around and around the kitchen table and talking to herself.
Time for math with Margaret. Time for Margaret to start whining. Time for Mom to start chastising. Time for an exchange of evil looks. I like Saxon math, but the grade 3 lessons can take a loooooong time, even if it is clicking. I usually skip a lot of the drills when I feel she has “gotten it,” but still I will be SO happy when Margaret finishes this book and goes into Saxon 54, which she will do pretty much on her own.
Shannon is practicing her guitar chords and Ralph is playing in the cardboard houses. Patty starts the Amazon Trail computer game which attracts Nancy and Ralph and Shannon. However I see Shannon still needs to do her Saxon 76 math test and her spelling, so I shoo her away from the computer back to the dining room, where Margaret is working through her math quiz. Shannon arrives to do spelling with a shawl over her head, pretending to be a gypsy, although she reminds me more of Yoda. We use Spelling Power. The girls spell words from a list until they miss 1 or 2, then they study only that word. We do this twice a week. They still mis-spell things like “their” or “you’re” over and over during their writing assignments.
I am tired of watching Margaret toil through her math quiz and listening to her nag me about how she never learned any of this, so I go to the upstairs computer and call up the library to print out a list of books that are due tomorrow. Shannon is feeding Cookie, her guinea pig, and I spend some minutes on the phone trying to sign the girls up for an owl program in Laurel, which turns out to be full with a long waiting list. No, thank you, I tell the gentleman, I am not interested in the raptor class on Tuesday.
Margaret finally finishes the math quiz, and we shelve the rest of her math lesson for later in the day. I call together the older girls to the living room sofa, and I read aloud three chapters of Swiss Family Robinson. The girls notice that Jack in the story uses a yoke to carry two heavy ostrich eggs, just like the girls did to carry maple syrup buckets on our field trip last Friday. Nancy has the liberty to listen or not to listen to this particular book, and today she interrupts us once to ask where the craft books are. Two shelves up from the Bibles.
It is after noon, so we break for lunch. I correct the twins’ math tests while they go back to the Amazon Trail on the computer. Ralph puts together more train tracks in the living room and Margaret and Nancy play together congenially. I take my lunch upstairs and get a news fix from the daily newspaper while half-listening to Rush Limbaugh. Shannon enters my sanctuary to get permission to bake a cake. No problem. Then there are only 2 eggs when the box calls for 3. I assure her it will be just fine. Another visit to find out if our corn oil counts as “vegetable oil.” Yes, corn is a vegetable. One last trip to find out which shelf in the oven the pans should go on.
After our leisurely lunch break I have Shannon and Patty go over their mistakes on the math test. I haul Margaret back into the school room to do her 100 subtraction problems. It is her choice to do them timed or not, and she decides to be timed, which insures that we will end up with tears and wailing (Margaret) and gnashing of teeth (Mom). I call out five minute intervals and ignore her urgent requests to have me tell her what 11 minus 8 is. She gets a 39, which is 10 worse than the last time we took this as a timed test. <<sigh>> She finishes up the rest of the sheet. She comes and gives me a hug and says she’s sorry for all the bad attitude. I say I’m sorry for blowing up at her. We both know our roles pretty well, though, and we’ll probably repeat this same performance tomorrow.
We work through our Bible study all together. We’re using “Bible Study Guide for All Ages,” but I find it works best from about 2nd grade up, so Nancy hasn’t joined us yet. We have some quiz type questions, then some memory verse to recite, and some review of previous lessons. It is Patty’s turn to draw the little stick-figure picture of the story while the other three of us read through the chapter. We are in 2 Samuel, and Absalom is about to rue that glorious head of hair. I provide some commentary as we read to make sure they are comprehending the text. They usually have some good questions, too. After the study we will read a recent missionary letter, or if I don’t have anything new we read from Voice of the Martyrs. We take turns praying for these needs or for family concerns. We finish with a hymn at the piano.
Shannon goes to frost the cake and most of it disappears rapidly as an afternoon snack, including a piece to Emma, their public school friend who stops by our house nearly every day at 3:00. I notice that both Shannon and Margaret are still in their pajamas, and I wish I could say this was highly unusual. Emma’s arrival generally prompts a rush for more formal attire.
Margaret still has one more worksheet to do in math, and I corral Nancy to do her last schoolwork for the day. She does a page or two in a social studies work text, which is pure “twaddle” but serves the purpose of assuaging my conscience about educational neglect of a first grader. Then she tackles her Saxon Math 1 with little difficulty. The new concept is counting tally marks and nickels by 5’s. She says she had been wondering how much a nickel was! She does most of her “subtract 2” worksheet using her fingers as a convenient math manipulative.
Patty and Shannon each do a chore, and Ralph picks out a math game that he wants me to get down off the shelf so he can scatter it around the dining room. I comply. Shannon works on making a kite out of a black garbage bag cut and taped to some very heavy dowels. The kids go outside briefly to try it out, with minor success as there is no wind to speak of–not to mention the sheer weight of the thing.
Patty brings in the mail which includes three boxes of Scholastic books. Shannon helps me sort out the orders for several homeschooling families, and then she sits down with our new book about a migrating wood thrush. She is tickled that it is set in Maryland, but later she says it was a sad story. I also bought a book about Betsy Ross since we had visited the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia last week. Nancy enjoys her two new “maze” books while Ralph looks on in admiration.
Margaret has gone next door with her 3/4 violin to ask her 3rd grade neighbor to teach her to play. I only play a little, and my rather impatient efforts at teaching Margaret did not encourage her much.
Delnora gets home from after-school activities, so I escape for a half hour to run some errands. I return our videos to Blockbuster and take in Del’s cheerleading outfits to the dry-cleaners, and I suddenly realize that I am standing in front of Safeway with No Children, so I go in to get eggs and of course about another $50 worth of groceries fall into the cart as well. While searching for my Safeway card I find the little notice from the dentist with the date of Patty’s next orthodontist appointment which is this Thursday when I have scheduled our Homesteader’s nominating committee meeting, but at home when I check the specific times on the calendar it looks okay. The kids help carry in groceries and put stuff away, looking hopefully for new cereal and good treats. Yay for the rootbeer! Yay for the grapes!
At 5 o’clock Margaret arrives back home with her violin and her new tutor and I get a kitchen concert of “Hot Cross Buns” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” which is two more songs than I was able to teach her. She wants to know when I will go to the music store to get the special violin sponge for her chin, and I recommend a dish towel. Delnora is going through the house collecting props for her upcoming spring musical, “Bye, Bye, Birdie,” and I have a very good laugh when she asks if I possibly have an unfinished cross stitch project somewhere. Ha ha ha. That’s a real funny question. Ralph is playing in Box World in the living room, and Shannon is making a yoke from a dowel that Nancy can carry two loads of dolls with. Can I now write this down for science?
I turn on the oldies station and clean the kitchen and put something from the freezer in the oven for dinner. When Dad is out of state there is always some question about whether Mom will actually provide a meal or not, but they get lucky tonight. Patty is back on the Amazon Trail. I field phone calls about getting some meals to a friend and about a preschool program that Nancy attended two years ago. I start in on my third Diet Coke: I have miles to go before I sleep.
I eat tater tots and read U.S. News while a large theatrical production begins to develop in the living room. It is “Cinderella” complete with an in-gathering of many props, many costumes, and (for a change) not too much bickering. They get out the video camera, and I retreat upstairs for a few moments. Something is blocking my bedroom door, and it is Ralph, who has fallen asleep on the carpet right inside my door. I have to kind of shove him with the door until I can get an arm in to roll him out of the way so I can get in the room and carry him to bed. He is obviously not quite himself today, and I think it will be best not to take him out tonight to our small group meeting. I call to let the leader know I won’t be coming.
The theatrical troupe heads next door to show off their latest release to the neighbor’s family, but when I come downstairs I find Nancy back at the dinner table with the last piece of fish on her fork. I offer to re-heat it for her, and she thinks that might be an improvement. Just call me Betty Crocker.
At 8 p.m. the girls are back home, and I check out what they are watching on TV. It is “Seventh Heaven,” which is on our acceptable list, although during the five minutes that I watch with them I notice that one of the plot lines includes the horrors of too much caffeine. Hmmmm.
Nancy is at the school table, a little frustrated with the craft books that she has found. But then she spots a beginner’s book on drawing that captures her interest. I’m glad I invested the 25 cents it cost from the library’s used book shelf. So apparently I have 45 minutes of free time, hurray! I have an email from my mom in Washington state, and I spend some time on the Homeschool “Swap” board, seeing what the ladies are posting about recently. This will have to count for adult conversation for me this week while Loren’s away.
At 9:00 p.m. Delnora is back from “Bye, Bye, Birdie” practice with Friend Alex in tow, and they spend the next hour reading through a play that is assigned for English. The girls brush their teeth and head for bed after I brief them about tomorrow afternoon’s busy schedule: guitar lesson for Shannon, the last Math Olympiad contest, library, flute lesson for Patty, and gymnastics for Margaret.
I start the dishwasher. I ignore the unfolded laundry. I step carefully around the pile of toys that is still at the bottom of the stairs. Shannon is happily reading Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze in the hall outside her bedroom door since Patty wanted lights out for sleeping.
How did ten o’clock arrive so quickly?
My.Bird.Walks. 