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Saturday, January 9, 2010

My week in a nutshell

So here's what my week was like and how most of my weeks will be like until the end of the school year.

Monday-
Running
Got kids to do chores
Scripture study
Homeschooling
Doctor appointment (for our adoption. 2 hours of craziness!)
Did about 5 loads of laundry (washed, dried, folded)
Cooked dinner
Cleaned house up
Did homework with Eden and Becca
Taught ballet for 3 hours (I got suckered into teaching these ballet classes. The owner of the studio asked me to teach two nights a week. I decided to take one of the nights. And boy am I glad I did because these classes are seriously the best I've ever had and I love it so much!!! I am so excited for class again.)

Tuesday-
Missed running today
Got kids to do chores
Scripture study
Homeschooling
Ordered supplies for Serving With Smiles
Had lunch with Anna at her work
Took Charity to the doc for her 4 month well check
Took Jonah and Celeste to a math tutor (I stink at math and wanted a little help with it.)
Took all kids to the library to load up on books to read (We got a ton and it still wasn't enough)
Took Jonah to Scouts
Worked on the adoption stuff
Did homework with Eden and Becca
Cooked Dinner & cleaned up house
Had Family Home Evening

Wednesday-
Running
Had kids do their chores
Scripture study
Homeschooling
Back to the doctor (adoption stuff again)
Bank run
Helped someone move (good workout!)
Took Jonah and Celeste to math tutor
Substituted a ballet class
Did homework with Eden and Becca
Forgot to send Eden and Celeste to Activity Days :( (Sorry Stef. just got too crazy that day!)
Cooked dinner & cleaned up house
Went to Mutual (karaoke night- fun!)
Went grocery shopping at like 10pm

Thursday-
Running
Got kids to do chores
Homeschool
Babysat a friends children (2 and 3 year-olds)
Taught ballet to Celeste and her cronies (forgot it's so much harder to teach beginners than advanced dancers! But they are cute girls.)
Cooked dinner for a family in the ward
Served my family dinner & cleaned up house
Did homework with Eden and Becca

Friday-
Running
Scripture study
Tutored a friends kids at the school
Helped out in Becca and Eden's classes at the school
Homeschool (starts at noon on Fridays)
Did homework with Eden and Becca
Made dinner & cleaned up house
Went to dinner and temple with Steve (Thanks Anna for babysitting!)

Homeschool
So yeah, my life is pretty crazy right now. But I love it! Our first week of homeschool went great!!!! The kids and I love it. I actually enjoy it way more than I thought possible. The only problem is math. I am just not good at it and I hate it! I don't want to pass that on to my kids. So I'm still trying to figure out a way to trick them into thinking that I think it's fun and easy; and then to get them to think that it's fun and easy themselves. That is by far the hardest part for me, but I'll figure it out soon.
Writing is fun! Social Studies is fun! Science is totally fun! I'm not gonna lie about math...
You may also be wondering how much time we spend on homeschooling. It's usually about 4 hours. That may not seem like much, but keep in mind it's just me and the 2 kids. I'm not counting time for lunch, we don't have all those recesses and time spent lining up to walk down the hall, and so forth. We keep things moving quickly and don't waste time on crowd control. We get enough time for all the basic subjects and even a little time to spend learning whatever they want to learn about.

Schedule
You may also be wondering how I fit everything into our schedule. Well, we start early and I go until pretty late at night. Usually around 11pm. 7 hours of sleep is just fine these days. We have a pretty tight schedule and we have to stick to it pretty well to fit everything in. There isn't much time for me to play around or do leisure type stuff. (Basically none.) The kids have more time for that kind of thing than they did before, but not me. And I'm liking it though. Believe me.

10 comments:

Cristin said...

YAY! I'm glad it's going well. You'll get the free time figured out...eventually. lol You might have to NOT do somethings occasionally so you can refuel but trust me everyone will live if you don't do something once in a while. haha Busy girl, I was starting to miss homeschooling until I read your day and was like "oh yeah...that's why I needed a break from it". haha so thanks for the update! lol

Emily said...

You amaze me. Seriously.

Jen and Brent said...

Okay,you are giving me a complex about myself! LOL!!!! I can't believe your crazy schedule! I struggle to keep up with my life and it is definitely not as full as yours! Wow! I could tell you were one of those women that seem to be able to do it all! What time do you get up in the morning?! Amazing! See you in YW's tomorrow! You are awesome!

Carrie said...

May I suggest you peek at the pioneer womans site.
www.thepioneerwoman.com

She has a whole section that she, along with a few contributors work on about homeschooling. There may be something there about math

Crazy, but math is my favorite. I don't know what stage the kids are at, but baking is a great way to teach math, especially fractions. Give them a recipe and tell them to double it, triple it, even halve it. The best part (for you) is that allrecipes.com has a spot where it does the work for. That way you know the answers are correct. Maybe at the end of each week you could bake one of the things you used for math lessons. Just some suggestions. Hope you don't mind.

E said...

That's a big nutshell! Love the updates on how it's all going. Maybe you should start an adventures in homeschooling blog? Looks like you need something else to do...

ManicMandee said...

Cristin- We have a real life bond...
Emily- Whatever, you are amazing yourself.
Jen- If it weren't for you and how much help you are to me as my YW Counselor, I wouldn't be able to do the things I talked about in this post. I'd be working on YW stuff all the time. And remember most of your kids are preschoolers, which is super hard!
Carrie- You always give great suggestions. I had checked out Pioneer Woman yesterday and I found this article about math that was so helpful! She is a pretty sharp lady with a lot of great resources. I love the cooking idea. I like that I can tell them to cook cookies or something and have them half or double the recipe and see what happens if it goes awry.
Jenny- No homeschooling blog for me. There are enough talented ladies out there covering that one. I'm trying not to let this blog turn into that either. It's just kind of consuming me at the moment.

Memzy said...

I. HEART. Pioneer Woman!! Great idea to check out her site. (I personally only look at the photography and cooking stuff but I knew she did homeschooling too).

Keep it up MM, and good luck to you!!

Swasey family said...

Can I tell you how AMAZING you are!!You are soo AWESOME!!We made a new Years Resolution to do Family home evening & scripture study & work outs daily...You are such a great example to me!Keep on the good work. P.S. we were able to go to the temple for our second time Friday night and it was soo amazing!!!I want to try to go tons more!

Teresa Johnson said...

WOW!!! Just reading all that made me feel tired for you! That's just amazing all that you squeeze into a day. KUDOS to you! I'm glad that you are enjoying homeschooling and everything! As long as you enjoy it, that's what life is all about! Hope all continues to be blissful!

willmottfamily said...

That's awesome, Amanda. You are an inspiration. I find that when we fill up our days with worthy activities we are much happier than when we have to find ways to fill free time. I hope it continues to go well for you.