School At My House

(Susan Wise Bauer, to whom I owe much of my own home-education organization, inspired me by writing about her school days with young kids.  Her story can be found here.)

Classical Education With Three Under Six

Fall of 2016: a day with a first-grader, a 3 year old, and a 14-month old

5:45AM I get up and get dressed. I read a chapter from Genesis and from the Epistle of James. I read Jacob's trepidation about his upcoming interview with his angry brother, Esau, and his wrestling with God. Talk about an act of faith. I laugh to myself, thinking that my problems aren't so bad.

6:30 I go for a 2.3 mile run that I try to do at least 4 times a week. By the time I come back and shower, it is time to get the kids up. I get dressed, kiss goodbye to David, and warm up the milk for Lucy.

7:30 I get up and feed Lucy, my sweet 14-month old cuddle bug.

7:42 I put Lucy in her crib with some picture books and stuffed toys and go get the other kids up. Gloria and Peter share a room. “Good morning,” I say; Gloria zooms past me in order to beat Peter to breakfast. Overt competitiveness has been a lingering problem. I change Peter's diaper (he is almost 4, sigh) and dress him.

7:50 Lucy is in her high chair eating cheerios. The older kids help with kitchen chores before breakfast. I make eggs; Gloria sets the table; Peter unloads the silverware for sorting practice.

8:00 Eggs and cereal are served. I turn Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite on, which is loud and lively. Lucy, who loves any kind of music, starts laughing and dancing in her chair. Gloria bursts into tears because I didn't put cheese on her eggs and she hates any other kind of egg. I turn the music off, and tell her to be grateful for what she has, because most kids around the world don't have breakfast this morning.

8:05 Gloria is still complaining. I tell her that I don't want to hear any more complaining during this breakfast. She stops. Sometimes I really wonder if we made the wrong decision to homeschool because of my character deficiencies.

8:10 I ask Gloria if she is mad at me. She says yes. We talk about it some more and work it out. I've been trying to learn the language of sympathy in the last few days. Eventually, she says she forgives me.

8:15 I am done with my breakfast; the kids are still eating. We do our catechism questions. I turn Bizet back on, make PB&J sandwiches, and unload the dishes.

8:40 The kids are still eating. I pick up the toys and vacuum the living room floor.

9:00 I finish vacuuming; the kids are still eating. I declare an end to breakfast, but allow Gloria to eat a treat candy David and I brought home from our vacation.

9:10 I brush Gloria's teeth and set her up with her penmanship work and explain her spelling assignment. I also give her “Croconile,” an additional history reading about ancient Egypt.

9:20 I change Lucy's and Peter's poopy diapers and brush their teeth. I brush my teeth.

9:30 After reading some books to Lucy, I put her down for her morning nap.

9:35 Gloria has done all her penmanship in an attempt for cursive (I have not taught her cursive yet). As an enthusiastic artist, she often throws in a creative flare for many school assignments so I have come to expect it. Running behind schedule today; I could make her rewrite it but I say nothing and sit Peter down for his penmanship prep. He happily traces letters while I do Gloria's Saxon Math lesson.

9:55 For one of the math assignments, Gloria is told to draw five animals. Gloria the overachieving artist wants to draw a full scenery of a forest and color it; I tell her to just draw the outlines and promise her that she can color them during the little kids' naptime.

10:05 Gloria has finally finished drawing the animals; we finish math. I do Peter's Reading Lesson (a phonics-based approach to reading) with him. He has been struggling with “it,” “is,” “on,” and “in.” He is a good reader but has been rushing to guess the words instead of sounding the letters out. We wrestle through “it is on it.” and “it is in it.” together. He gets two stickers for trying hard.

10:20 I send Peter to do his United States puzzle while I explain Gloria's grammar lesson from First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. We do our poem recitation and complete the lesson.

10:40 I read selections from Aesop's Fables to Gloria. Peter joins in and asks too many questions. This is normally fine, but I tell him to not interrupt anymore since Gloria needs to do her narration.

11:00 I finish reading and doing narration with Gloria and wonder if we should try a different version of the Fables; she seems to be having comprehension problems. I heat up milk for Lucy while Gloria draws a picture from “The Frog and the Ox.” I turn on The Horse and His Boy audiobook for the kids while I go feed Lucy.

11:30 Lunchtime. Bizet is playing in the background again and all three kids love it this time. Gloria says, “I think this is a fun song.” After I finish my food, I pick up a metal chopstick and act like I am Herbert von Karajan.

12:20 PM Lunch is over. The floor is dirty and needs moping, but on the brighter side, I bathed all three kids yesterday. No baths today—Hallelujah! I clean up the kitchen and change diapers.

12:55 The kitchen floor is ridic. I move all of us to the dining room and let Peter draw “galaxies and Russia” while I read a chapter from The Story of the World to Gloria with Lucy clinging to my leg. This week we are learning about first writings by ancient Egyptians and Sumerians. Mid-way through reading I realize Lucy has a poopy diaper. I make it through the end of the chapter with Gloria, who has a positively disinterested look on her face.

1:15 I pull out a map of Egypt and Mesopotamia for Gloria to color. I quickly spew out directions and run upstairs to change Lucy's diaper. Lucy needs rash treatment; she is a hand-soiling ninja during diaper changes so this job requires my full focus. While I am putting cream on Gloria shouts, “I AM DONE COLORING THE NILE!” to which I reply, “COLOR THE SUMER GREEN. DO YOU SEE IT BETWEEN THE TWO RIVERS?” “YES,” comes the reply. Sigh. I never wanted to shout across the rooms as a parent.

1:20 Gloria has finished coloring. I explain some more things about Egyptians and Sumerian geography. Lucy is still clinging to my leg. I decide to put her to bed a bit early.

1:25 Lucy is in bed. I pull out paint and brushes for simulating Egyptians hieroglyphs. While Gloria is learning to work with unfamiliar watercolors to write her name in hieroglyphs, Peter paints a pretty credible forest.

2:05 Hieroglyphs are finished and left out to dry. I put Peter down for his nap, 5 minutes late.

2:10 I put away the paints and pull out Gloria's quiet time activities: some pleasure reading books, math homework, and a coloring sheet of an Egyptian scribe.

2:15 I sit down and check emails. Although I am exhausted, I decide to study my own book (a poor choice in retrospect).

3:30 I start to heat up milk and feed Lucy. I am very impressed with Gloria's math illustrations and coloring sheet.

3:45 I get up Peter and we all have snack.

4:00 Gloria finishes snack; Peter and Lucy are still eating. I work with Gloria on her piano lesson for the day and allow her to practice the song ten times.

4:20 Gloria finishes practicing; I check her work and realize she has doodled all over the heirloom piano book (yes, it was David's). Her artistic energy knows no bounds.

4:30 Everyone gets down from snack. I take out some alphabet magnets for Lucy to play with, unwashed from storage and all. Everyone is delighted.

4:45 I pick up Lucy off the floor before she can toss all the magnets under the fridge.

5:00 I put rice on the stove, finish up some chores around the house and get ready for tomorrow. In the middle of it, Gloria shows me a letter she wrote and asks if she can have an envelope. I tell her yes, and help her copy the addresses. It takes forever and she makes two mistakes. I tell her she can finish tomorrow.

5:30 In a mental haze, I cook the rest of our dinner. Same schedule tomorrow except there is no history lesson, and I am going to try speaking more Korean during meals (in the midst of mocking laughters, my attempt hasn't been too effective so far). Pressing on!

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"Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.  But if it dies, it produces much fruit." (John 12:24)

"I am buried in the rich soil of housework, homeschooling, character training, disciplining and all the myriad responsibilities of making a home.  To many in my generation, my decision to stay at home is a fruitless sacrifice, a waste of feminine intelligence and abilities.  To me, though, it is a small sacrifice if by it I can send my children into the next generation bursting with spiritual life..." - Sally Clarkson, from Seasons of a Mother's Heart