For the most part now, after asking the Lord for help and multiple conversations with friends, we are settling into a rhythm that is really working for all of us. I am so thankful.
Blaise and I are up earliest. I get ready for the day, get him breakfast, and we head off to preschool. Simeon is almost always up before we go. Lieren is sometimes up but Silas very rarely is.
When I get back just a few minutes later, I wake Silas and we all have breakfast. While I am getting breakfast together, I often have one of the twins read aloud. We eat and then the other twin reads aloud as I clean up.
Just after 9, we begin with math. All 3 have warm-up sheets to do. Simeon and Lieren check their sheets with one another and then I teach their lesson. Today they were continuing to master the double+1 facts. Proud of how they have caught on to this concept that was difficult when we began last week. The solid repetition is one thing I have appreciated about Saxon math.
As Sim and Lieren complete their math, I go over Silas' lesson with him. There are days when he can read through the lesson independently and doesn't really need my help. Other days I teach it.
Today was one of those sweet full-circle moments. There are a plethora of reasons why I love CC, but today when we were doing math, I found another. The lesson was on simplifying square roots. We have been talking about the squares for a few weeks in his Saxon lessons. However, because he learned all the squares starting 2 years ago in kindergarten with CC, and has reviewed them every year since, he has that memory peg firmly in place. Doing squares and square roots has been a snap. CC is such a gift for learning. Love it!
When the twins have finished their math, they go to complete morning jobs and have a break. Silas completes his math paper on his own.
My goal is to have math completed by 10:15. I use the next bit of time to breathe, have a coffee, and do a little something I need to do around the house. Wednesday is laundry day so I am getting that accomplished today.
At 10:30, I sit down with Lieren and Simeon to have our spelling lesson. We just began All About Spelling Level 1 this semester and they are doing awesome.
Silas works on handwriting or his Awana verses or does a CC review while we are spelling. He is also working through the Bible Heroes writing curriculum through IEW and has that to work on independently some days. If it is a day that needs teaching for IEW, we wait until after spelling.
We switch and Silas comes to the rug for spelling. Today when spelling was done, he wanted to do his read-aloud.
Simeon and Lieren use this time for their handwriting, CC review or to work on their Awana verses. I am using Awana as their primary Bible memory work. It has been a motivating and fun program for our kids and I am thankful for it.
My goal is to have all spelling/writing lessons taught by 11:15. The children then all complete any school work or jobs they haven't yet finished and a couple days a week we work on presentations for CC.
Around lunch time, we all head out to pick up Blaise from preschool. One thing I am loving about this new routine is that by noon, all our core subject teaching is done. I have learned that I do much better teaching in the morning so it has helped to be focused in the morning.
We often stop and see Shane before heading home and having lunch. Today was gorgeous so after we ate, we went outside for a little exercise. As I've said before, I am their PE, after all.
After a bit of time outdoors, we come back together for what we have somehow started calling "Gathering Time". I can't even remember where that came from. But it fits. Today it was almost 2:00 when we sat back down.
During Gathering, we are currently reading from Sally Michael's book God's Names as our devotional.
We then review our CC memory work for the week.
After a quick run though the week's memory work, I rotate the subjects in a 3-day cycle for deeper learning. The first group is Timeline, History and Latin (that was today). Another day we do Science and Math. And the third group is Geography and English.
Today we reviewed all of week 14 and then did our subject rotation. We started by saying/singing our timeline from last week and this week. It was fun to see them make connections from this week's Timeline to some of our history sentences from last semester about the reformation.
Latin was a review this week so we simply touched on it for a minute because they all know it.
For History we are reading a chapter or section from Story of the World that corresponds to our history sentence. Silas made a great memory peg connection when we read about the Lusitania. We had learned about the US joining WWI during his kindergarten year (2 years ago!) and had not talked about it since. But when I read it, his eyes got wide and he said, I know about that! We then sang that history sentence song. Just another reason to love CC.
On days where we are doing other subject rotations, we might do a science experiment or read from library books. We do blob maps and draw the geography for the week. I instruct Silas how to tie the English in to his IEW lessons. I like that not every Gathering Time looks the same.
I am especially pleased to have moved Gathering to the afternoon (I was doing it in the morning last semester) because now Blaise gets to be part of it. Even though he isn't in CC this year, he knows a huge chunk of the material from listening to his siblings. And I like that he gets to be part of our more fun/relaxed learning times.
Just like that, it will be about 3:00 pm and the school day wraps up.
As a caveat, we really only do this routine 3 days a week. Shane is home one day, so we typically only do core subjects. And another day we go to CC. As grace to us all, we do not do anything else on those days.
So thankful that we are finding rhythm.
