Woodstone Prairie

Well, I guess it’s time to start posting again… I’m feeling recharged again, and less like I just don’t have time for one more thing! (like blogging)

 In an effort to pull some order out of the chaos we’ve had around here lately, and using some DD funding I stumbled upon, I’ve been busily revamping our homeschool program and restructuring our day a little. Restructuring the day was tough at first, M just doesn’t do well with changes in routine… I stuck with it though (I was just cranky enough not to care if he threw fits all day about it, in fact I was feeling close to throwing one myself!) and he eventually adjusted and now the new schedule seems to be working beautifully!

Here’s our schedule… but first please remember that my kids thrive on structure. They need to do about the same things at about the same time each day. So this schedule might look extreme to someone with typical kids, but it’s just what my alcohol affected kids need. 

 7-10 a.m. M watches TV or dozes, free time (I tried… again… to get some school done during this time but he just can’t manage it)
10:00 - TV off, snack
10-11:30ish -R school time, M still dozing or playing Gameboy etc. If M falls apart during this time (which has happened a few times lately), he just has to stay in his room until he’s calm, and R and I move school to the dining room table (where we can’t hear him as well). I’m really done with R’s school time being disrupted or shortchanged because M is falling apart.
11:30 lunch
noon-1:30 quiet time
1:30-3:00ish M school time
3-4:00 snack, “together” school time (science), free time if science doesn’t take too long 
4-5:00 free time, TV
5:00 TV off 5-6:00 reading time (in the dining room while I make dinner… they listen to books on CD (mostly classics) while coloring or drawing, sometimes M just reads. The educational consultant and I put this idea together as a way of getting M through the rough late afternoon time. They each have special art supplies, portable CD players and books on CD just for this time. 
6:00 dinner, then games, read alouds, family time
8:00 bedtime
There is some flexibility to the schedule, school sometimes takes longer or shorter amounts of time, but overall the day is organizing itself well around the three short blocks of school time. I’ve been working on getting the kids used to this schedule for a few weeks (adding bits and pieces of it at a time, not all at once) and just this week M seems to finally be settling into the routine and doing pretty well with it.

We’re still plugging away with Saxon Math (3-4 days a week) and I’m trying to focus more on writing so they are writing a little each day (I’m getting ready to start the “Write Source” program, it looks really wonderful). They are doing Daily Language and Daily Geography using the Edmark series of books, and their regular Building Spelling Skills. I made a bunch of “science center” folders on a variety of topics (animal adaptations, life cycles, simple machines, etc) and each day they choose a folder, do one of the activities in it, then sign the folder so I can keep track of what they are doing. (So no one does the same favorite activities over and over!) I’m putting together a unit study on insects, which we’ll start soon. I bought one of those cool “Ant Works” ant habitats to go with the unit study. It should be very cool. (They won’t do the science center folders while we are doing the unit study, we’ll pull them out again when we’re done…)

 Getting things more organized has made me feel better about things. I can’t do anything about M and the medication issues, but I CAN reorganize our homeschool and try to structure the day a little better. And that feels good.

 We’re leaving for church so I’ll have to write more later… We have horse news and “love” news that I need to post about. I’ll be back…