Yesterday

….was finally cold.  It is finally feels like winter in NY with all of it’s accompanying grayness.  I was kind of enjoying the mildness of this season so far. I am the one who is always cold. 

I decided to jump on the bandwagon of some other  bloggers who are posting about their daily lives and schedules. 

So my day begins with the alarm at 5:30 a.m.  which I completely ignore.  Usually.  Sometimes I am on the ball but not lately since the twins get me up quite a bit.  Yesterday was no exception. I did get up at 6:15 and jumped in the shower while the coffee brewed.  After getting dressed, inhaling some wonderful caffeine and checking my emails I sat for a morning devotion.

7:00 a.m. – Wake up Ryan, Katie and Erin trying not to wake Kelli and Kevin.  Was successful with Kelli not Kevin. I gave some directions about picking up their rooms and bringing down laundry and then went down to scrounge up some food for them.

7:20 a.m. – Breakfasting on cinnamon toast, fruit, juice (I received a new juicer for Christmas) and Cheerios.

7:30 a.m. – Time to pray. I find that our day goes better when we get an early start and begin with prayer.  Today we recited a decade of the rosary for the intention of comfort for a local family. The dad lost a battle with cancer last week leaving two small boys and a heartbroken wife.

7: 40 a.m. School begins.

Ryan’s Math book has mysteriously disappeared so we are starting off this quarter behind. I am seriously not amused but am too busy to look much for it now.  Ryan’s day shapes up like this..

• Religion, reads the story of Jesus and the fisherman. Narrates it to me and then does some copywork from the Gospel.  Discuss term "fishers of men."
• English, completes a page from Daily Grams and begins the adjectives lesson in his Easy Grammar workbook.
• Reading, we use a series of books produced by Steck Vaughn to help comprehension.Right now he is working on Sequence. Identifying beginning, middle and end.  The books haven’t helped his comprehension too much but he enjoys them.  I read aloud to him from the Vision Reader about the Cure of Ares.
• Reading Comprehension, started the CHC saint stories book today.  I will take a month per saint to try to help him with this.
• Science, working with Katie on machines.  Looked up some Leonardo DaVinci stuff at the Museum of Science website.
• Spelling, wrote out words for the week three times, next he’ll use them each in a sentence. This will be torture since he has a very difficult time assimilating new language.
• Vocabulary, looked up his list in the dictionary and wrote out definitions. See spelling, same trouble.
• History, studying the beginnings of slavery in this country.  Talked about the evil of one person dominating another for profit.  Went over the time line of slavery.
• Typing, Mavis Beacon for about 15 minutes then he lost interest.

Katie

• Math, working on the 2nd quarter test that will be handed in to Seton.  Then I sat with her and caught her up to where she should be in the book.  Katie tends to poke along in Math since it is not her favorite subject.
• Reading, in the Faith and Freedom reader story of the Prodigal Son. Narrated to me while I typed it up. Read her St. Thomas Aquinas book as well.
• Typing, Mavis Beacon. She’s enjoying that.
• Finished up book report on Augustine Came to Kent. This goes to Seton for grading. I think she will do well.
• Science, worked with Ryan.
• Religion, studying the Baltimore Catechism questions about the Second and Third Commandments. Read the story of Jesus in the Temple for Bible History. Narrated to me.
• Handwriting, two pages of script practice in the Seton handwriting book. I don’t make a big deal  of handwriting books since we do so much writing and neatness always counts.  But for learning script I find Seton’s books really valuable. So we alternate book learning with copywork. Usually from Catholic Mosaic.
• Phonics, Seton workbook, one page.  I don’t see much value in intense phonics once someone reads fluently but Erin and Katie both love these books so we do them.
• Art, working on a lesson in harmony and contrast.  Studied Nativity by Louis le Nain to illustrate the lesson.

Erin

• Phonics, two pages.
• Math, uses MCP and is working on adding two digit numbers.  She is a bit of a wiz in math (like her dad) so this is going well. She did three pages.
• Reading, Seton’s reader. Read a story and answered the discussion questions in her notebook.  I am going to start having her narrate them back to me once or twice a week rather than always writing out the answers. She’s a lefty who still finds writing frustrating.
• English, one page in grammar book. She’s working on Synonyms.
• Art, drawing figures.  Studied a picture of the Holy Family and then colored.
• Spelling, did one page in Seton’s spelling book.
• Read aloud two picture books to Kevin (The Hat and an I Spy kind of Book)
• Religion, working on her Baltimore Catechism. She is memorizing the ten commandments.  Planned out a few pages for her FHC notebook which I am hoping to get to Thursday and Saturday.
• Handwriting, one page

Kelli

• This is the letter K week.  picked out some things that begin with the "K" sound.  Colored a "K" for her notebook.
• Worked on the shapes page in her new Pre-K activities book from Seton.
• Pre-K math, used the peg board to sort by colors and then we made different patterns.
• Practiced writing numbers 1,2,3
• Read The Hat, Sugar Snow,and a few Eric Carle books.
• Read Elmer the Elephant and tow or three other books that I can’t recall at the moment.

That was what got done yesterday.  Our days are loosely structured. I start by 7:30 – 45 in the morning.  We have a quick stretch-your-legs break at about 10:00 a.m. with a quick snack and a run around outside if the weather is cooperative.  Back to work by 10:30 a.m. Break for a lunch hour at 12:15 p.m.  The afternoon mostly is given to independent work.  I take time to read to Kelli and Kevin and catch up on chores.  Yesterday Erin swept the stairs and mopped the bathroom.  Ryan emptied all of the garbages, brought in the pails, and put away his and Kevin’s laundry. Katie put away laundry, picked up the living room, dusted and swept. Everyone fed or snuggled a baby at some time or another.

At 3:45 we get in the car.  Kelli, Kate and Erin go to Irish step which starts at 4:00 p.m.  I run to the store with Ryan and the littles. Back to step class to pick up Kelli, she ends at 4:45 p.m.  Rush over to the dojo to drop Ryan at karate at 5:00, shoot over to step class for the 5:00 – 6:00 class that Katie and Erin are in (hard and soft shoe- Kelli only does soft shoe). Then at 6:00 when class is over I drive like a nut to the dojo where Ryan is waiting, his class ends at 6:00 as well.  This was an easy night because there was no 6:00 basketball.   That’s tonight.

All in all, a pretty typical day.