Juggling

Well, now that I have been homeschooling three kids for more than a week--I can say there aren't enough hours in the day! Really, I feel like one of those guys in the circus with the plates spinning and he's trying to keep them all moving without any of them breaking! Between doing lessons with all three kids, keeping Emma occupied--it doesn't help that she also wants to do schoolwork--doing all the household chores from dishes to laundry, pets to meals, errands to cleaning, doing all our activities (which haven't even really started yet!), and trying to work out in the evenings and also have time with Matt--whew! It's like each day needs to be about 5 hours longer. Not to even mention the computer--email, blogging, and the Chikki website where in a moment of summer optimism I agreed to moderate two boards!

It has gotten better. The first few days Rachel and Julia had all their books and pencils lined up and ready before 9 am, and wanted to have us all seated together and working. This sounds nice, but was hard because since Ben can't read by himself, I have to walk him through every single thing--which means talking constantly. This of course distracts the girls. So ultimately it descends into some sort of fighting, yelling, etc. Now, however, they see that I can dispatch with Ben in under an hour and have more time to work with them. However, we are being more hands-on with French this year (meaning I am "teaching" a lesson rather than the more do-it-yourself attitude I'd had in previous years.) Also, science and art/art history are on the computer, and so I have to help Julia navigate properly. And, I am trying to be better about checking all work the same day, rather than letting it build up (--which meant some things were forgotten, and if there was a mistake the child sometimes didn't learn from it for days, which led to more mistakes, etc. )

All this means that school work is taking longer than it ever has. Today we went to Greenport to a playground we love--but didn't leave the house till nearly 3 pm. What is this, public school?! Granted, we started late (around 10:45) because the kids were playing well together in the front yard, and I hate interrupting them when something nice is happening. But still, 3:00 is too late. What will I do when the activities really start? Yikes.

Tomorrow is a half day, luckily. We are going to the aquarium because Ben studied fish this week for science, and because we won two free tickets from our library. And Monday we are off because we are going away for the weekend and won't be home till Monday--Matt's cousin is getting married on Sunday. So I can take a breather.....

Jen