2.13.2007

a day in the life

Some of you may wonder what it's like to have three children at home plus one in my belly while I attempt homeschooling the older two. Perhaps most of my blog "viewers" have very different lives. So, I thought I might record a "typical day" schedule.
The misleading thing might be that there is no such thing as a typical day, with little ones esp. so, just keep in mind that this schedule is more of an ideal and less of a reality. The last thing I want to do on this blog is to present some sort of polished shiny interpretation of my rather tarnished life!
So, here it is:
The kids usually wake around 7 and the larger I've gotten, the more Brian has been the one to get up with them consistently. (I'm usually waking closer to 8!) They eat breakfast, usually watching a cartoon while they wake up. At 8:00 we all begin getting dressed, although sometimes I forget to change my littlest out of her pj's. Brian has devotions with the boys some time before 9:00 and by then, we sit down at the dining room table to begin school. (Christi joins us M, T, and Th.~ Wed. the boys go to a class with other home schooled children from 10-1 and Fri. Brian teaches the boys history, geography, and Bible.)
During school hours, Christi and I trade off teaching the boys. We cover phonics, math, spelling, grammar, handwriting, Latin, science and reading.... in a kindergarten and first grade way! We work with them giving Oliver a few more breaks than his first grader brother! Abigail usually plays and watches cartoons in the morning while we're working, unless the boys have a break and then she is all about playing with them. We have lunch around 12 and try to finish up our school work by 1, which is when Christi is finished helping.
At that point, I read to Abigail for 15-30 minutes and leave her for a nap. The boys then usually play in their room quietly with toys or read in their beds (but I'm worse about enforcing the latter.) When it's a little warmer out, they go outside too.
This is a quick break for me. Now that I'm in my third trimester, I try to lay down for a few minutes to give my body a rest, but I also enjoy writing a new post or emailing to unwind a little too. By 3 or 4 all the kids are up and playing together. We might do some craft, project, clean, or I just let them play around. We have dinner after 6, when Brian gets home. We read to the kids at night and that may be one of my favorite times with them even though I'm so wiped by then. They are in bed by 8pm.
So that's it. It sounds rather peaceful or perhaps even boring, which ironically are two words that I'd never use to describe my days. If you read this far, you were at least a little bit interested, if not, I've got this phase of my life recorded for our memory!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You forgot to mention that somehow you have to find time in there to do the laundry, cook the dinner, answer emails/phone, get dressed, pick up around the house, buy books for home school, do grocery store runs, etc, etc. You're awesome!

jess said...

you know I'm loving this post b/c I've asked you this very question before! It's always nice to get a view into what other mommies days are like...for both affirmation and ideas :)

Melissa said...

Hi Katie - I'm friends with Keri - that's how I found your blog (plus I went to berry too). Thanks for sharing. A mom whose children are grown told me that the thing she misses most is reading to her children. I love it and it was fun to read that you do too!

Anonymous said...

...to add one more thing to Brian's list.....AND to find time to keep up w/ your blog so all of us will know what the Prentiss' have been up to!!

keri said...

yada yada yada. whatever supermom. i know you sit around watching tivo'd desperate housewives while you're drinking diet coke and eating cereal all day.

katie said...

thanks keri for the realism and sarcasm... i thought i could fool you all with this post, but nothing's getting by you!