As a family we seem to need the routine in order to get through our days work, but it's often a stressful place to be, especially for this quiet loving mum.
Regardless of my efforts to keep everything stable and settled also has its routine struggles - the child who routinely can't find his books, or gets distracted so that everyone else has to wait. Niggles and children winding each other up also play a part despite my attempts to prevent it.
If I give way to no routine, or even put something different in the routine - we loose our way and virtually nothing gets done. Whether it be a home school outing, a visitor dropping by, friends, or simply something out of the ordinary that occurs the work stops at the slightest opportunity. It's just how we are.
Yesterday was one of the days when the distraction of the rain and misplaced books left us with the feeling of looming chaos. The arrival of my rainbow order was the final straw. the morning ended with three hyped and boisterous kids looking to blow off steam.
Couple this with a growing sense that we should be learning and mentoring, not just getting it done and ticking it off - and suddenly we have a change in how we order school and I hope its a good one, but for now the kids are released from the dining room table to spread out and work on there own with me falling into a role as mentor not timekeeper. They have a list of work to get through, and I wander from child to child through the morning depending on what they are doing.
Today it went well.
Only my middle boy is left at the kitchen table, he's the one that needs to be nudged more than the others. For the first time in ages he managed to do all his morning work.
My youngest loved the day, and seems quite at home working in his room, (but then he's the one that announced at 7 1/2 today that you cant trust the "us" endings on Latin nouns to show declensions because he just found a third declension noun with that ending.)
My oldest had a good day as well. She changes her work habits based on her confidence for the day - sometimes she flies, sometimes she simply looks out the window and waits for the cavalry... today the cavalry managed to give her a nudge that sent her soaring for a little longer.
We gathered for our read alouds and project time. The read alouds went well, the project working together on the white-board reminded me why we had done this.
I am more convinced that this is where we need to move long term, partly together, mostly separate, so that each gets one on one direction without it being a general conversation. We're keeping some together stuff - an hour at afternoon tea for discussion, read-alouds and projects that need more mess or discussion than our rooms allow. (although after this afternoon I will choose our together projects carefully)
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