Multitasking and Finding a Rhythm

In September, when we started homeschooling, we had such a nice rhythm and schedule.  Kian took two naps a day, his first at 10am.  From the time the kids woke in the morning until Kian's first nap, we would eat breakfast, do chores, and play.  Once Kian went down, I schooled Logan (K) and Felicity (pre-K) together in the playroom.  Kian would normally sleep for two hours giving us plenty of time to accomplish all the school stuff I wanted to each day....singing songs, paperwork, crafts, reading, etc.  We could move at such a relaxed pace.  However, as the school year went on, Kian napped less in the mornings.  Our morning school time got shorter and shorter.  I started doing the crafts, songs, and more informal things in the morning with Lissy and Logan, and then schooling Logan on the more formal stuff in the afternoon when Kian and Lissy napped.  I didn't love this plan as that afternoon nap time was usually my time to get things done or just rest, but I had to fit in school so that's what we did.  Later in the Fall, my thyroid crashed and so did I.  School became hit or miss.  Thank goodness Kindergarten is a freebie year.  I hated not having a schedule but I was in survival mode.  During this time I discovered and embraced "Unschooling" by using teachable moments and child led learning to accomplish school.  We stopped singing our daily songs, and less boring paperwork was done, but often just going into the yard produced lessons that I just ran with.  The holidays came and with them, a break from school.  By the time the holidays were over, my thyroid was better and I was finally on meds that were helping.  However, by this time, Kian had now stopped napping completely in the mornings.  Every time I'd try to implement a schedule, someone would get sick.  For the whole month of January, there was always someone sick.  Again, I relied on the more informal Unschooling when the moments presented themselves.  And here we are in February.  This month I am learning to let go of my rest time in the afternoons and utilize that time for school.  Some days I need a break so I've learned to set Logan up with an independent project next to me as I sew.  This seems to work well.  I'm also learning to include Kian in things such as clay play, while at the same time making sure to incorporate Logan's school curriculum into the clay play.  I think we will still be learning balance this month but hopefully by March we will have figured out some sort of rhythm that we can start sticking to.  In the mean time, I'm working on scheduling our days to be the most productive as possible while meeting everyone's needs.  If there's one thing I've learned about homeschooling so far, its that you have to be willing to go with the flow when needed, and you must be willing to change.  That's the beauty of homeschool though.  Life changes and when homeschooling, you can just change the schooling to match your new phase of life.  Bring it on. I think I'm ready.  :)

Here's Logan making letters in a tray of salt at the end of my material yardage I was working with.

And while I sewed on that yardage, he worked next to me putting his letter cards in alphabetical order.

We're learning.