Aubins Homeschool Day

6:30AM, make it snooze until 7:00am

7:00AM My husband, Gary, gets kids out of bed.

I'm still tired because I go to sleep around 1-2AM even though I have WRITTEN down the goal of getting to bed by 11PM.

7:10 Gary gets the kids out of bed again.

7:15 it took five minute for the kids to come from bed to the loft with their blankets and cuddles for Scripture study.

7:30 Gary reads Scriptures and leads discussion. Interrupted often by "sit up", "wake up" and answering questions with answers like "well, we aren't discussing Pokemon right now, ask me that later"

7:45 The kids go to rooms to supposedly dress, make beds and clean rooms.

8:00 Cosette (7), is done making her bed and dressing and is down eating. Carmen (11), has tons of things to pick up that she stashed on her bed over night.

8:05 Screams issue from the boys’ room. Benjamin (6), is sitting naked on the floor screaming because Aleksandr (9), took his toy away. Aleksandr is screaming because Benjamin isn't supposed to be playing but cleaning. Of course, Aleksandr has only pants on and is wading through a pile of his clothes on the floor.

8:30 The girls have eaten and have to be reminded to brush their teeth and hair, because after 7 to 11 years of living and doing the same thing every day, you can't possibly remember to do that.

The boys come down to eat, but are sent back up to pull the toys out from under the bed and crammed in the closet to put them away properly.

9:00 all have eaten and brushed teeth. All have to be reminded to clear off table. Everyone denies getting out the butter, certain cereals, or being the last to drink the soy chocolate milk.

9:30 Mom is frustrated because start time is 9Am. But animals haven't been fed, toys are all over and piano hasn't been done.

9:40 We start school

9:41 Someone calls me and needs to talk to me for at least 10 minutes, during which time the children take advantage by dropping what every they had in their hand to quickly disappear and play.

9:50 The phone call done, I round up kids again, 2 boys are fighting over a toy and 2 girls fighting over the cat.

I have decided I don't need to do PE, they get enough exercise running up and down the stairs to tattle on each other.

10:00 Aleksandr and Carmen start Saxon using DIVE CD’s. I start reading Sonlight’s history and science to Cosette and Benjamin. Cosette cuddles close to me and listens attentively. Benjamin sits upside down with his feet over the back of the couch, plays with his fingers, and catches about half of what I read. I have to stop frequently to ask him questions, then correcting what he gets wrong. He doesn’t usually get anything wrong because Cosette cannot resist blurting out the answer, which she knows and he mimics. He is, however, gaining a better attention span, he used to average 10% and 10 minutes.

11:00 Carmen is done with Saxon and starts on Wordly Wise and reading. Aleksandr usually has found something, like dust, which entrances him so much he got distracted and forgot to finish his work. He does eventually get it done, and almost always gets them all right. It just takes a while to get there. Then he does Wordly Wise.

Cosette and Benjamin work on Language arts. While one is doing seat work, like Explode the Code, I work on spelling or reading with the other. Cosette does a Critical thinking page, but Benjamin, in a spurt of energy one day, did the next 40 pages and so is quite ahead of where he is supposed to be on Homeschool Tracker. I don’t want to redo the schedule on the computer, so I’m just letting the schedule catch up with him.

11:30 Cosette and Benjamin play. In a few minutes I hear screaming from Benjamin, the screamer. Cosette, the informer, tells me that they were playing a game and he wasn’t following the rules. He kept making some of his toys be monsters, and she insists there are no monsters in her games. He is screaming because she said she won’t play with him anymore, but soon stops and plays the gamecube on his own.

Carmen and Aleksandr are listening to Sonlight’s history, Core 5.

12:00 we eat lunch. Kids play. They often have unscheduled breaks scattered through the day when I am working with one or two other children and they are done with seat work.

1:00 while Carmen and Alek read science together, I do Saxon math with Cosette and Benjamin. I have to use a white board for most math problems since the kids have lost most of the math manipulatives. Then the two younger ones do Handwriting without tears.

2:00 Sequential spelling, Rod and Staff English for Carmen and Aleksandr.

3:30 We take Carmen to her equestrian lessons, she is learning horse jumping. She wanted to be a jockey until she read that they have to limit what they eat to keep their weight down. She didn’t think she would like that. We sit in the car or else outside to watch for an hour.

5:30 dinner, sometimes dinner doesn’t get done at this time and we eat much later.

5:50 Aleksandr is taken to gymnastics. He is in competitive gymnastics and so spends a lot of time at the gym practicing. Carmen, Cosette and Benjamin are also in gymnastics, but on other days. It takes ½ hour to drive to gymnastics, so an hour is gone just getting him there. Some days when schooling hasn’t been done, we do it in the car.

8:40 went to get Aleksandr and now all of us are home. Husband gets home from work. As a physician, his hours often vary. Sometimes he is home by 7, often at 10.

While Aleksandr was gone, the other kids shower. They argue over who gets to shower in mom and dad’s shower, which has the same water as their shower, but they like it better. Cosette wins. After 15 minutes of her being in the shower, I find her standing in it doing absolutely nothing. I hurry her out. Benjamin’s shower was suspiciously short and his hair is dry. I send him back. Carmen is terrified someone will see her, so she locks the door to my room to take her shower, which means for the next 20 minutes, I can’t get in. When Aleksandr gets home, he takes a shower. Gary brushes Benjamin’s teeth, he cannot be trusted to do this on his own. Cosette and Aleksandr are allowed to brush their own, but have to let us inspect them afterwards, as they often miss large areas.

9:00 We gather for a spiritual thought, to be given by one of the children. Benjamin gives one on being obedient. His thoughts on this are prolific, as he does the same thought every single time. Then the child whose turn it is says prayers, hugs and kisses are given, with reminders that they need to stay in bed, not fight and not play.

9:20-11:00 until we get to bed, we keep sending various children back to bed for various reasons ranging from, “I can’t sleep (after being in bed 2 minutes)”, “I itch”, “the cats are keeping me awake”, “Benjamin won’t stop talking”, “I’m thirsty”, and “I just came to give you another hug… what are you watching?, can I watch?”. Finally quiet ensues and I read until 1 or 2 AM, pretending to forget my WRITTEN goal of getting to bed by 11PM.

Aubin is mom to 5 children ages 24, 11, 9, 7, 6 and has her 1 grandbaby living with her and her husband.

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