We made it through week one!

Six kids are all still alive at the end of the first week, and not to brag, but I think they actually learned something.  And I have to say, I loved teaching them WAY more than I expected I would.  This seemed to please Pat because when he came home from work he seemed very relieved.  I think the direct quote was, "Well, I knew you'd either love it or be in a drunken stupor."  Um, thanks, honey?

I'm not going to lie.  The first day was terrifying.  I had no idea what to do with the baby while we tried to work, and I was a total fish out of water just doing simple things like starting our school day together around the table.  I tried entirely too hard to schedule blocks of time, like 'first we all do math', 'now we all do science' but it just didn't work.  No one knew what to do or where to start and there was no way I could help everyone at once.  I hadn't taken into consideration that THEY were completely new to this whole thing too!  To describe it as chaos is putting it mildly.  One child was close to tears three different times (and it was not the one I expected it would be!), Bernadette was either hanging on my leg or pulling every book off the bookshelves, and by lunch time I was pretty convinced that there was no way I was ever going to be able to do this, let alone be anywhere close to good at it.  That day I did figure out, however, which kids needed my help and direction the most, and in which subjects.  So that made Day 2 much easier. 

On the second day, instead of dividing up our day by subject, I divided it up by which things people could do independently versus what things required me to do one-on-one.  I set up the pack-and-play in the foyer right outside the school room (yes, that makes such a lovely home decorating statement in the middle of my entryway) and tried to make sure that we all took a turn giving Bernadette some TLC.  It didn't hurt that she took a well-timed nap that morning either.  So we started with Religion all together with a little break-out where Tess (8) and Helen (6) read to each other then each gave me the recap of their own Religion reading while Maggie (12) and Colin (10) did theirs independently.  That was a great time for me to sit on the couch with Vivian (4) and do her reading lesson while having Bernadette (1) on my lap.  It worked.  Vivi was happy after having had some "mommy" time, so she was willing to sit in the pack and play and entertain B while I did science with Colin and Tess.  Helen did handwriting and journaling and Maggie started on the rest of her work, most of which she just works on independently.  The beauty of having homeschooled Maggie last semester as sort of a trial period, is that she is very independent - she looks at her Homeschool Tracker, sees what she has to do, and does it.  She asks for help when she needs it, and we chat about what she's reading, but for the most part she is the least squeaky wheel.  So next we did the "baby juggle".  Tess played with her while I did Math with Helen, then Helen played with her while I did Math with Tess.  Colin and Maggie can do Math on their own, so we can all get that done early in the day while everyone's fresh.  Naptime for B freed me up to really bounce from kid to kid, getting them started on various things - history, language arts, etc. - and actually sit down and teach Latin to the older kids.

The rest of the week we just sort of went with the same flexible schedule of taking turns keeping B happy and moving from subject to subject as the flow allowed.  But I have to say my favorite part of the day was the afternoon quiet reading.  After lunch, I let everyone just play until about 2:00 (one day I actually took them all to the pool for an hour and a half).  Then when B took her afternoon nap, we all just sprawled out on the couches and chairs in the living room and sunroom and everyone read from 2:00 - 3:00.  Peace and quiet and kids reading.  It doesn't get any more beautiful than that. 

As I looked around at my serene environment that afternoon, I thought about what my life USED to be like at 3:30 in the afternoon... baby waking up from a nap, cranky toddler, and 4 school kids bounding in the door from school dropping their backpacks and shoes all over the entryway and kitchen, waving papers that I needed to read or sign "RIGHT NOW, MOM!", foraging for snacks because they were STARVING but none of them wanted the same thing, so out came the pretzels and the yogurt and the cheese sticks and the bananas and...... and then, and THEN the homework.  Everyone needed help all at once and the next two hours was spent wiping tears (not just mine) and trying to explain some concept I knew nothing about, while bouncing a baby on my hip AND trying to make dinner.  Is it any wonder moms need happy hour on a Monday?  And a Tuesday and a Wednesday and a Thursday? 

This week of school was the first time that I didn't dread the dinner hour and what we affectionately refer to around here as the "witching hour" before bed.  I wasn't stressed out and exhausted and being pulled in a million directions, even though I'd been alone with all six kids all day!!  It's the craziest thing.  The kids weren't cranky either, or exhausted from spending 8 hours in school and 2 hours on homework.  So they happily helped set the table and make dinner, play with the baby, and do their after-dinner chores with still plenty of time to spare before bed to do whatever they wanted.

Now, I know what you're thinking (especially all you veteran homeschoolers out there) - Listen, lady, you've done this for all of 5 days.  It ain't all butterflies and rainbows.  I get it.  But honestly, even on what I thought was an epic fail (Day 1), one of my kids thanked me for taking time to teach them.  To teach them.  Not give them ice cream or buy them a new video game.  To teach them.  I almost cried.  And yesterday Tess told me it was the best day even though we spent most of the afternoon cleaning the basement playroom. 

Well, in all fairness, the ice cream reward after hours spent cleaning the dungeon may have had something to do with that.

On to Week 2..............