The Marathon Begins

Day 1
July 30, 1907

It’s 5:25 in the morning my first day of home schooling, and my day has begun. I have a great run with Julie, extra long (6+ miles) and so I am a bit sore and a little tired. We have a good time of prayer and I spend the rest of the drive home praying about my day to come. My plan for the day is to have breakfast and morning chores finished by 9:20 and then start school. I read a little in Job, pray and then…
7:15 and Kelly is awake. 1 up 2 to go. I fix her breakfast and go take a shower. I am so anxious for Landon to get up so we can start the first day of Kindergarten.
7:45 Keaton wakes up. I get her started on a bottle while I begin doing the things that usually fill my morning, getting breakfast ready and cleaned up, putting away dishes, organizing the kitchen, quick check of my e-mail and calendar to schedule my day, diaper changes, and the list of daily tasks goes on and on and on and on and on. You get the point.
9:15 Finally Landon wakes up! I give him a big hug as I greet him on the stairs every morning. I am so excited and ready to get this thing going. He eats breakfast and I send them (Landon and Kelly) upstairs for their morning chores (brush teeth, get dressed, make bed). I want to establish good habits for our daily schedule and have them get their morning chores finished before school starts however, truth be told I am such a morning person that I would rather chunk the chores and start our school day. Nevertheless, I take a breath and send them on their way.
10:00 Finally it is time to start our school day. It works out well because Keaton goes down for a nap at this time.
We go to the couch and read from the Bible together. Landon loves for me to read him the Bible. He always asks me to read more. I am amazed that his attention is so great but I am thrilled because this is what I would hope for. I am thrilled because since he is the oldest he is setting the standard for our Bible time and the other kids will follow suit. We read about Abraham, we talk a little about what they learned and then Kelly brings me the hymnal. She has a difficult time paying attention to the Bible time but she loves the singing time and she loves to sing from the Hymnal. Last week we all went to the piano as I plucked out the notes. They loved it. We all sing a hymn together or actually I sing the hymn and they repeat after me. They are learning. Next we read through the Attributes of God book that we made at our home school group last spring. We turned to the God is Eternal page and learn Jeremiah 10:10 to a little song I made up. “But the Lord is the true God, He is the Living God, the Eternal King. Jeremiah 10:10” Kelly loves this part of school too.
10:30 we start writing. I get Kelly started on a coloring project while Landon works on his Writing book. This will be his most difficult subject this year so I am starting with it 2nd in the day while he is still fresh. We are training him to be right handed although at the present he is ambidextrous and leans more to the left hand. This is a long subject but after much council and debate with Doctors and chiropractors (thanks Brooks) we truly feel this is the best decision. He has not practiced much with his right hand this summer and it has gotten weak.
10:55 we move back to the couch for reading. (we didn’t’ spend the entire 25 min on writing but life happened in the midst of the lesson i.e. Attending to Kelly) I get the activity bags out for Kelly to entertain her while I do the reading lesson with Landon. We go over the vowels and the consonant sounds and I can sense Landon getting anxious. We stop and he does an activity bag with Kelly. I take a spare moment to get some of my chores in the works. (marinate the tenderloin for me and 1 for a friend in need, get a load of laundry started, etc.)
11:30 I look at the math book for a minute and realize I don’t have all of the manipulatives to start math. I am bummed but go to the computer and make a calendar page for future lessons.
11:50 I decide they need to go outside and get some of their energy out. They ride bikes in the front for a few minutes, but a storm is coming, and the rumble is close, so we are quickly forced back inside.
12:10 Keaton wakes up and it is lunch time with all that that entails. Enough said.
Kids have free play after lunch and I work to stay a step ahead of them.
1:30 we do Landon’s training time to help him with his right brain/left brain stuff.
I have 1 on 1 time will Kelly and read her several books.
2:00 I get the girls down for a nap.
I read to Landon and he reads to me 2 “Bob books” to finish our reading lesson.
2:20 I send him to his room for some “down time” and I plop on my bed. I have been up for 9 hours so far and it is only 2:30. I have finished my first day of home schooling! What an exciting/rewarding/full morning I have had. Now I know why April’s advice to me last night was, make sure you get a good night sleep.