Thanks to my wonderfully amazing code-savvy husband, I got a brand new blog design for my birthday. 

It's still a work in progress, but I really wanted the new look up for my birthday which is in just a few short hours.

So….what do you think?

Well I'm jumping back in for the final week of HOM's "Not Back-to-School"  blog hop.

With the chaos of trying to figure out our new routine last week I missed out on posting our student photo.

So I'm adding that in today for a little bonus!

Here's the first day of school photo. In their finest play-clothes. One of my favorite things about school at home: no drama over what to wear!

On to this week's theme: Day-in-the-Life.

I was so excited when I saw this theme! Over the summer I had the chance to read Karen Andreola's Pocketful of Pinecones. I absolutely loved it. For those of you who haven't read it, it's a fictional story that incorporates a lot of information about Nature Study. I enjoyed the story as well as all of the information. I think what really drew me in was the format of the book. It was written in a journal entry style, and that just made it feel really personal and easy to relate to.

Ever since I read that book I've been thinking about starting a once a month journal entry of our home-school days. Now here is the perfect opportunity. 

I decided to follow the journal-style format as it seems to give more opportunity to share in a personal way.

Here's your first look at our schooldays. (Sorry it's long. Our schooldays are long so…)

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Friday, August 19^th 2011

I’ve decided that the best way to avoid being in a permanent state of frustration on school days is to just get over it and wake up early.

So far I’m doing well about half of the time.

I’m honestly surprised how when my phone starts chiming at 5:30 I somehow just roll out of bed. So completely unlike me. It’s like no matter how I feel, my brain just kicks in and takes over, pushing me to do what I’d rather not.

And after about two weeks of this I’ve decided it is definitely a good thing. It changes my whole day.

I’ve been lazily checking email and doing other things online till about 6, then it’s light enough to read without a light, so I read my Bible for a bit.

(I have this thing about not liking to use a light when I wake up in the morning. Not sure how practical that’s going to be in the winter…)

The girls of course are always up by 6:30.

This morning I was able to have breakfast ready just a little after 7, which meant we had time to go outside before school.

Our basic morning routine has been: breakfast and Bible reading together, then the girls make their beds and get dressed while I put in a load of laundry. If breakfast is done by 7:30, then we can spend an hour outside. I have not been very good about making this a habit lately, and I can tell it’s not good for us.

I don’t know if it’s the fresh air or the sun or the space, but we all seem to feel much more pleasant after a nice chunk of time outdoors. So I really want to get back to making this a daily habit.

Today I watered the garden while the girls played. Another plus of outside time before school: they are able to burn off some energy before it’s time to sit and focus.

The laundry is done washing about the time I’m finished watering, so I can quickly hang that out to dry.

My goal has been to start lessons between 8:30 and 9. We’re doing pretty well at sticking with that.

We practiced our memory verse and the hymn we’ve been learning, then spelling tests for the two big girls, and Miss I decided to be entertained by pattern blocks for awhile.

I feel like I’m getting better at going back and forth, helping the two older girls do the same subjects at the same time, even though their lessons are different. This has been a real struggle for me to get used to. I definitely prefer only focusing on one thing at a time, but that’s just not practical anymore.

I make sure we cover math, reading and spelling first off every day, then we either do history, science or geography (right now the plan is just studying them each once a week).

Today was science.

The beginning of our science book has been a little boring because it’s introducing a bunch of facts about the ocean. Of course we’d rather just get to the part of learning about the ocean animals.

I’m trying something new this year and finding picture books from the library that match up with each week’s science theme. I feel like this helps reinforce what the textbook is saying and also makes science a little more interesting for the younger girls.

Today we learned about the continental shelf and the zones of depth in the ocean. I could tell the girls were really not at all interested, so I drew them a picture of the ocean with all the areas divided up and labeled, then let them each color part of it. They enjoyed that, and hopefully learned something through it.

We usually have lunch around 11:30.

I read aloud while the girls eat. My number one goal in this is to keep them from goofing off and dragging lunch out way too long. But also, we were having a hard time finding the time to read extra things (besides school books) so I felt like this was a good time to fit that in.

Right now we are reading Pollyanna and I just love it. I’m afraid some of the vocabulary is a little over their heads, but trying to trust what I read in A Charlotte Mason Companion: “Wide reading = Wide vocabulary”.

After lunch everyone lays down for quiet time. This is my “break” and I’m always so ready for it. My latest tragedy has been that everyone seems to be giving up naps. I’m not ready for that. I keep fighting it, but I think I’m losing. So I’m just trying really hard to enforce that quiet time means laying on your bed with your books and staying there. Miss I, being four has to be reminded to stay put a LOT.

I try to lie down and rest or do some reading while the girls rest. Sometimes I’m bothered by how lazy this seems, but our days go a lot better if I have that downtime as opposed to spending the whole time trying to take care of housework. When I just push myself all day, by dinner time no one wants to be around me.

This time of rest is probably why my biggest (and ever-present) struggle is keeping up on chores when school is in session. It was no problem to keep the house perfectly clean all summer, but now that we’re back to school, that’s quickly changed. It’s really hard for me to let that go, but I’m at a place where I know it’s just the way it has to be. My goals right now are making sure the laundry is caught up, kitchen is clean, and the rest of the house is picked up. Things like dusting, vacuuming, mopping; sometimes they happen, sometimes they don’t. I’ve forced myself to accept that.

After quiet time we’ll finish up anything we didn’t complete in the morning. Then I pack in the chores and try to give the girls some free time to play.

I feel like I have all of these ideals about how I want our schooldays to be, but when it comes down to it there’s no time to think about much but just getting through the day.

I’ve tried to set less rigid expectations for school this year. Really hoping that will leave room for adjusting things. It’s only the end of our second week. I keep reminding myself of that. We’re still finding our routine. There’s plenty more time to perfect it!

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I'll be back here the 22nd of every month to share another entry from our Home-School Days. I'd love for you to join me!

Only into our second week of school we took a quick holiday on Monday when my husband had a day off. It was fun and refreshing and just nice.

Tuesday came and we tried to jump back into our routine.

I'm not sure where to lay the blame, but it was just not a good day. Not at all.

Crying over lessons. Three girls all insisting on help at once while their mother fought a headache and tried to focus her eyes on what it was they wanted.

A mom snapping at everybody after getting tired of being pulled in so many directions.

Finally, reprieve comes at nap time.

Then a four year old comes to say she swallowed a penny, and a phone call to the doctor leads to a need for an x-ray. 

Messy hair and playclothes are quickly swapped out for looking presentable as we have to rush out the door, leaving schoolwork unfinished and a house in complete disarray.

A trip to the grocery store for a snack while waiting on x-ray results ends with gum in the middle girl's hair and complete hysteria of course.

Results in the doctors office that are so obvious…"well, it will just eventually come out!" Complete annoyance over such pointless chaos for nothing.

Though it sounds a bit comical in retrospect, it was the kind of day that made me want to quit. I can't do this. This is not going to work. Just forget it.

Wednesday morning we sat down around the table, and the defeat of the day before was still trying to rest on my shoulders. So we prayed.

Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

With the gift of a new day, hesitant but hopeful, we begin again.

For more, visit the Gypsy Mama.

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Social Media — Inspiration for Finding Your Balance ::: It is a constant battle, requiring regular re-evaluation and lots of prayer, but I’m committed to the challenge of finding balance in this media-saturated world.

Possess Less ::: When I survey all that I’ve acquired, I realize that it’s nothing but stuff.Stuff. And this stuff does not lead to peace and tranquility.

figuring out how to forgive {your parents} ::: I am a daughter failed and I am a parent failing and I know it in ways now I never knew: if I rip apart the bridge of forgiveness for my own parents with my own hands, I destroy the only way my own children can come to me.