Setting Goals

I want to make some changes. We've been drifting and surviving with the last 40+ days of "shelter in place" happening in our region. We're tired and drained and Hubby and I are trying not to stress, trying to just take life a day at a time.

But there are three small changes I want to make to how we function, three little intentional changes and I want to get back into some sort of school routine.

First change: I want my dining room table back!

Can you see that mess on the dining room table in the background?


I am going to remove the book shelf in the picture and I'm getting the three kids (who use their computers at the dining room table) individual desks. Two desks will be where that long desk is in the picture (it's a virtual image, I was trying on all sorts of desks on the amazon shopping app!) and one will be in the corner across the room.

I am really hoping giving each child an area to store their school stuff will help  and it will keep my dining room table clear for family meals. I plan on using these baskets (well bought locally)
on the shelf for each of them to store their school books and binder in so that it's all together in one place. They won't arrive for at least 2 weeks so that kind of stinks, but once they do I'm excited to get my dining room back!!!

Second Change
Everyone has an assigned seat at the table and everyone eats at the dining room table, no exceptions. We've gotten super lazy with this because the dining room table is almost always covered in computers and school stuff.  I want us to sit down and eat together and I want it to take less effort to happen.

Third Change: Daily Themes
I did this years ago and it was fantastic and I'm not sure why I stopped...Probably Joy4's arrival...a lot of things stopped when he arrived.

I need to think carefully about daily themes and keeping it workable given current events (like we can't have a Library day right now...but maybe some thing else). I think I will write another post on this subject another time. Right now a little 4 yo is asleep next to me and I need to go get the 1 year old to go to sleep too....More later!

Does Anyone Really Blog Anymore? Update

I doubt it but I need it. This school year has been kind of a bust. We dove in with The Good and the Beautiful and my 6th grade has done fantastic with it, she's finished up an entire level and almost 2 levels in math. No small feat given that we've had a 1 year old tornado in the house and a preschooler who's ability to comply to basic "be quiet" boundaries has felt nearly impossible. He is a chatterbox and also really really wants connection but doesn't seem to understand "in a little bit" yet.

A lot of our days last fall looked like this...

I found that TGATB was just way too intense for my 4/5th grader (Joy2) and 2/3rd grader(Joy3). They enjoyed it but it seriously took 45-90 minutes with each of them to complete their language arts assignments, which means I was spending 2-3 hours a day locked away in a quiet area trying to work through it with them. It was just way too much one-on-one time required for multiple students across so many levels.

And this baby isn't a napper...I get 45 minutes out of him most days if that. It has felt nearly impossible at times.

And this guy! He's learning and growing all the time it's been fun to set aside a little bits of school time with him but again that was an hour of the day generally. I was burning out.

Though we sure had fun!

He's a big fan of little engineering books at the library.

Then it was Christmas and we took off quite a bit of December to enjoy the Holidays...we did some crafties...we had cozy days with Christmas movies...I also just generally really struggled last December. I am really tired of sleep loss of teething little ones. It's been absolutely awful and December was especially rough on sleep and looming deadlines for Hubby's work. 

And then it was January...We buckled down for a few weeks, taking advantage of the freezing temps and not much else to do...

And just when we were really in the swing of things it was time for a 2 week trip to Florida...

 

Ten COVID-19 hit soon after we got home and we've been "sheltering in place" ever since...Well sort of...

We've spent lots and lots of time outside...

We also raised and released some butterflies..

 

I didn't get any picture of our releasing them. I've been struggling with sleep since COVID-19 broke, between teething baby, and a preschooler whose been dealing with some major anxiety....keeping everyone fed and well it's been a lot.
That said, having written it all down, I didn't accomplish the curriculum goals I had in my head last September. I thought I would be able to do more with Joy2 and Joy3, I didn't get to read books out loud as much as I wanted, things felt really chaotic with the little ones into stuff all the time, a lot of weeks it's felt like a constant battle just to keep things from looking like a bomb went off in our living room and kitchen....but it's been a pretty decent school year. The oldest made some serious progress and I'm starting to set more goals and looking down the line that we only have two years until high school!

There is so much uncertainty ahead of us and I've been very much in survival mode the last 6 weeks. I'm ready to make some changes, that coming up in my next post...