Let’s be realistic about every 6 to 8 weeks we have a schedule revamping in a somewhat vain attempt to make things work more smoothly. This is the current version of our “schedule” for being more schooly than some we’re not very rigid in our schedule.

But here goes our version of a Monday:

7am to 8:30am Wake up and roll out of bed. On a good day I am up first and have chores done before the boys are up. Typically my oldest is up before my younger son but not always. Today was a good day for them and both woke up around 8:00am.

9:30 (ish) Piano practice for the older boy while I tidy up the kitchen quick and send younger boy to play toys. I try to keep an ear on his playing to listen for troubling spots and wrong rhythms.
10:00 (ish) Older boy begins his round of independent (or mostly independent) work. Today I am working as well knitting a hat for a christmas present. So I’m hanging out at the table answering questions and discussing what he’s working on.

At some point my younger son wanders in and is curious about what his brother is working on. It’s writing and his assignment is to write a paragraph about an imaginary crazy pet. Younger son loves this idea and decided to draw a crazy pet of his own.

We finish up with the crazy pets and move to math.

11:30 (ish) My oldest is having an easy time because it is still mostly review. Actually it is still review for my younger son too. Thankfully they like numbers so the repetition doesn’t cause to much of a problem. Gramps drops in on today’s lesson. Gramps and the boys have a discussion on multiplying 9 and the “trick” that you can see in the pattern. Without even thinking about it my older son practices his 9 times tables with his Gramps. I silently amuse myself with the fact we’ve not gotten to the 9′s tables yet in our math curriculum.

Lunch Break! (And the lunch break “huff”)

During lunch we chat about our butterfly project and consider whether the ones that emerged today are ready for release. The boys skedaddle to play for a bit while I tidy up the kitchen and handle some of the other interruptions of the day: supper plans, grocery store run etc.

We come back a bit later for my younger sons piano practice time. My older boy is reading his chapter book for the week: Man in the Iron Mask (abridged/junior version) which is set where we are at currently in history. This morning I checked to see how he was coming along and asked a few questions about the story. In amongst that he said he’d not picked his reading book. I said that IS your reading book this week! The look on his face was priceless as was the squawked “You mean it counts for both reading AND history!?”

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I did pretty well at somewhat live blogging our day. Of course I left out the dogs coming in and going out about five times. And the phone call from my brother that woke me at 7AM. And the four requests for snack, drink or other item of sustenance. From where I left off our day ran away with us starting with a small trip out to the garden which turned into a lot longer since we gathered some squash. By that time it was almost supper so I was in the kitchen. Then this and that and the other thing. Monday was a light day especially since we’re not back to science yet.

In truth our days lack a steady rhythm until mid-fall. Once we declare the garden done our days settle into a more static pattern. And one that I welcome wholeheartedly after the chaos of summer and early fall.