Still trying to work things out

Not quite sure where I'm going wrong but we are still having problems getting everyone where they need to be doing what they need to be doing in a timely manner. Thursdays are just plain going to be hard between swim and soccer practice I think and Tuesdays won't be much better once bowling and acting start up in conjunction with soccer practice. Is it bad that I'm already over the whole soccer thing and the first game is this Saturday? *sigh* We'll work around it like we always do but I'll feel much better when I have a real schedule in place. We were gone most of the day yesterday so have decided between that and the short week next week to take a few days off from our Prairie studies to catch up on a few other things. Matthew and Jonathan start their art class tomorrow and I'm still waiting to hear back about Matthew's guitar lessons.

Jonathan is enjoying his new math. He is doing Saxon for the first time and it's a lot of review right now so I'm letting him do every other one for the moment to get him geared up into it. He's doing well with writing the problems out for himself so that is also good. Still having real problems getting him to settle down and work without me standing over him. Makes it very hard to deal with Nico and him at the same time. :(

Nico is really enjoying the whole workbook thing. I've found several different books that have caught his attention, mostly Kumon and Critical Thinking. I was checking out a new Critical Thinking book for him today, Building Thinking Skills Beginning and we had to do 30 pages before he started getting too goofy to work with and even then he didn't want to quit. There were some tough things in there for him to work on so that was good because they really are developing his analytical and listening skills. Listening skills are definitely something that all my children can use work on. LOL

Matthew is actually finally working well independently this year which is great. I'm really hoping it can continue but it's been a huge relief knowing that when I ask him what's been done at the end of the day, there is a good chunk of stuff done and if something isn't done, he usually apologizes and gets right on it. That right there is a HUGE thing for him to have learned!

Finally had time to do our Art History discussion with Christopher today. He's doing well with the material but to make sure he's getting it all, I need to make sure I read his texts as well. So now I get to read The Story of Art and The American Vision in addition to whatever he's reading in English so I can keep up with him. Who knew I'd be taking these classes over again?

This weekend my big tasks with the long weekend are to get our schedule going and make sure I'm caught up on all my reading and discussions with Christopher. I may need to tweak my expectations a bit as well again. We have so many outside activities between acting, soccer, KSW, therapy, swim, science classes, labs, art, zoo class, bowling, and guitar (which yes, I know we haven't added yet but we will) that it's hard to find time for all the cool school stuff I want to do with them too. I have to say, I really shake my head at the people who ask me about socialization. The only day we don't HAVE to leave the house is Sundays. I would LOVE to be home all day keeping my children away from the big bad world so I can do nothing but instruct them but we are definitely much more of a hands-on kind of family so that's not going to happen. I just need to find a little bit of time to work on some of that traditional school stuff too, somewhere between all those other things.