What are we doing today?

7:00 AM Took Flower to Swim Team Practice, only to find out that they aren't having morning practices until tomorrow.
7:30 AM Daycare Baby arrives. Kids play in the living room.
8:00 AM Breakfast.
8:30 AM More Playing in the Living Room.
9:00 AM Clean up and go downstairs. Watch TV on Sprout.
9:30 AM Feed Daycare Baby and put him down for nap.
10:00 AM Kids pick activities off shelves downstairs. (I'm still working on putting the school activities away. Some will stay up all summer.)
11:30 Lunch
12:00 Run Errands. Today that includes getting the oil changed, going to the bank, going to the post office, dropping off things at the library, and going to Target to get sketch books and colored pencils.
3:00 Friends 1 and 2 coming over for a playdate. Go to the park.
4:30 Friends go home. Clean up
5:15 Dinner
5:45 Drop Flower off at Swim Team practice
6:00 Take Super to Wee Ball practice
7:00 Super down with Wee Ball practice. Take Jelly Bean to Pre Ball practice
7:30 Pick up Flower from Swim Team practice and go back to Jelly Bean's practice
8:00 Drive home.
8:30 Put kids to bed.
9:00 Work on the house - I need to continue to pack up the school materials, general cleaning, and get ready for my garage sale on Saturday.
11:00 Go to bed.

What are we doing today?

** Ate breakfast. We aren't feeling like oatmeal, eggs, pancakes or anything hot, so we've been working on all the cereal that I've been stockpiling lately. Today we ate Rice Krispies, Frosted Flakes, and Cocoa Puffs. I don't usually have so many "sugared" cereals around, and the kids normally don't mind, but they also don't mind eating the sugary ones either!

** Chores. I'm using my mom's mantra of "Work before play" and having all the kids, even the 5 year old daycare child, do a chore before we do anything else during the day. I've found that less structure usually involves more mess, so I've also begun to have a 5 minute clean-up time after every meal so that the house is at least sort of cleaned up at least 3 times a day.

** Little kids played in the living room with the trains and the mega blocks while the older kids read their library books.

** Went to an activity at the library. Listened to A Pig Tale by Olivia Newton John, and then made a fish out of cd's and cut out pieces from wallpaper sample books.

** Went next door to the Ecology Action Center. Saw "garbage art" on the wall, held some worms, looked the snapping turtle, and I talked to the director about her house that she is trying to sell - an old farmhouse on two acres with 30 fruit trees and it is about 15 minutes outside of town. She said there was plenty of room for a garden, and a place for chickens. It probably won't become the Simple Farm, but it was fun to talk about it with her.

** Went to the grocery store and asked the kids about 10 times to please be nice to each other. Got some sympathetic looks from moms who were there without children.

** Little kids napped while the older girls watched a movie they rented from the library. I read a bit, used the computer a bit.

** Leaving to go to the park soon.

** Super is singing tonight with his Sunday School class at his Sunday School teacher's wedding reception. He is singing the chorus of "A Bicycle Built for Two."

A look at the Simple Schedule

I've put some of this information in my Daily Routines post and my Daily Chores post, but here's a look at what our schedule looks like. Now, this is a guideline, and things don't happen at exactly the same time every day. Anybody who has children, particularly an infant, (I don't have an infant, but I watch an infant Mon-Thurs from 7 am to 5 pm) knows that children have their own ideas about doing things on an exact time schedule.

Anyway, here's what our daily schedule looks like:

6:00 I get up and start my daily routine (read scriptures, pray, shower, get dressed, check calendar/lists, eat, and clean bathrooms)
6:45 Wake up the girls and they do their daily routine (pray, get dressed, get breakfast)
7:00 Wake up Super
7:15 Baby (he is 6 months old) arrives
7:30 Jelly Bean leaves for school on bus
7:30 Play with baby. Unload dishwasher.
8:15 Daycare child #1 and #2 arrive.
8:15-9:00 Children play. Feed the baby.
9:00 Daycare child #3 arrives. Preschool child #1 (or #2 depending on if it is MWF or Tu/Th) arrives.
9:00 Preschool and Homeschool begins.
9:00-9:15 Reading Time
9:15-9:30 Writing in Journals
9:35-9:40 Morning Snack
9:45-10:15 Line Time (singing/fingerplays, helper jobs, story, lessons)
10:15-11:15 Work Time (preschool has free choice and Flower has a list of things that need to be done that week and she can pick the order that she wants to do them in. She doesn't usually finish in the hour and works again in the afternoon for another two hours. She also does Reading & Copywork when the preschool children are doing reading and Writing.)
11:15-11:30 Outside or Playtime in the playroom. Baby eats.
11:30-11:45 Lunch
11:45 Super leaves for Pre-K
12:00 Preschool child and Daycare child #1 go home
12:30-2:00 Daycare child #1 and #2 take a nap. Flower finishes school and does some cooking, sewing, woodworking, etc. Do Routine job for the day. (I don't do Town Day during the week anymore. I do it on Saturday.)
2:15-3:00 Baby Eats. Children play.
3:00 Jelly Bean and Super come home.
3:30 Daycare child #3 goes home. Baby eats solids.
5:15 Baby and Daycare child #2 go home.
5:15 Dinner. Kitchen jobs.
5:45-8:00 Times when we have various activities (but not every day). Family Time. Daily Chores.
7:30 Super goes to bed
8:00 Girls go to bed
8:00-10:00 Work on lesson plans for the next day or free time.
10:00 I do my evening routine.
10:30 I go to sleep.