Just a Regular Day

I thought I would put up a regular day post today. We did not have any special plans. We are still in our "not really homeschooling because I just had a baby" time. So here is how the day has gone so far:

I was up a few times with Oliver overnight and finally got up to stay at 7:20am. AcrobatBoy was up then and we woke the girls but left the younger boys asleep. Everyone treked downstairs for breakfast(cereal), then got dressed for the day. I started washing the cloth diapers and turned on a Dora DVD. BabyBoy woke up and had some breakfast. By the time he was finished Oliver was awake and had a bottle.

Turned on a short Max and Ruby and a friend dropped in to visit for about 20 minutes. When she headed out everyone went to the table to do some workboxes. BigGirl learned about synonyms on her grammar worksheet, built a ballerina with linking cubes, and played with BabyBoy some. The preschoolers had letter search worksheets to color and then linking cubes for building. BabyBoy played with dominoes. Oliver napped.

Next up was snack and some free play while mommy did dishes and switched loads of laundry, then did some exercise. When that was finished BigGirl and I worked on poetry. She learned about counting syllables today and wrote two haiku (japanese poems that are 3 lines long. each line has specific syllable counts: 5, 7, 5). I'll ask her later if I can share her poems. During this time the other kids played with our big tub of Little People. And Oliver was still sleeping.

The next box for all the kids had measuring cups and today they got special jobs to help making lunch. We did lunch early(11:00am). BigGirl got to cut strawberries with a real knife (eekk!), AcrobatBoy measured chips out with measuring cups, TagalongGirl ran the microwave, and BabyBoy just played with the silverware. We ate lunch and then changed Oliver's diaper and fed him.

So why did we eat an early lunch? Because the weather is beautiful today and we wanted to be outside! The skies are blue. The temperatures are warm (mid 60s). Usually we just play in our nice fenced backyard.

Today I was feeling adventurous so I put Oliver in my Moby Wrap and the other 4 kids got to walk. We went on a nature walk looking for signs of spring. Of course with my almost 17 month old holding my hand our walk was pretty slow, but everyone had fun. We just went around the neighborhood, maybe a block or so. Some of our spring discoveries: a robin, plants peeking up out of flowerbeds, and insects creeping and flying around us! The walk ended back at our yard and we played there with balls, bats, nets, sticks, and dirt. Lots of dirt. The kids gathered what they could find and began building a house along the fence. I think they hope the turtles will like it when they come out of hibernation.... we'll see. I spent the time walking around the yard trying to get some more exercise in. (Don't laugh - I have to take what I can get at this point!)

After an hour outside I was tired; remember - I was carrying Oliver for that whole time and walking. But that brought me to one of my favorite parts of the day - Quiet Time! Inside we went and after everyone washed up I got BabyBoy down for a nap and the other big kids went to their beds to read and rest for an hour. I started typing this post and then Oliver woke up again. That brings you pretty much up to date for the day. The rest of our day will be playing together and waiting for daddy to get home from work so we can do our family things like scripture study and playing a game.