M.O.T.H. Update--The Rebellion

(Managers of Their Homes) Well, the schedule is not going as planned. I am pretty sure it's my fault, and I'm working to correct that. We have spent the last 10 years of schooling flying by the seat of our pants as far as a schedule goes (flying by the seats of our pants? not sure if that is plural or not; Mom, let me know). It was easier to do with just 2 kids. It was easier when we didn't have a high-schooler, because now everything counts more.

So now we are learning to work with a schedule. Getting up earlier is hard for all of us. Luci is the only one who is getting up at her usual time; I am getting up earlier for Bible reading and a cup of coffee in peace. The boys now have alarm clocks that go off at 7 am and I hear the clocks through their whole alarm cycle--I am hoping the boys will learn to hear and respond nicely to the sound.

The idea of a schedule is a very good one, and so far I think it is a good schedule that is up on our cabinets. The boys both fight it (and try to argue with me) about everything on it until they have finished their particular chores and lessons for the day, then they are as sweet as pie and play nicely with each other (a minor miracle!). We have even gotten to do a science experiment, much to JT's delight (our science experiments this year come from a book, Science Experiments You Can Eat by Vicki Cobb and David Cain, so you can imagine that they are fun).

We are also reclaiming supper time two nights a week by moving Tang Soo Do (karate at the YMCA) to mornings again. We moved it to the evenings because we were missing out on too much learning time for Bryan's high school studies. That is all scheduled in now, so he's actually having more time for study even though we are using up 2 mornings at the Y. He did not study well on his own when we went to the Y--there are more exciting things to do, like sleep. So now he goes with us and things are scheduled better. I really hated that we were missing suppers together as a family because of two nights with karate and one with soccer each week. This way, we have only one night where we are not really eating together because of soccer practice.

Sorry this is so boring for most of you--there are a couple of homeschoolers who are following our trial with M.O.T.H. to see how it might help with them.