Every homeschool is different. Every Mom and Dad is different. I'm not a morning person. AT ALL. Waking up early almost hurts. I try, but we don't do 5 am wake up calls, or even 6. Seven am is pushing it for me. Years ago I went to a homeschool retreat that was wonderful. I talked to a lot of ladies and they all did things differently. It was an eye opener. There was one lady there that got her kids up at 5 am and started their school day. They ate breakfast while having morning devotionals, and from there moved on to PE, and Spanish with Dad all before he had to leave for work. They got in the rest of their lesson studies all before lunch, and let me tell you, they had a full work load! I'm in awe of this woman. Some days I wish I could be just like her. But I'm not...not even close.
I wake up in the mornings around 6-7. I lay in bed for about an hour catching up on Facebook, responding to emails. After that's all done I do a Spanish lessons on my tablet. It's great because I get to do it before my little people are up and wanting my attention. I get frustrated trying to do Rosetta Stone when they are awake, because they talk to me (imagine that!) and ruin the voice recognition and then I end up frustrated. Doing my lesson in the morning gets rid of the frustration all together and I'm happier knowing I'm doing something to further my own education. I generally study my scriptures in the morning also.
Somewhere around 8 I wake up any kids that are still sleeping in. Usually most of them are up and going for the day. We have 7 kids, so things get busy fast. Cooking takes up all my time some days. Feed them breakfast and clean, snack time and clean, lunch and clean...you get the idea. I found that cooking and cleaning up afterward was cutting into too much school time. I finally hit upon a solution that works for us. All my kids except the youngest are assigned to a meal. The 4 and 6 year old are assigned together. I write up the meal plan for the week and kids are assigned to a meal for the entire week. One cooks breakfast, one makes the morning snacks, one is on lunch duty, afternoon snacks, and then dinner. They keep that meal for the entire week. I remind the breakfast person it's their meal to cook and off they go to make the meal. We keep it simple during the week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday are oatmeal, Tuesday is breakfast of choice, known as BOC to the kids, and Thursdays are cook's choice. Saturday is Big Breakfast Saturday (the day we make biscuits, eggs, bacon, etc.) and Sundays are cereal. It takes all the guesswork out of morning meals, and everyone is satisfied that they get to have one day a week where anything goes for breakfast. My 4 year old is currently obsessed with nachos. Nachos for breakfast people!!! Tuesdays are his favorite.
After breakfast is over and cleaned up we head our seperate ways to do school work. It's usually 9 by this point, and I figure it works for us. Do I still wish I could get myself up at 5 and do all this bright and early and be a morning person? Sure I do, but I haven't made too much of an effort to change myself, and I'm happy not dragging myself and all the kids out of bed most mornings. It's a slow start to our day, but it works for us.
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