Sometimes, even the best laid plans don't stick. Sunday night I sat down at the computer and planned a week full of stimulating educational activities for my dear students. We stuck to the schedule pretty well Monday, completing all of our school work and sneaking in an unplanned evening outside kicking around the soccer ball.
Then came Tuesday.
So far today, our day has looked kind of like this:
8:00 - Wake to Andrew drilling me with random history trivia. Whisper a prayer of thanksgiving for Susan Wise Bauer, without whose four years worth of aid I would have humiliated myself completely and irredeemably.
9:00 - Receive call from Wise and Wonderful Sister. Take the call because the boys who were told to get dressed seem to have disappeared into Legoland and I'm still nursing my first cup of coffee.
Somewhere around 10 - Grammar with John while Andrew kicks soccer ball outside. Play with fraction towers with Elisabeth. Realize it's 75 degrees outside. Decide to let boys enjoy the gorgeous weather. Realize the little ones ought to be outside, too.
10:30 - Bike, scooter, walk, run to the park. Enjoy - thoroughly enjoy - playing with Elisabeth and Luke while Andrew and John play in the woods. Keep Luke from tumbling over the top of the climbing wall while congratulating Elisabeth on learning to pump her legs on the swing. Marvel at the tenderness between various pairings of sibling (more on this in a future post).
11:30 - Bike, scooter, walk, run home.
12:00 - Grammar and Memory Work ("Oh, Captain! My Captain!) with Andrew while John reads a chapter of The Secret Garden while watching a friend's son mow our front lawn.
12:30 Lunch with a brief biography of Walt Whitman, writer of "Oh, Captain! My Captain!"
1:00 Failed attempt to get Luke to nap while Andrew and John play Legos and Elisabeth plays with her kitchen set.
1:15 Bible lesson with Elisabeth about obeying her mother with a cheerful attitude.
1:30 Post about the joys of flexibility while Bigs continue to play with Legos and Littles plan a tea party.
TBA - Making sugar cookies and homemade pizza.
Bible lesson with all children
Math
Spelling
Writing assignments
Continue reading The Secret Garden.
Whatever else I decide we really ought to do today
I'm actually relatively confident that despite our change in plans, we will accomplish most of what I set out to accomplish on this day. If, however, the activities recounted above constitute our entire day, I cannot call it a loss. Today, we had some very special learning to do that my plans just couldn't keep up with. Those important lessons might be described:
Take time to enjoy the beauty of God's creation and the sweet companionship of siblings. Stretch your physical limits. Puzzle over and solve architectural and engineering questions through the construction of Lego cities and robots. Study proper etiquette and home economics through sugar cookie tea parties and pizza making. Realize that sometimes rest and recreation are more valuable than intense academic studies, and that life won't come to a screeching halt if you veer from the prescribed path - and that veering from that path doesn't necessarily mean that you won't complete all that you need to accomplish. In all of this, enjoy one another immensely.
So I didn't stick to the plan, or maybe the plan didn't stick to us. At the end of the day, whether or not we tackle the rest of our subjects, I'd much rather have taught my children to enjoy sticking to one another than to have taught them to demand sticking to even the best laid plan.
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