When a couple of you asked about our schedule, it dawned on me that the biggest contributing factor to our (hypothetical) meltdown is the fact that The Baby stopped taking his morning nap. This is huge, since I relied on that time for schoolwork with the big kids. The Baby is teething, walking, and awake from 6:00/6:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., which is a long time. In case you’re keeping track, that leaves us with two wild cards: the one-year-old and the two-year-old.

The two-year-old– bless the Lord– is a delight and sits for long stretches “doing school”: puzzles, coloring, cutting stuff up, and saying her flashcards. The baby just likes to eat everything. The five-year-old is learning phonics. The seven-year-old is borrowing and regrouping, and the eight-year-old would rather be climbing a tree. We employ a Robinson/self-teaching philosophy, but they are still very young. I correct all their work, make suggestions, and keep law and order.

There is a popular method many women use with success, called Managers of Their Homes or MOTH. Each person’s day is divided into blocks of time, i.e. 9:00 – 10:00 = Math. The problem that happened in our home is that the kids would fool around, causing trouble if they finished their work 15 minutes early. Instead of going onto the next activity immediately, they’d use the 15 extra minutes to get into trouble. What we found to be more conducive to where we’re at (with lots of littles) is to have an order/routine (math first, then reading….), so at any given moment, the child knows what they’re supposed to be doing. No excuses for being off-task, i.e.: “But it’s not time for reading for another 20 minutes!”

Here is the brief regular rundown:

6:00/6:30 – 9:00: Morning routine, laundry, chores, breakfast. (If Greg is home, he gets up with the kids and reads from the New Testament. If he goes to the Cape, he is gone before we get up.)

9:00 – 12:00: School. Each kid starts with math and then works through their assignments. The eight-year-old takes the dog for a walk after math. This time frame is the problem area I was referring to yesterday. It is easy for one kid to start playing with bubbles in the bathroom, while I am distracted with place value and keeping the baby safe.

12:00 – 12:30: Clean up the house, which is by now a federal disaster. No cleanup=no lunch. Try me. This is where I make my daily speech, “You’d have less to cleanup, if you didn’t take so much stuff out.”

12:30 – 1:00: Lunch

1:00 – 3:00: QUIET TIME. The littles nap while the big kids read. I regroup, email, read, and/or relax. If I am pregnant, I sleep this entire time.

3:00 – 4:30: Free time. I usually work in the garden while the kids ride their bikes in the cul-de-sac.

4:30 – 5:30: Dinner preparation and phone ringing time. One or two kids help with dinner, while I assign another big kid to push the baby in the stroller or swing. This is the official bewitching hour and must be handled with care.

5:30 – 6:30: Dinner and cleanup. Greg comes home or out of his office. ( Since the 5-, 7-, and 8-year-olds do all the dishes, floors, and counters after dinner, I feel like I’ve “arrived.” The first “arrival moment” came when they could buckle their own seatbelts/car seats. The second “breathing moment” came when I could relax after dinner, as I just mentioned. The third “arrival” will be when I can send my oldest into the store with five bucks to grab something quick, negating the need to unbuckle and reload FIVE kids for a measly stamp.)

6:30 – 8:00: (The baby goes down at 7:00 p.m.) Read alouds and Bible. We are currently reading the original Alice in Wonderland. Greg reads aloud while I google words like March hare, hatter, and magpie on a wireless laptop. Then we do catechism and verse quizzing. After declaring a winner (sooo not PC), we read the Bible (also not PC). We are reading our way through; we’re on 2 Kings. At the end of each chapter, my son interjects, “As for the other events of [said king’s name] reign, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah/Israel?” because that’s how each king’s section ends.

Then we pray round-robin-style. Kid #2 always prays for wisdom. Kid #3 asks for God to help the Baby to stop throwing his food from the highchair. (Guess whose job the floor is.) Each person has “their day” to pray at dinner. In the evenings, that person starts the family prayers. My day is Tuesday, so if you come for dinner on a Tuesday, then you will hear me pray. Now that there are 7 of us, I’m not sure what we’ll do if anyone else joins the family.

Evenings are everyone’s favorite part of the day. The kids moan and groan whenever Greg finishes a chapter. “Keep reading! Aw, that was too short!” It could be just because bedtime is next, though.

8:00: Bedtime. (“I’m sorry that you’re not tired yet. Goodnight.”) They line up Von Trapp-style after Greg calls, “Attention!” Then they do some crazy marching thing, heading upstairs. I wonder if this will be cool when they’re 16. They love it. Greg sings each child one verse of their hymn and tucks them in.