Our new schedule - yes, again!

Wow, this whole homeschooling thing is constantly changing. Well, at least it is not boring... After quitting K12 it was time to redo our schedule yet again. We started this schedule right after Christmas Break and it has been working pretty well so far.

7 am - my alarm goes off. I’m not gonna lie. I am not a morning person. My kids aren’t either, really. I used to set my alarm for 8am, but our school day was going too late in the afternoon, so we’re trying to start our day earlier.

Once I drag myself out of bed, I exercise, check my email, facebook, google reader, and eat breakfast.

7:30 am - the kids are supposed to get up. Sometimes they set their alarm and sometimes I wake them up. Lots of times I let them sleep in until 8am, especially if they have stayed up late the night before.

7:30 – 8:30/8:45 ish – the girls eat their breakfast, do their morning chores, get dressed, etc. they are allowed to watch one TV show while they eat their breakfast.

8:45 – this is when the older 2 girls (ages 9 and 11) are supposed to start their school work. Some days we do a good job starting on time and other days it is closer to 9am.

My older girls have a bunch of school work that they can do mostly independently (thank goodness!). During this time they do their math, spelling, typing, handwriting, reading, writing, and grammar.

Once they get started with their work, I jump in the shower.

9:30 – After I am showered and, I start working with Arwen, my first grader. We do reading/phonics, math, grammar and handwriting.

10:30 – Snack time and read aloud. This is a new addition to our schedule and I LOVE it! By this time, my older girls are ready for a break and are usually hungry. I love having a chance to read aloud to my kids. I used to read to them at bedtime, but as they have gotten older we have a gotten away from that.

11am – Group school time – I do history and science with all of my kids together, so at this time we gather for history reading, working on our timeline, map work, science reading, or an experiment.

Noon – lunch time and break. The girls go off and play while I make lunch. They usually watch a TV show while they eat lunch. I use this time to check email and regroup.

1pm – usually my older girls have some of their independent work to finish now. Occasionally my youngest has some work as well. They are usually done by 2pm.

Afternoons are playdates, classes, and lessons, and sometimes the beach :) All three girls are in a choir, Kali is taking violin lessons, and Sierra just started flute lessons. Sierra and Kali are doing an Ocean Awareness class through parks and rec.

Evenings have pretty much stayed the same except that I am less exhausted than I was when we were doing K12. We eat dinner, hang out with Daddy, watch our favorite reality shows (American Idol and Survivor). The girls go to bed at 9pm and are allow to read until 9:45. Rand and I hang out watching TV and reading and staying up too late. Then it is off to bed.

My Funny Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day, Honey



I have a feeling that my life would be very boring without you!

Hawaii is a paradise, right? The good, part 2

2. The food

I love all of the food here (even the poi). Pineapple, coconut, Kalua pork. Yum, yum. Here is just a sample of the yummy stuff we have had to eat since we moved here.
Rand went spear fishing and got this bugger. He deep fried it and even our picky eater liked it.

Some more fish from Rand's fishing adventure.

Dragonfruit. I had no idea it looked like this. We got this in Chinatown. You scoop out the white part and seeds like you would a kiwi. And the texture is a lot like a kiwi with the seeds, but the flavor is much sweeter.

Hawaii is a paradise, right? The bad, part 1

1. The centipedes

About a month ago my dear hubby got bitten by one of these in our bed while we were sleeping. He said it felt like someone had stabbed him. Apparently it could have been much worse. Now every night he throws the sheets off the bed to check to make there isn't one of these buggers in our bed.

Hawaii is a paradise, right? The good, part 1

1. The Beach!

Any time we encounter a bad thing about living in Hawaii, my hubby and I remind ourselves that we live a 10 minute walk from the beach and then we realize how lucky we are.

Hawaii is a paradise, right?

Before moving to Laie, Hawaii 5 month ago, I was totally excited about moving to a tropical island. I mean, what could be bad about living in a paradise? Now, don't get me wrong, it is pretty awesome, but there are a few negatives. So, coming up next on An Organized Mess, I present you with a series of posts on the good and bad of living in Hawaii.

Here is a sneak peek (you can guess which is which):

We're Baaack!

We started school this week, back to our good ol' independent homeschooling. It is a short week. Rand went back on Wednesday, so we did, too. And we have to go into town tomorrow to officially withdrawal from K12. And we did half days because I didn't want to start history and science for such a short week.

Today was absolutely lovely... Compared with the torture of my days with K12, it was just wonderful. Yes, it was only a half day of work for the kids, but still. The girls did math, and grammar, and wrote thank you notes for their Christmas presents (handwriting, composition - check). I read aloud from The Calder Game. Kali made cookies from scratch all by herself with no help from me and even (mostly) cleaned up.

Inspired by The Calder Game, we made out own mobiles. I can't say enough good about the books by Blue Balliet. We learned about Vermeer and pentominoes while reading Chasing Vermeer, got excited about Frank Lloyd Wright during the The Wright 3, and check out these Alexander Calder inspired mobiles.
It's good to be back.