6:30 a.m.
I wake up to a morning radio show murmuring softly in Chinese from my antique Chinese nightstand. I get out of bed, take my supplements, get dressed, start my coffee, and read my Bible.
7:00 a.m.
Little boys in underwear and T-shirts emerge from their blue bedroom, with blue blankies in their grips. I enter the pink bedroom to retrieve my little girl from the crib she still sleeps in (because she tends to get out of bed all night long otherwise and we don't need another battle to fight).
7:30 a.m.
Breakfast; oatmeal, or home made bread, or scrambled eggs. Sometimes cookies and milk, using a graham-cracker-type cookie called a "digestive cookie" (sounds appetizing, doesn't it). Cereal is imported and too expensive. Daddy teaches B1BLE during breakfast.
8:00 a.m.
Kids get dressed, brush teeth, pick up toys they have strewn everywhere in the last 60 minutes.
8:30 a.m.
School bell rings! I have a desk clerk bell that I sound so I don't have to shout. Four kids enter the school room. Third-grader and first-grader get to work on phonics, spelling, math, and handwriting. Meanwhile I teach Brave and Jubilee the difference between diagonal, horizontal, and vertical; as well as the importance of working top to bottom, left to right, coloring in the lines, staying in their seats, not talking out of turn, etc.
10:30 a.m.
I take turns sitting on the couch beside my big kids while they read aloud to me. The other big kid enjoys his screen time, and the preschoolers have free play.
11:00 a.m.
Family recess!
12:00 noon
Lunch; leftover casseroles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chicken nuggets from the freezer section at the bulk grocery market...pretty much the same stuff your kids eat for lunch.
1:00 p.m.
Time alone with G0D. Bright reads the Word, Zion listens to it audibly at the computer, and I read from a kid B1BLE to the preschoolers.
1:30 p.m.
Preschool nap time, whether they need it or not! Also Chinese language tutor arrives for the big kids (on Wednesdays and Fridays).
2 or 2:30 p.m.
Creative writing assignments, history, I read a book to them, science (they are in difference sciences this year, so while I teach one kid science, the other works math flashcards), and finally "Extras," which follows the following schedule: Monday - piano; Tuesday - typing; Wednesday - diary; Thursday - geography; Friday - studying a hero of the faith.
3:30 or 4 p.m.
School's out. Recess/free play...while I cook dinner.
5:30 p.m.
Daddy comes home! We eat.
6:30 p.m.
Relax and enjoy each other (usually involves wrestling and/or making a huge mess of the apartment).
7:30 p.m.
PICKUP. Daddy calls it "jobs." We all do our part, and the place is tidy in no time.
7:45 p.m.
Clean up, brush teeth, pjs, get in bed.
8 p.m.
Kids go to bed.
Parents collapse.
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| An example of what we do (listen to Pandora) when the school books are shelved and its time to have fun. |
