First day of school

School has officially started in our home!  Since the birth of our youngest, we desperately needed to get back to a routine and schedule.  Our children seemed to be lost without it, finding themselves bored or in mischief.  Quite honestly, I too was missing the structure.  Thankfully we are not stuck on a timed routine, though we do have estimates of what time we should be on which subject, but rather just an oder to our day, because the baby is still eating about every other hour!

Overall, today went fairly well.  There are definitely a few kinks we need to work out.  DS6 and DS7 neither read proficiently as of yet, so helping both of them at the same time, while working with DD4 was a little difficult and time consuming.  Thankfully DD4 does not start all of her curriculum until next week, giving us a few days to get accustomed to the new schedule.

My biggest challenge, by far, is DS2.  By the end of last school year, he was getting into more things, and keeping him preoccupied was a challenge.  I had started blanket training him, but quit after awhile, because I could send him and an older sibling or two outside to play while I worked with the others.  Now it is too hot to send him outside, and oh my, do I wish I had followed through!  I may have to start back with blanket training him!  For those wondering, blanket training is when you teach a child to play contentedly on a blanket or mat, rather than running around and getting into things.  The hardest part about the training, is as soon as the child starts to get off, you have to be right there to correct them and tell them to get back on.

The other thing I am thinking might help is getting more "busy bags" made.  I've already posted once prior about the ones we have.  I have begun the process of making some more.  Perhaps if I can get some of those done this week, I'll be able to have DS2 at the table with us, working as diligently as the rest of the children :D