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Today has been a great day. I added in my youngest with Beyond. We have an extra student this week. A friend needed help and her 5th grader is staying with us during the day while she is at work. He is totally on the computer for school so this hasn't added any work for me. What it did do was get us up and going this morning. His mom is a teacher and he is being dropped off at 7:00 am. So my crew had to be up by 6:30. It has been rough on them being tired, but it is 12:13 and we are almost completely done with our work. Woo Hoo! My girls are working through a summer bridge 8th grade book while we are budgeting to get our order in for Rev2Rev and high school materials.
So Beyond went perfectly. ds7 is so ready for it. He did well on everything. Spelling, reading, writing, history, geography...storytime...everything went great. He sat so well for Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin. I think I am actually going to have to find a better start for the ERS. I think I am going to take a few around Wagon Wheels and see how his reading is for them.
ds11 is doing well with Preparing and he only has one box left after lunch. Well 1 1/2 boxes b/c he wasn't through with one when we broke for recess/lunch. dd13 is done completely. dd12 only has one more thing left.
Our extra student has been working diligently as well and his mom logged on to his work and he has done well this morning.
So an all around fantastic day!

Hooray! Getting up early does really make a big difference (but we still can't manage to do it often enough). Hooray for doing well with Beyond. Has Preparing been easier now that you have a week under your belt?

That is great! We actually do get up early but my kids want to play first thing in the morning. That is fine by me though - they are eating breakfast and getting their together time first thing. That when my oldest has to get working, she isn't complaining that she didn't get to play yet. All I do know is that as they move up in guides, they will be starting earlier than they do now. I don't think they will mind though - they seem to work well in the AM.

HOORAY!!! I have found the same to be true - an early start to our day equals either an earlier big break in our day or an earlier end to our day, and that part of it is wonderful! It IS difficult to get up and get going sometimes - most times, really. I have 2 things that help... I set my alarm for 7:20 AM and turn on my lamp right away when it goes off, hitting the SNOOZE button. I put in my contacts, read my short devotional, and about when I'm done my alarm goes off again. I hit SNOOZE and call the kiddos in. They all pile in my bed and we discuss what's ahead for the day, like what's for breakfast (ALWAYS deeply important to boys), what's unique about the day's happenings (i.e. me working, dh traveling overnight, etc.), and then we laugh as a few stories are told (usually by our 6 yo Emmett, and his stories are pretty silly and usually totally made-up). About then the SNOOZE alarm goes off again. They talk me into talking another 5 minutes, and then I insist on them all getting out and getting going! My oldest sets the timer for upstairs getting ready time (20 minutes) and everyone scurries off in a hurry. The goal is always to be done with chores, breakfast, and clean-up by 9 AM, but we usually accomplish it by 9:15 AM. My oldest ds does set his alarm for 6 AM and always gets up without fail. My middle ds has talked my oldest ds into waking him up at 6:30 AM, which he diligently does with a fair amount of loud shaking him. My youngest sleeps through it all until I call him in my room. Anyway, I don't know why I shared all of this other than to agree - getting up early IS hard - but once we're up, I'm thankful for our earlier good start the entire rest of the day. Oh, and the second thing that helps? Coffee. 3 cups by noon. My doctor said noon is the cutoff. So - I am VERY glad you discovered the payoff of an early start, and I hope that you continue to have a good year with your dc!!! Also, I think it is very generous and kind of you to watch your friend's ds with your already full day. You are a good friend - lucky gal she is to have you.

In Christ,
Julie

We managed to get up early all week even though it turned out we only had our extra student one day in the end. His grandmother got out of the hospital earlier than expected. PTL!
Our week went really well. My ds doing Preparing is really enjoying Grandpa's Box. I can tell we have watched too much Star Wars though as during his narration he referenced "The Dark Side" lol. He thoroughly enjoyed making his shield.
We are definitely going to continue waking early though as it makes a big difference in our day.

Glad you had a great day!

Getting up early is something I really need to work on. My son is an early riser, but I have never been a morning person. I am a night owl and have my most productive times late at night. That worked great when I was younger, but is not really workable for homeschooling