Hi again today,
To answer your question Julie, yes it is more of the latter. He just seems to rev up sometime around 8:00! Then, we find ourselves out shopping, engaged in a project of some kind, or…?? It is honestly something he admits he struggles with very much and would like to change, yet…doesn’t. I am totally opposite and find myself nodding off around 8:00, easily! It used to really bother me and caused some heart kinks for me, then I just decided to “go with the flow” a little more…I am much more cheerful now if you know what I mean.
I can see very much how a change in our sleeping habits would really help us, but I honestly don’t see that is possible for me to do. Its kind of out of my hands, kwim? I have tried to implement bedtime at a certain time and would have them all ready, yet…until Daddy says “its time”, then they seem to keep going. Hard to explain and I truly hope that I am not showing you my sweet hubs as something other than a fantastic guy, because he really, truly is!! We all have our struggles and this just happens to be his…so we are working with it.
OK! Here’s to complete honesty! A totally “real” typical, non-typical day:
As it was memorial day weekend, we happened to have some very late nights this weekend. It made for a tough beginning this morning! Daddy left at 8 this morning, I got up in just enough time to rinse off in the shower. Missed my “quiet time” this morning. Drug my 11yo outta bed by bribing him with a mini cinnamon roll. LOL! It took him a good 15 minutes for him to be coherent and loose his crankiness..if that tells you how ‘not’ a morning person he is! I made bagels & sausage while 11yo had his bible time (>10 min.), 3yo raided the fridge then sat down to color at the table. 8:30 I bribed my little girl out of bed too. (shameless, I know…but after a long weekend it would be difficult to do otherwise!) Lots of groans this morning. Rougher than normal! Finally at 8:45 we eat breakfast. It is very important for me to begin my day with my kids altogether I have learned. It keeps me centered. Lunch is usually impossible for us to do together. After breakfast, everyone clears table, gets dressed, teeth are brushed, beds made, etc. We met again at 9:30, I started the day with a timed test for math today (long story, but we are doing light math right now). After that we try to remember to say the pledge, but we always begin our day with a song of praise & then we pray. This makes such a difference in attitudes, etc. It only takes a few minutes, but the rewards are huge! We used to do this with Daddy and that works really good, since it gets everyone up earlier and plus we get to enjoy having him be a part of it. It’s a hard habit to be consistent with though since he needs to focus on getting to off to work.

So from there we go into “Rhyme Time.” Usually 11yo does not join us, but my 6yo begged me today. That also only takes a few minutes, so I let him. So, he really began his day around 9:50. He started (apparently) with the thing he didn’t want to do the most – science. He LOVES science, but this time (as I mentioned in the last post) was the 5 questions. This apparently makes him dread it. And, he dragged on this assignment – all day. He worked on this (loosely) while I did LHTH with my 3yo. My 6yo worked at the table too on her math and R&S book. I had to get after 11yo because he continually got distracted. Got up to help 6yo to find a pencil (not necessary), I had to step away for a second & 11yo was playing with 3yo, then he had to let the dog outside…I found him OUTSIDE with the dog!
10:15 I met with him. He had somehow read the material for science and wrote his name on the paper. I had a minute to do dictation with him, then I went with my 6yo to do most of her LHFHG. He read his history reading independently – 15 minutes, then worked on his science again…I guess, 15 minutes. He had a little more done this time.
11:06 I met with him again. He told me his narration from history and then we did Geography (8 min) and English, oral part only (8 min).
11:30 I made lunch while listening to LHFHG girl to read aloud to me. 11yo read story time independently. He is a great narrator! He always has really good input and correlations. He always seems to be one step ahead of the questions I am supposed to ask from his box, it makes me laugh every time!
12:00-12:35 he worked on English. I assigned only 12 and out of those there are only 2 full sentences. He is again very distractible at this point. Pencil drumming, playing with brother again, counting in Spanish, trying to tell me stories, etc.
Here is the Lunch Time mark!
MY part of PHFHG is done. I have finished LHTH, LHFHG . The rest lies upon him. The weight is heavy for him. At this point he has the following left: Poetry, Independent History, History project, Extension (reading only) and still…science. The truth is this is a very non-typical day. We are usually a little more focused, wake a little earlier, but the workload is a little more as well for him. We normally have more chore time expected along with the fact that we had a light math day today, no drawn (we just finished up our 1st genre!), he has already memorized his poem, plus there are no big written assignments, like history or poetry. He did have his copy work in his independent history, but he seemed to zoom through that.
Onto the rest of the day…this is where it gets tricky, because I am not watching as closely. After lunch ends he read his extension book for 11 min. then finally finished his science. It took him another 35 minutes this time for a grand total of 1hour & 15 min throughout the day. He also practiced his poem. This point in the day is done alone, I am upstairs (finally getting some quiet time) – my 3 yo takes a nap, my 6yo is doing anything quiet that doesn’t bother her older brother. So, this SHOULD be a productive time for him.
At this point he is really discouraged. It’s around 2:30. I let him go outside and play. I meant for it to only be a five minute fresh air thing, but he got a ½ hour. Next up was his independent history, which only took him 20 minutes. I do not understand since it is copy work…but, he didn’t seem to dread that as much at all.
So, all last week no friends came around. Today, at 3:00…here comes his friend! All he had left was to finish the rest of his independent history (he only had a sentence or so left) and his project. He finished his history without a complaint, but he DOES NOT like the projects and broke down in tears that he had to do it. He knows that it is easy for me to let the projects go…I know I shouldn’t, but he doesn’t like them and I don’t want to fight and fuss at the end of the day. So, I did what I am not supposed to do & said – go play. (We don’t have a single paper bag in the house apparently. I said we will do it later, but the chances are slim) Ugh. It is the friend, not my son that pushes. I just feel like it makes me seem like such an ogre mom when EVERY SINGLE TIME he comes to the door my son is “still working.” It doesn’t matter what time he comes, he seems to have more to do…
Many times we start much earlier than today. He was waking earlier (and really enjoyed that extra jump on the day!!) In fact he mentioned today that he really wants to do that. It is just tough for me to wake him in the mornings. He is similar to DH…wants to get up, but when it comes to actually doing it – just doesn’t happen.
This was an extremely long post. I totally exposed myself to you all. This day was not MY best day, so I hope you all have grace on me. I do have better days. I am sure this problem is probably more of a mommy problem than a son problem…I just don’t know how to handle it. As you can see, I tend to drift off in the afternoon – I have things to take care of, being a homemaker and all. I give it all I got until lunch, then I spend a few minutes alone with God, resting, etc. (Remember I have a very “busy” 3yo here. If I don’t keep him constructively busy he starts looking for trouble!!) After quiet time, I switch laundry around, and get busy doing whatever is on my “to do” list for the day. I just can’t keep going with school all day long, so I just let him sit & take his time doing whatever he’s doing.
I am really close to the matter. What am I doing wrong?? Tell it to me straight. I can take it.
