Lessons Learned

After the not so stellar decisions on our busy days last week, this week I am determined to do a better job of scheduling Amber's subjects when we have other things to do during the day.

This will be another busy week, but it wasn't intended to be that way. Really, it wasn't! Things just came up. Things that shouldn't wait for a less busy week. The first was an appointment for Amber at the orthodontist.  They only had morning appointments available for the consultation.  Even had she been in parochial school still we would have taken it.  So, I decided since we homeschool we would just work around it.  But in all honesty, I'm not sure we can.  Amber is accustomed to being done with school around 2:30, 3:00 at the latest.  Parochial school hours are still so ingrained in her that she can't imagine doing school after that time.

I'd love to say we will take that 10:00 am appointment and simply shift school hours to later in the day,  knowing that all will turn out well.  Instead, I took the 10 am appointment and worried how we would get it all done.  Amber has dance on Tuesday evenings, so going too far into the late afternoon makes it a long day for her.  Amber and I worked together on her schedule for the day, planning what work could be easily done before leaving and what needed to wait for the afternoon.  We didn't drop any subjects that were planned for the day, though we did shorten the Reading lesson a little bit.  I also did not make her practice piano, which may have been a mistake as a precedence for future busy days. 

It was up to 96 degrees here

Slightly above room temperature

Everything did manage to get done, including fun with a science lab.  It was just a quick lab showing how the application of heat energy changes the states of some matter, like water.  She already knew this, but it was fun to see how different amounts of heat can speed up the process.  It was more a precursor to the rest of the unit anyway.

Only room temperature.

While having a fairly decent attitude toward the day, Amber did slightly lament the lack of mid-day free time  Her appointment was the first orthodontic consultation and it took much longer than expected.  She will be going into braces in the very near future. We return next week for the details, but it looks like sometime in March.  The slimy gunk used to make the mouth molds was sickly sweet tasting and actually gave her an upset stomach for a few hours.  She laid around and nibbled on lunch for a good hour after we arrived home.  Unfortunately, that was her mid-day free time and then it was back to school. 

She did soldier on and finish everything in the afternoon, with even a little time to watch some "baby Amber" videos that she has been begging to watch for a week.  There was a specific Halloween she wanted to watch, so I put it all together when school was done so that she had something fun for the day. She really was a good trooper at the orthodontist.  I remember this time from my own childhood and it wasn't pleasant being poked, slimed and nauseated at the orthodontist.

While I'm sure we still could have done things a little better, I think we are learning how to get through school work (and learn something) on busy days and still have time to relax and enjoy life.

Now to just make it through the 2 appointments tomorrow and the 1 appointment on Friday.   I don't foresee a lot of learning happening between the appointments tomorrow. I might have to declare tomorrow and official half-day of school.