What Does Home Schooling Look Like at the Reeder's House?

Really there is not such thing as a typical day of homeschooling. This is just a sketch of yesterday.
9:00 AM - Everyone up and working on their "Stop Sign Jobs" (ie make bed, say prayers, get dressed, comb hair, brush teeth, and go potty) Giant Marble Run already assembled in family room by Colin using the plastic marble run set.
9:30 AM - Breakfast of French Toast
10:00 AM - Robyn and Colin help Grace practice her fiddle while I feed Caden and get some reading done.
10:30 AM - I come back downstairs and find the giant orange extension cord winding it's way through the house. It is connected to the tape player which is connected to the stereo so Grace's fiddle tape can be in "surround sound." Tape didn't work so they hooked up the microphone to the stereo so Grace's actual fiddle playing could be in surround sound. Turns out one fiddle doesn't really need "surround sound." Good news is that Grace can actually play "Mississippi River." Bad news is that Caden cannot sleep to "Mississippi River."
10:35 AM - I go back up to rock Caden back to sleep while reading Anne of the Island.
11:35 AM - Back down stairs to see how "school" is going. Colin, Robyn, and Grace have been playing Monopoly in the kitchen. They are bidding on properties and making change and everything. By now the girls are tired of Monopoly so they are drawing and Colin is running the whole game. Caden wakes up and he gets to sit in his Bumbo seat and "play" Monopoly too.
11:40 AM - Girls and I write letters to Uncle Brad while the boys keep playing Monopoly. All kids regather to monopoly each time a property goes up for bid, otherwise Colin just moves everyone and pays and collects the money for each player. Caden is doing pretty good - his railroads get landed on a lot. Don't worry, Caden doesn't actually get to touch any choking hazards. He's the "angel" and Colin is the "bird dog." (See Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G Allen.)
12:00 PM - Play continues without Caden. I take Caden back upstairs to feed him and try for another nap. He must be growth spurting as he is a bottomless pit today. I finish Anne of the Island. It's pretty good, not my favorite in the series though.
12:30 PM - Caden sleeping, I sneak out and we all tidy up for lunch. Colin swears the Monopoly game is not over even though no one has played it with him for more than an hour. We carefully put elastics around each persons' money and properties so the game can continue later.
1:00 PM - Chicken Noodle soup for lunch. Caden wakes up again, darn it.
1:30 PM - We tidy up kitchen and call Grandma to get Uncle Brad's address for our letter. Aunt Keri answers - guess she wants to be a homeschooler too since she's home not at school, Too bad that is called truancy, not homeschooling. We mail the letter.
2:00 PM - Robyn practices her fiddle while I feed Caden and start Anne of Windy Poplars. Colin and Grace install an ultrasonic sensor on the robot they built with Dad during conference last weekend. They can't figure out how to attach the touch sensor. Dad will have to help with that another day.
2:30 PM - We work on making adorable pompom headband things for Halloween while listening to the Primary songs. Book of Mormon stories sounds good in surround sound. The "BOM BOMs" are really great if you crank the sub woofer up really loud. The rest of the songs don't sound so good with that much sub woofer. Caden doesn't sleep through really great Bom Boms.
3:00PM - We take a break from headband things. It's raining so kids take umbrella outside to play. I feed Caden and work on Anne.
3:30 - Snack time. Kids come in for cookies. I continue rocking and reading. Caden is like the emergency flashlight - he is quiet and sleeping as long as he is plugged in, as soon as he is unplugged to be put in his bed he wakes up and turns his little fusser on.
4:00 PM - Still rocking and reading. Kids are now using umbrella as a boat that takes them all around the world. The couch is China and my room is Michigan. I am not sure where everything else is. They gather treasure from each place and take it to a new place in there boat. They gather marbles from somewhere and bring them to Michigan. I am still working on Caden's nap so they go to the Great Lakes near Michigan (ie my bathroom) and build a new marble run using the wooden marble run this time.
5:00 PM - I give up on Caden's nap and he sits in the swing while I put the chicken in the oven for dinner. We finish the pompom headbands and turn on some clean up music. Caden goes to sleep in the swing. We get all things put back in the countries they belong and set the table for dinner.
5:50 PM - Dad still not home. We go out for a quick bike ride while we wait. Caden still sleeping so we open the windows and I stay close enough to hear while still watching the bike riders. Grace doesn't get stuck, not even once. Yay!
6:05 PM - Dad still not home. We make biscuits, warm up some veggies, and get the chicken out of the oven.
6:30PM - Dad's home and it's time to eat. Grace wakes Caden up on her way to the table. Poor Baby.
7:20PM - Dad and Caden bond over the guitar while Colin fiddles, I do the dishes, and the girls look through a magazine.
7:50PM - Bedtime jobs are done. Caden starving so he gets fed. Then family prayer and scripture study. Everyone giggles through scriptures, not sure why, but it was funny. Not exactly reverent, but fun.
8:15 PM - Colin and Robyn go to bed to read. Caden still nursing. It's Grace's night, so she gets to play memory with Dad.
9:00 PM - Grace goes to bed. Dad gets to bond with Caden again. They watch bits of the debate from the night before and I get to go for a walk with my friend, Julie.
10:00 PM - Kids still awake but in their rooms listening to CDs. Randy and I watch a 15 minute segment on Judaism in an attempt to learn more about other religions.
10:30 PM - lights out for everyone. Colin comes in one last time to tell us about Wilbur at the fair. (He just finished listening to Charlotte's Web.) Robyn needs one more drink and to talk about the Scripture Scouts CD she is listening too. Grace is asleep.
11:00 PM - Everyone sleeping peacefully.

The Monopoly game goes on today. Not surprisingly, Colin is winning. He has two houses and everyone else has morgaged all their properties. He pops in occasionally to ask how to make change when he needs a little help.
Robyn and Grace are doing crafts and reading. Robyn likes to read between the bookcase and the wall on a pile of blankets.
Happily, Caden is sleeping peacefully and no one is waking him up. Yay!

Today's Quote

"I don't care if you're right or wrong, as long as you're authentic."

Toothfairy visits Reeders' home

Colin lost his first tooth last week. Darn kids keep growing up on me! Isn't he cute?!!

Caden's Day

We finally got around to blessing Caden this past Sunday. Hooray! I was getting nervous that he wouldn't fit in the blessing outfit, but he did and everything went fine.

New Toys!


On Saturday, Colin got a bigger bike at a yard sale. What a deal. When Colin moved up, the girls got to move up too. Grace thinks she's really something with a big girl bike when she's only three.

Caden needs to learn to sit before he can inherit the trike so he got a Bumbo seat. Very cool! On Tuesday, I was wishing I could have a Bumbo seat so I could get the dishes done and feeling a bit sad knowing that my budget was not going to help that wish come true. Just at that sad moment, my darling husband came home with a $45 gift card to Babies R Us - a baby gift from the team at work. The timing was perfect. I couldn't believe it. The kids and I got the seat on the way home from fiddle lessons that very afternoon. Lovely, just lovely!

Gracie's reading!!! I tried to stop her so she could still be a baby, but no luck. Darn kids! :)
Thanks be to Aunt Katie who gave us a DK phonics book a long time ago and the Leapfrog videos The Letter Factory and Talking Words Factory.

Dentist or Engineer???

The kids have their fiddle lessons tomorrow and I have a class at the same time. I was freaking out about how I was going to get both done and Robyn looked at me and said, "Mom, Dad can take us." And so he CAN! What a revelation!

As the daughter of a dentist, it never even occurred to me to ask Randy such a thing. Engineers have more flexibility in their schedules. Randy has to put his hours in, but he has a lot more freedom to choose what those hours are on a daily basis. He can choose to go to work at 7:00 or 9:00. He can take his lunch earlier or later depending what is going on. He can even work from home if he so chooses. (He doesn't choose work from home often because the computer connection is much faster at work and Colin sidetracks him into playing Super Tux instead of working at home.) Whereas a dentist has to schedule months in advance or change a schedule that was made months in advance.

It was fine to be a dentist's daughter, however, I really like being an engineer's wife. It is good for me.

Here are a few pictures from this week. Robyn loves to read and Caden and Grace are a very willing audience.




Colin and I worked (actually it was more like playing) on food storage this week. We checked the dry pack canner out from the cannery and canned 100 #10 cans of wheat, spelt, rice, macaroni, oatmeal, onions,and beans. Whew!

Caden is growing like crazy! I tried to get a picture of his adorable spiky hair, but the picture doesn't do it justice. His smiles make me melt! I love this kid!