How to start our morning

[LillyMama]

This is probably a stupid question, and I've searched the archives for other answers, and I think I just want some more ideas if you ladies would share.

 

I have a 5.5 year old daughter and a 6 year old son who are close enough in age and ability that I pretty much school them together. We do a year-round school, on a May-April cycle (long story) and we just started 1st grade last week. I've recently re-read WTM and we're trying to follow it pretty closely with SOTW/TOG, WWE, FLL, AAS, Singapore, Essential Science... So far, so good. This has worked well for us (we did all but science and TOG this past K year) and I'm able to get them separated for individual time when needed.

 

The problem I'm facing is that my daughter is a night-owl, like her parents, and my son is the lone morning person. Up until recently, we've been chaotic in the morning, but basically all came together at 9am to start the day with Calendar Time. But now that we'll doing some more formal programs, I don't feel like this is working. My son is up by 6am every morning (he plays in his room), when I struggle for 7am and my daughter will sleep until 8am most days. I usually try to do some reading over breakfast, then they do their daily chores, then dive into Calendar Time, but it's just not working. My daughter is sleeping later and later, making me feel like we're always one step behind. And then my son is cranky because he's been up two hours by then and he wants a break before we've even started.

 

I simply cannot figure out how to do this. The teacher side of me says I should make him do his individual out-loud reading to me during this time, as he's a bit behind and we could benefit from the lack of distractions. The mother side of me knows he hates that the most and wants to do something fun so starting into school isn't such a battle. Plus he just values the time we get alone before everyone else gets up. Since he loves to be read to, I want to do that first, and doing it while they're eating gives me a captive audience. But if I read to him while she's still asleep, either she misses something or I have to do it again.

 

I keep thinking we'll work this out, it seems like such a silly problem. But I'm finding this lack of cohesiveness just bleeds into the rest of the day.

 

Any ideas? I'm stumped.

[Mom22ns]

I would pick something that they do separately anyway. My ds is the early riser in my family. We do math first thing in the morning. My kids are 2 years apart and on different levels in math anyway. I go make breakfast while he finishes his math and then get dd up to join us. We all eat together and then do a read aloud. It gives dd who is still groggy time to wake up and ds time to recover from the strain of math :).

[kbpaulie]

OK, if it were me I wouldn't like my response b/c I'd be looking at howto get everyone on the same schedule. :001_smile: But if he enjoys being read to then maybe there are 2 reading times - one for the early bird (it's a special book you share and the other is welcome to join if they get up on time) and then a different book at breakfast. (Personally, it would dirve me nuts. But maybe you can have that special time together.:001_smile:)

 

* If your kids do chores the earlybird can do them when they get up and the night owl can do them when they're done w/ school

* Do they have any independent work they could do at different times?

* Teach the earlybird cooking and make fancy breakfasts that are ready for the night owl

* Like books on CD? Earlybird can listen to CDs while everyone else sleeps in

*By early bird will sometimes bring a book to my bed and snuggle up next to me reading (or looking at pictures when he was a pre-reader). Time w/ mom (while I got some more sleep) and entertained.

* Like workboxes? Maybe an early morning workbox idea - rotating acitivites, games, worksheets etc that are left in a small container/ box

 

Good luck! I'm a night owl myself and love to stay in bed just a little longer. I've given up on 7am. :glare:

[Parrothead]

OK, if it were me I wouldn't like my response b/c I'd be looking at howto get everyone on the same schedule. :001_smile:

Yeah, this was my thought too.

 

Can you turn the young man into a night owl?

[Amy Jo]

It's a good question - mornings are chaotic here too. Can you limit the time your son reads to you (15 minutes maybe, or even 10, set a timer if that helps him) and then you read to him? Or you read aloud first, then him. If you tell him it's wonderful to get your most challenging thing done first, so the rest of the day is fun, will he buy that?

 

Otherwise, I'd not fight it. Enjoy the snuggle time! Maybe you two can find some books he loves but your DD would not. Or just discuss a book you've read as a family, and maybe draw a picture or something?

 

For our family, we are going to start taking long walks (or bike rides) in the morning, just to get everyone awake and ready to go. We have a mix of night owls, early birds, and a two that haven't decided yet in the family.

[happypamama]

This is my warm weather plan; it doesn't always happen this way, but this is the deal for which we aim.

 

-Breakfast, followed by poetry and something related to Christianity (might be a Bible storybook, or right now, we're reading the Mr. Pipes books about the origins of hymns), while everyone's still at the table.

 

-Getting dressed and morning tasks (everyone participates in these).

 

-A walk or just some play outside time, before it gets to be too warm.

 

-Boys play for a while so that I can do math and Latin with my daughter. Then she works on her independent work, and I work with DS1 (and I'm trying to get some time in there for DS2 as well). At whatever point is convenient for me (usually dictated by what our baby needs), we do history together.

[Mallory]

After years of trying to wake up sleepy kids and occupy awake kids, and otherwise be more productive in the early morning, this past year we have been doing games in the morning.

 

We have such great board/card games that hardly ever get used and are such a great way to learn so if you are up early then you can play games with mom :D Of couse I am one of the early risers, so this works for us.

 

 

School probably isn't taking to long, maybe you could just start later maybe 10 or even after lunch.

[ksr5377]

Just listening in, I'm in a similar situation. The oldest wakes up at 6am, I prefer 7am, DS1 at 8am and I usually wake up DD4 by 9. If there's ever a day we all eat breakfast at the same time it's because we have to be somewhere really early and I try to avoid that at all costs.

[angelmama1209]

I'm listening, too! While I'd like to have us in a routine that's starts with breakfast together at 8, DD1 will sleep as late as 10 some days. I hate to just wake her as that's part of the beauty of homeschooling, but it throws off "my" ideal routine.

[2_girls_mommy]

If possible I would start gradually moving your dd's and your bedtime a little earlier to get yourselves all a little closer to the same schedule. At the same time, you could try moving his up a little in hopes that he would sleep in a little later. Even if at first you all only moved 15 minutes in the right directions you would be 30 minutes closer. That would still give him his morning time to be alone, just slightly shorter (and if you do it gradually he probably wouldn't notice) then start the day with something active for him to get moving (a run outside or dancing before calendar time or something) That will probably make dd want to join in or at least see what is going on to get her started in the morning. THEN, begin working with him on his reading or whatever before you start with her.

 

HTH. We are nightowls here too, and if my dds get up before 8 it is a miracle. Every now and then we get later and later, and I have to do something to get us all back on a better schedule too. Recently it has been something we have been working on too.

 

Some helps: one dd likes having her own alarm clock to get up and turn off. She likes to set it 10 minutes before she needs to get up so that she has some time to just lie in bed.

 

And funny enough, recently I redid their rooms with new bedding and bought some new summer clothes that they got to pick out. And they have been so cheerful about getting up and wearing their new clothes and making their new beds so that their room looks nice, that it really jump started our morning routine. I wasn't expecting that! It was just time for some new stuff. They just love their new clothes and the looks of their new bedding all made up.

[Tracy]

Yeah, I would be wanting to get everyone on a closer schedule. If I let dd7 sleep, she would sleep later and later each day and be up later and later each night. She already is up until 9:30-10pm, and I wake her at 7-7:30am. In order to make school run smoothly, though, I have to be up a half hour before anyone else, and that is hard since I have struggled with insomnia a great deal. But the reality is that the work toward a similar schedule is quite worth my while.

[Mom0012]

I'd decide what time you want to do breakfast and get your daughter up in time for that. Doing read-alouds at breakfast is a great way to start the day. I understand not wanting to wake kids up at that age, but maybe just setting a firmer bedtime for her (assuming you haven't done that already) would solve all your problems.

 

Lisa

[LillyMama]

Thank you for the awesome solutions.

 

To clarify- there actually isn't anything they do, curriculum or lesson-wise, separately. Guess that's the by-product of having a high-achieving daughter 16 months younger than her school-averse brother. The only thing they really do separately is their daily read-aloud. I know probably every other mom with more than one kid in here is groaning, because you juggle much more complicated things than this, with varying grade levels and subjects. I'm a wimp. ;) Anwhoodle, this is what makes having them on the same schedule not just ideal but also just the only way I can think to do it. Doing his math earlier, for example, just means I won't know what to do with him while his sister is doing her same exact math later on. Not to mention I'd have to teach it twice. At the age they're at, how disruptive changing subjects and supplies can be, I feel we'd add 30-60 minutes to every school day by having them do much individually.

 

He will never be a night-owl. I can count on one hand the number of times, in his entire life, he has slept in past 6:15. Seriously, from the day we brought him home from the hospital- the kid wakes up like a rooster. Black-out blinds, earlier/later bedtimes, stopping screen time after 6pm... We've tried it all, the kid just wakes up at that time. Whether he gets four hours of sleep or 13, he wakes up between 6 and 6:15. He knows to stay in his room until 7, and he's good about it, but he's simply not going to sleep at that time. My dad and sister are like that, too.

 

Getting my daughter up is an idea I've toyed with, but I really like to let her sleep in, I figure her body needs it. We do have a pretty set bedtime, the routine starting at 8, in bed by 8:30, but it does get disrupted more than I'd like as my husband travels and works odd hours. Maybe waking her is just going to be what we have to do.

 

The board game idea is intriguing, as he is my board game kid. I'll just have to 1) make peace with the mess, which I hate to see before I even get the school stuff out and 2) get him not to get annoyed when I have to stop to make the other two breakfast when they finally roll in. Mallory, do you ever struggle to get started on school if the game isn't over yet? That's my big fear, as his current favorite is Ticket to Ride, and that takes up the whole table and takes at least an hour. Maybe I could make him play one of those educational board games I got from Lakeshore. :tongue_smilie:

 

And we do have quite full afternoons, not every day, but often enough that starting later doesn't work. Besides, we're having second breakfasts by 10, because, apparently, we're hobbits.

 

Thanks again for all the responses, you've given me tons of things to consider. And to those that are in the same situations- good luck to you, too!

[Tawlas]

What about having him listen to read aloud on cd first thing in his roo, then when, as you say, he's ready for a break a bit later on, you read that same book to dd? You're not teaching twice, she's not missing anything and he gets his break. Stow might work?

[boscopup]

I think I'd try bumping the DD's bedtime earlier (gradually), so she still gets plenty of sleep.

 

I'm a night owl too, but my DH goes to bed really early since he gets up early. Ignoring tonight (I'm being bad and staying up late :lol:), I usually go to bed at the same time as him now. I had to work up to it, but now I'm actually reasonably tired by 9-9:30, and I easily and automatically wake up by 6am, sometimes earlier.

 

My kids have a bedtime of 7pm. My oldest would sleep in if he could, but he shares a room with morning children. :tongue_smilie: My middle son is like yours... up around 6-6:15 regardless of bedtime, blackout curtains, etc. Actually, without blackout curtains, it was 5:15 sometimes! :001_huh: Like your son, my kids know they can play until 7am, then come down. This works out well. We then eat breakfast, do Bible, and can easily get started with school at 8am, and the day goes very smoothly when we do that. If we start later, the day is shot. I just can't get into a groove, and neither can the kids. I think if they get too much "play" in, they have a hard time leaving that mode and getting into school mode.

 

On a good note... Aren't you glad you're homeschooling? Try getting your DD up to get to school by 8am! :lol:

[ALB]

 

On a good note... Aren't you glad you're homeschooling? Try getting your DD up to get to school by 8am! :lol:

:lol:That's great!

 

I don't interfere much with what time my dc wake up, but usually they are early birds anyway so it isn't an issue. If ones wakes up earlier, I do often read aloud to them alone. I enjoy that quiet way of starting a morning, and it gives us some special cuddle time. It isn't usually from a read aloud that we are doing together, but from some favorite picture books.

[Mallory]

We have second breakfast too, but only if you got up early enough for first breakfast- which is usually something quick and easy- fruit or toast, maybe cottage cheese.

 

Yes, I do limit what games we can play in the morning, and we have a couple of really quick ones everyone likes that we can play even if the littles have started to get up (Quick Pix Animals and Apples to Apples especially).

 

If you didn't want to do games, what about taking him outside? He could get out some energy, you could sit on the porch, dd could sleep and everyone would be ready to do school after breakfast.

 

What if he did the online things early in the morning?

 

What if you did read alouds in her room before she even gets out of bed? Yes that does mean you are waking her up, but it is such a nice way to wake up. You could do

-read alouds and even FLL from 7:30-8:30

-then have breakfast/get ready for the day/maybe go for a short walk from 8:30-9:30

-then do the school from 9:30-11:30

-and have lunch early 11:30

 

That is 3 hours for school by 11:30

 

 

I also think this will be less of a problem as they get older. Even if they are still in the same math or writing book in 4 years, he could get going on his in the morning. It is just now when they are doing the same things and need you for most of it that it is hard to get it worked out.

 

On a good note... Aren't you glad you're homeschooling? Try getting your DD up to get to school by 8am! :lol:

 

Um... 8:00...I don't think so the bus goes by my house at 6:45....