gettin' with the rhythm

Wow, two posts from me in one day, can you even believe it? Here's some pictures from Amelia Gardens in Westfield, MA (in full bloom RIGHT NOW -- go check it out if you can!) to keep you entertained while I ramble on.

It occurred to me after posting this morning about the story work portion of our coming school year that it might make more sense if I FIRST post about the way our days/weeks are going to run, to give more of an overview, then fill in the details later. That might make more sense. Or it might just be so confusing as to not matter either way....

In any case, I'm still hammering out the specifics of our school year rhythms, but I've got the basics down, and here's what it looks like:

(starting when the kids get up, around 7:30 -- keeping in mind that I get up around 5:15 to take care of the majority of the critter-related chores)

-wake, snuggle, feed birds, eat breakfast (about 1 hr)
-calendar activity, poems, tooth brushing, sensory brushing (for Zoo Boy), Speech Therapy exercises (for Zoo Boy), dressing (about 30 min)
-physical exercise (walk, bike ride, horseback riding, etc) (about 40 min)
-concentrated sensory integration activity (about 5 min)
-formal circle (about 30 min)
-snack

-story work (about 1 hr)
-creative/outdoor play (about 1 hr)
-lunch (about 30 min)
-chapter book reading (about 30 min)
-rest (about 1 hr)
-Afternoon Adventures (about 2 or 3 hrs)
-settling in and practice time (about 1 hr)
-supper (about 1 hr)
-bed prep (about 1/2 hr)
-family story time (about 1/2 hr)
-bed

It's those Afternoon Adventures where our weekly rhythm kicks in. I'm still sorting through what we do and do not want to include, how many days we want to leave our own property for adventures elsewhere, etc. But so far here's what I've got for weekly rhythms:

Monday: homeschool classes
Tuesday: occupational and speech therapy sessions
Wednesday: stay at home day, painting, afternoon stories
Thursday: museum classes and/or play date/co-op
Friday: play date and/or museum classes (one Friday a month, Aquarium homeschool classes)/co-op

For the weekends, it will be a more relaxed rhythm, but still following the above daily flow, but with no therapy exercises or formal circle, just a family morning walk. Friday nights we'll read a nature story around the fire as a family, so Saturday's Story work will be based on that. Our adventure on Saturday afternoons will be a family one, some sort of field trip relating to our nature story. Sundays are a "day off" for us -- The Map Man will follow through with the basic rhythm of the morning, as I will be working, and the afternoon adventure will basically just be watching football and hanging around at home as a family.

I'll pick apart some of the components of our day over the next week or so. If anyone wants to know more about anything in particular, just let me know!