2.1 - Spending More Time With Your Kids

This is a biggie! My friends will attest to this—I’m always saying, “It seems like you blink and your children are all grown-up.”

So many parents wake up one day and find those precious early years have rolled right by—now, it’s been reduced to driving the kids from one activity to the next (soccer, karate, dance, baseball, friend’s house). Monday through Friday promptly at 8:15 AM, you drop the kids off to school almost like a job. Evenings are filled with homework for them, cooking and unwinding from a busy workday for you.

Sound familiar?

Here’s a typical day at the Yee home: Dad wakes up to make coffee and check e-mail. Mom drives him to the bus stop that starts his morning commute. Dad relaxes on the train and writes books (grin). Mom returns home and sleeps for a couple more hours.

It’s 9:00 AM.

Cameron or Nicholas usually wakes up first. Cameron pours some cereal and Nicky plays quietly (yes, quietly, believe it or not) in the living room. Maria cooks Cameron Top Ramen. Brandon wakes up and flips the television to Cartoon Network. He goes to the kitchen nook and sits down with Nicky to eat cereal or noodles. Alexandra begins to stir at around 10:00 AM. She hops on the computer, checks e-mail, and sets her AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) outgoing message to “I’m here, but I have to start homeschooling—be back at Noon.”

Maria starts to lay out her materials (books, worksheets, art supplies, lesson plans, colored pens and pencils) on the kitchen table. She has already mapped out her lesson plans a week or two before. Alexandra stakes out the family room as her area and starts to read a book, legs propped up on the couch in a relaxing position.

Cameron and Brandon sit at the kitchen table still nibbling on breakfast. Maria reviews fractions with Cameron, continuing their studies from the day before. Brandon practices his writing and spelling by filling in word jumbles on a worksheet—he completes the assignment and proceeds to draw a picture of various insects learned the day before for about 20 minutes. Cameron completes his worksheet on fractions and needs a break before reading about California history—he and Brandon play on the X-Box for 30 minutes while Nicky observes (okay, he also makes a lot of comments!).

Alexandra finishes several chapters of her book and begins to work with Maria on math.

After 45 minutes, Maria gathers all of them to work on a “Cycle of Life” science project. Leslie from ENCORE has provided Maria with a kit that includes cocoons, a netting enclosure, magnifying glass, and book. The kids observe the metamorphic progression of the cocoons—over the last week or so, the cocoons have transformed into three butterflies. Today, the children will release them in the backyard because butterflies only have three days to live. The kids take digital pictures of each other with the butterflies before picking up the netting and letting them fly away. The butterflies don’t take off right away, which gives the kids a few more opportunities to take digital pictures—eventually, they take flight.

Maria’s already making sandwiches for lunch. It’s just after 12:30 PM Alexandra will explore social studies after lunch. Cameron will tackle English and reading. Brandon will continue an art project, then read to Maria for 15 minutes. By that time, it’ll be time to get ready for dance and tennis. Maria plans to swing by Jamba Juice first—a smoothie on a hot day is just the answer!

Dad will be home at 6:30 PM. He plans to take the kids to Barnes and Noble at 9:00 PM. Alexandra is looking for a book to read and Cameron wants to use his B&N gift card. Brandon and Nicky will be playing with the train set in the kids book section—surprise, surprise, they have the trains to themselves because no other kids are out so late on a school night.

Ah, but homeschooled kids don’t have to wake up at 7:00 AM, now do they?

Starting to see how this works?