An average Tuesday morning (or essentially any day of the week Monday-Thursday) looks like a 6am wake up with a quick shower for me before taking our (currently four-month-old) puppy out for a mile walk. Right now, we’re working on leash commands and he’s doing pretty well, but let’s be honest, the true purpose of our morning walk is so I can get some peace before my day really begins. A nice side benefit is that the 40lb mini T-rex is getting training and has enough exercise to start the day out that he’ll crash for a bit while the rest of the day is going.
About 7am (about the time Jaws-the-Monster-Disguised-As-A-Puppy and I are rolling in from our walk) my husband gets up and gets his shower, coffee, and sometimes breakfast (sometimes breakfast comes later). It’s also time to wake up my ten-year-old son so he can get his breakfast and start school. If his sister sleeps in long enough, he can be finished with school before she wakes up, it’s best for all parties when he succeeds in that, but that’s not always the situation. Sometimes, it takes him longer to keep his focus, sometimes he needs more help than usual. Sometimes, I’ve assigned him more work than normal (any day that he must write is a longer day).
At some point, our darling little girl wakes up.. she’s two and never stops going, not even when she’s sleeping. She looks cute and innocent when she’s out, but don’t try co-sleeping with that girl, you’ll have bruised ribs and be on the floor before the night is over. It’s when she rises from her beauty sleep that chaos ensues. She’s more of a night owl, so she doesn’t naturally wake up early most of the time. Hopefully, by the time she wakes up, everyone is mostly finished with their morning work that needs complete focus.
My husband and I both work from home and the workday starts at 8am. My husband shuts himself away for the day as he cannot have toddlers, destroyers of the world with four legs, and/or completely sensible pre-teens/wives bugging him. I, on the other hand, have a bit more freedom as I’m not on the phones much and the majority of my work is through a computer screen. The few times that I am interfacing with people audibly or visually, I have my son take his sister to play elsewhere.
My son does his math lesson first, usually, as that is the subject he most likely is going to need help with. I can usually help a bit during work, but he has everything he needs to do the majority of his work on his own. I prefer he learns to use his resources to figure out what he needs to accomplish his goals. It is my way of fostering independence on him, teaching him to utilize a multitude of resources, and also allowing me to focus on my work day (and his little sister).
He knows he can come to me when he needs help, but as he’s gotten older, he’s gotten much better at figuring stuff out first and most of the time, he’s doing it the right way and we don’t have to go back and fix anything. When his sister begins schooling, obviously we’ll have to figure out a different plan, but we’ve got a few years to go before worrying about that.
While my son is doing his school work and his sister is sleeping (hopefully), I’m logging into my system, checking my schedule for the day and emails. Usually I’ve already got the schedule from the day before, so I shouldn’t have any surprises and I’ve worked out a plan for my day ahead of time. But, once in awhile, there’s something new on there that on the agenda for the day when I logged out (sneaky boogers). I make any calls before Hurricane-Two-Year-Old awakes, and just get everything I can completed. I’ll have more work throughout the day, but most of it is administrative and email related rather than meetings or phone calls.
Once my toddler wakes up, it’s time to change her diaper, get her dressed for the day (or at least the hour), and give her some food. She’s a toddler, so it could be a number of things. My husband and I prepare stuff the night before or that morning for her, but usually? She just wants goldfish. She really enjoys yogurt drinks, bananas, and granola bars as well, but she prefers walking around the house dictating what the animals are going to do while wrapped in a blanket and carrying a cup of goldfish around. It’s cute, because I’m bigger and smarter and not one of the creatures she’s bossing around.
My son is thrilled when she wakes up, honestly. I know, I don’t understand it either – I definitely wasn’t as excited to be around my siblings when I was a kid. He prefers to have music going (so does she!), but he has to wait until she wakes up to get his music started. He could use a headset or earbuds, but I prefer to know he can hear me when I’m talking to him and that I know he’s practicing his Italian and not listening to music. He asks Alexa to play one of the many playlists that he’s created and he and his sister spend a bit of time dancing to the music.
Once they’ve both burned out on that (generally 10-15min), they leave the music playing, but he gets back onto school work (if he has any left) and she starts her own ‘school work’. She’s two, so she really doesn’t have any, but she’s also two, so she likes the whole monkey see, monkey do. She steals some of my pretty pens (These ones, actually – a wonderful Mother’s Day gift as I’m obsessed with office supplies) and one of the several notebooks she’s also stolen of mine and starts ‘writing’. She’ll go back and forth doing that for the whole day. I think part of that is because she loves to draw, part of it is that particular pen collection is about 20 different colors and is also scented. #affiliatelink
By 11am, my son should always be done with school as I try to keep him at or below four hours of schoolwork at his current age/grade. As most homeschooling parents will tell you, everything can be considered a lesson, but I am not the average homeschool parent, so I can’t take him out to meet with other kids every Thursday at 12pm for fun. I can’t take him to the store at 2pm for a math lesson/Home Economics. But what we can do is give him a few hours of traditional type schooling and then include him in our weekend adulting. He gets plenty of ‘schooling’ then without even realizing that it is school related.
Anyway, 11am, school should be done. Is he always? No. But usually he is. He enjoys making lunch for himself and his sister. Sometimes its something simple like scrambled eggs (don’t stop a 10yr old who wants to cook for himself and his sister because it’s not a lunch meal), grilled cheese, or a sandwich. Sometimes it is reheating leftovers. But it always helps me out by not needing to make him that meal and more importantly, it warms my heart knowing he actually enjoys doing that.
After lunch, we generally hit noon and a whole new kind of day starts. We’ll cover that another time. That’s the standard morning for me as a full time working mom of a toddler and a homeschooled pre-teen. It’s not easy, but it’s fulfilling. I can keep my kids home while also bringing in an income. I know that’s not possible for every parent, but it is possible.