Day In The Life

With the school year quickly drawing to a close, I'd better sneak in a Day in the Life post, from the year I had a third-grader and kindergartner (or, a 9- and 6-year-old).

6:00 My alarm goes off and I wake up by listening to the news for 10 minutes, before getting up and sitting down with my coffee and devotional.
6:45 - I wake up Cora, who ignored her alarm when it went off 10 minutes earlier.
7 - I get showered and dressed, and Cora gets dressed and makes her bed. When I emerge at 7:20, she's having cereal she got out for herself. I get Violet up and bring her to the bathroom, and encourage her to wake up and get dressed.

7:40 a.m. - Cora brushes her teeth and both girls get their shoes on.
7:47 - We head off to school, both girls on their scooters.
7:55 a.m. - With a kiss at the gate, Cora rushes off to join her line. I put Cora's scooter and helmet in Christina's car, and she and I leave for our exercise walk with the kindergartners.

In the photo, they're watching squirrels run past on the oak branches. That is the joy of having littles with you on your walk - you take more notice of the birds, reptiles and rodents you're passing.

9 a.m. - Christina drives us all to our house, and I keep Melanie. We switch off with the girls once or twice a week, and since Wednesday is my volunteer day, it makes sense for me to have them both and then take them to school.

After Violet makes her bed and changes for school, the girls play and make themselves lemonade to drink from the big canister of powder. Meanwhile, I get ready and clean up from the morning rush.

10: 20 - I learned on Facebook that Chick-Fil-A is offering free breakfasts on Wednesdays in June. Melanie wasn't interested in her free chicken biscuit - bingo! Lunch for Cora!
10:42 a.m. - Time to head to kindergarten.

11:15 a.m. - I'm settled in to my familiar spot in Mrs. Hawthorne's class, the back table. Here I take the children's folders and stuff them with the paperwork that is going home, including the day's paper penny. The children earn a penny a day for good behavior; taking away the penny is one of the main disciplinary actions in kindergarten. When the kids collect 10, they bring them in and get to go to the treasure chest.

12:09 p.m. - It's Violet's turn to be in a reading group with Mrs. Hawthorne. This activity is one of five options during what the teachers call "Daily Five" time. Other options include "read to self" with books from their book box; "word work" activities that involve letters; "work on writing" using their journals; and Dreambox or Raz-Kids on the laptops/tablets.

I sneaked out of the class to visit Cora at her lunchtime. She was thrilled with her lunch surprise, and even gave me an appreciative hug.

I then watched her play soccer for a couple of minutes. She plays soccer every day at recess and lunch, and often tells of hard slide tackles that leave holes and grass stains on her knees. Cora goes after everything full-force.

1:15 - When the kindergartners go to recess, I take my leave. Every other week I go help in Mrs. Breneman's class, but this wasn't my week to do that. I go to CVS to get a prescription and stop into Ralphs for some fruit and milk. I get home in time to get everything put away and head back to school.

2:30 - Violet and the line of kinders comes walking to the back gate, while Cora and the third-graders have their PE time. It's nice that if we're standing at the back gate waiting, we can at least be watching our kids play.

2:40 - The big kids get out of school, and we load up in the car with a couple of extras. Sophia and Riley are coming home with us for a swimming play date Cora organized.

This idea started a few weeks ago when Cora was grousing about me directing her to do something. What could she be in charge of, she wanted to know. I suggested she plan a pool party, and she jumped on it, with invitations and snack ideas.

The afternoon was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed chatting with the moms who came and stayed. Well done, Cora, in planning a fun after-school activity!

6:30 p.m. - Our friends have gone home and Cora continued on her winning streak. She jumped into the shower, got dressed and insisted on making our dinner. We enjoyed teriyaki chicken bites, brown rice and carrots.

7 p.m. - The girls play, and Violet does a homework activity. Cora decides to skip her homework and use a homework pass, since she has several left and this is the final week of homework for the school year.

8 p.m. - The girls have their dessert while working on the "God Time cards" they get each week from church. The sheets have four devotional activities, and when they turn them in, they get a prize.

8:15 - The girls get their teeth brushed and head toward bed for some reading time.

8:40 - Stace and I take turns saying goodnight to each girl, and with all that swimming they did, they both were asleep by 9. That hasn't been the norm lately, so it was a nice change. After a bit of final tidying and reading, Stace and I go to bed too, around 10:15.