What does a normal week constitute around here you ask? First of all... there will really be no such thing as "normal." The McIntosh family doesn't really do normal or routine, but we strive to keep things as scheduled and organized as possible. It gets harder each year. The older your kids get, the more activities they are involved in and the busier life just IS! I really love it though. I love this kind of busy. It feels good and right to me.
On Mondays, both kids go to school... and I work from 8 am - 2:40 pm. Leaving at 2:40 allows me time to get to school to pick everyone up! At the end his school day, Luke goes to the school office with a few others and their older siblings come and sign them out there at the end of their day. Then, Ally and Luke come out together, grab Little D and off we go!
We head home and do homework, have dinner... and then, Ally has Hip Hop at 7:00 pm in Spring Arbor at the Academy of the Arts. Yesterday was her first class and she loved it! I would like to get in a routine where I used that time to do something productive, but yesterday I just watched her first class and chatted with a couple friends (moms of Ally's friends who are doing the class together) and that was lovely.
We head home after and Ally is tucked into bed at 8:30 and everything that had to be taken care of (homework, assignment notebook, gym clothes, gymnastics clothes, etc) was done prior to us leaving that evening. The schedule works well Mondays.
Then, we have Tuesdays. Tuesdays, neither Luke nor I have school or work. I still get up with Ally and see her off. Breakfast, hair, last minute preparations.... then, Luke and I watch some Disney in bed and Scott has usually brought me a cup of coffee cuz he rocks like that. It has the potential to be a peaceful start to our day. We shall see how this goes. ;-)
We will go get Ally and D at 3ish.... and Ally has gymnastics at 4:00 pm. She knows this, so on Tuesdays (and Thursdays) she has been trying to use her free time in class to do her homework. I am proud of how she came up with this little plan on her own! Good time management! We have a significant snack and do some more homework either in the car or at the park (weather permitting) and she gets to the gym. Luke and I head home after we drop her.
She is done at 8. I would like to get into a routine where I leave here by 6:30 or so to get a workout in on Tuesdays and Thursdays prior to picking her up. This would be a great use of my time. This hasn't worked out yet... we've had other commitments... but we shall see if we can get it going soon.
Home and in bed between 8:30 and 9 - Scott has Luke down already Monday, Tuesday and Thursday without me (YAY!).
Wednesday, both kids to school. I go to work. NOTHING AFTER SCHOOL! Hooray. :-)
Thursday is a repeat of Tuesday. No school or work for Luke and I. Gymnastics for Ally 4-8pm.
Friday, both kids to school and I WORK. Yes, I work Fridays now. Sigh. ;-) It's working out good so far. I know it could come back to bite me, but I am kind of liking the every other day. It's nice. But, I think I still prefer my chunks of time. We shall see. Many months to go on this schedule.
No planned activities on Fridays either.... but it's the freakin' weekend... so you never know what comes up!
Saturday mornings, Ally has gymnastics from 9-noon.... I would like Luke to start taking swimming at the Y at 10:30 Saturdays, but he's not receptive to the idea yet. I will keep on trying. Classes start this Saturday. I think it would be good for him to learn a little more confidence in the water.
It's a busy and full week, but I really think I struck a good balance. I want Ally to be involved in sports and active. She spends 11 hours a week in the gym. Two week days a weekend day. I think this is manageable. So long as her grades stay up and she seems to be handling it all, we will keep up the schedule. If she struggles and grades fall.... we are going to have to cut back on a day. School first around here. That's how it works. She knows this.... and she is really aware of what she needs to do.
We learned at last week's Parent's Night at school that this year, in the fourth grade, they are really focusing on making the kids act more responsible and accountable. They encourage us to make them remind us to sign their assignment notebook, not always ask and do it without their reminder. Allow them to take the fall if they don't complete at assignment. We won't always be there to remind them. They need to start to learn good homework and study practices.
They get "incompletes" now for missed work and can earn detentions for too many of them. They get detentions faster now for "mark offs" (misbehavior in the classroom, talking, etc).
I find my biggest challenge is simply to trust that Ally will do all this. I want to ask her about everything.... I want to grab her assignment notebook and sign it without her asking. I want to check her folder to see that work has been done. I want to check her homework to make sure it is all correct, even when she doesn't want me to! I want her to succeed, so I want to help! But, I know I must let her do for herself. She needs to gain the confidence that she can do things on her own. Like Glennon says.... she too can "do hard things." She is my daughter after all. ;-)
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