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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Managing after school time

So today was the first day of school for Cinderella and Guy, and the first day of preschool for Aurora.  It seemed to be a positive day for all of them, other than Aurora throwing a fit when I left the preschool.

Spike, Baby and I had fun at home, and played a lot.  I will need to figure out how to balance giving Spike the attention he is wanting while he is wanting me to play with him, and get my jobs done.  But other than that it was great.

Well then came the time when school is over.  Aurora came home at lunch time, but Cinderella and Guy came home in the afternoon.   I thought I would have a little bit of fun and make cookies for the kids so they could have them for snacks when they got home.

Well Cinderella and Guy got home.  I got them drinks of water, and then their cookies.   Then we looked through their backpacks at all of the papers they brought home, and then started their 20 min. of reading homework.

I had just sat down with Guy to read, when Baby woke up from his nap and started crying.  So I went to get baby, who needed a diaper change, grabbed a clean diaper and headed down to the living room so that I could still hear Guy.  Then I heard Spike start screaming.  I go to find him and found that he fell down the back steps into a rose bush.  He is tired and hurt and doesn't want to be consoled.  I took him back to the living room, set him on the floor by baby, and then tried to listen to Guy, while Spike was screaming and I was changing Baby's diaper.   Then Aurora insisted that she wanted me to come and color with her.   I told her I couldn't right then, so she started having a temper tantrum.  It was crazy.   I finished changing the diaper, threw it away, cleaned my hands, took Spike to his room for a late nap, picked up Baby and then sat back down by Guy while I ignored Aurora who was screaming on the floor.  Aurora noticed Baby and came and started playing with him, while I listened to Guy.  

Once the kids were done reading, Baby was crying to be fed, so I let the older kids play the computer, because they had finished their chores, and headed up to Baby's room to feed him and get a little bit of downtime.   Well once the timer for their computer time rang, it got crazy again.

Guy came and asked me if he could have another cookie.  I told him no, and then he proceeded to go and raid the cookies with Aurora.  Well when Cinderella found out what was happening, she tried to put a stop to it.  So Guy and Aurora locked her out of the house.  She found a window that was unlocked and got back in, and brought the cookies up to Baby's room to ask what to do with them.  I had her leave the cookies in Baby's room, and then I took them out when Baby was done eating.  

When I headed down stairs, I heard the outside water on, and came out to find Guy and Aurora playing with the hose.  I told them to come inside and sit in time out.  They then proceeded to run up to the boy's room and hide from me.  I went and got them back to the time out chairs where they then played around, jumping all over, and goofing off.   It was really frustrating.  Sometimes I really don't know how to discipline my children.  


So now the question for you.   What do you do to entertain your younger children while you help school age children with their homework?   Or is it chaos at your house too?

3 comments:

Rose said...

Where is your hubby during this time, is he still at work? Honestly, if I have to do something with the older children, then I leave my hubby in charge of the younger ones, but that won't work if your hubby isn't there.

Aurora might be old enough to quietly color next to you while you work with the others.

Spike might be able to build something? I forgot how old Spike is. You might need to take a break between Cinderella and Guy's work to do something with Spike.

As far as baby, you may need to learn to walk around while nursing baby. If you're not comfortable "showing too much" while around your other children, then you may need a nursing cover. Guaranteed, you can't grab children and get them out of whatever they aren't supposed to be doing... but maybe you won't feel totally helpless if you can at least get up while you feed the baby.

Best wishes!

LaShaunna said...

Well that is the story of my life! I home school. This year I will have 3 in school plus a 2 month old and a 3 yr old to juggle. Usually I have to teach some thing to one child I tell the other child to "teach" something to the younger 3yr old child. That at least keeps them out of trouble. It makes the school age child feel smart and good cause he/she is teaching their sibling something. That's how me Jacob learned all his colors and how to count last year.

Melissa said...

When I am helping Rachel with homework, I let Bailey color at the table because she likes to copy everything Rachel does. Or I'll put on a cartoon for her in the other room to keep her out of the way. Sometimes it is still chaos but I don't think its avoidable all together, its part of life. I know its controversial these days but we believe in occasional spanking. If they don listen and don't stay in timeout, they get a spanking. It doesnt happen very often but thats because they hate it so much that when I threaten to do it, they usually straighten up. Bailey gets it a lot more than Rachel at this point. With Rachel I usually just threaten to take away her friend privilege. I don't have 5 kids yet so I cant say I've been there but I imagine that if you have clear rules set, stick to your guns, have regular family prayer and scripture study, then you are on the right track.