A new day and a tip!

Most homeschooling days for me are far from perfect.  Imagine a family filled with ADD and a child with ADD and dyslexia, which has a tendancy to curb her enthusiasm because it makes core subject harder than they are for most of her friends.  Due to foot dragging on both of us, I realized that we had stopped following the plan that kept us in line and worked so well for both of us.  As a family we sat down and went over our plan again which is as follows on school days:

Get up
Eat breakfast with no cartoons
Get dressed
Begin school
Eat lunch
Finish school if needed
Pick 3 or 4 rooms and spend 10 or 15 minutes together tidying up
FREE TIME!

It works! This works so well for us and we have a blast doing it. School was smooth sailing until spelling but we recovered quickly and finished.  Then we ate our lunches (while watching cartoons) and as soon as lunch was over we headed for the living room which was a wreck because Sydney had a sleep over on Saturday night with life long friend Taryn.  Actually only friends since age 3 but they don't remember not being friends EVER!  They slept on an air matress so we folded that up as well as tons of king size blankets.  Sydney was having fun and not complaining because we did everything together. Soon whining turned to giggles and frowns turned to smiles!  After the living room/dining room we headed for the den and then the hall bath which we share. There is still a lot to do but I think if we do this as our routine each day maybe I won't be so stressed and neither will she.

After working, she headed for the table and the paints!  Her friend Angel gave her a sun catcher kit for her birthday (in July) and she finally painted it...she loves painting.

Tip - I bought a $5.00 vinyl table cloth at Wal-Mart and throw down when we are doing crafts.  Wipe off, fold up and put away for next time.  Beats trying to scrub paints of your antique wood table!