It is our second full day of remote learning and self-isolating. I did not teach today with my part-time course load, so here’s a reflection on our family scheduling and sleep schedules.

Kid 1: 7:30PM-7:30AM

Our oldest, Spartacus, is five and a half. He plays hard all day, is ready for bed by 7:30 PM, and is awake exactly twelve hours later ready for the new day.

Kid 2: 10:30PM-9:00AM

Little Miss is 3. She is transitioning out of napping, and it is painful on everyone. If she takes an afternoon nap, she will stay awake until 10 PM or later. When she skips her nap, she often drifts off on the couch around 5, and is rather unreasonable anytime after 5:30 PM. If she stays up late at night, she will often sleep until 9 AM or later.

Sometimes we let our kids stay up later, because on very busy schools days we feel like we hardly see them! Hubster’s army drill schedule takes at least one weekend a month. We try to maintain a bedtime routine, but I would not describe us as strict by any means.

Kid 3: 7-9, 12-4, 4:15-9AM

Our newest addition is almost nine months. Scoober Doo is crawling and happy all the time. As the third child, he just has to go along with everyone else’s schedule. So sometimes he goes to bed at 7 PM and sleeps all night long. More often, he goes to bed first around 7 PM , wakes up about the time Little Miss is ready for bed, gets some quality parent time from 9-11 PM, nurses around 4 AM, and then will sleep until 9 AM.

Hubster: 10:30PM-6:00AM

On a normal, non-pandemic work day, Hubster (currently a pastor and theology teacher at our high school) is up and on his way to work by about 6:45 AM. He kindly makes me coffee before he goes.

hELARious Lizzy: 12AM-8AM

I go to bed once Scoober Doo does, so often midnight. I wake up with him, nurse, wake up when Little Miss shrieks in the middle of the night that she has to go to the bathroom, wake up with Spartacus at 7:30, then sometimes convince him to snuggle with me for an extra half hour or so to get a f ewmore minutes

The warmer plate on the coffee maker often turns off before I make it downstairs. Preschool starts at 9 AM, but I’ll be honest and say that my kids are usually there closer to 9:15 or even 9:30. I haven’t begun to contemplate how we’ll get Spartacus to kindergarten by 7:45 AM this fall!

It has felt like everyone in our family is on a different time zone. This extra time at home will hopefully help everyone in our household gradually shift to the same schedule.

Hubster doesn’t have to get up so early, as our live classes via remote learning do not start until 9 AM. We get to spend more time with kiddos, so I don’t feel like I have to keep them up to see them.

Home…skool

Yesterday was pretty solid for homeschooling. Today was less so.

The kids slept late, then watched Aladdin and ate toaster waffles. They spent half an hour on the front porch swing FaceTiming my brother & his wife. They watched the preschool chapel service on YouTube. Spartacus practiced writing the number “7” on the white board. That was pretty much what we accomplished.

And that is okay.

It was evening, and it was morning. The second day.