A Crazy Day (2003)
Rebecca Prewett
Sometimes you just have to schedule a day off from school--or at least from the academic subjects. (Even the public schools recognize this with their plethora of teachers' training days and school closures for various reasons. However, they usually don't offer a non-academic learning day for the students.)
We had a recent "there is no way we can do school today" type of day. It started early and ended late...very late. On that extremely busy, crazy day we accomplished--among other things--the following:
•cleaned and organized the playhouse
•boxed toys for give away
•finished sorting through 18+ years worth of books, homeschool materials and resources, supplies, old schoolwork, etc., etc.
•packed who-knows-how-many boxes of books to give away
•re-arranged our large schoolroom/computer room/hobby room/bird room/multi-purpose room and somehow miraculously came up with a livable arrangement for my desk, three computer desks, two school desks, our outgrown kitchen table and chairs, another table, two shelf/storage units, several file cabinets, a large trunk, numerous bookshelves, four good-sized bird cages, bird paraphernalia, two snake terrariums, our "stretching machine", and a toy box. Alas, we couldn't find a place for the weight bench, so it's been temporarily banished to the balcony.
•packed away every breakable and/or small object in our living room, dining area, and music room.
•emptied two large book cases and packed their contents
•re-arranged the contents of our kitchen cupboards to create room for china and other breakables from the dining area
•found places to temporarily store our assortment of decorative items, knickknacks, musical instruments, chairs, karate trophies, stereo components, boxes of books, etc.
•moved a large snake habitat
•bought a 10 gallon aquarium setup as temporary housing for our fish
•emptied and moved our large aquarium
*rolled up three area rugs
•dusted and cleaned everything
•carried things up and down the stairs more times than anyone can count
•groaned, "Do we really need this stuff?" more times than I'd like to admit
•longed for a life of simplicity but couldn't quite figure out how simple I really wanted it to be
•dropped exhaustedly into bed, relieved that--except for taking down our pictures and paintings--we were ready to have our carpets and tile ripped out in the morning.
I'm sure that day had to have been educational. It was certainly full ...busy...exhausting...crazy...
By the way, the next day--when workmen tore up carpet, jack hammered through tile, and sawed a groove into the fireplace brick--we did have school. We camped out upstairs in the reorganized schoolroom (except for trips downstairs to check on progress) and ate breakfast at the old kitchen table. And we actually, despite being tired and distracted, managed to cover quite a bit of my lesson plans for the day.
copyright 2003 by Rebecca Prewett
Return to the Family Issues Page or
All articles authored by any member of the Prewett family are copyrighted. They may not be reproduced online or elsewhere without our expressed, written permission. Articles written by other authors contain copyright notices where appropriate.
