Hi Kathy!
I'm going to post our general routine here. It's our "framework" that we build our day around, but almost every day something is done slightly different, or not done at all.
I get up around 7:00, usually my husband is up before me with one or two of the younger boys. Everyone plays, chats, reads, draws, has their coffee or tea or chocolate milk.
Breakfast is at 8:00 (I spent years cooking breakfast, but after Miriam was born, we switched back to cereal). I read a bible story during breakfast. Afterwards we do morning chores, then get ready for the day.
Morning Meeting is at 9:30. We pray, sing our folksong, go over everyone's memory verses, read from one of our "faith books" :: Trial and Triumph, Little Pilgrim's Progress, or Parables of Nature, and we recently added the "bible" from ECC here. Followed up with a random someone's narration. We go over any extracurriculars for the day: ballet, music, theatre, baseball, dr appts. Before we break up, we say the Pledge. Afterwards my girls head to their rooms. They're almost 14 and almost 17, doing WHL. My older boys (11 and 9) go to the dining room table for independent (Math, Lang Arts, Vocab, etc) work.
I do Circle Time with my little ones (6, 5, 4, 2, and a 7 week old in my arms). I posted what we do/use for Circle Time on my blog last night if you want to take a peek. It takes 30-45 minutes or so.
I'll hang out in the family room with the little ones for the remainder of the morning. We listen to children's music, and play with toys. I'm often sitting in a chair cuddling and nursing Miriam and recovering from the morning during this time.The girls and older boys come to me with any questions, and I do PLL and ILL orally with each of the older boys. *They also eat a piece of fruit for a snack sometime around here.
Towards the end of the morning is when I'll read aloud the geography or history lesson. If we have time, we'll do the "activity" many times, though, those will get pushed to the weekend.
Around 11:30 we start tidying up and getting ready to eat lunch (sandwiches since Miss Baby came along). I usually let the little ones watch TV once they've picked up their toys and are waiting on lunch (Umizoomi, Bubble Gups, Wallykazam, Wild Kratts, Martha Speaks, Little Einsteins ... ).
We eat around noon. I read from our current read aloud at the table. We also use a little devotional called Little Blessings at lunch.
We do afternoon chores, and head to Quiet Time *hopefully* by 12:45. Nappers sleep, non-nappers read or finish up school. My 6 year old doesn't nap or read yet, so he listens to a story CD, looks at books, draws, or plays quietly in his room. Not really. But he's supposed to.
My older boys are usually drawing and getting loud around 2:30, so I recently gave them the task of setting up teatime.
Which is around 3:00. Fancy way of saying we eat a snack all together at the table (we really do drink cambric tea thougg. In tea cups my grandma buys me from auctions in Kentucky). I sneak in poetry, composer, and Shakespeare/Plutarch here (did you know Mary Lamb ... oh, nevermind. I just found out today, and I'm not sure I'll be able to continue reading Lamb's version of Shakespeare aloud to my kids).
We clean up and the boys all usually head outside for a few hours. My girls will have ballet or theatre some nights. We squeeze driving to and fro in. Kylie takes music lessons on Tuesday, and I always forget, so it's usually a mad dash for a few hours on Tuesdays. My husband usually does church with 6/9 kids on Wednesdays, but Korinne has ballet and the babies stay home with me. We skipped baseball this spring, hubby is away training from mid-March to mid-April, so it would have just been impossible for me to handle games and practices on my own -- but each boy usually starts playing at age 8.
Anyhoo ... late afternoons can be hairy some days.
We eat dinner around 6:00. I actually am still cooking this meal. Most days. We all do evening chores and baths after dinner. My husband is actually a HUGE help when he's home in the evenings. He may cook sometimes, he gives the little ones their baths a lot, he plays with them, etc.
We try and do Family Worship most evenings around 7:45. We pray, sing a few hymns, and listen to a few chapters form our audiodrama bible. Good stuff.
Bedtime is around 8:30. All the boys listen to story CDs as they go to sleep (Jim Weiss, mostly). Except for Zach ... he watches old episodes of The Muppet Show. He still sleeps in a crib in our room, so we play them on our TV as Brian and I are finishing up some things. The girls are supposed to have lights out around 10:00, and they usually do. Unless American Idol or Dancing With the Stars is on *if they've gotten all their school work finished, and it was a good day
My husband is finishing up seminary, so he's usually reading/writing for a few hours after the kids go to bed. I usually read or edit the day's photos and blog or waste too much time on Facebook or look at tomorrow's lesson plans or rock and rock and rock Miriam. But we're all usually in bed by 11:00.
*the baby is with me all day. I don't "train" my babies with nursing, sleeping, etc. It just doesn't work for us. If things get way overwhelming, one of the older kids will usually come get her for a few minutes.
**laundry is done during the 3 chore times I mentioned. One daughter during morning, one during afternoon, me in the evening (and most days I'll continue to do more loads until I go to bed). I'd say we do at least 4, sometimes 5 a day.
***we do major cleaning on Saturday. Chore times during the week are mostly tidying up, dishes, bathroom clean up, laundry, etc
I hope that helps. I hope I didn't say too much. I hope I don't look lazy. I hope I don't sound puffed up and supermom-ish. We're fairly normal. Just large. We pretty much live out "organized chaos"
