{photos by Gina Jenkins}
Here’s our first DITL (day in the life) blog post of the school year! We are excited to continue this series, in which SLOCA parents document one of their home days and graciously share it with our community. Through these posts you will see that there are different schedules, routines, and ways that we all balance home learning, family time, and extra activities. We can rejoice in our fellow parent’s small victories and relate to the frustrations of the day. We hope you will enjoy taking a peek into a SLOCA family’s home day – let this be a reminder that we are in this together!
This time we bring you the Jenkins family. Gina will introduce them:
Hi, we're the Jenkins. Howie and Gina are the proud parents of Jonah, Jackson and Nicole. We have 2 of our 3 children enrolled at SLOCA. Jonah is at sloCAHS in 9th Grade, Jackson is on Track A in Mrs. Root's Kinder and my daughter Colie is in a local preschool two mornings a week. This is a recent Thursday in our home:
5:30 am
Alarm went off, completely turned it off. I'm DEFINITELY sleeping in this morning after I make a mental check that no one has to be anywhere until 9.
7:15
My wonderful husband gets the coffee this morning, we connect for about 20 min before the first little head appears in the doorway (Jackson). The “minions” are awake.
7:50
I finally get up at the request of my daughter for breakfast, the day has officially started. I'm moving much slower today due to the super full day I had yesterday. I teach fitness classes at Kennedy Club Fitness and on top of teaching 3 classes yesterday I had to practice twice with my team. We are “launching” a new routine in my barre class this week so that makes for a busier week. I'm super thankful it's a home day and I can recoup a little. I'm able to get a load of laundry in before heading upstairs to our main living space.
8:15
I'm getting breakfast for the little kids on the table and saying good-bye to my husband as he heads off down the road in Grover Beach to his shop. He works part time as an estimator for Stalwork Construction and then he's started a business building/fabricating dirt bikes, off-road motorcycles, and servicing other peoples bikes. It's growing steadily and he's so happy when his MotoFab Ind. work week starts on Thursdays.
8:45
Finishing up making myself breakfast and it's time to take Colie to preschool. Jackson finally puts clothes on so he can come with me.
9:05
Back home and ready to start our school day. Jackson and I head upstairs first to get the breakfast I made but had to leave on the stove until we returned. We find Jonah up eating his breakfast and we say “see ya later, have a good school day.”
9:15
We head downstairs all the way to our 3rd floor where I've set up our school room. Jackson and I are saluting the flag to start our school day and then sitting down to our Reading/Writing lesson while we finish breakfast. Thankfully today, I'm getting a focused and willing student, some days teaching reading is like pulling teeth, very painful. But we breeze through the lesson and while he works on his handwriting exercises I begin our new book, Charlotte's Web. I'm so pleased to see he's engaged with the story right away as he hemmed and hawed when I checked it out at the library, so sure he wouldn't like it. When I turn to the page that has Avery, big brother, holding a pistol and knife, he's in awe. I ask him if that is the most amazing boy he's ever seen and he tells me, “yep, pretty much.” Not that anyone would understand (joking), but I have a weapons-obsessed boy right now who regularly draws and cuts out knives and guns. In fact, his obsession runs so deep that last week when our literature project was to make something patriotic, the only thing that satisfied him was to make a police officer holding a gun. At least he agreed to make his helmet red so that he was a patriotic policeman.
10:00
We're finished with reading Charlotte's Web and onto literature. This week our book is Pancakes for Breakfast and this time he “reads” me the story (it's wordless) and then we play a fun sorting game with the story pictures.
10:20
He wants to move onto Math right away today so he can have longer recess. Sounds great to me. We breeze through Math, thankfully he's getting it really well so it's fun to do with him.
10:35
We are officially done with our school day, this is where I LOVE Kindergarten. We high five and then I'm off to finally shower and he's off to the backyard to play. I stop in the garage and do some more laundry. Jonah comes in looking for his backpack which tips me off he's just starting to work. When I give him some grief about it I get some push back. I decide to try to keep the connection and tell him I know he's a slow starter and has no trouble staying up late to get his work done. This brings us back to good ground. I'm learning how much to push and how much to let him figure things out on his own since he's in high school now, but it's really not easy.
11:15
Out of the shower and still a little time to do more laundry.
11:55
Jackson and I run off to get Colie from preschool and then head back home for lunch.
12:30 pm
The kids are eating lunch, Jonah has come out to invite Jackson to wrestle with him and eat some lunch as well. I'm feeling particularly worn out and thankfully get a call that 1pm practice needs to be cancelled, I'm super grateful. That allows me to lay on the couch for a moment. I listen as Colie is feeding her baby doll and Jonah is teaching Jackson some math concepts. It's beautiful, these are the wondrous moments of homeschooling. Then the littles are done with lunch and playing with all the cars that came out from the room this morning.
12:45
I remember I need to be recording my day so I start taking pictures and writing things out on our computer downstairs. The littles follow me downstairs and are playing in the school room but when Colie breaks one of my whiteboard markers and they are making a huge mess I kick them out and now they're in the backyard playing.
2:00
I have time to put Colie down for a nap today so I tell her that's what we're doing. Normally we're leaving for cross country practice at this time so she either sleeps in the car for a short time or gets no nap. She asks me to read her a book and I'll take any excuse to lay down for a bit so I agree.
2:15
Time to make myself a cup of coffee and finish off the toast on one of the kids’ lunch plates. I check in with Jonah, make sure he knows sister is sleeping next door, before I leave to go coach our UMS cross country team in a local meet. I throw in another load of laundry and help Jackson get his shoes on, then we're off.
2:55
After I pick up our new jerseys and run over to Paulding Middle School, I get us checked in and wait for my athletes to get there and get them warmed up. Mr. Turner and Owen get there first. The Newmans show up not long after. I'm glad Joy came, she's one of my favorite people and the reason we're at SLOCA.
3:30
I coach Owen Turner at the start line and watch him take off.
4:00
I coach Eli Newman at the start line and watch him take off.
4:35
I'm back home, getting Colie up from her nap and starting some mac&cheese for dinner. Not my first choice but I'm out of time to make my first choice and it's everyone's favorite so I know I won't be coaxing anyone to eat dinner tonight. I change my clothes, getting ready to go “launch” the new barre routine in SLO at 5:30. Pack the kids dinner, somehow it's an orange theme. I let Jonah know I'm off and there's chicken and mac&cheese or rice for he and Dad. I call Howie on my way to SLO to check in and let him know dinner plans. He's got his Dad at his shop, who arrived in town this afternoon. We agree to connect when I get home around 7.
6:55
Picking kids up from Kidsclub and heading home after teaching. Class ended late and people stayed after to chat. Gas is on empty so a quick stop by Shell on the way home. This puts us home later than I wanted, we normally start bedtime at 7. But I know they'll want to see Daddy and Papa Tom, so I know they'll get to bed closer to 8.
7:30
We're home and kids are excited to see Daddy but mostly Papa Tom. Jackson's hoping he can talk to him about a knife Tom supposedly told him he had for him. After unloading the car, I head upstairs too. No Papa Tom yet, he's delayed at the hospital, apparently he had some funky symptoms while shopping at Walmart so he's taken himself to the Arroyo Grande ER. I see my husband’s had his beer already, we typically share one on Thursdays, so I get one out of the fridge and start to cut into a lime. As I'm slicing a piece, I slice into my finger, bummer. Jackson's right there wanting to see the blood. I have to confess to him that I'm not always as good with the knife as I was touting about earlier in the day when I was slicing tomatoes onto my omelet the “dangerous” way.
8:00
No Papa Tom yet. Jackson didn't take the news well that he was held up but is appeased with the promise he can see him in the morning. The littles are in bed. Jonah is done with his work so we chat for a bit then watch a PBS program on our Roku. Howie has gone back to the shop for a bit until his Dad is done at the hospital, apparently everything is fine.
9:05
Howie and Papa Tom finally come home, we chat for awhile.
10:30
Finally in bed, so ready for this. Take a look at my calendar for tomorrow and say good-night.
Thank you, Gina! It was great to spend a day with you and the kids!
SLOCA parents, if you'd like to contribute a Day in the Life blog post this year, please email Down Home and let us know!
