One week down!

We survived our first week of school!
I'm actually pretty happy about the way everything turned out.
I was nervous about the first day.  I wanted everything to go smoothly and happily to get the year off on the right foot.  I woke up at 6:00 AM and couldn't get back to sleep (only 20 minutes left before the alarm, anyway), so I just got up.  This whole week, actually, I had a little trouble waking up early and then not being able to get back to sleep.  I must be getting old since that is certainly not my lifelong pattern.  :-)
The first day was OK.  It could have been better.  But I used my point bracelet to keep track of points and we finished our lessons by 3:00 and so I can't complain. 
Tuesday was my birthday, and the boys gave me the best present by being totally wonderful and cooperative and cheerful all day long.  It was quite miraculous.  Joseph and Brigham had their first day of Scouts.  Tuesday afternoons will be good Mommy/Mosey time.  He went to Walmart with me.
We only had one really hard day, and that was Wednesday.  Mosey was way overtired.  He has this amazing ability to keep himself awake until all hours.  He was up until past 11:00 PM Tuesday night, and maybe even later.  So Wednesday he was severely sleep deprived.  He woke up on the wrong side of the bed and wasn't willing to cooperate with just about anything.  He needed to sit down and do his math, but he kept sneaking to the computer to play Webkinz World (not allowed until after lessons, and even then not allowed unless he's earned 10 points).  Instead, he ran away out the front door.  The boys all know that running away from me is one of the extremely big "no-no's" in our household.  So he knew he was crossing a big line.  I hoped he would come back, and he did come back, at least, across the street.  But a woman from a couple of blocks away had seen him, got in her car, and followed him trying to find out if he was lost, or what the story was.  Mosey wouldn't respond to her, but luckily Brigham saw them out the front door and I was able to wheel out there in my wheelchair and talk to her.  She was extremely nice and asked if there was anything she could do to help.  I said, "Give me some advice?"  She didn't have much advice, but was sympathetic and not judgmental.  Mosey ran back off around the corner, and the big boys and I got in the van to find him.  We found him almost back to our house again, and Joseph and Brigham went out to try to get him in the house.  Mosey ran away again, this time behind our neighbor's house.  Joseph knocked on the door, but no one was home, so he and Brigham went on back and ended up pretty much dragging him back into the house.  I banished him upstairs.  After a couple of hours he looked sheepishly down from the balcony and dropped a note down for me.  I thought it might say, "I'm sorry," but instead it said:

Then I felt a little like the evil stepmother who locks Cinderella away...  I did feed him, but his privileges for the day (playing outside, going swimming, computer games) were revoked, and he had to go to bed at 7:30.  Also, his long-awaited Wall-E blanket and sheets we ordered for his room came that day and I told him he couldn't open them until after the weekend, and then only if he could show me that he could be a good boy.  So, it was a pretty bad punishment.  Ben had the privilege of enforcing the 7:30 bedtime, and he reported back to me that Mosey was asleep before 8:00 PM.  He didn't wake up until after 8:00 AM the next day so he really was tired.  Happily, he's been a pleasure the rest of the week.  He's just like how my mom describes as a child: "When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid!"  I sure love him, though.
The rest of the week went smoothly.  Our lessons go Monday-Thursday, and then Fridays will be library days, projects, oral reading, and Spanish.


I think some of the keys to our success are/will be:
1.  Getting math and piano done first thing.  It's not a good idea to wait until the end of the day when everyone is tired to tackle the most troublesome lessons...
2.  Giving Joseph and Brigham way more free-reign with their piano practicing.  They're old enough to do it mostly on their own now, anyway.  They'll need my help mostly just with new pieces.  They have to practice for 30 minutes and I tell them they can use it the way they think will get them most ready for lessons on Thursday afternoon.  It's hard for me to keep my mouth shut, but in the long run I think practicing will be a much happier experience for everyone.  And, seriously, that matters way more than having a perfect lesson, anyway.
3.  Starting on time!  When we get going right at 7:00, somehow that momentum carries us through the day.  And the corollary to this: getting to bed on time!  No one does well sleep-deprived.
4.  Points.  I'm really happy about how effective the point system has been so far.

I hope I can report in another week that week 2 went even better!