The logistics of our day

We begin our school day early and are finished by lunch. Although there are only six of us at home now, the youngest two and myself are responsible for most of the daily home management.
This is because dh leaves for work at 7am and is not home until after 5pm and because ds18 is in his first semester at uni. DD16 is studying through our local correspondence school completing yr11 and some of yr12 and so doesn’t have a lot of extra time.
And so to the day!
I wake at 6am for devotions (shower, dress etc first). Dd16 showers after me and cleans the bathroom and toilet. Ds 6+10 wake (are woken!) at 6.45. After they breakfast, they begin their chores; feeding and cleaning up after the pets they are responsible for. For ds10 they are the rabbit, 2 dogs and inside budgie. For ds6 they are large black hens, bantam hens (+rooster!) and turtle. If it is too cold (as it has been lately…yippee!) or if it is raining (praise God we’ve had some of this lately too!!) their pet responsibilities are slotted in between school subjects.
At 7am I start up a wash load and get any food out of the freezer for dinner.
School begins at 7.30 with prayer and faith focus and our morning readaloud. Prayer is usually the Angelus and for our faith focus in May we have Katherine to thank.
Ds18 then goes off to uni or to his study in his room. The younger 3 now have violin practice.
They learn by the Suzuki method which I can’t praise highly enough! The 2 older ones practice independently and the youngest completes ½ his practice “independently”(note the quotation marks! As I try to be near to listen should he need help.). In this time I bucket water gardens (hooray no need with this beautiful rain we’ve been having lately!) or hang a load of washing and start a new one.
School subjects follow the usual routine but during this time period while the boys are completing maths problems, writing or colouring a language assignment etc I generally find time to:
prepare the evening meal
fold dry washing
fill the water urn and bottles
hang out more washing
wash dishes
While the boys eat lunch we read from our geography readaloud, Australian history readaloud or some other book.We have maps on 2 bulletin boards in the living area(where we mostly school) for handy reference.
Then I give myself time for lunch and “computer-time”! The boys have playtime now. They also use some of this time to listen to their Suzuki tapes(often they do this while they read or play with leggo/ k’nex etc…which is one reason I love this method; all that listening really does pay off!)
Later in the afternoon I’ll get the 2 boys to put away the folded washing and the dishes in the drainer(which will be nicely air-dried by then!!)
We all come together for the evening meal after which (usually!!)dh and the 2 oldest chn do dishes and clean up. At the same time the younger boys are getting ready for bed, putting out dirty clothes, sorting out tomorrow’s ones etc(often while listening to an audio book, Redwall being the choice at present!)
Next are our family devotions. We try to pray a decade of the rosary every evening. We work through the mysteries praying a different decade each night. We also pray a scriptural rosary so that the children can see the interconnectedness of all aspects of our Catholic faith.
Then sometimes I read another readaloud to the younger 3 or the 2 boys go off to bed after a blessing from mum and dad. Then the rest of us veg! It would be nice to say that we go on to do something intellectually or otherwise challenging but at this point of the day veg time is about all I can handle!
Well that’s it; feel free to let me know what you think of our day!