The prospect of rejoining homeschooling with older children was daunting, because they're beyond typical nap age. During the course of a normal day, I'm overwhelmed and twitching in the corner by 5pm.
By this time my 4 year old will have taken off his clothes multiple times and will be jumping off the furniture pretending to be a 'penis bird', there will have been multiple squabbles over toys, complaining about dinner, the weather (it's too cold, it's too hot, it never snows), doing 'nothing fun', as I wrestle with them to make sure my daughter's homework is done (and my son does his best to derail the process by chirping loudly, singing, etc), my daughter tattling on my son, telling me all the bad words he's said (curses like a sailor) even though I'm in the same room and I've heard it; they're washed, and in bed by 7:00 or 7:30 so they are fresh by 6am.
This schedule left me struggling to figure out what to cook for dinner, much less study (I'm enrolled in an online program, myself). So I have instituted a nap policy. The first day, I had to wrestle the little one down, and after the fights over who-gets-to-cuddle-up-closer-to-mama subsided (I've never been so popular!), we actually had a lovely nap! Eureka! We woke up refreshed and I had more brain power to figure out what to make for dinner and study-- they were noteably less cuckoo... it worked really well!
I'm sure our cavemen ancestors were polyphasic or biphasic sleepers, this definitely feels more natural (and hard for me to accomplish on a strict time schedule). Naps, yaay!!
Now I don't have to worry as much if they're tired in the morning, because we can get done what we can in the morning, and resume learning after a cuddly nap :0)!
So far, my daughter fights me less over getting dressed in the morning (we still walk out friend in the neighborhood to school)-- which I don't understand, but I'm glad.
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