I tend to be fairly routine-oriented in our homeschooling, but I'm finding that having a puppy changed much of that!

My preferred routine is something like this: get up, get breakfast. let the kids play while I get my chores done, take a walk or bike ride together, then go through our school routine with pre-planned breaks. We don't usually finish school before lunch, but we generally wrap up between 1:00 and 2:00. After school, the kids have their chores to get done before they can play around or watch a little TV.

But now everything is different. Adeliza needs a lot of attention when she's awake - whether playing or watching for her signals that she needs to go outside. So we wait until she goes to sleep and try to focus on school work for the couple of hours that she naps. When she wakes up, we spend a lot of time with her outside until she's ready for another nap, and then it's back to the books, so to speak.

I find myself spending a lot of time just sitting and doing nothing but waiting for her to go potty, but it's good for me. August was busy and fairly stressful (with good things, but a lot of them!), and now I appreciate the forced relaxation. Eventually we'll be back to routines, though.