We've been chugging along these last two weeks.  I have been pleased with our "new" schedule.  Instead of letting the boys ramble around ALL morning playing (because I didn't seem to get anything done if I tried to "organize" them), these last two weeks I have had Joshua do some morning lessons at 10am when Miriam goes down for her nap.  The lessons cannot be lessons that require a lot of attention on my part.  So he does work that can be done on his own with minimal help from me.
    This means that at 10am he usually gets a handwriting exercise done, a page in the math book done, and maybe a little science lesson (in which we TRY to include the younger boys).  He might also get in a little bit of piano practice during the morning, as well.
    This usually leaves only his reading lesson and history lesson for the afternoon.  Sometimes we have to do math in the afternoon because it requires me to teach a new topic.  But that only occurs every few days or so.  This has really improved our time spent in the afternoon.  Instead of feeling bogged down and tired by naptime and trying to cram in all the work, we get about an hours worth done in the morning leaving a little bit of down time in the afternoon.
    This system has worked well.  Joshua has been able to focus despite the distractions going on around him.  On one occassion, however, I did have to move him into another room.  He hasn't griped about doing work in the morning, either (like I thought he might--he's missing out on playtime).  I think he realizes the more work he gets done in the morning the less work he has to do in the afternoon.
   
    Just a few notes on his work, handwriting appears to be slipping a tad.  The workbooks are requiring him to write on a smaller ledger and he's gotten sloppy.  Not sure if this should require more practice or just more opportunities to write in general.  In piano, Joshua is now learning the lines and the spaces.  He has worked very diligently at learning the lines of the bass clef and knows them well.  He took to that with excitement and energy.  In math, Joshua has done excellent with adding numerous two and three digit numbers.  Science and history continue to be "fun" topics for absorbing material.
    Joshua's reading lessons have gotten lengthy and more challenging.  We are in the Second Grade book 2 and I'm wondering if we're moving along too quickly.  He has some difficulty reading the stories.  I asked him if he preferred to continue reading them aloud to me, and he said "yes."  As he reads he skips words or changes them slightly.  Sometimes resulting in a complete change in the meaning of the sentence.  I end up correcting him frequently.  If I were to slow down, I'm not sure how to do that.  We've been reading three stories a week.  Now that they are longer and more difficult, maybe it's time to slow down the pace.  Joshua is an excellent reader, but maybe this is too far past his ability level at this point?  Not sure--will look into it!