September 8, 2014

It has been quite awhile since I've sat down to write. We have been so busy! Both of my boys are playing football this year and I'm doing a secret count down. I cannot wait until the season is over. I want my Saturday back. I would love to have more than a 3 hour window to complete whatever is it *I* would like to do on a Saturday afternoon (with the kids, of course... I'm not that selfish with my Saturdays). We have football from 8:30 AM to about 10:30 AM, and then we're right back at football from 3:30 until 9 PM. Yikes! I get an extra hour depending if we have home games or not.

< / End Rant >

We've finally found our routine and.... let me tell you -- It. Is. Divine. 

I've completely chucked the poetry unit out the window. 10 weeks of poetry? Riiiight... How lovely would it be for my 10 year old to sit down and concentrate on Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Maya Angelou, or even Emily Dickinson. Maybe when my children have completed their ventures in homeschooling, I could have them complete a salutatory oration in Latin. After which, each young stripling would write a novel or poem that brings praise to their polished upbringing.

Perhaps I'm in too much of a sarcastic mood to blog today. ;-) 

Since I am a fast paced individual, I am having trouble making myself slow down. Who wants to slow down when all the fun is starting!? So many books that I absolutely love are on my 10 year old's literature list for the year! Out with the poetry, and in with the... Jack London! A couple weeks ago we read To Build A Fire and now he is reading White Fang. Next on our list is My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet! I've got lots of stuff planned since I am attempting to wrap all these books up together with a little bit of science, history, and outdoorsy fun. Hatchet will be our final book before we take 2 weeks off. Off? Off to where? To the mountains! I've been planning this trip since July and we'll be hanging out in the Appalachians in just a few weeks. And yes, I've already researched bear spray... Just a wee bit nervous about that.

I have completely revamped my 6 year old's "studies". We stripped his daily workload and went down to Reading and Math only. One by one, we've re-added grammar, Latin, spelling words, and copy work. History finally picked up again last week. I'm going to get him back into Apologia's Astronomy soon so we will actually be meeting all of the state requirements. Please don't tell on me - my child needed a break because it was all just too much for him. Kids shouldn't hate to learn. It's fun to learn new things...and well, Drew wasn't having any fun. We're in a place now that both of the kids are enjoying their day.

Less is more. There is no reason for me to place a stack of books in front of each of my children and expect them to read it all. Workbook pages are now only 1-2 pages. My 10 year old's history is waaay more relaxed. I assign reading on Monday's. He has Tuesday and Wednesday to complete his student pages. Thursday is an online quiz for each chapter and then I possibly assign a re-read of the chapters depending on his score. Friday is his actual chapter test, or tests.... sometimes we do 1 chapter, sometimes we do 3.  

Coming into Homeschooling starts out with so many mixed emotions. I was nervous, hopeful, anxious, demanding, and  I had expectations through the roof. We're working things out and trying to relax more. Homeschooling is much easier than I thought it would be. The nerves and anxiety problems are leveling out. My expectations were completely unattainable. The amount of available curriculum is overwhelming. You feel as if you need to teach everything. In the short time since we've started, I've already learned that we don't need a tight knit schedule in order for us to keep pace. If my kids don't understand something, we stop and go back. We can do it over and over until it's understood. If there was ever a bonus for choosing to Home school, that would be it.