Treading water

I swear we're still here. And still homeschooling. And doing ok. I think we've found our groove for the most part. Now we're just treading water. I am a list-maker so here are my lists for this post:


THINGS THAT ARE GOING WELL:
- the three Rs
- the independent folders
- independent reading
- organization


THINGS THAT I NEED TO WORK ON:
- taking more pictures
- staying motivated THROUGH Thursday so that we can get to our special projects
- integrating music and art in to our day
- getting started no later than 9am


The three Rs are going pretty smoothly. Both The Boy and The Girl are on track to finish their current math levels by Christmas break. Maybe even sooner - their motivation and enthusiasm increases as we get closer to the end of the book! I've promised them that we will NOT start their new math levels until after Christmas break so that means that the sooner they get done with their current books, the sooner they have one less subject during the day.


Their independent folders are a part of the morning routine and I'm seeing the payoff in other areas of our lives. Their chores and morning tasks are incorporated into their folders so I have less reminding to do on a daily basis - the folder checklists do it for me! I do not like being a nag and prefer to let natural consequences teach the lesson (didn't do your chores? No money this week for you.) and the folder seems to help that.


Even though we've not been to the library for two weeks, both The Boy and The Girl have been good about reading independently during breaks from lessons. They both enjoy reading which really warms my heart and I love it when they find a book (either here at home or at the library) that ties in with their lessons and get excited. The local schools here "mandate" 20 minutes of independent reading per day and I'd say that The Boy and The Girl double that (The Girl probably quadruples it) on a daily basis.


While things are going well, I'm finding that I'm in the "treading water" mode right now. The newness of homeschooling has worn off and now we're down to the "what is the minimum we need to do to get through the day?" mode. Therefore things like taking pictures of day to day activities (and blogging!) have fallen by the wayside. Time to refocus on that. And, tied into that, I find our energy and enthusiasm fading by the time Thursday afternoon rolls around (our usual time to dive into whatever project we have planned for the week). It's easier to blow it off and go play outside.


And our art/music lessons were never fully integrated into our weekly routine so they, too, have fallen off. We're coming up on our fall break in two weeks and, during that time, I plan to have the kids do lots of art projects. And, as we get closer to the holidays, we need to decide on what to make for our neighbors and friend as gifts.


Lastly, because we have a tendency to finish our lessons pretty quickly, our start time has been pushed back a bit. MacGyver doesn't usually leave for work until 8:45am or so which is fine (we tend to wait until he heads to work to get started with school) but lately, I'm finding that it's 10am and we've not done a thing other than eat breakfast.


All in all, things are going well. I suppose this counts as our weekly update (times 4?) and hopefully I will be more consistent from here on out. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!




Pau.




- hfs