This is my 5th homeschooling year. I was feeling pretty confident that my ducks were all in a row--I knew exactly what I wanted our family school to look like, what books I wanted to use, how each day would be structured, etc. It's all organized into flowcharts and daily schedules, and on paper it works beautifully (and it looks awesome). But it's not completely practical because I'm not a super structured person and, sometimes I like to change things up.
Once a week on Thursdays, we meet with our co-op from 10am-3pm. Yes, I suppose we could cram another hour of our own family school at the beginning or end of the day, but when all is said and done, the girls learn all kinds of things at co-op, and they have time to socialize as well.
So Friday would dawn, and I would look at my To-Do list that I'd been adding to all week, and I would feel stressed and overwhelmed by the thought of trying to get it all done AND make sure the girls did their school work too. And at the end of the day, nothing on the list and none of the school work was accomplished.
Last Friday, I woke up and lay in bed thinking about my mom's question (Are you happy?) and what I could do to make it easier to choose happiness. All of a sudden, it hit me! What if Friday was a catch-up day? What if the focus is on MY To-Do list instead of the girls' school work? And then I went a step further: What if I made a checklist of school work they needed to finish by Wednesday, and whatever was left got put on Fridays list? Weekly Work is what I came up with.
Granted, today is the first day, so I'll wait until we've been doing this for at least a week to see how it goes.
2 comments:
I have great intentions, but then the day starts and all heck breaks loose. I would admit how much actual "schooling" we got done this week but then I would have to admit it to myself. Yes, it is that bad. I need to get my my ducks in a row.
I have to remind myself that learning happens all the time, all day long, not just when we're completing worksheets or meeting deadlines. That's hard to remember, though, because in some ways I guess I'm still stuck in the brick-and-mortar mindset.
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