Back to School

After our end-of-summer vacation, it was time to get back to some kind of school routine.

We homeschool year round, but have an "official" start to each new year in the early fall - usually sometime in September after we've soaked up as much of summer as possible.

My boys actually prefer to be out and about in the cooler months - I blame the several years living in Cleveland.  I also prefer to go on class outings, field trips, etc... when things are not hot and/or crowded, so for us doing work throughout the summer means more flexibility to take breaks in the fall (our favorite season!) and around the holidays.

This year I am homeschooling boys ages four, nine, eleven and thirteen - with a one-year old and his death wish running around just to help keep things interesting.

Our first week went pretty well, but was really more of a transition than anything else.  It can be hard to gauge just how much we can reasonably accomplish in any given week - especially when adjusting to some new materials.

I plan schoolwork for five days a week, but one of those days is a lighter day for catching up or outside activities.  It took me longer than it should have to figure out that having a catch-up day built into the week would relieve quite a bit of stress.  Some weeks we don't need to use the day for any catch-up work or field trips and instead the boys usually pursue their individual interests.  Other weeks, I thank God that I had the foresight to plan a lighter day because things just aren't going according to plan.

Not my plan anyway.

It's definitely going to take us more than just a week to really find our "groove" for the year, but overall we enjoyed getting back into the swing of things.

We started studying the Bible and put the books of both the New and Old Testaments in order, the Kindergartner continued learning to read and write, and we even completed an art project!

Not a bad first week.

~ Dori