Christmas break is coming to an end. We've rung in the New Year, slept in for days on end and put together all our toys. We've stayed up late, played the wii, enjoyed playdates and lounged to our heart's content. It's been good but it's time to get back to "normal". Time for a routine, time for bedtime and alarm clocks (ok I'm kidding on that one, I haven't used an alarm clock regularly since 1998). It is time for school. :-)
For some reason our kids tend to go through these maturity growth spurts at the end of the year and I face January with kids that are older and wise and ready for more in terms of academics. After seeing this pattern the last 2 years, I both expected and planned for it this year. We are adding some new subjects for Spring semester (Latin for Alex, Writing and Spelling for Henry) and will be ramping up others (Writing for Alex, Narration for Henry, Science for everyone I hope!). I'll be incorporating Jack into school a bit more in preparation for his kindergarten year this fall and I'll be making sure Sam gets his reading and coloring time too. We've purchased a new math curriculum that will be an exciting add in (or possible replacement) to Math U See. It should be a busy and fun semester. I'm really looking forward to it.
This was really a make or break year for us in terms of homeschooling. We've enjoyed and thrived on homeschooling the last couple years but struggled to maintain any sense of order to our home - think piles of laundry, stacks of school papers, and on-the-fly meals that typically involved $5 pizzas or other less than appealing takeout. We really believe in homeschooling for our family but also really believed we couldn't continue on as we were...so we entered the 2008/2009 school year thinking this was IT. We needed to figure out if we could make this work for us - or not. Happily I can say, we are figuring it out. Now don't think you can stop by and ask to inspect the bathroom on any given day of the week....but honestly it's much improved and we are figuring it out. Scott has been an amazing help to me by taking on some of the household responsibilites. Alex has become a more independent reader and able to do some work on his own. I have become a more confident relaxed teacher. Sam has stopped hanging on me like a tree monkey 24/7......really, it's much much better. :-)
Which - of course - leaves me wondering....where is God leading us with this? Are we still fire fighting? Homeschooling until we can move to a school district we are more comfortable with? Or are we homeschoolers. You know, in for the long haul (or at least until high school *wink* I can't IMAGINE homeschooling high school). We're not sure - I guess we'll find out. At any rate - it's almost time for school and I am ready and excited to dive into books, practice math, learn Latin and explore art, music and science with my boys - it's going to be great. :-)
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