it’s been a long time coming. i’ve been officially homeschooling since about june 2012. now that we’ve moved into january ’14 that marks a year and a half. and the truth is, in all that time i haven’t been consistent.
oh, don’t get me wrong. we work. school work happens in some way, shape or form, most days during the week. but there’s no consistency to our schedule. some days we start in the morning and take a long break, and don’t come back to finish until evening. some days we start in the afternoon and work straight through until we’re done..even if it takes a really, really, really long time. other days we do a little all day, with many, many breaks in between. and although the work is getting done, in terms of what i can cross off my daily planner, i don’t feel it’s really benefiting the boys–or me.
homeschooling has been a choice i made because i think it’s the best choice for all three of us. and as much as i fancy myself an unscheduled, spontaneous, free-spirited chick, i see that my boys, my older boy in particular, needs structure, and order, and consistency. and in our willy-nilly, nothing is really set in stone way of doing school, i’m doing him a great disservice.
i did a lot of thinking (and praying) over Christmas break. and i came to the conclusion (thanks to the Lord shouting it at me in many different ways) that i’m being selfish. homeschooling is a wonderful, wonderful resource and i’m so blessed to be able to do it with my boys. but i still need to do it in a way that works for them.
and i came to the conclusion that not only is a schedule great for them, but it’s going to be the only way for me to balance motherhood, singlehood, womanhood, and personhood. there are so many things i want to be doing right now, so many things i need to be doing right now, and only so many hours in the day. and when i don’t have a schedule, the truth is, i waste a lot of time.
so first things first, i googled and came across erica and her blog, confessions of a homeschooler (http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/). there i found her absolutely wonderful (and free to download and edit!) daily schedules ( http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/category/daily-schedule).
i spent a little time planning out our school days–hours, subjects, amount of time spent on each, and even factored in breaks and lunch–and using erica’s template, created brand spanking new schedules for the boys. i also filled in my master planner/schedule book with all of their projected assignments for the entire month of january. whew. that’s a big deal for me. my secondary goal is create a new master schedule for each new month, during the final week of the previous month.
i’m hoping that this will start us off right as we move into 2014. i have big plans for this year, and i realize that for me, it all starts with getting on track. and what better way to get on track than with a schedule, right?
there’s more to this schedule thing, and definitely more in store for the boys, homeschooling, and for me. 2014 is going to be an amazing journey for us, and i’m excited to get it started right.