I'm posting this link Tuesday morning, but I actually wrote it Monday night, so when I say "today" I'm referring to Monday. Just thought I needed to give a frame of reference.
The start of our school year has dawned once again. I marked the day after Labor Day as the start of school when we finished last June. I just didn't think it would get here so quickly. I had to wrap up a little bit of paperwork that slipped away from me at the end of the last school year, and then I started putting things together for this year. I cleaned out supplies and gave the boys new pencils and erasers. I double checked binders and folders and replaced ones that were wearing out. I organized their subjects and filed tests and went over our supply of literature books. Four hours later I finished the last of my work and packed things away. Who knew it would take that long to get ready for the school year?
Every year of homeschooling seems to be a little different in one way or another. Last year we tried four day school weeks. That's why we finished in June instead of May. This year we're trying something else. I started working full time in July. the idea was to work full time only through August and then go back to part time work. But plans changed and I'm now working full time through the end of the year, at least. And so I'm taking the boys with me to work three days a week. Mostly the office is empty except for a couple of secretaries, so the boss said he didn't mind if I brought my homeschooling boys along. There's a big conference area that's never used that will be a perfect classroom for the boys. And it's visible from my office so I can keep an eye on my diligent students. Theoretically I can keep the homeschooling going efficiently while working at the same time. Hmm. We'll see, I guess.
So I get the boys Tuesdays through Thursdays. They still have to do school on Mondays and Fridays, but they won't have to do as much those days. That way their dad has three days out of the week to make visits, study or take care of other pastoral duties. And if they occasionally want to go snorkeling at Blue Springs Park--well, hopefully they'll be ahead enough that it won't matter if they take an occasional day off.
So that's the plan. I'm not sure if it's brilliant or if it's incredibly stupid. I guess we've got until the end of the year to find out.
Oh, wow, Jill!! We start homeschool today too. But my children are too young to be able to do much school independently yet. My oldest who is 12 is actually doing most subjects on his own now, but under my supervision. And last night as I was prepping him for the day, he said, "What do I do if I don't understand something?" At first his question confused me. Then it dawned on me that he thought he had to do all his work without help. So I quickly reassured him that I'd be available to help him whenever he needed it!
ReplyDeleteHope your day goes well! You'll have to update us!
Oooh -- cool! I hope the new scheduling goes well!
ReplyDeleteMy best friend, Rindy, who's in Orlando (Disney) right now, called me and told me she's about to die from the heat, lol!!! My husband and I went to Orlando for our honeymoon, and, thankfully, the weather wasn't too terrible.
Homeschooling is very flexible. There were times when the kids grabbed their books and we homeschooled in the van and while in the doctor's office.
ReplyDeleteWhen they were little we homeschooled four days a week and took Friday off. We still ended the end of May/first of June too. All we did was double up the school work on some days, doing two Math lessons instead of one.
As they got older we didn't double up as much, but still tried to keep Friday a light day.
So now, the bulk of the schoolwork is done Mon-Thursday, and Friday is just a little bit of school. Works for us anyway, and we're still doing a full curriculum.