Musings on our weekly school schedule

A friend asked me recently if I was as prepared for school this year as I was last year

Um, no.

Absolutely not.  ~smile~

We're into our our 7th week of school and I'm still tweaking our weekly schedule.  (See how everything is in pencil?  Yeah.  I'll get out the Sharpies when I'm ready to make it permanent.)

You can click on the photo if you want to see it more clearly.

Being as planned as I was last year made me a little crazy.  Mainly because we were usually running ahead of my meticulously-planned-check-the-little-boxes schedule and so each day I was looking at things on the schedule that we weren't actually DOING on that day and arghh! that frustrated me.

I just feel more relaxed about our schedule this year.  Or maybe the relaxed-thing comes with the fact that I've done this for a handful of years, now.  Or maybe it's a reaction to being overly planned last year.  Who knows?  All I know is that this year I'm probably the LEAST planned of any other year.

For example, I have Picture Study written down for Mondays.  But we haven't even done Picture Study once, because I still haven't selected an artist to study.   (And shh!  So far the kids haven't mentioned it!)  (Recommendations welcome.  We've done Rembrandt, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Carl Larsson,  Norman Rockwell, and maybe a few others but those are the ones I remember right now.)  While I'm on the topic of Picture Study, have you seen these Picture Study Portfolios from Simply Charlotte Mason?  They're great!  I used one of those last year, for Rembrandt.   I know.  Why don't I just order up another one of those for this year, you ask.  I just don't want to study the other artists they offer quite yet.  :)

So... total tangent, there.  Back to Picture Study on our schedule:  We'll get to it.  I'm sure inspiration will hit soonish. 

I'm also still trying to figure out when it works best to do Dictation and Written Narration with Ella, so I keep moving it to different days and trying it on for size, so to speak.

What do I love this year, so far?  Sitting down and learning Latin with the kids.  It's just as new to me as it is to them, and I love that!  I've also been practicing cursive right along with Ella and Isaac and that's one of my favorite things.  I always love reading aloud and we're doing lots of that.  [I'm currently reading Opal Wheeler's Frederic Chopin biography- the one on the left in the picture below.  If I haven't mentioned lately how much we enjoy Opal Wheeler's composer biographies, there you have it.]  The kids color while we read and afterward, while they're finishing up their coloring, I pull up some Chopin from Pandora and we call that Composer Study.


We're also doing Training Hearts Teaching Minds each morning and I'm really enjoying that so far.  We're reading through the Proverbs together out loud- Ella and Isaac and I take turns (and very soon Isaias should be ready to tackle it with us: he is reading so.much.better!!!)

All that to say that we're having a great school year even though it's not all fully planned out and I'm really quite content being so relaxed about it all. 

9 comments:

  1. For some reason the schedule picture is not clickable??? :-)

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  2. Oh, GR! Usually that works. I wonder why. Oh, well. I've edited the post so that it's as gigantic as I can get it. :)

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  3. I love your handwritten notes... especially your little pictures. :) I over-planned two years ago and it bugged me, so last year I under-planned and it bugged me... this year is just right so far. :)

    I did Grandma Moses with the kids last year and we all loved it. I think fall and winter is an especially fun time for Grandma Moses with all her cozy seasonal paintings.

    Always fun to see what's going on in your homeschool, Stacy!

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    1. Thanks, sweet Jodi. :)

      Hooray to have a *just right* year so far.

      Ah! Grandma Moses! Thanks for a recommendation. I'll look into her. :)

      Blessings to you and yours,
      ~Stacy

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  4. What are your kids using for math this year?

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    1. They are all three using something different. ;)
      We are trying out Teaching Textbooks for Ella this year (She's in 5th grade). I'm still undecided on it.

      Isaac is using Math U See (3rd grade).

      Isaias is doing Rod and Staff (2nd grade).

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  5. I was about to jump on here and suggest Grandma Moses and then I see someone else already did! We started Grandma Moses in August and we love her!

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  6. Jodi, I found your blog today via a Pinterest pin of the copywork jar. I read a few posts and have really enjoyed it so far. In fact, I have been looking for a shorter catechism study for us to do with our kids together and took your recommendation on the "Training Hearts, Teaching Minds..." We look forward to getting it in the mail before Christmas! thanks for posting, I look forward to reading more.

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  7. I just posted and called you Jodi, so sorry Stacy! Thanks :-)

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