Jump in - another school year begins

After a July vacation, we started school back up full force August 3rd. I have planned an ambitious curriculum for everyone, including myself. Now, I just have to figure out a way to keep the momentum going (and myself from becoming a zombie). Monday - Thursday will follow a standard schedule. All of our Fridays will be taken up by group activities with our local home-school group. And we will use Friday and Saturday afternoons for extra work on math, spelling and nature studies. At least, that is the plan. And for one week, it has worked well.



I still have a long way to go in bringing our whole home school experience up to my imaginary perception of what we "should" be doing. I have this pretty little (Victorian) picture in my brain of neat, organized children, sitting primly with washed shining faces and pressed clothing, listening and reading attentively, teaching each other, and creating artsy crafts of museum quality. Yeah, I know, unrealistic. But, I would settle for going a week without misplacing any school books, or finding a place on the couch not covered in piles of laundry-in-progress. To be honest, I am having a hard time juggling 4children of different abilities/interests. It seems like I should be giving each one about twice as much personal time as they are currently getting. Occasionally, I will scour the internet trying to find the magic wand that other have used to teach a gaggle of children on mulitple levels. But, alas, so far the wands are those of dilligence, organization, patience, and prayer. Right ... Sigh!

On a more positive note, as I look forward to the upcoming year, I can't help but be grateful for the amazing aray of opportunities that we can explore as home schoolers. Between field trips and group activites, my children did more outreach activites in the last two years than I was able to do in my entire public school career! Our children are exposed to their education in such a way that learning is an experience, and not just a mental function. How much more prepared they will be to intergrate knowledge into conversations and adult life! There now....I think I may be feeling it again...almost......inspiration, resolve, energy, and just a glimmer of a smile.

Here we go, for another year.