We just finished out sixth week of school. I still have not figured out a good housekeeping schedule for this year. We no longer have completely free Friday mornings to spend on chores. I have been scheduling our field trips for Fridays, so not much else gets done on those days. I think I have resolved to clean it all myself on field trip weeks and assign chores to the kids on the Friday mornings that we are home.
What did get accomplished this week? My senior took her first Calculus 1 exam at Austin Community College, where she is enrolled in dual credit classes, and she aced it. My junior agonized for two days over her trigonometry test and ended up with an A. My eighth grader flew through her first algebra exam with a perfect score. So Friday’s break from school to go to the Austin Zoo with friends was well deserved.
Usually around this time of the year, I have determined what needs to be dropped from our school load and what needs to be added. This year, I will be adding thirty minutes of outdoor time/exercise to their Google Classroom assignments. I have put off requiring exercise so as not to make it a dreaded event, however they are spending far too much time indoors and on screens (during school time and afterwards). They need to sweat and boost their vitamin D a bit. My eighth grader already has a short list of daily exercises that are assigned by her homeschool PE class, so it will just be adding a little more to her day. I expect the most push back from my junior who still has low energy days as she is adjusting to changing levothyroxin doses.
My eighth grader has been using Cover Story for English Language Arts and loves it. The curriculum has three lesson days per week, leaving two days lacking in ELA work. I was planning on the books from the Guest Hollow world geography course to fill her literature reading time, but that has not been working out. Instead, we will read Animal Farm together two days a week and then she will work on vocabulary and literature activities that I found on TeachersPayTeachers.com by The Daring English Teacher.
One thing that I took away was access to Internet after 9:30pm. My husband noticed that they are staying on devices and staying up too late at night (I go to sleep before he does). The easiest thing to do was to use the router to pause access to the Internet from their devices, especially compared to nagging them every night. So far, it has been an effective solution, and there has been no whining or complaining. And while to them this may not seem to have anything to do with homeschool, it certainly makes mornings easier and school work go more smoothly if everyone is well rested.
There are a couple of things that I added to my own schedule this school year that have been working out quite well, so they are keepers. Obsessed with playing Pikmin Bloom since June, I take 45-60 min walks, six days a week. Crocheting tops has also been a source of joy and relaxation, so I am hoping to keep crochet and quilting projects going continually. I hope to add in strength training and yoga multiple times a week, but still working on exactly how that will fit into my schedule.
North Star Homeschool Resources 