Stick With The Cake
I’m back. We actually started back promptly on September 2 and have not missed a day yet. I’ve revamped our schedule so that we have 5 weeks on and 2 weeks off year round. I felt that there were many things around the house that weren’t getting done and that was frustrating me. I am a true perfectionist and like to try to do more than is humanly possible. T balked a bit upon hearing this, because disruptions really bother him. I told him that he could continue on in the subjects that require minimal Mom time, so that he can keep his schedule. Someday, he’ll make a great project manager, if he, too can let go of that perfectionism. During the weeks off, I will attempt to paint the little boys room and catch up on some household projects that have been nagging on me. We’ll probably do a lot of yard work as well.
School-wise, I’ve finally learned that we don’t have to do it all. For Ambleside, it seems to be taking T longer than expected, so we’re stretching one year out a bit. He’ll still be keeping up his grade level work in subjects such as Math, Spelling, Dictation, Latin, & Greek. I’m just not packing so many readings in, but spreading them out a bit more.
Here’s what I have scheduled for both T & D (I’m teaching R to read and write and life skills):
Daily Work
- Math
- Spelling
- Italics or Copy work
- Latin
- Greek
- Piano or Typing
- Ambleside Readings and Narrations (T is working on Year 3 and is also doing written narrations, D is working on Year 1 and only does oral narrations)
- T does written narrations 1 or 2 times a week and dictation once a week.
- Science is done as a group read aloud. We also watch various science and nature videos throughout the month.
One thing that I have been lax about is a history time line. T has expressed the need for one. I am not crafty, as evidenced by our untouched time line notebook. My school project for the next month is to find a ready made time line to post or copy one from our book.
Finally, I need to remind myself that with more children, comes the necessity of focusing on the basics of Math, Spelling, Reading and Handwriting. Everything else is icing on the cake. Some things are sprinkles.
UPDATE: I’ve been doing a little research on time lines. I found this and this. Still looking, but getting closer to a solution.
