2nd year of homeschooling – planners, curriculum, and controlling the circus

It’s crazy?to believe we are racing to the finish of our?second year of homeschooling! ?I’ve made changes to our approach this year, as I’ve learned more about myself and more about my son!

Last year seemed like the year of personality struggles and the big adjustment to schooling full-time.

This year feels like a full-blown attempt at scheduling & curricula.

Things you should know:

Momma doesn’t always know best (sshhh don’t tell anyone)

The hardest part of homeschooling for me, has been that I’m a recovering?control-driven?perfectionist. ?I think every day should follow the schedule which is set apart in my happy little noggin. ?Then, all of my dominion shall act like scholarly little subordinates who love learning and enjoy worksheets as much as a young Leah did. When do I get my way? ?About 1 out of 15?days. ?Maybe once a month.

I’m learning to choose my battles. ?I go “old school” in that I try to focus all of my energy on that which I think is most important- reading, writing and arithmetic. ?Then I read (to the children) some more.

Sometimes I’m discouraged because I feel like something I’ve chosen isn’t working for us and so I’ll spend a?day or days or weeks trying to tweak. ?I have to tell myself, THIS IS WHY WE DO IT…because we can tweak it and we can make our boy get the most out of it.

Basically, like most things good things in life, homeschooling is work and it does take some adjustments!

It’s hard to keep the troops in line

I really thought life with 3 under 4 was the 3-ring circus, well it turns out life with a 1st grader, preschooler, and energetic 3 year old can be just as hectic. ?One of our major battles is distraction (which is probably true in a public/private school room, too). ?The younger kids listen in for our read-aloud time (we’re on our third book in The Little House series) and Bible. ?Beyond that, if they are wanting to be more involved, they’ll do map time during history or I’ll pull out some alphabet flashcards. ?I also have age-appropriate workbooks if they want to join. ?For preschool books, C has cheapos from The Dollar Tree. ?Olen is very particular about any workbook (he’s my hands-on man) so I have these Star Wars books which he adores!!

Chewy? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Anakin? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?C3P0

We live or die by a plan

One of the major changes I felt happened between kindergarten and first grade is that a schedule was even more important. ?I’ve used a planner like THIS?the past two years and I love how easily I can break down our days and still have a space to write the things I need to do, too. ?I’m a planner by nature and I think Jackson needs to know what’s expected each day, too!

I usually only plan a week or two ahead. ?Most of the time I do this while Jackson is working?on math problems so it doesn’t eat time out of the?evening.

Due to The Plan, we don’t get out of the house as much as did last year. ?In the spring and fall we’re playing outside, but I’m really missing the playdates and social time! ?We DID just move though so I think we’re just generally missing our friends — along with March cabin fever.

Curriculum loves and hates

I shared in the recap of our first year?about our curriculum choices. ?We changed our phonics from A beka to Explode the Code and I’m thankful we did! ?It’s just a much simpler format for both of us! ?I ended up buying A beka 1st grade History because it covered US History and countries of the world, but I don’t love it. ?I’m considering putting the boys in Classical Conversations next year- so if I do- we’ll have history covered.

We’re continuing to use Long Story Short for our Bible time and I really can’t imagine using anything else.

For science we’re bouncing around between some Charlotte Mason work and Our Father’s World. ?I like both, but the Charlotte Mason is a nature study with many outside things and well,?this is Ohio. 😉

For math we’re using Horizons Year 2.

New room

Maybe the most welcome change since the new year is that we now have a school room! ?It’s still evolving, but I’m so thankful I’m not longer clearing books so we can eat, then cleaning the table so we can restart school. ?Gosh, it’s just made the day a lot easier!

I feel a little sad that he may never wake up knowing the true joy of a snow day! ????? One of the reasons we bought the new house was it had an extra room we could use as our school room. If you’d asked me 10 years ago if I’d be homeschooling my children and have a room in my house devoted to such….. Haha. Oh boy!! ???????? . #homeschooler #homeschoolroom #snowday #math #workinghard #homeschoolmom #house #newhouse #design #office

A post shared by Leah Yoder (@yodertoterblog) on Feb 9, 2017 at 8:51am PST

So that’s a little (800 word) update on what’s been happening at Yoder Academy. ?What does your homeschool day look like? ?Do you feel like you run a three-ring circus? ?Any thoughts on Classical Conversations?