Back To Homeschool 2012 -Planning Our Day

I totally enjoy planning our days. Sometimes they don't go quite as planned, but that is one of the joys of homeschooling, FLEXIBILITY.

I have always used a lesosn planner that you write in. Last year I tried an online planner. This year I am switching back to the pencil and paper planner. I enjoy it and for me, it is a lot easier to make changes. I also like to sit with all my materials and write up our days.

This year I am have a 5th/6th grader and a K. I am looking forward to a fun filled year! I am working on getting Nico to be more focused on working by himself once I get him going.

I am not a morning person (I work night shifts, Sat, Sun, Mon, and every other Tues 6pm-6am). I HATE alarm clocks, but this is the one time I will use it. Neither of my boys are morning people either. They will sleep until 9 if I let them. I like getting started by 9am as we like to be finished by 1pm! So it is get up at 7:30am for mom. This gives me time to drink my coffee and start breakfast. The boys get up at 8am. We then have an hour to eat, chat, and the boys can play a bit before starting school at 9am. My husband also works nights, so we catch the scoop on his work night too.

We have 8 subjects to cover this year. Nico's favorites are science and history. These classes tend to take a lot of time. In the past we find ourselves rushed to get them done, we skip parts of them, or push them back and back and back. This year I am going to an A/B schedule. We will be doing 4 lessons every other day. This is going to help so much with science and Luca's history. In the public school these classes count as 1.75 hours, so I will do the same. Nico will be able to work comfortably on his science experiments without me telling him, "Hurry, we need to move on!"

My biggest concern is the days we have school after I work. Last year Monday we had a Co-Op so that covered 2 hours. Every other week we would skip Tuesday. I was just too tired. I can't do that this year or we won't get our hours in to take off the summer. My 'plan' is to have Monday be review days and this year we have a fine arts Co-Op on Tuesday. I am super excited about this as Luca will have drama, music, and art. While he is in class I will work with Luca. Then Nico will have art and I can work with Luca.

So these best laid plans look great on paper don't they? Here's hoping they are great in real life!