First Week Back to Homeschool
It’s that time of year when we dust off the books and get back at homeschooling. When I say dust off the books I mean literally. The kids had a true wild and free summer with 0 school content build in. While my daughter read whatever book her heart desired, I’m not sure we multiplied any numbers or did a single narration. In fact, we’ve been so consumed with summer, I haven’t even blogged about our adventures!
N in New York City
Did I mention we went to New York City, Washington DC, Cape Canaveral, the Florida Keys, attempted to hike a 14,000 foot mountain in Colorado, went white water rafting, and had a handful of family hikes. It was such a busy and wonderful summer!
But now it’s time for back to school. So let’s get into the first week breakdown, shall we?
What Is Going Well:
Not surprisingly school went well! It felt good to be back in a routine and since this is our 6th year homeschooling under a Charlotte Mason Methodology, I actually feel like I know what I’m doing. (I know, bring on something big to change now!)
This is the first year I’m managing two different grade levels, 5th grade and Kindergarten. Most of my daughter’s booklist comes from AO year 6, remember that blog post I wrote where I confessed to doing year 1 during her kindergarten year? Now we’re ahead a bit.
This year N is taking on all of her academic readings herself. I’ll be reading Plutarch, Shakespeare, and one of our Literature books aloud to her. Having her alternate between independently reading and written narrations with discussions and instructional lessons with me gives me time to do Kindergarten lessons with my son.
EJ is in his first year of school this year. While we did do a gentle preschool program and pre-k program, this year we’re really building habits of living education with him. I’m happy to say that he is loving Little Wanderers Kindergarten. The books have been wonderfully engaging and we end every reading with, “Read more mama!”.
It’s a privilege and joy to teach my kids at home and I’ve been so happy being back to school this week.
What Isn’t Going Well:
Am I being overdramatic if I say everything else? Not really, but it feels a little like that. The hardest part of homeschooling for me sometimes feels like the home part.
So my kitchen floors are extra sticky this week, the dog is in desperate need of a walk, and the bathrooms could use a good scrubbing. This summer, it felt easy to manage the home aspect when we aren’t home often and we aren’t doing school. Adding in all our our activities, being home most of the day and teaching math…things are starting to fall by the wayside.
I know we’ll ease ourselves back into the routines and for now, I’m giving myself grace while we adjust again. One area I’m hoping to improve is sharing on the blog, in the meantime..
Do you follow Little World Wanderers on Instagram? I share more of our day to day there.
