January 6

So we're back to school and things are going a lot better than I thought they would! I just knew our week would be horrible, everyone would be grumpy and that I would be questioning why I decided to do this in the first place. Turns out I was just projecting my own "back to public school after holiday break" issues on my kids who have no such hangups. We had to postpone our planned trip due to the snowstorm that hit the East Coast. Looking back, I think two weeks was too long to go without doing any kind of school. We had a major case of cabin fever due to the snow, so I'm sure that didn't help any.

I know that January for homeschoolers tends to be a time of renewal with people either starting a completely new school year or changing curriculum. And so it is for us. Finch is now working from (and loving) Math Made Easy. He finds math in general to be interesting and the shiny gold stars at the front of the book have only helped that, lol. The gentle pace is perfect for Kindergarten. I've added Daily Language Review for both Robin and Wren but Wren's book isn't here yet. I have to admit, DLR wasn't even on my radar until a friend linked me to something else by Evan-Moor during a chat. I'm glad to have found it as Robin quite enjoys it and it takes less than five minutes a day. We're also trying to restart daily read-alouds as they fell by the wayside some time ago.

And we did not join a co-op after all. Yes, I flip flop about these kinds of things. I just couldn't shake the feeling that we need to get our daily rhythm under control before adding anything else in. Honestly, I love our days...for the most part. Usually, I get up at least an hour before everyone else (which I've always done) for some quiet time. Then the kids rise, eat, dress and get to work. We do our subjects in a certain order and when I asked Robin what, if anything he liked about homeschooling, he brought up that order. He likes that we tackle the (ahem) harder or more boring subjects in the morning and then do fun stuff in the afternoon. I like that too. As awesome as some of the co-op offerings were, there's nothing more awesome than watching my kids learn and grow right here at home.