First week back 2013!


We began our school year for 2013 on Monday.  This is the story of how and why it was a roaring success!

Winter Rose began approximately grade 2/3, Winter Savoury began grade prep*/1 ish.  I say ish, because it is difficult to exactly assign a grade level when homeschooling.  By age, they are closer to the 2/prep level, by work level they are closer to (or above) 3rd/1st level.  This is not to brag... well, a little to brag, maybe!  But mainly to provide some context for when I'm discussing particular curriculum and schedule choices.

I'm writing now because I am excited, our first week went so well!  I am proud of my children, they worked so hard!  Their workloads have increased for this year but they took it all in their stride.  I have posted a curriculum list on another page, link on the side of the page or click here.

This year was going to be a big year.  I spent weeks preparing, planning, organising, over-thinking... you get the idea.  This year I would be organised.  This process came from the realization that I now have a big workload, that things won't just happen on their own, and it was all quite stressful.  I had deep fears that maybe I actually couldn't do it all and would fail miserably...

I was greatly inspired by this thread at the Well Trained Mind forums discussing how to get organised.  One particularly helpful part of this thread was Mystie's blog posts; a thorough explanation and adaption to homeschooling of the book Getting things Done.  I highly recommend reading through Mystie's posts!

In a minuscule nutshell the idea is to get everything out of your head and in it's own place.  So you do not waste energy making minute decisions about every. single. thing. everyday - decisions like wondering what to make for dinner at 5.25pm, or waste energy feeling guilty about all the 'shoulds' clogging your brain - shoulds  like 'I really should dust the light shades one of these days.'  Everything out of your head and on paper, to be dealt with or let go!  Liberating!

So, I did a brain dump, poured everything out of my head onto a list.  This was not such a burdensome job as I was fearing (I did put it off for a while), I had already put together the skeleton of a weekly schedule a la Managers of their Homes  and found the brain dump was already half done.  Part of the key to this idea working is to make this brain dump process a habit - still working on that.

Then, I organised the list.  Discarded and gave myself permission to let go of the unimportant.  Gave the important things 'homes' - either put/filed away or in a schedule.  Sorted out my filing cabinet so I can use it, no more paper laying everywhere!  Sorted out a folder so that I can have a place to easily sort and write my thoughts, and find them again later!  Sorted all the school stuff, meal planning (never done that before!), calendars and chores.

As I said, I spent weeks preparing all of this!  I was excited to jump in and start our year, but I will admit to some niggling fears that I would crash and burn.  I know it has only been a week but I saw a marked improvement in our days, especially in the 'how much brain power I used' department.

We got all our school work done.  Everything.  In the first week.  Even the big projects (like clay map of Israel).  Amazing.  And we enjoyed it!

You know what's even more amazing?  I got all the housework I had planned done.  All of it.  I actually did clean the light shades!  My house has never been cleaner!

All the little things that always get put off got done!  Things like getting the kids to brush their teeth and wash their faces, things like bible readings and one on one time with Winter Glow.  I even had spare time, time where everything important was done and I could relish it, rather than feel like I was stealing it.

Things aren't perfect, my house doesn't look so clean this morning, but it's not out of control.  Mostly surface, an hour would be plenty to clear it up again.  It's the weekend, so I don't care!  The schedule does still need some tweaking, some things you can't know until you try it, but was on the whole more accurate than I dared to hope!

I'm posting this as a big  my precious children, my loving husband for smiling and nodding at all the right times, to Mystie for the work you've put in to your blog, and to the ladies on the WTM thread - notably Kristina aka Alte Veste Academy for your inspiration!

Cheers to week 1, onward to week 2!





*prep is the name of the first year of school where I live.