GRACE is a magnificent thing.
The first official semester of this homeschool year was very disjointed. Despite my best laid plans, illness, a home renovation project, and LIFE happened and the beautiful routine I had crafted early in the year seldom occurred.
It was important for me to lavish grace upon my children - and upon MYSELF, and to realize that so often progress cannot be measured in scores or "accomplishments".
Progress happens slowly over years of pouring ourselves into our children.
(I also rest in the fact that our Classical Conversations Memory Work is enough and am so thankful my Challenge I student is self-disciplined.)
Over the past two weeks I've hit the "reset" button in our homeschool, and I have the feeling that many of you have done (or will do) the same thing as we enter into a new year.
I'd like to share what hitting reset looks like.
Maybe you can glean a few ideas - and maybe you can offer ME ideas, too.
(I love to interact with readers who leave comments.)
Simple Organization
Over the past year our ENTIRE family has been at home.
A new job meant my husband now works from home (no more nasty commute downtown), but that also comes with its own set of challenges.
We needed to finish out a space in the basement just for him. He now goes downstairs to "WORK".
With that finished basement came a space for storage of school things and a workspace. I have gone many years schooling at the kitchen table, so this completed projected feels like HEAVEN!
I'm trying EXTREMELY HARD to stick to my SIMPLE HOMESCHOOL PHILOSOPHY. Less is more. Only keep out what we love and truly use.
- Anna, my 9th grader, organized her own books in one shelf of the school room. We keep those books, and a few reference books, on the shelves. She does so much online now and doesn't need a lot of physical books. Anna has a work space in her bedroom that she adores.... she keeps many things in her desk there, so she doesn't actually use the school room as much as her brother.
- Grant, my 5th grader, has one bookshelf for his current Cycle 1 resources. He works on a simple craft table in the school room, and all of his supplies (pencils, markers, etc...) are organized in an hanging shoe holder inside the schoolroom closet.
Favorite "Must Haves" Pictured Above:
{ Stay tuned for a "schoolroom" post ---> I still have a few more finishing touches before I'll share the whole room on the blog. }
And... if you'd like to keep up with our day to day activities, I love to hang out on Instagram.
Take Time For JOY
This sounds so obvious, right?
Who wouldn't want to take time to be joyful?
But, when you have a high schooler with a demanding academic load, the temptation can be to just buckle down and be SERIOUS much of the time.
This IS NOT a good idea.
This week we got outside, spent time with friends, and brought back some WONDER into our homeschool.
Anna and I also enjoy spending time with younger children - our six year old friend that we hiked with put us in such joyful moods. It's good to get out of ourselves and see the world through a young child's eyes.
We need to something like this WEEKLY to remind us to embrace beauty and joy.
Let Your Children Take the Lead
Yes, we educate Classically. Yes, much of what my children learn is dictated by ME and what I know to be best for them based on my research and expertise.
I believe, however, that children MUST take the lead when it comes to certain parts of their education.
One area that I simply FOLLOW my child's lead is in STEM activities.
As part of our homeschool reset I am allowing ample time in our day for exploration and play, using our LEGO® Education materials.
This week Grant gave me such a perfect opportunity to give him grace. While I was grocery shopping one afternoon he decided to take all of the very well organized Mindstorms EV3 pieces and dump ALL of them into one big bucket.
(Our LEGO club starts next week and I was depending on everything being organized and ready for the boys.)
I must admit I was less than thrilled when I came home to find all of those pieces combined. I told him it didn't really please me - then he looked at me with his sweet eyes and said,
“Yes, I think it was kind of a dumb thing to do. Did you ever do anything dumb when you were a kid?”
Sigh. Of course I did.
I helped him reorganize the LEGOS over the next few days, and in the end I think we came up with a better system of storage, and in the process Grant taught me the "grammar of Mindstorms" as he said the names of all the different pieces and what their functions are.
He also spent much time building a super cool elephant that will probably be programmed this weekend.
There you have it.
Simple organization, joy, and letting my children sometimes take the lead.
Our homeschool has been "reset" and I'll keep you posted on how things are going!
I'd love to know if you are resetting your homeschool at the beginning of a new year. What are you doing differently?
Collage Friday
*Note: Collage Friday will now be a bi-weekly event. I will leave this link up open for 2 weeks... the next Collage Friday will be on January 22!
Join me each Friday for a wrap up of the week - or just to share pertinent thoughts that have been rambling in your head during the past week.
Be sure to include your photo collages!
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