As Promised

I told myself on Thursday I'd spend time reviewing the agenda I posted in September. Here I am. (And Christopher Robin, I *meant* to start small....but the project just spun out of hand).

So, here's what I posted in September, copy and pasted for my convenience.

This year...
* I am NOT going to let staying with the curriculum dominate our schooling. I am going to skip units and lessons when appropriate for either or both children.

Yes. I skipped whole units in Toa of Boy's math. And I'm condensing his language arts, cause no way is he going to want the same story read to him three days in a row. Instead, we read the story once, we go back through and retell it (rereading bits if needed) and we do the supplimental activities all in the same day.

Sweetling's curriculum is a little trickier. I skip the literature essays that seem boring. We skip writing out the answers to the 'history journal' questions. But her curriculum is still pretty intense.

* I am going to make sure Sweetling has plenty of time during the day, at least one to two hours, to work on her own, independent projects and studies.

This isn't happening. You know why it isn't happening? I just did Sweetling's school list for the week. And beside each subject for each day, I put how much time I think it should take. She has 4 and a half hours of SOLID curriculum each day. And that's just how much time I think it should take if she sat down right away, stayed focus, and worked efficiently. That just doesn't happen like that. Even if we start school at 9am and work with our noses to the grindstone till 12:30, that's 3 and a half hours. If we take a lunch break and get back to school at 2 and work till 3:30, that's another hour and a half. Then on Mondays is library. On Tuesday is grocery shopping. On Wednesday, Sweetling wants to go pick up Pinkie for a play date. On Thursdays is co-op. On Friday is God's Girls. I don't know what to do. This work load isn't working for us. It will burn us both out.

*I am going to stick to a basic daily structure and schedule. We will start the day on time. We will take only an hour for a lunch break. We will end the day with plenty of free time left over.

I am obviously capable of completely divorcing myself from all reality.

*I am going to insist that morning and afternoon checklists get accomplished each day, including mine.

The kids get their morning routines done every day. Mommy not so much. No one gets their afternoon routines done, cause all we do is run run run every day. And again, I don't know how to fix the run run run. I sense a phone call to Christopher Robin in the near future.

*I am going to get up at a reasonable hour to get dressed, do my devotions, and get through my morning stuff before school starts instead of waiting till the last minute to roll out of bed.

*cough, cough* Ahem...um...yeah....Well, I'm working on this. Getting out of bed is a continual challenge for me. This area will always be a 'work in progress'.

*I am going to sort and start laundry, clip coupons, vacuum, and get the next weeks worth of lessons done on Sunday afternoon so that we are ready for the week on Monday morning.

I am also going to end world hunger and create world peace.

*I am going to get most of my grocery list written and in order Monday night, so that I'm ready to go shopping Tuesday after school.

This has to be done during lunch hour on Tuesday. Grocerygame doesn't have the coupon lists out till Tuesday. At best on Monday I can get the laundry folded and get the coupons clipped and filed (cause you know that didn't happen on Sunday.)

*And I'm going to have to find some way to keep things varied and interesting for me, because doing the same thing week after week isn't going to happen all year long. I'll crash and burn, baby, crash and burn. Blogging is one of those ways, but I know I'll need to cycle through some other things as well. I'm getting back into dance this fall, but I'm not sure if that will increase my happiness or increase my stress levels. I'm going to need some other, fun, relaxing creative outlets. (Hint, hint, and nudge, nudge, to Christopher Robin.)

You know, the thing that's stressing me out more than anything is the afternoon running. Aside from trying to move library to the weekend, which is crappy cause our weekends are already full, I don't know what to do. We need to go to the library, but maybe every other week instead of every week. We need groceries, and yes, every week we need milk and eggs, and we shop the deals every week. Sadly, every week we need to hit four different stores to make the most of our coupons. And yes, this keeps my grocery bills under budget, so it is worth it. So, I think I just need to stop whining and come to the grips with the fact that we have something to do nearly every single weekday afternoon. There's only one word that can really sum up my feelings about that, and its not something I care to repeat.

There. A rather cynical reassessment of my lovely, rose-colored glasses view of what i was *going* to do this school year.

edit to add:

I spent my lunch time reading through some of my archived blog posts. I literally started at the first post I ever wrote, and read up from there. I'm rediscovering when I really, really love homeschooling, this is what it looks like. It has mornings where doing math problems evolve into making spaghetti restaurants for a group of aardvarks. It has days where the written curriculum activity is dull and lifeless, so we go to the nature preserve instead. It has fall days where we sit outside on the swings to read and write poetry.

I think Holly is right. I need to cut down on my afternoon trips by making a long day on Thursday. If I go to Meyer on Tuesday, I can go to Walgreens and CVS and the library on Thursday after co-op. That's totally what needs to happen. It will absolutely free up some of my days and drop the stress level of the me. Cause if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.