Planning Your Week

We made it through our first few weeks of school! I am so glad that I started early. This next week is when our fall extra curricular activities start, and I really wanted to get into a routine with our academics before we added more stuff.

 
As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I try to map out a weekly schedule so that I know exactly what is a regular occurring activity throughout the week. It is important to me to build in a few days at home so we can work on our farm, as well as plenty of mornings at home to focus on schoolwork. This might mean that we have to forgo some really cool activities, but it gives us a buffer so that our home environment and relationships don't suffer.


















  


A few of the activities that we are involved in this fall;

Monday- Choir. I am hoping to get my youngest boy involved as well, this will give him an opportunity to develop some skills learning from other adults. I also have an older son enrolled in an Algebra 2 class at the local community college on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Thankfully both of these activities are in the evenings so I can have the first day of the week to focus on school.

















  


Tuesday- Home Team. This is a P.E. activity that is hosted by my homeschool private school. It requires me to drive nearly an hour one way, but it is with people that we really love, and it is run by a wonderful local man who is teaching my older children the basics of many sports. While the older kids are doing Home Team, my youngest two and I are running a parent participation Nature Study Club. I am super excited about sharing our love of nature with some other local families.

My oldest children also have a small youth group that they go to on Tuesday nights and will be working with a local family to improve their worship leading skills. This is an answer to prayer that I am very excited about!

Wednesday- My oldest daughter is teaching an English class to local teens, including my two oldest students on Wednesday afternoons. I am so happy to be able to outsource this subject to my daughter, and I am also excited for my boys to have the joy and challenge of learning with such a sweet community.

Thursday- We have set aside a couple hours for music lessons, but otherwise, we are keeping Thursday through the weekend open for family time, farm work and hospitality.

Sadly, I don't have a history co-op or book club set up for this year, but my kids and I are planning a middle ages party this fall, so hopefully, we will get some of our projects done then.

There are always new events popping up that we need to fit in somewhere, so keeping our schedule reasonable is a huge stress reducer.



When I prayed about school for this year, I really felt that experiences with my children were going to be something to focus on. This is another reason why I am resisting the temptation to add more activities to our schedule. So far we have enrolled in Tinker Crate and built some cool little machines, pressed our own grapes for a biology/chemistry experiment that will hopefully result in wine, found a local source for beeswax so we can dip our own candles, and learned new skills with bread baking, metalworking, and jewelry making. We have also already gotten through a few of our middle ages literature selections.

All of this creativity is made possible in part because I am limiting computer time through our Circle device. If I wasn't taking authority over time spent on computers, there would be no time to pursue these creative endeavors. Because I am able to set individual time limits on each computer in my house, I can make sure that even older children who need the computer to work (even adults such as myself) aren't just wasting the day away on video games or social media.

I want my family to have the opportunity to develop as many skills as possible, and love learning, while they are in my home. I've got only one chance to pour into these children, and I am so excited about learning with them!

If you are looking to create more experiences with your preschoolers, check out my new collaboration, The Peaceful Preschool. This literature and project based curriculum is perfect for early learners, and is offered at a special introductory price until September 15.

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