Week at a Glance | Week 1

 Technically we wrapped up week 2 of our school year, but it was our first full week back with ALL the subjects! I've never done a "soft start" to a school year, until this year; and really that was because we were absolutely ready to get back into a rhythm, even before our Classical Conversations community was back. One can only handle so much free time and lack of routine before they start to lose their mind! ha!

 I will say, having a Monday holiday to kick off our first full week did throw a little wrench in the week. Had my husband and oldest daughter not been traveling, maybe we could have done some school, but we didn't. Such is life! I find that more often than not, it's those times you set out to create new habits and charge toward a new goal that some detour comes along. This is when you dig into grace and flexibility and lean into it rather than fight it. There will never be the perfect season and timing, so just keep moving forward.

With that, here is how I'm structuring our days for this first quarter, and so far, it's a fantastic change up from how I structured them last year! 

Morning time:

This year, I've added in World Watch News. As my girls are getting older and growing in maturity, I'd like for us to learn and discuss what is happening in our world. They're hearing it and seeing it anyway, so I wanted to give them a grounded chance to hear it at home first. Thankfully, WWN shares from a Biblical worldview, and keeps it short and to the point. My youngest has been battling some fear about what she hears/ perceives is going on (her personality leans that way anyway, as she has a very deep, logical brain) and so this has already been a great way for us to gather facts rather than opinions, and then pray over and discuss them. Episodes are about 10 minutes in length, and every day my girls have given an "aw man!" and "Can we watch more?!" once it's over! They have a special offer going on right now where you can get 3 mos. of streaming for free! Check it out here. 

After we get our news, we dive into the Word. This is our third year studying with Driven By Grace's "Foundations of the Bible" study. I cannot sing it's praises enough! While it does coordinate with CC's optional bible memory work per cycle, you do not have to be in CC, or a homeschooling family for that matter, to do this study. You could do it on your own, or make it a family study (which I would highly recommend). I especially love that the study walks you through the Bible with a rich look into the history and context, along with practical understanding and application. You can really scale it too, to take it as deep as you want, or keep it to the point. I love beginning our days with a foundation of God's word!

Main Subjects:

After our morning time, we move into our heavier subjects. I used to save these for last and would move into our CC memory work, but I found that by the time we got through all of that, the girls were tiring and it made our main subjects a struggle. So now we "eat the frog!" and get them done first, while their minds are still fresh. 

English: This year, I've got both of my girls in CC's Essentials program. It's nice to be able to hit our grammar and writing together, rather than have them on two different curriculum. They begin by grabbing the Essentials home workbook I put together, and work their way through that. Then, we go through the IEW portion. My oldest is able to do most everything on her own this year, as she is in her 3rd tour (praise!), but I'm still able to guide her and give her feedback when needed. My youngest is in her 1st tour, and because I learned so much the hard way with my oldest, I'm really focusing on helping her with the "easy +1" concept. So far, she is LOVING Essentials, which is a huge win compared to my oldest's first tour. 

Math: We use The Good and The Beautiful for math. My girls are in Level 4 and Level 6. We've used TGATB for years, and though I've contemplated switching to Saxon or other curriculums that CC'ers tend to rave about, I came to the conclusion that I should "fix" something that isn't broken. If my girls love it, are thriving, and on track/ahead for their grade level, why would I change it because others use something different?! Next year, my oldest will move into Challenge A, and we'll have to move over to The Math Map, so I may start to sprinkle that in this year as we find our groove.

Loop Schedule:

I've found that a loop schedule works great for us. Typically, we rotate subjects such as science, history, and geography throughout the week so that we can spend more time focused on each one, rather than cramming a little bit into every day. 

On Mondays we do science, which didn't happen this week with the holiday. However, we did make sure we had the CC memory sentence down!

Tuesdays are our history day. We're currently learning the 10 Commandments, and have kept this one simple with reading scripture and then I created some flashcards for the girls to test one another. They loved this! 

On Wednesdays, we do geography. This week, we kept it simple with tracing the black line master map, then locating and coloring in a map from CC Connected. I had every intent to make a recipe that reflected the Mediterranean region, but realized too late in the day that I was missing a couple of ingredients that I thought I had on hand. (I hope that encourages someone who doesn't always have it all together too!) 

Thursdays are our CC Community day. A favorite day of the week for us! This was week 2 of community and it's so nice to be back with our friends. I'm tutoring one of our Essentials classes, a group of 13 first tour students! I have my youngest in my class, and was so proud of her as she volunteered to read her first IEW essay to the class. It's incredible to watch them learn and grow! 

Friday was slower day for us. We're always exhausted after community day. We slept a little later, made some homemade pumpkin bread and then did our morning time (WWN and FOTB) and main subjects (Essentials/IEW, and math). 

All in all, it was a great week! Less productive than I'd hoped, but with the holiday weekend, it just was what it was. This next week will really have us back in the swing and fully into all of our subjects and fun! 

How about you?? How's your homeschool year kicking off so far?!