Week in Review 2016: #15

Life

We have had to make some big decisions this week. Okay, they really are not that big. But the kids thought they were. We had intended to stop gymnastics lessons for Bridget (6) and George (4) during the summer to save a bit of money, and then re-enroll George in the fall and have Bridget be done with it and focus more on dance. I told my husband that he would have to break the news to Bridget, so he did, and both children will still be enrolled in gymnastics for the summer. That went well. When I asked him what we're going to do about the fall season, he said that we will just take one season at a time.

Today is my husbands last day of a busy tax season. Taxes this year are technically not due until Monday the 18th because of a holiday in Washington, DC, but my husband's boss said that he's not going to force the employees to work extra hours after the 15th, since the clients should all be responsible enough to get their paperwork in on time, regardless of any holidays. Have I mentioned that I really like my husband's boss?

We're also ready to sign a contract for our new home. The numbers have been agreed upon (sort of) and now we're going back to the bank for the official pre-approval. That'll be some time next week.

Homeschool

At the beginning of the month, I posted our mid-year check-in of how things have really gone this year. 

This week, I am so excited that I have my new system up and running (for the most part). I had created it to begin our next school year, but thought I'd do the test-run now. I've mentioned previously that I have expanded our school year from 36 weeks to 42 weeks. We're basically homeschooling year-round with week long breaks throughout the year. This is so far going really well.

First, I made a 'Weekly Plan' and then I planned everything out by day. This is the general plan for where we should be next week. (We are a little behind in history and science, so we will not be learning about Shi Huangdi or The Circulatory System next week, but it will be there when we get to it.) Boxes are left blank for our book selections, as I have not yet made the trip to the library. It is a lot easier to write those in when we're ready, as the library does not always have the books available that we need.

Next, I made folders for the work that needs to be completed. All color-coded and orderly to satisfy my OCD.

I have been filling the folders with all subjects. I will finish that this weekend. I still have math worksheets to print out and handwriting pages to make. Once I am done with those, the entire rest of the year's preparation is complete. All I'll need to do is teach the lesson, read the book(s), and assist in the usual daily work. I cannot say enough how glad I am to finally have everything prepared in advance. I should have done this a lot sooner. Weekends and Monday mornings are already a lot less stressful.

Now Miss Bridget can look at her weekly plan, take the paperwork out of the folder, and complete it. We've been behind in a couple of subjects so there is catch-up to do. For that, we start with the earliest folder with something in it. Bridget has no problem with this, as it usually has something to do with science or history. For the folders with multiple subjects, I'm letting her pick what to complete first.

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