Week 1: The Launch!

We are off and running with our new school year and our new curriculum. If I were to grade the start to this school year based on other starts, I would give it a solid A! We all enjoyed it, and I made some solid scheduling discoveries along the way.

Every year I have struggled with morning routine with the kids largely because I am a night owl, and most certainly not a morning person. Last week (before we started school) both kids were in a day camp which forced me into a morning routine of getting up at 6:30 a.m. and getting them out the door by 8:30. It was the best thing that could have happened to us. This week I kept that routine, and the simple fact that I was up before both kids, even by half an hour, made all the difference in our days.  The two secrets I discovered on our best days of school this week were that I had gone to bed by 10:30 the night before, and breakfast was finished and we were downstairs for school by 8:30. Last year we normally started at 9:00, and I was always struggling to get everything done in a day. This week I discovered that the 8:30 start made a huge difference, and we were able to fit everything in! The two days that I was dragging were the days I had stayed up too late the night before. It is a very delicate balance, really.

We finished the goals we set out for the week, minus just a couple of little things that we can easily fit in Monday morning of the Labor Day holiday before setting out, and I was amazed at how well DS 10 managed to complete the reading assignments in TOG week 1. Both children loved the geography work and both did very well with their Phonics Road and Bridge to the Latin Road work.

Next week we will be adding in spelling to the schedule, and the week following that, French. Since we seem to be on a routine, it should not be too tough to add these in, but we will see...I repeat, it is a very delicate balance.