Just taking some time this Saturday morning to think about this fall, my kids' schooling, what went well, what needs to be tweaked and what might need to be thrown out all together with 2013 starting. ;) But, let's face it, my mind is more on starting off 2013.
As we sort out my daughter's health issues, I do believe that will help get things on track better with her. She has already decided that she will resume math next week, with the aim of getting the second-last unit done the first or second day officially back. She has until the end of January to get the math done--the unit work, a project she needs to do and the final exam--but it's the only subject she has with these sort of requirements, so it should be okay. I think we do need to sit down and go subject-by-subject with things and figure out a plan for January in terms of what to get done. Her novel study for English ought to be one thing--if she gets that done, she will be on track for a full-year course. But art is getting neglected, her phys. ed. hours haven't been tallied and sent in, German... who knows where that is. She has science and social studies starting second semester and they will likely take up a good amount of her time.
As I write all this, my mind goes back to her health. We can have all the plans we want, but if she's not feeling well, then it's very hard to push things through. At the same time, my mind is going we need some sort of routine. Routines help. They can be hard to start, but they help in the long run. I'll need to think about this more.
When it comes to my son, I reread what I last wrote. I do definitely want more "real life" work with him. Some ideas off the top of my head:
*menu planning
*cooking
*inside gardening: what kinds of things could we grow in the house? what would we need?
*household care--his laundry, dealing with stains, fixing things in his room, cleaning his room... ;) ; he already has been using the snowblower this winter and shovelling the driveway and walks, largely because my husband broke his big toe and developped an infection in it and really had to stop doing as much
*pet care--he keeps saying he'd like this pet or that pet, which are all impractical at this point (like a rabbit), imho, but if he can participate more in the animal care around here, and we can get his room clean (only possible place for a caged animal), then it might be a possibility
*building things--um, what could he build?
He's gone grocery shopping with me a couple of times recently. I had been in the habit of going alone for years--it was faster and we bought less. (lol) I do think bringing him along more often will be good and can be tied in with things like the menu planning: "How much does it cost to buy everything we need for that meal? Etc." He did get a lesson in looking at the price tags and comparing prices based on volume and started using it right away with other things.
He does still love doing science things so I do need to resume that. He loves working with the chemistry sets and experiments and all that.
One thing that definitely is not working is allowing him to go off into his room each morning under the guise of reading. I've realized lately that he's actually laying down for most of it, just reading his comics. Hm. There's more to life than laying in bed reading comics! It's my job to show him that. I'll really need to do more reading and research and get a plan and perhaps schedule in place. Schedule--that has me thinking...
As I face the next part of our school year and current schedule, I know in my heart I don't want this schedule next year. It is good income with the French classes and is fun, but the schedule makes it hard on us: Monday afternoons I'm unavailable, all day Thursday, busy. There's something about it that affects our flow. Granted, dd is in a program on Thursdays which will be starting on Jan. 10, so there's that upheaval anyhow, but... As much as I am loving teaching the French class kids, my heart is yearning for something different, for it to be just us. Income-wise, this means I'm going to have to figure something out, but I've got some time for that. Online classes through Learn It Live, perhaps, or writing or some online business I can work on early in the morning or in the evening or get more earnings from Stampin' Up or a combination thereof or... Something. I'll put this desire out there with the faith and hope that the answer will come to me. :)
For right now, that's enough thinking. It's no longer Saturday morning, but 12 noon and I'm hungry. :)
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