Back to the Grind!

That sounds just awful, doesn't it? "Back to the grind!" Makes it sound so onerous. lol.

I wouldn't mind another week of holidays but I'm not minding, either, the idea of getting back into school, working on a better routine, etc.

Today, I wrote down some notes for myself for tomorrow for my son:

*Out of his room ALL morning (except to play guitar).
*Anything except for comics can be read during the morning.
*I used my Homeschool Tracker program to create a kind of open plan for tomorrow. I put in it:

--Music
--French: writing (composition about anything or something he's read or handwriting practice; can include calligraphy)
--Religion
--Math (I'd like to find our one Life of Fred math and see if it tempts him at all; I just feel like he needs something different for a bit)
--Science (I need to pick an activity, but we also have various science books here he can read)
--Other: Look at the woodworking book I took out; any inspiration or desires? Explore indoor gardening possibilities. How would it work? What would you like to grow? You have mentioned wanting your own pet. Research different pets. Write down what you've found; we can come up with a template/form to follow to make sure everything is covered. What sort of things would you like to be able to do? What kinds of things would you like to find out how other people did them? Basically, a bunch of things to get him thinking, exploring.

So, I've essentially structured the time (kind of like Thomas Jefferson Education approach), and given guidelines for topics, but not decided exactly what has to be done. I know I need to decide some specific lessons at some point, but for now, I'm hoping my suggestions of things to do will get him started. I will do at least one science lesson this week.

It hit me that I forgot to put in there that I want him to plan and prepare a supper this week. I'll have to write that on his sheet (it's already printed off).

For my daughter, she didn't end up doing any school work during Christmas vacation. The huge focus will be on math and language arts, but she can't be neglecting other stuff, either. I keep having this nagging voice telling me to use with her certain time management principles I've learned, so I need to actually take action on it. Basically, sit down and write out all the things she's got on her mind she needs to do. What's the next action for each of these things? And take time each day to assess what's most important, what's been done, what risks being neglected. Things like that. When I think of her work habits before Christmas, she'd spend a lot of time in avoidance, using her iPod or laptop or something. I think I might take note of all that, the times I see her doing that, and then sometime later in the week, ask her if she's aware of where her time is going.

All right, enough thinking for now!