Back-to-Homeschool: What Our New School Year Has Looked Like So Far

We officially started our new homeschool year about a month and a half ago…we haven’t made a whole lot of progress but we have had a lot of fun.  It is still summertime (end of August) so I am pretty relaxed about our school routines.  We like to get a head start on the new school year and typically work year around at least somewhat, but having fun with friends or getting outside when the weather is nice still trumps "schoolwork" every time! 

I will start out by admitting the NOT-so-good:

-Our first experiment (4th grader, but all kids involved) of the new year was a FAIL…the second one turned out better though!

-We have already fought over math (7th grade math is no joke!). 

-2nd grader gets discouraged over reading.  She really wants to read well and loves books but it just hasn't totally clicked for her.

-1st grader & Kindergartener still just want to play all day and haven't done a whole lot of “schoolwork” yet. (they are s-l-o-w-l-y easing into it ;)

This school year will be a work in progress but overall I think it will go well, maybe (ok, definitely) not completely smoothly, but I’m sure they will learn a lot! 

What IS going well: 

-My two oldest girls are working on a lot of history and bible together this year.  

-We are getting everyone involved with our science experiments which is fun!  

-We are doing a “Lego club” where another homeschool mom is putting together educational activities involving legos twice a month, all the kids are enjoying this!

-My preschooler can't get enough of her preschool stuff and asks to do it on nights and weekends too!

-My oldest boy (first grader) loves math!  That is when I can pry him away from his legos and ninja turtles long enough to do it!  Good news here is that usually if I wait for him to say he wants to do it then he will go a head and do a bunch of pages at once, so I kinda let him decide when he does it.  Plus he uses math in a lot of ways that doesn't involve a math book.

-My 7th grader often gets a jump start on her school work before everyone else has even had breakfast if she knows we have a busy day ahead of us, I like that she uses her time wisely.

What I am liking so far for our school year is just the flexibly.  We have had days where we spent hours inside at our school tables (usually those are the rainy days!) but then we also have days where we have spent hours at the museum, zoo, creek, and parks. It has been a good balance.  

Life has also been busy with doctor’s appointments, story times with friends, running errands, morning sickness, etc. No day is the same as the one before, we are getting our schoolwork in when we can and not stressing about it when we can’t.  

We will work our way into more of a schedule/routine as the school year continues, at least that’s the plan!

Although we do use pieced together curriculums, I tend have a lot of “unschooling” tendencies and ideals in me. 

 (creek)

 (Zoo)

(Fossil park)

(creek)

 (Parky's Farm)

(bubbles!)

 (scooters at the skatepark) 

(Heritage Village)