Ever Get Best Made Plans?

Yeah you know those- the ones you lay out so well, and so efficiently and you're proud of yourself for being AHEAD of the pack, and getting everything running smoothly...

Yes, then hubris raises it's head and says "Oh look!".

Which is really the equivalent of a Redneck saying "Here, hold my beer!".

Because those plans are about to go sideways, upways and out.

Which is why they can also be known as the homeschoolers curse!

Yup.

I was caught up in last year's smooth groove and didn't account for one little itty bitty thing...

Puberty.

UGH....

Homeschool this month has been a fight form the first day back from break. Yet, when you ask Miss Grace if she wants to try other curriculum, her immediate response is NO!. So I've been trying to sneak in looks at different prgrams to see where we might need to be instead.

Which means those nice pretty laid out school pans through May?

Yup, in tatters....

SIGH.....

Part of the issue is her OCDness, as we call it, which says if she knows it has studied it, thinks she knows it all, she doesn't want to go over it again.

You can see wherea 5th grade curriculum is gonna teeter on that one!

Trying to make Pre-Algebra Math, Ancient Civ and Grammar interesting is taking every ounce of fortitude, and patience....

If you haven't taught those middle grades, I can tell you, there is not a huge wealth of creativity out there- you have to make it up as you go along. Lower elementary has EVERYTHING you could possibly need. Even High School has complicated labs and readings, to bring new life into the subjects.

But the middle?

The proverbial forgotten chlld....

SO I haven't forgotten you my readers, I'm just mentally exhausted trying to keep the kid happy and moving on with school!

The one greatest thing to learn when homeschooling, is knowing when your child needs a break and when to pull back and let 'life skills' take over.

You don't have to 'traditional school' every day of the week!

We are on an alternating 5/4 day schedule, and this week appears to be one of those weeks for us, where it's more fo a 3 day. But that's ok. She'll get all the work completed eventually, and still spend less time each day than she would have in traditional school.

Meanwhile she's focusing on hand-eye coordination, budgeting, nature walks and discoveries, time management and household chores.

And I've re-inventing the schedule.....

only now it's more flexible and allows for a check list versus set periods.

And while I think she should break up leanring into days, if she wants to block it out so all English is on one day, and Math on another. I'm learning to just roll with it, while wondering why a college type schedule suits her already!

So if you are on the homeschool journey (and I do believe it IS a journey that God sent up upon), I'm with you on the imperfect days, and rethinking what schooling really means. Life is NOT Pinterest perfect, no matter how much we try to make it be.

And when you do that, life likes to laugh.....