New Year's Resolutions?

I did not actually make a New Year's Resolution. I haven't been great about keeping them over the years so I decided to do something different. I made notes of things I want to accomplish, like a to do list for the upcoming year. I know it sounds like a resolution, but to me it is just normal. I am very good at completing to do lists, not so good at resolutions, go figure.

I really wanted to focus on organizing our school stuff better. Things like lesson plans, grades, and paper work. I create a homeschool planner with a 3 ring binder. I just laid it out like I did all those numerous notebooks I made in college for my education classes. I printed off some great forms to use from some web site www.donnayoung.org/forms. I will publish some photos of my planner when I get a mo to take some.

I am also trying to change my eating and exercising habits. I am slowly working on drinking more water and less soda, making wise choices about what I eat and snack on, and trying to exercise as much as I can. Today was beautiful out side so I went out to run and play with the kids for a while. I want to start walking and build up to running a 5k. (That is one of my long term plans)

As far as homeschooling goes I am looking at it as I would have my job as a teacher. I had become quite lazy by the end of the last quarter and I didn't like it one bit. So by being more organized I hope to become more productive also.

I started a new program with TT. He gets up really early, so to make the time between when he rises and the rest of us do I have created morning work. I used this in my classroom for students as they come into the classroom, so I thought it might work for him. For TT I made up a chart of daily work. He is given a journal writing prompt each morning to write on and one review lesson from a subject. We are starting this week reviewing math using his Rod and Staff textbook. I had changed back to Math U See because he was struggling so hard with the Rod and Staff long division. But I have decided to try to do a little of both while he is in the easy early lessons of Math U See. I guess I will see how it goes. My hope with the journal writing is that it will improve his ability to take his thoughts and get them down on paper.

For Poogie we are going to be more aggressive in the areas of phonics, reading and math. When we had busy days I didn't always get to all her lessons. Now it will be a priority.

I am waiting on some materials I ordered from CLP to start my Revolutionary War unit, so we are going to do some small lessons from Story of the World until they get here.

Reading aloud for fun is also going to be a focus. We will be reading Johnny Tremain for our Revolutionary War unit, but I want to read something for fun too. I am thinking of reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to them. TT wants to know what happens after Order of the Phoenix and he really doesn't like to read books that long.

Science is also going to get some much needed attention. We will start out doing some lessons from our Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry and then in February we will begin a unit on Astronomy. We will focus on the moon and constellations. TT will be doing this for a Boy Scout badge also. Poogie wants to do a unit on butterflies this spring so we will be hatching some of our own.

Whew, even typing all this makes me tired. But I know that these are some changes I need to make to ensure our personal feeling of success in our homeschool. I am wanting to move more towards the Charlotte Mason Style of teaching, however this more structured form suits my son better at this time and that is what I am going to do, at least for this year. Have a great week.