It's Been Beautiful and Good So Far

Our school year is a bit different this year. For starters, I only have 2 students (our oldest graduated in May). That's kind of nice. We sit at the dining room table together in the mornings and do our school work.

Of course we use various other parts of the house---the computer in the living room, Dad's desk in our bedroom, the 15 year old's bed, the kitchen, etc.

We are using a new-to-us curriculum this year called The Good and the Beautiful for Language Arts. It is single-handedly the best decision I've ever made for our homeschool.

Even though our youngest is in first grade, the placement test put her squarely in level K. (Their website says their levels don't follow traditional grades) It has been just perfect for her. The above picture was her reaction when I told her it was time to begin reading THE BIG READER. Up until now she's been reading little stapled together mini books. She was so excited about the big reader. And is reading it beautifully.

She's using Level K for math as well. It's been pretty easy for her but I feel like it is laying a very solid foundation in math. This is my 3rd kid and I know very well how important that is.

But it's really, really working well for our 15 year old. I used the placement test on her as well and the level it put her in has been great. I mean, it's still school, but it's not that bad. They even kind of enjoy it.

For the first time in a really long time, I feel like school is not taking up all of my time. When the older girls were little, it seemed like all we did was school--either planning, preparing, or implementing plans. Maybe it was the curriculum we were using. TGTB is much more user friendly and ready to go. I'm really enjoying that as a teacher.

Or maaaaybe, I'm completely forgetting to do a lot of really important things this year. Why does it feel so easy? Perhaps those 12 years of homeschooling and 11 years of teaching public school have paid off?

Whatever. I'll take it.

Good. Beautiful. And easy.

Signing off,

The Seat of My Pants

This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, we receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Hope they are helpful!

I used to be pretty good at flying by it--the seat of my pants, that is.

I first discovered this when I became a teacher. If something happened and a part of my lesson plans weren't going to pan out, I was pretty good at coming up with a last minute activity. Sometimes they were really good! Like, really, really good. Kind of scared me, actually.

And something happening out of the ordinary--such as an assembly--did not throw my day off. Boy some teachers would be upset. They liked their schedule and their routine. Me? I liked the occasional "different" day. It kept things interesting.

The older I've gotten, the more I like planning. I still like to think of myself as flexible, but I do like to have stuff planned out.

I make a menu plan every week before I grocery shop. Otherwise we spend $150 at the store and have nothing that makes an actual meal.

I plan out expenses each month and we make a budget. Otherwise we spend all the money and have nothing to actually live on.

I plan field trips. I plan errands. I plan parties.

I try to plan lessons every week. I'm really trying to relax that this year. I have spent too many Sunday afternoons to count planning lessons or at least writing out which lessons I wanted my daughters to do over the years. This year, I really tried to be a "just-do-the-next-thing-open-and-go" kind of homeschool mom. But I realized after the first week that I couldn't do it. The girls both had laminated checklists of what they were supposed to do, but *I* didn't know what we were doing!

So I made a little form and filled in some information. I don't like it just yet. It needs some tweaking. And this last weekend I didn't get any planning in anyway. I hate opening a book and finding out there are materials we need and I haven't gathered them or we don't have them. It's been a frustrating week on that end and it's only Tuesday. Hopefully next week I'll be more together.

My husband is kind of a planner too. He likes to use technology. He uses nearly every feature on his phone. He uses apps. If there is technology out there to help plan something, he uses it.

I think I nearly killed him earlier this month when I went to buy a 5 subject spiral notebook. I'm too low-tech for him.

Of course, he also uses these. So...just whatever. My notebook is bigger, that's all.

I guess what I've learned is....I CAN fly by the seat of my pants. But life works a lot better when I plan.

Adulthood. It sneaks up on you.

Signing off,