Getting back to the routine

We're supposed to have our "official" first day of school next Tuesday, September 7. Then I got a phone call from my cousin on the west side of Washington that she and my aunt will be coming here that day and would like to get everyone together for lunch or something and visit. Josh said for family, we can rearrange the schedule or just have an extra day off. Great, expect I have almost all of September planned out and my planner looks so nice I don't want to scratch everything out and re-write it, lol! But, he's right. For family, we can rearrange our schedule.

I am proud of myself for getting the whole month's lesson plans written out. I have a huge stack of teacher's guides and student textbooks/workbooks to go through for each day in order to make the plans. That's what I get for going the eclectic route instead of the all-in-one curriculum route. But with the boys and their individual needs and learning levels, we really don't have a choice. I have looked into programs like ACE and Alpha Omega where you can get each subject in a different grade level. We may do that next year, who know's we may end up doing that halfway through the year. One thing I've learned with homeschooling, nothing is set in stone and nothing is guaranteed to work. You can only try it, see if it fits, then either keep going or change it. I had to do that already last school year with Joey.

We had tried out Heart of Dakota. I really liked the program and the format (not too long for Joey, just what he needed) but it didn't fit him as far as what he was learning. Everything either went right over his head or wasn't challenging enough. It was not a fun daily process, either trying to "dumb down" the lessons or find something to supplement the lesson to give him enough learning. Yet, I will still recommend Heart of Dakota to anyone who asks. Plus, if it hadn't been for Heart of Dakota, I wouldn't have discovered Rod & Staff which has turned out to be the PERFECT fit for Joey.

So my goal is to finish September's lesson plans today, then in 2 weeks to start mapping out the lesson plans for October. I would like to go into each month with a full month's lesson plans ready to go. It's not been easy. I've spent many wasted minutes just trying to hunt through teacher's guides that aren't very clear on how to use the curriculum trying to decipher the instructions and figure out how to plan daily lessons. I really don't like having to "wing it", which is what I suspect the author of Jaysen's math program had in mind, lol! I'm the kind of gal that really needs it mapped out for me, at least until I get a better understanding of things. I feel we are still in our first year of homeschooling as Joey was just withdrawn last November.

I'm still learning, still stumbling my way along in the dark. But the good news, I see the light ahead of me, ready to guide me as soon as I pick myself up off the ground and am ready to continue the journey.