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Last week was a rough week.  For parents, kids, home school, unschooled and traditional schooled alike...  It was a rough week.  I feel as though we got nothing accomplished.

Spring has finally hit the Pacific Northwest and the afternoons have been beautiful, even if a bit chilly.  Its hard to stick to routines and homework when its finally blue sky and sunny outside after 6 months of gray and rain.  Kids were crazy, parents had more than usual to get done (it seemed) and all anybody wanted to do was play outside.  So we did.  Which left our to-do list a bit on the uncrossed off side....  But the good news - its still there, uncrossed off this week...

We've been homeschooling for exactly a year now. And I'm frustrated.  I've looked at blogs online and evidently homeschooling your first year is alot like teaching your first year.  Its difficult.  You have to get used to the kids, the structure (or lack of it) the curriculum, the learning styles (both his and mine)...

So I gave myself a little grace last week.  We went to an enrollment meeting for the Montessori kindergarten program for our younger child last week.  I think its a great fit for her - and I actually think its a great fit for my homeschooler, but i'm not quite ready to give up yet.  He's making some pretty great progress in lots of areas, and honestly my biggest reason to put him in Montessori is so i'd have some time away...  Sorta selfish - understandable, but selfish.

So last week, during our sunshining, grace giving, break taking week I decided to restructure our entire homeschool (believing that we even had a structure to begin with)...  I put a list on the chalkboard in his room.  A list of his work to accomplish between Monday and Thursday at dinner time... Fridays are a day for hands on science or art to complement our studies of the week, assuming he completes his assignments. Otherwise Fridays are work days - BOO.    Most of his assignments for this week are review. I want to see how he does.  I want him to learn accountability and responsibility.  I want him to take charge of his learning. So I made a list.  Spelling, writing, geography, math.  A few worksheets, some computer time, some free writing,  a new book to read...

Along with a school list, he has a responsibility list.  Daily tasks that need to be completed for him to earn any sort of screen time.  Our lives have been taken over by all things Minecraft, and while I can agree that some parts of the game are useful, it has completely consumed all the extra room in my 8 year olds brain.  So we've set new limits.  We've gone over new expectations.  We've reviewed consequences, some of which he's already experienced.

So looking back, maybe last week wasn't such a failure. Maybe it wasn't so awful.  Some time off gave us an opportunity to re-evaluate, re-structure and re-new.  Now we have new priorities and a new outlook.   And along with some sunshine and blue skies, isn't that all we really need??