Our September Homeschool Hours!

Okay...we're first time homeschoolers here, so I may be going a wee bit overboard with my recording of hours and with my expectations overall, etc. All that said, I'm super happy to have figured out that our first month of homeschooling gave us 139 hours to record for the state! Woo-hoo!! Way to go Zoey and way to go mama!! Wisconsin requires 875 hours of instruction throughout the school year. We are well on our way and I feel like it's pretty safe to say we're going to go over that required number.

Did it feel like 139 hours? Yes, pretty sure it did. For both Zoey and I. :)  She mentioned to me at the end of last week that she feels like she's done more in this one month than in the last three years of public school. YIKES! I will just say, we had a little chat about that and we're both planning on adjusting our expectations a bit to meet in the middle a little better. That said, do I think we may have over-done things here and there? Yes, especially on those first few days...I might be learning to lighten up just a smidge. Did I record everything...as in every-little-thing? Yes, I did! I am counting any library programs, activities, free reading, dance classes, hikes, etc. that she takes part in. It all counts, so I'm counting it! Were most of our recorded hours actual school "work" hours? YES!

We're feeling like we may have hit a little bit of a groove I think and I have to say, it feels good. This week is exciting because we're starting in on some new topics and new books. In Science we're moving into learning about the skeletal system and in Geography we're talking about North America and Zoey will be starting in on reading Hungry Planet: What the World Eats and Material World: A Global Family Portrait. These will both be spines that she refers to as she travels around the world, along with her book Geography of the World. We are reading the book titled, Navigating Early together and discussing it starting this month and for Literature she is starting to read the book Walk Two Moons.

Already Changing Things Up - Weekly Assignments

We haven't even officially started homeschooling yet and I'm already switching things up a bit. I am told that this is alright...so I'm going with that!  ;)

Originally I had thought that I would go this route for sharing Z's weekly assignments with her but when I got started in on actually trying to implement that plan, I discovered I would be using a ton of post-it-notes and would have to write pretty tiny on them to fit all our plans on them and they would lose their stickiness and I just didn't like it. So...we're trying this instead...

I got binder dividers that have pockets and labeled each one with  a day of the week and added one at the end for Misc. for additional long-term assignments, projects, etc. I then printed off some assignment planner sheets that I found online (I pinned them to my School & Learning Pinterest album if you're interested) and stuck one in front of each day divider.

In the pockets of each day divider I'll put in any worksheets or other loose papers Z may need for that day's work so that she can keep track of everything.

I think this plan is going to work out for us both! My goal will be to fill up her weekly assignment binder every Sunday so that she's ready to go on Monday for the whole week. She likes that she will know what's coming up so she can plan her days accordingly and I like that she will have to manage her time and that I will be able to keep all of her planner sheets for the year showing what it is that she's done throughout the week, we'll just need to remember to date them!

Weekly Assignments

I've been looking at printables galore on Pinterest and on other homeschooling blogs and I just haven't been able to find something that I thought would work well for Z regarding a daily list of tasks to help her stay on track. I didn't want to use all that paper either (a sheet day!) and have to have her fill out a "to do" list every day, or for me to have to! Since I'm still going to be working outside of the home our schedule for homeschooling is going to be a bit creative on those days that I work. I finally realized that it would be so much better if she knew at the start of each week exactly what it is that she is to do for the whole week. She can then manage her time accordingly (a skill she will need to have anyways) and plan what to do when, for the most part (I'm going to be a stickler on some things, like math, I'm guessing!) on her own. We can both plan, at a glance, when we will have time to do the more in depth projects as well. 

I decided on this super simple way to make our weekly assignment plan...I simply put her main subjects (printed from the computer) into a plastic sleeve and into a binder and I'll just stick post-it-notes under each subject every week, switching them out as needed...super slick if you ask me! Our other category will be for things we don't have every day such as Spanish, cooking, unit studies, etc.