Wish us luck!

We are going to officially "start" tomorrow, though I'm hoping there won't be much of a difference in our routine. Our days are naturally filled with books. The Monkey reads a lot during the day. The Duck likes looking at books and being read to. The Monkey enjoys long read-alouds at night as well as books about science and history. He has really enjoyed our work over the summer on pre-history (from the Big Bang to Early Humans). They both like to build with unit blocks and legos. The art supplies are used often and plentifully. I think if we keep doing what we've been doing, they’ll have a solid educational foundation. The rest is icing on the cake. Who doesn't like icing?

The first layer of icing is Math and the week after that we'll add Handwriting, then Writing, Science and Art. I'm hoping to add some structure to our days. Notice I didn't say schedule. I have no intention of ringing a bell to "get class started" or stop doing something we're interested in because the clock tells us our time is done. I am not designating times at all, except for the things we need to leave the house for. I am not scheduling lessons or weekly goals. You won't find a red grading pen in my house, though you will find me covered with marker and glitter at the end of the day. We'll work at whatever pace suits us, delving deeper into topics of greater interest. He is, after all, only 6. His natural love of learning leaves me with very little concern about how much he'll "achieve." Achievement isn't my goal. My goal is to nurture and feed his (and her) innate love of learning.

My plan is to be up by 8:00 a.m. (which means go to bed earlier!) and be dressed with my chores done by 10:00 a.m. (Now, that will be a BIG change for me. I'm always surprised when they run out of underwear. The structure is clearly for me.) We'll spend a few hours "homeschooling." We’ll have some time in the workroom with math and handwriting then head to the couch for reading history or science. Then, back to the workroom for whatever activities he is interested in for history of science. We'll finish by lunch so we can have an afternoon with friends, activities, and play. Of course, we'll continue to spend a lot of time reading. If we choose to go to the museum instead, then that's what we'll do. A great day for the beach? Put on the sunscreen kids! Mama has bad PMS? Bring up The Magic School Bus on the DVR.

Here's a grid I made so that I have a reminder of what I'd like to get to that day.