Balance Part 4...

I am learning now how to balance my new job, homeschooling, housework, college, and other demands on my time. It isn't easy. Most days, we do get the basics done... I work and am learning the ins and outs of my new position, I get the dishes and laundry done (though not always put away), there is good food on the table, and we get through math, reading, and writing, and we do read bedtime stories most nights. However, we're barely touching on history and science, there is a lot more housework and yard work I would like to have done... I feel most days as if I am running from one thing to the next.

My solution? Scheduling. Yes, actually having and following a [loose] schedule. I need to make sure I set aside time for housework, for cooking, for homeschooling, for myself. That means I am not answering calls, or checking emails, or looking at facebook updates in the afternoons. Instead, after I get home with the kids, they can check on the pets and fill their food/water bowls. I can do a quick load of dishes and a half hour of cleaning. We can settle in and get more than the basics done. A break midway through homeschooling gives them time to stretch and get their blood moving, and me a chance to do another quick chore or two. Then back to homeschooling, finishing up in time for me to make dinner, and for them to do a few chores before having some play time. Sometime we have time to take a brisk walk, something I would do on a regular basis. They have a bedtime that is fairly early... I read to them, they brush their teeth, and head off to bed. Then I have time with M, and time to read - my time. This is how it needs to be if I am to actually get anything beyond the basics done.

We did figure out, more or less, science. Cyrus is very, very interested in human anatomy. Cassia is a little interested in that, but more in nature studies. So we will do both. Cassia can go along with Cyrus in anatomy studies, and Cyrus can listen in on The Burgess Bird Book for Children, but they don't have to as long as they are doing one or the other. I also changed up our history a little... we were reading each week from both A Little History of the World (ancient times) and A First Book in American History, but I have decided that for this year and the next few (I hope), we'll do American history up to winter (Christmas) break, and then world history the second part of the year. This allows for more rabbit trails along the way!

So what have we done this week so far? Cyrus is acing math. Parts of it challenge him... I can see him concentrating, though parts of it are easy. Cassia scored one low score in math, I think more from a lack of attention than anything else, so I had her go back and re-do everything she missed. Besides that, she is doing well. I put some living math books on hold at the library- Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland for Cassia, since she's learning about angles, along with Pigs in the Pantry for fun, and then The Grapes of Math along with Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday (which many people don't think of as a math book, but it can be!) for Cyrus. While Teaching Textbooks is working very well for us, I would like them to think about math in different ways!

Cyrus has been writing dialog on a computer animation program, and has done some work in Intermediate Language Lessons. We need to fit spelling in on a regular basis, though he is asking me more and more how things are spelled. Cassia worked in Explode the Code a bit, and has been reading to me from her Nora Gaydos' books. Next week I plan to tackle Green Eggs and Ham with her. Cyrus in the meantime, is re-reading his Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and has started Children of Green Knowe, one of my favorite childhood books.

Besides that, Cassia has been helping me with cooking, and Cyrus has spent a lot of time drawing. He is learning about shading, both from a book and from me, and is doing beautifully with it. We're really enjoying the Nurse Matilda (aka Nanny McPhee) book at bedtime.

Back to balance, I think we are all still settling in the groove of our new schedule around my new job. Trying to achieve balance is a constant act... never really an accomplishment that one is done with. I wrote about balance before, and much of what I wrote then hold true now. I still love the idea of a "harmoniously integrated whole", and am determined that someday we shall live that at least a little at a time. I do think too that there is a balance between schooling and unschooling, hence the multiple sciences and the rabbit trails.

Some days, it is like being on a tightrope, others a walk in the park.