Monday Musings... I Need to Simplify...

We are just using, or I should say attempting to use, far too many resources. I have too much going on. M and I spent part of the weekend taking a critical look at all that I have on my Plans Page, and we agree... there is just too much there! We looked at all the resources individually, talked about what's working, and what just isn't happening, scheduling, and more. So soon, there will be a much-trimmed down version of that page!

Scheduling isn't working well either, and for that, I really blame myself. I have failed to really set aside a specific time just for homeschooling each day... instead it is more of a hit or miss approach. Most days we do homeschool, but I feel rushed and disorganized. I realized too that in trying to "follow their interests" we end up chasing whims and fancies every which direction. So, back to a Charlotte Mason approach for scheduling, etc., meaning I decide what we cover and when; we do short but solid lessons; and keep up with the good literature. Then, they have plenty of free time to explore all the whims and fancies, which I will support them in, but not necessarily make a formal part of schooling--I also read the book Project Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners, and discussed a lot of it with M. We have decided that the best way we can approach this is to offer the supplies, tools, and support to our kids to follow their interests, but not center all learning around it. Make sense? Maybe they can choose more of their own path by high school...

Other than that, we took the kids out for a day of fishing yesterday with our good friend W (honorary uncle as well). W set up poles for the kids, taught The Girl how to cast (The Boy already knew), and how to get the fish in a net once they caught it. Within the first 30 minutes, both kids had landed fish! We ended up catching the limit of trout we could for the day, and W gave us part of his catch as well, so we have lots of trout to clean and freeze or smoke. I got to sit back and relax much of the day, catching up on some fun reading (as opposed to my college reading). It was lovely--warm out, sunny, and gorgeous scenery! (pictures to come)

On the agenda for the week:

~ Clean up my Plans Page and reassess our schedule

~ Music and art!

~ Life of Fred and Math Mammoth for both kids, now that we have gotten a new copy of an LOF book for The Girl (I'm running her through the entire elementary series over the next couple of years)

~ Some exploration of prehistory: we're going to finish watching Becoming Human while we wait for my "new" copy of K12's Human Odyssey to arrive

~ Officially relaunch my Narnia lit study

~ I'm considering having The Boy do some work this year in Igniting Your Writing. As much as I love the Brave Writer Lifestyle, The Writer's Jungle, etc., I am finding it harder to implement at the moment as a writing plan, and think that The Boy could use some good, basic instruction. Either that, or I need to get serious about having him do written narrations for history and science OR just plain more diligent about using the Brave Writer Lifestyle, The Writer's Jungle, etc.

~ Read from The World in a Drop of Water, and have M follow up on our science reading with some hands-on microscope work with the kids. Start reading The Magic of Reality aloud (1 chapter/week), since we never got very far with it, despite my best intentions. Assess The Father of Anatomy: Galen and His Dissections for future use.

~ Decluttering part... ummm... well, ongoing decluttering

~ Getting ready for camping!!!! We're taking off for a weekend of camping fun on Friday, right on the heels of a Friday morning field trip.

Hope you all have a good week! What are some of your plans?