New Year, New Resolve

I’m not one to make new year’s resolutions, but I sure do enjoy the new year and its promise of fresh starts. I am glad to turn the page to a fresh sheet with no mistakes in it. Homeschooling is no different than any other area of life when it comes to fresh and new beginnings. I am using January as a chance to make changes in the way we do things here at the Peachy Keen Homeschool Academy. Read on to find out tips about how you can make the most of a second semester of homeschooling.

Unfortunately for our homeschoolers, the month of December yielded little in the way of structured learning. We did much learning, don’t misunderstand, but a very small percentage of that was in a classroom setting. Much more of it took place in the kitchen and laundry room–which doubled as “decoration central.” My three children thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the transformation of our house into a Christmas scene fit for Currier and Ives. They also had a wonderful time taking part in baking and making — cookies and candy, that is. We must have baked around 35-40 dozen cookies and made three kinds of candy. We gave some away and saved others to share with our holiday guests.

After this self-imposed hiatus from our homeschool classroom, I found myself riddled with guilt over what we had NOT done during December –completely losing sight of all we HAD accomplished. My children all have a greater appreciation now for what it takes to prepare for a holiday, especially the anticipation of the birth of Jesus. They understand the concept of Advent, what it means and how they can participate in every facet of the celebration. We avoided the hustle and bustle of the season by staying together more and enjoying the preparations at our own pace.

Now, we are fully back in homeschool mode, complete with daily activities, studies and projects. I am enjoying more and more of what homeschooling provides for our family. I observe the interests, learning styles and struggles of each of my children on a daily basis. I can then tailor their studies to fit each of their individual learning bents. I still struggle to be everything to everybody, but my children are learning to find other things to keep them busy while the Mama works one-on-one with a sibling.

So, what are my tips for making a second semester profitable?

1. Don’t be afraid to make changes–drastic changes.

(We are not doing this, but I am told it is not uncommon to switch curriculums mid-year to find something that works better for your child.)

2. Leave the past in the past.

(You cannot make up for those days that did not go well, so focus on what you can change and chalk the past up to experience.)

3. Encourage your children to journal their experiences so you can continue to tweak your homeschooling experience to match their goal and desires.

4. Pray (I know this should come first, but it often doesn’t–so I didn’t put it as #1 here to be pious. Yet, nothing else I am doing this semester will have more of an impact than the prayers I lift up on behalf of our school, our teacher, our head master and our students. The whole flavor of our school will be determined by the prayers of its participants.)

5. Prepare ahead of time and leave room for adaptation. (In my home that basically means “learn to roll with the punches.” A school day may look drastically different than what I had planned on paper, but that doesn’t mean it was a failure –quite the opposite occurs many times when you allow the students to delve into what interests them most.)

I am eagerly anticipating what God will do with our semester. We’ve got one week under our belts, and we are well on our way to a level of learning we’d not reached before. It requires more of me than I’d ever imagined, but the fringe benefits are innumerable. I’ll catalog some of those at another time.