Sunday, January 2, 2011

Is it time to rethink our year?

This is our second year of homeschooling, full year I should say as we had 1/2 a year of kindergarten as well.
Its also the second year absolutely everything fell apart in Oct/Nov, sickness and so on. We just seem to get so busy really from Halloween on that we don't have time for everything and maybe that's why we keep getting so sick over the holidays. This year again we were down over christmas, I've written more about that in my everyday tab, but frankly I think our schedule needs an adjustment.
Back in September when all of us homeschoolers were talking about the new school year, several mentioned that they didn't start the "new year" of schooling until January. Now, I thought that was a bit strange honestly...I guess I'm still in the "traditional" mode of the school year but now.......after another year of things falling apart over the holidays and schoolwork yet again suffering because of it, maybe just maybe its the way to go.
And since we've hit bumps over these holidays I guess it is just a matter of starting fresh instead of being frustrated over where we should be and aren't. I'm eliminating stress this year in my life so yes I think its for the best.
So, some Tuesday, January 4th we start 2nd grade (again...but shush, this is me being positive!) with a fresh outlook at where we are heading and not where we didn't get too!! I've looked into A Thomas Jefferson Education and like what I'm reading and so I'm going to attend the online conference this week and hear more about it all.
So, what does this mean....it means our summer will be from sometime in October to January 1st-ish, which works just fine since a lot of the summer I'm stuck inside the house with my asthma and we homeschool anyway. Normally, I would be upset at this point about it all but I'm trying to find what is important and what is not. I can't do anything about when it seems we get sick, its happened for three maybe even four years now but the past two years have been the worst of all. I'm just a little slow at picking up the rather loud clues about it and to adjust things accordingly. Now I'm listening to whomever has been telling me its not been working the way we have been going and its time for a change. I firmly believe that God and life lead you in the direction you need to be, I'm just not so good at reading the signs sometimes! I'm going with the sickness and hardships over the past few years have been signs for change.
So,
1) We adjust when we do our school year, its so nice to have the option by the way to adjust when we do it all.
2) Perhaps The Thomas Jefferson Education came into our lives at just the right time as well. We'll see how it goes.
3) Less stress, more friends.
4) Enjoy more of what we are doing when we are doing it...in other words enjoy life as it is happening.
5) Explore more of what we want to do in our school work.
6) Less stress...........



12 comments:

  1. Less stress? I'll take two of those please. LOL

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  2. Hi there,
    thanks for following me and I am following back:)
    I have been home schooling 2 years also. I find Nov and Dec the hardest months as there is so much extra activities to do and see. Things seem to settle down after New Year's and we can start fresh. Hang in there:) Will be back to visit more but need to start "School"

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  3. I am here, yay! I love this and will be lurking around a little more. I love the ideas on your sidebar. I want the hanging file folder system. Now that we have changed our curriculum we don't need them, but I love them. =)
    Have a great day and I look forward to visiting often.

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  4. I there...hopping over from the 1st blog hop of the year. We too are in our 2nd official year (don't we really all HS from birth..lol) of HSing and it is so nice to be able to adapt our schedule of schooling around our lives...hang in there...you have a great positive attitude! Come on over and check us out too...a new follower here!

    Peace to you!

    http://just-starting-out.blogspot.com/2011/01/1st-project-of-year-bench-re-do-back-to.html

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  5. OK Dawn, I am trying to "follow: you but Google is not letting me...I will keep your blog page open and keep trying!

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  6. Welcome everyone!!
    I'm glad that we aren't the only ones that find the last couple of months of the year just too busy. We are looking forward to tomorrow...well I am, I'm not so sure The Red Ranger feels the same way!
    I had a horrible time yesterday with Google and blogspot, hopefully its all straightened out now.
    Thanks for visiting!

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  7. Great post! I just posted something similar. I like to think we have two new starts per year, one in Sept and one in Jan! We too are planning to do a more year round schedule. This year we plan to take off July and December. We had December off this year and it worked out great. Stopping by from No Ordinary Blog Hop :)

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  8. Hi Dawn! New follower here and on your Everyday Life tab! Thank you for following my blog and linking up to the No Ordinary Blog Hop! A friend of mine mentioned the Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy to me not too long ago and so you are the 2nd person I have heard talk about it (now is this MY sign from God for a change I need to put into my shedule? :) Trial and error gets me stressed out alot and I am trying to not to stress about things that don't seem to work no matter how hard I try!
    Happy New year!

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  9. Perhaps so Tracy......lol.....

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  10. Hi. I'm following you through No Ordinary Blog Hop. I'm a new follower! http://ourhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com

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  11. Stopping by from NOBH also! I agree that January feels like a natural start to the year in an odd way. The fall for us was all about adjustment. My oldest (10) came out of public school and at times it was very difficult. Now I feel like we are over the adjustment (she definitely needed 5 months to de-school) and now we are able to live the life we want!

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