Days of accomplishment

The past few days have been such a good days. The kind of days that you look back on and say “Dang!” (That’s southern for “My goodness, things are going swimmingly!”) Our Lenten focus on being the very best homeschool we can be is paying off. Big time!

Pre-Lent, athough I felt like we got alot done, I knew we could be acomplishing MORE. I knew at least that MY efforts were not maxed out, and I had a feeling Superboy’s were not, either. So we sat down and decided to use Lent to find out what exactly we COULD accomplish if we set our minds to it. What do you know, I was right! We are capable of so much more than we had been doing!

Here is what I found out Superboy is capable of DAILY:

• Copywork (this had been sporadic at best before.)
• Independant reading of a sizeable chunk of Non-fiction (currently American Revolution for Kids) and oral narration after.
  
• Work on timeline (added Boston Massacre and Boston Tea party)
• Work on history project (still working on Paddle to the Sea boat)
• Nature study (today-Eastern Hemlocks and the Hemlock wooly adelgid)
• Geology project (today-soil textures)
• geography work (currently memorizing locations and abbreviations of 50 states)
• unit-study work (Fishers of Men unit-rotates between topics of fish, bread, wine, and the priesthood)
• Math (grade-level work on fractions )
• PLUS some remediation on long division
• Listen to read-aloud (The American Story)
• Time for outdoor play (and on tues/thurs Karate lesson)
• Independant reading for pleasure in evenings (currently By the Shores of Silver Lake)
• chores and helping out with littles (he is SUCH a good helper)

Here is what I found out I am capable of DAILY:

• Caring for baby, and keeping 3 yo and 5 yo happily busy while schooling 11 yo without getting frustrated.
• Reading aloud
• listening to Superboy read aloud
• working with JBug on initial sounds and counting/number recognition
• potty training 3 yo
• Keeping house in order
• Preparing nutritious meals (even some in advance!)
• Enjoying some time outdoors
• drawing in my nature journal
• teaching Superboy some science (how to determine soil texture)
• getting ds to karate and picking up dd from Jazz band (tues/thurs)
• Spending time in afternoon/eve with 17 yo daughter
• Reading for pleasure in the eves
• Spending time with dh in eves

Honestly, I would never have thought us so capable. I have always looked at the plans and accomplishments of other homeschooling families and thought “We could never do that much!” And looked at how organized and efficient other Moms were and thought “I will never be that “together.” I see now that I was selling us short. We can do so much more than I had given us credit for.

Will we be able to keep up this pace? No, probably not indefinitely. But then again, every homeschooling family has its times of ebb and flow ( “tidal homeschooling” as Lissa so eloquently puts it). At least now I know what our “high tide” should look like!