Our first two weeks of school have gone very well. I have noticed several areas that need additional tweaking or scrutiny from me, and I'm tweaking and scrutinizing this weekend:
*afternoon chores. Morning chores run like a well-oiled machine, but when 5:00 rolls around, I have a hard time pulling the children from their play (play is SO important!) to do their chores. The afternoon chores also entail tidying up the spaces where they are usually making creative messes, so it's doubly difficult. I haven't decided on a solution here yet.
*piano practice! Last week I'd save piano for the afternoon, but see point #1 above--I hated pulling Finn away from his important play to practice. Then we'd end up practicing after dinner...not ideal. So this week I took my husband's advice and shifted our practice--after breakfast, morning time and chores we do piano (on the days we're home--Monday, Wednesday and Friday). We don't do piano on Thursdays right now. On Tuesdays we practice in the evening. Saturday and Sunday practice can occur either after breakfast or in the afternoon--they are flexible days. I think I've figured this out!
*my bedtime. I am trying to get to bed earlier!
*Spelling is annoying, but I haven't decided what to do about it yet. I'm going to give it a few more weeks!
*exercise. I made up our schedules and realized later that I had not built any exercise time into them. I've since revised them so I think I've got it figured out--but I haven't implemented the new routine yet. My husband has also just cut a 5'-wide path around the exterior of the pasture--a 0.6-mile track all the way around. So going out and doing a few laps is very appealing as the weather cools....
Some things in the schedule are naturally shifting or dropping as well, most notably the KONOS ideas I had for Annie in the afternoons. Play is just too important.....so we are shelving the already-simple plans I had for now. We haven't started Among the People yet--perhaps we will next week, but I'm not in a big rush.
On the whole, I think this year is starting off well. I am busy busy busy, but having a schedule for each day helps tremendously.
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