Here I go regarding routine again, but it’s September and it’s that time of year to get all “your ducks in a row,” so to speak. If I’m not organized with a plan of attack now, the year will be gone and I won’t have half of my goals accomplished.

Last year, also my first year officially homeschooling, I did a Monday through Thursday schedule for lesson days leaving Friday for catch-up or fun extras. I never counted the days we did, but I’m sure we did more than enough. Some days it did seem more than enough too!

We did fine sticking to this four-day routine, but do you know what happened? We never did do that fun stuff on Fridays. Library visits were intermittent, park days almost non-exsistent; we could have taken more breaks and not suffered for it. Come to think of it, I was pregnant at the time, so that’s probably why we stuck close to home so much.

Anyway, I guess you don’t hear many homeschooling moms say this but here goes:

I think we need to lighten up around here.

I mean, come on, this is my homeschool. We should be having fun. There is much more than pounding away at the books. I want it to be fun. I want my gang to say, “Gee, Mom, that was so much fun! I’m so glad you homeschool us!” That’s another advantage to the homeschool lifestyle: flexibility.

All that to say – I’m revising the schedule for more time off. Tomorrow I’ll let you know exactly what our new routine will look like. I also plan to blog about what I use to actually teach this tribe, so if you’re into all that – and I know most homeschoolers love to compare notes on all these things – come back tomorrow for the big reveal. I don’t mean to be so mysterious. It’s just getting late and the mommy brain is shutting down for the evening. Nite-nite.