If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember my Back to Homeschool post in early September and my Back to Homeschool Update in early October. I thought I would follow those up with a “mid-year review” of sorts.  I’m not going to repeat much of what I wrote in those posts, which had a lot to do with how we homeschool or at least how I “planned” our homeschool.  I’m just going to say that I think we’ve been off to a very good start!  This Fall season has gone very well, and I haven’t changed too many of my strategies, so I must have hit upon just the right amount of homeschooling for us.  (I want to emphasize that because I think every homeschool family’s schedule is going to be different to meet the needs of the unique individuals in that family!)

I have relaxed in a few ways, however:

• I no longer wake up the boys in the mornings. I let them sleep as late as they want, which can be quite late sometimes (usually 8~9 am, but once in awhile 10!)  As I mentioned before, we tend to be night owls and late sleepers in this family.  I didn’t necessarily want to change that, but when we started our new homeschool routine in September, I felt I needed to get us up and started at least by nine.  The purpose was simply to make sure that we got the ball rolling on the homeschooling, and I didn’t want our afternoon free time to be cut short.  After I saw that my son very easily adapted to doing “school” in the mornings, and he has always been willing to do the lessons, I didn’t feel it mattered anymore if we started exactly at nine.  And we always seem to have plenty of time for afternoon appointments and play time. If we need to get up earlier, I don’t have problems with that either. (I know…I’m a spoiled mama!)
• I mentioned before how I wasn’t sure how to work in book time, but that worry has now passed.   First of all, I don’t worry about reading books everyday. We’ve spent plenty of mornings reading through library books. I don’t need to schedule it because it just happens, especially when I can’t think of something else to work on!
• I still have not been able to go back to my regular routine of a weekly cleaning day.  I had wanted to dedicate one day a week to cleaning like we did last year, but we have been busy (and having fun!), so that hasn’t happened. We do have cleaning days, but instead of a regular, weekly day, it’s whenever mama decides enough is enough and this pigsty has to be cleaned!

As a recap, I will list some of the posts I’ve written since September specifically related to how we’ve been homeschooling this fall season.  But please note that if you want more specifics, I have recently updated my comprehensive Table of Contents that you can find in the header. I have tried to break it down into categories that I think you may be most interested in. (Please let know if I can do anything to make my site more user friendly.)

• Back to Homeschool (September 2012)
• Back to Homeschool Update (October 2012)
• Using Technology in Home Education
• Using E-mail in Homeschool
• Post Script: Using E-mail in Home Education
• The Junior Ranger Program
• An update on our homeschool math, Life of Fred: Butterflies
• The Gift of Story

As always, I have a lot I want to write about, and as I find the time, I’ll do so.  (UPDATE: Most of this is posted, so click away!)

• An update on our reading progress
• A review of Lori Pickert’s book, Project-based Homeschooling
• An interview with Lori Pickert regarding PBH with young children
• Our latest project: The Titanic, which was a true learning experience for Mama in child-led learning! (I think someone asked me how I dealt with my child’s frustrations, and my post on the Titanic project will cover some of that!)
• A column on our visit to Hard Labor Creek
• More storytelling resources
• International Education
• So much more…

Thank you for sticking with me and following my blog. I have TRULY enjoyed the e-mail conversations I have had with some of you. It’s such a pleasure to get to know other mamas who love their children as much as I love mine!  I hope you are having a wonderful winter break.