It’s that time of year again, and I think this must be my favorite time of year. There’s a hint of autumn in the air (at least early in the morning).  My boys have had their birthdays, and all the deciding-what-to-do-this-year and present buying is over, and they are happy with some new projects to work on (i.e. models and games and such).

They are now nine and twelve-years-old. Where does the time go?

I can put away a full year’s portfolio, which is brimming with paperwork showing that my boys accomplished quite a bit in their “2^nd” and “5^th” grade year. I have created shiny, new 3-ring binders for their “3^rd” and “6^th” grade year, and I look forward to filling them with whatever lies ahead of us for this coming year.

I always work on a rough “weekly schedule” for our new year even though it’s a futile endeavor. We can never keep to a set schedule. However, it’s helpful for me to have a kind of compass, especially when I wake up early, bleary-eyed, and my brain isn’t sharp enough to think of what lessons we need to work on or what appointments we need to go to that day. I can look at the schedule and think, “Ah, yes, math, grammar and Spanish today.” Or I think, “Well, we didn’t actually finish the writing yesterday, so I’ll start with that.”

Although I won’t officially consider the boys in the “6^th” and “3^rd” grade until next week, grade levels don’t mean as much while homeschooling. We are continuing the work we’ve always been doing, but we add challenges, occasionally have new resources to try out and always try to progress to the next level of difficulty in any given subject. The nice thing about homeschooling is that I don’t have to push to the next level until I’m sure my child is ready for it.

The boys have their projects, which is their freely chosen yet heavily supported self-study. They also will have a good dose of parent-planned lessons. (More about those later.) Then we have lots of documentaries to watch, books to read, games to play, and time spent outside. So far it’s been a pretty good way to homeschool. Hopefully it’ll continue to work well.

 Here’s a challenge for you: Ask me two questions. What would you like to know? I won’t promise I will answer every kind of question, but I’ll answer what I can.