Trying something new for a few weeks.

The boys and I have hit a wall in our school year. None of us are excited about learning right now. I think there are two main problems. One is that my mind is some place else most of the time. Or at least was. We are in the process of selling our house. Enough said, right? :) The other problem is that we have fallen into a boring routine.

We usually start school around 10. Each subject is about 30-45 minutes long. We break roughly the same time every day for snacks, lunch, check emails :) and fresh air.

I find myself just teaching the material. I'm just checking to see if they are filling in all the blank spaces. I've started to rely on all the problems done on the worksheet instead of checking to see if they can apply that knowledge to life.

I noticed a week or so ago that the boys were less then thrilled to be doing lessons. As a mom I knew it was more then "I don't want to do it today." kind of thing. True, we had just come off of a break but the subjects that once brought excitement were getting the silent treatment.

I prayed.

I had one of those "While still praying, God sent the answer." kind of thing happen. :) God is good.

We've decided to take each day and only fill it with one to two subjects. Instead of spending 45 minutes on something, we'll spend two hours. Instead of rushing on to the next thing, we'll dive deeper.

The boys are excited. They are looking forward to just day of math and reading. Or just a day of grammar and history. Maybe tomorrow we'll do spelling and "life" stuff. Perhaps just a day of delight directed learning.

I'm looking forward to it. We haven't officially started yet. I had planned on starting it on Monday. But Monday I used as a scrub the house down day, including but not limited to, throwing out junk. :) Tuesdays we have co-op and because we didn't do the homework on Monday, Tuesday become "Let's get the homework done before we have to leave" day.

So today we will start our "One to two subject day".

I think this kind of schedule will be such a benefit for me right now. Just off the top of my head I can focus more on David's reading, packing the house, keeping it clean in case of a walk-through, maybe get dinner ready at a decent time. :)

I think the kids are going to benefit because it will allow them to dive into stuff a little bit more. Plus I will be able to get a clearer picture of what they know and don't.

I'm thinking about making it a little more structured. Meaning all Mondays are homework and math days, Tuesdays are spelling and co-op days, etc. Or perhaps just plan out the week one week at a time. Just plop stuff down as I want. Not sure yet. I'm leaning more towards a structured way because really Monday and Tuesday are pretty much planned out already. So why not do Wednesday and Thursday that way too?

Well, now I'm off to start our school day :)