Re-evalutating and Revisiting

After several excellent posts regarding homeschooling by a dear friend, I found myself wanting to do the same. This is our third year of homeschooling and I was curious if my answers had also changed. So I pulled out this:

I love taking personality tests, work profile quizzes, etc so its no surprise that I enjoyed the questions asks to help unearth my personal philosophy of education. The first 30 pages of this book helps pull out priorities and hopes that we all have in our children's education. The questions range from desire of structure in a school day to project-based learning. How much one on one time do I hope to spend teaching my children? What are my personal priorities for my child that might not be addressed through a curriculum? Do I want to make up curriculum or do I want to follow scripted lesson plans?

I thought surely my answers would be greatly different than my first attempt- I've learned so much since then. But surprisingly, I found myself in a very similar spot-

I am "1/2 Perfect Paula, 1/2 Sociable Sue".
90% Charlotte Mason. 86% Classical.
I teach a 2nd grade Sociable Sue/Perfect Paula and also a kindergarten Sociable Sue/Wiggly Willy.

But what does that mean?
I love structure and people. I love planning and schedules. I love real books. I love having my children narrate to me what I've just read them. I love that there are creative ways to teach facts- they really do remember what they sing. I want them to think critically. I want them to be curious. I want them to appreciate art and beauty. I work best with others and seek out a community in my schooling experience. I teach 2 girls who want that as well and one who is particularly kinesthetic in her approach to learning.

We're doing lots of things well but we need to change up a few things- some curriculum choices and some routine changes. So tomorrow starts the beginning of our new schedule.

Ever the planner, I've loved working on this. (Nerd. I know.)
Everyday is not the same but our best case scenario days when we are home will look like this-

8:30 (ish.....) Together time.... Calendar, Prayer, Bible, History, Science

10:00 begin workboxes for girl's individual assignments (another post on that later)

12:00 lunch/CC review/reading at the table and outside time

1:30 couch time....reading time/specials

2:30 room time for everyone (mom too!)

My hope is that starting and ending the day with our together time will help the girls to really enjoy our days together. Over the next few days I'll have posts related to each chunk of our schedule.....so stay tuned :)