We did something we’ve never done before
I had originally planned to share my simple weekly planning and accountability methods with you today, but this week we did something we've never done before, and I wanted to tell you about it.
We started school yesterday. In the past, we've always had a target starting date in mind. This is the first year in which we made a very impromptu decision to start school as soon as possible and had our first school day 36 hours later.
Granted, we have the advantage of having several years of homeschooling under our belts, so it wasn't like we were starting completely from scratch, but I didn't feel as prepared as I would have liked. And yet... our first day of school was perhaps our smoothest yet. We're entering the year lightly - we're doing a few choice subjects to ease into the year, and we added the fun surprise of building a new LEGO castle set this week while we listen to the Adventures of Robin Hood on audiobook.
Back to my minimal prep, though. I'm not a detailed lesson plan kind of homeschooler. I like to have a general idea of what we're going to study, the materials we will use, and how often we will do each subject during the week. We do a lot of reading (independently, aloud to each other, and through audiobook), so I do like to have a suggested book list for our year. I haven't finished it yet, and since this book list is the center of our studies, I didn't like not having it done. Still, I decided to make do with what I already had in mind and fill in the gaps as we go.
I wanted to share this story with you in the hopes it encourages you. It's so easy to feel overwhelmed and not ready. Yet if you take a small starting step, you may realize you're more prepared than you thought.
Looking for a helpful way to ease into the year? You might like my free guide designed specifically for busy moms. (You can grab it here!) In this guide, I offer three plans for you to try. Try the Minimalist Plan for a simple start to your year and build up to the other plans.
Next week, I'll be back with the promised popsicle stick method I use for planning and accountability!
