Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Almost Organized

It's our second week of homeschooling now. My plan was to add in the LA subjects. I was feeling confident on Sunday that I had everything ready. I had filled out the weekly assignment sheets for each of the girls. I had printed out Violet's Blue Fairy Book chapter and Jessie's chapter from Parables of Nature. I had read all of their assigned reading so that we could have discussions about it. (Besides, I'd never read Pinocchio or Pollyanna growing up.) All of the school books were in there baskets. Alas there are always a few details that slip my sleep-deprived brain. What did I forget this time?

When it came time for Jessie's dictation, I realized I hadn't picked out a passage yet. I grabbed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and quickly skipped to the part where Lucy goes into the wardrobe. Jessie took one look at the book and informed me that it was the wrong book. She wanted to write the description of the coronation from The Magician's Nephew before we moved on. Now why didn't I just think to ask her. Then I wouldn't have had to scramble.

As Jessie was writing her dictation, I decided to pull out Violet's spelling book so that it would be waiting for her. There was just one small problem. I forgot the sheet protectors. The plan was to reuse last year's sheet protectors. (Thankfully, I did know where to find them.) After all, for the most part they just needed a good cleaning. So there I was alternating between reading Jessie her next dictation sentence and cleaning sheet protectors. (At least I had enough foresight to clean a couple for Jessie spelling workbook while I was at it.)

I finished working with Jessie and stopped to look at the schedule to see what I'm supposed to be doing with Violet for the next 45 minutes. Memory work, math drill, and handwriting. Drat!! I forgot about the handwriting. I started Violet on her memory box and quickly ran down to the basement to grab a sheet of handwriting paper. Then I grabbed the new poem out of the memory box and started copying the first stanza while we finished her memory work and math drill. By the end of the morning, I was so tired of trying to remember what else I might have forgotten that I told Jessie we would wait to start her CW until today.

Oh well. We do the best we can. It will just take some time to settle in to the new routine. Maybe I should make myself a checklist before we add in new subjects next week.

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