Short Days

   Because we are working year round this year with Daddy's schedule we have short and long days of school.  I shared with you yesterday our "long day".  Our "short day" is the same wake cycle for the boys but the only work they need to do is Math and Bible.  We bump our Table Chores back to 9:45 so Mom and Dad and the girls can sleep in a bit if they want.  Paul and I have been getting up and working out while the girls sleep in a bit to make good use of the time.  We meet as a family at 10:00 and do Bible, news and Memory Work same as usual.  Then we do history together with Dad because Mom and Dad are huge history buffs and we want to learn as a family. We LOVE to learn about history!!  After growing up in public school we are having a lot of fun relearning history from a Christian perspective.  To see how God's hand has been moving throughout time is fascinating.  After that we are free until the usual 2:30 quiet hour for everyone to read.

 We are having these "short days" for two reasons.  One is we don't want to have them only do school 2 days a week when Paul has his long weeks home.  We think it's important to stay focused and on task and that is hard if you're only working two days!  Second is the boys really want to get ahead in math.  If they continue a simple laid back schedule of 1-2 pages a day but do it everyday but Sunday they have the potential of pulling ahead a grade each year they do that.  I also have them continuing to read and that will have them pulling ahead too.  Not that being ahead is a huge deal but they are all a little behind in math for all different reasons (we were just late ordering books for one, one struggled and we held them back and the other we just let him take it at his pace... which was slow by choice!).  With reading one is flying and needs a challenge, one is a book worm... and needs a challenge and one has just had the reading "light bulb" click.  They really got it finally and want to encourage that with great books!

  This year, like last year, is an experiment.  We'll see what we think at the end of the year and then decide where we go from there.  We actually liked our schedule last year a lot but it was hard to spend time with Daddy on his days home.  I guess this is just another reason homeschooling is a good option for us, we can roll with schedules and learning styles and make it work!

How are you making it work?  Are you following other people's ideas of the "right" way?  What is YOUR way??