A Fluid Life

You can't stop time!

One thing I have learned - things change. All the time. Children grow and become new people on what seems like a daily basis. My little baby girl is now 5 years old, and ready to start kindergarten. Where has the time gone?

Circumstances change, too. Earlier this year my husband changed positions at his job. As a result, his work schedule changed, and this changed the rhythm of our whole home life. Actually, we're still getting adjusted. To add to this, I went back to work part time. Because Hubby is off on Mondays and Tuesdays consistently, I was able to apply to the local school district to substitute teach two days a week. That has really thrown things off!

It has been hard for me to keep things together at home as well as they were before - my menu planning and shopping are sporadic, as are the laundry and housecleaning, and our schedule is a bit of a mess. I am having to plan further ahead for homeschool, because I may or may not be here any given Monday or Tuesday, and Hubby may have to substitute for me while I'm substituting for someone else!

Thankfully, I've noticed once again that God prepares everything in advance. Just about a month before I started subbing, I found a method for helping Rory keep on track with his schoolwork. It is a simple checklist, which includes spaces to write down assignments, chores to be done, and places to go that day. It is easier for Rory, and now Hubby, to see what needs to be done each day. In fact, Lily liked it so much that I had to make her her own version! I had also planned out the subjects for the rest of the school year, to make sure we would be able to finish everything, and had assignments planned for each subject on the days they should be done. It is much simpler to just look at my plans and transfer them to the daily sheet.

Rory has also requested to do his own laundry, on Mondays. He has done laundry before, helping with the regular laundry or washing his blankets, but this is a new step. The good thing is that it frees me up to do laundry less often, as there is less laundry overflowing the laundry sorter!

Assuming I will continue subbing next school year, I am working on a do-able schedule for the fall. One thing that has not worked well is having certain subjects scheduled on days that Hubby is teaching as well as days that I am teaching. Some of them just don't work as well if they're not done consistently with the same person. So I've decided to try a modified "block" schedule for the fall. This year, we worked on short time periods, in the hope that it would keep Rory motivated and help him to keep his attention on his work. And I think it has been beneficial. We will still do that for some subjects, doing them every day, such as math and spelling. However, certain subjects like science or history will probably work better if done in an intense block once a week. So I'll be scheduling those on certain days, trying to put the more adaptable subjects on Monday or Tuesday when either one of us could be teaching. I'll let you know how it goes!

The one thing I have learned from subbing is that I'm so grateful to be able to homeschool my kids!  That little bit of "maybe they'd be better off in school" thought is completely gone, now.  I like working with the kids at school, but I can't imagine sending my kids there every day.  I am so thankful that we have a choice!

As you've probably noticed, this new life of mine makes it difficult for me to find time to write, but I will keep updated as much as possible!  Until next time...