Share the Adventure: Reflections of our Week of Homeschooling

I feel like I'm constantly shifting gears when homeschooling -- tweaking routines, swapping or dropping curriculum, prioritizing one thing over another...

This was our first week "back" after winter break and also our first week starting the next level of curriculum. Since we started EP All-in-One last May, we finished in December (with a final push of craziness -- do these 20 language arts lessons this week!). So now Carter is starting fifth grade language arts/reading/history/science (and sixth grade math) and Calvin is starting second grade language arts/reading/history/science (and third grade math). A whole other post could be written about the unique pace and leveling of homeschooling. So much in public school depends on your grade level, but it's so little a factor in homeschool that I often forget what "grade" my kids are in.

We've set a pace to complete 9 lessons a week in each subject, which will have us finishing by Memorial Day, with a week off for spring break.

Overall, the week went really well (perhaps our best week together yet!), so I wanted to reflect a bit while everything is fresh in my mind.

Our schedule this week:

6:00-7:00ish - snuggle and read and play games quietly with whoever wakes up first

7:30ish - wake up Carter
8:00ish - morning time. This includes Bible/Scripture memory time, our hymn of the month, history, science, and sometimes specials (MWF - music, art, PE/health). The little boys are welcome to join us at the table, but they have to be quiet. If they can't/don't want to be quiet, they can play together in the living room.
9:30ish - independent time. Carter goes to his bedroom to work on the laptop, while Calvin goes to my bedroom to work on the desktop. Their online work is for reading, language arts, math, and any specials/history/science that they need to finish from morning time. This is when I play and read with Cooper and Colson.
11:00ish - go outside. We try to go outside every day before noon, but it doesn't always happen.
12:30 - lunch. I used to have them fend for themselves every day, but it really goes better if I make the food for them and keep it all the same.
1:00 - Colson takes a nap; Cooper has "Cooper time" in the play room. The older boys usually have a chore and read-to-self time (Carter - 30 minutes, Calvin -25 minutes).
3:00 - snack, more outside time or free play time.

What went well this week:

morning time! We've done morning time the past several months, but it went smoother this week because I was more prepared and because I didn't force the little boys to sit with us.
doing history and science! We...um...have done very little history and science since August. I threw in a quick Good and Beautiful science unit before Christmas because I felt guilty (oh, the homeschool guilt!). Starting a new level of curriculum helped. For science, I chose zoology, and we have read books and articles about the types of vertebrates and invertebrates. Calvin worked on a lapbook, and Carter had some additional assignments. For history, we're doing modern history (instead of starting with ancient or explorers or early America), and I love it! We read a biography about George Washington Carver (so fascinating!) this week, and we played an interactive game about the transcontinental railroad. We've moved on to Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison.
doing specials together. I used to have them do the specials classes on their own, but this semester, we'll do music, art, and PE/health together. In music, we learned about Hans Pfitzner (Carter kept saying "Pittsburgh"). In art, we learned about the art nouveau technique and made sculptures using curvy lines. We also checked out a drawing website that was helpful and easy-to-use. For PE/health, we played Follow the Leader, discussed the importance of drinking water, and did some GoNoodle videos together. On Tuesdays, they'll do Computer, and on Thursdays, they have Thinking Skills on their own.

reading, reading, all the time! I'm constantly reading to them -- during early morning snuggles before everyone is awake, during morning time, during spare moments on the couch, outside when they're bored, during snack and mealtimes, while in the van (audiobooks). We read Who Was George Washington Carver? and read the first several chapters of Jim Elliot: One Great Purpose. And I've read some poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends after listening to my family's audiobook version.
we were back at co-op on Monday afternoon, which was fun for the boys. We usually do a fieldtrip of sorts on Fridays, but I anticipated that we might be snowed in (we were), so we went to a park on Wednesday instead. We took a long walk from one park (Cardinal Run South) to another (Harrods Hill), played on the playground, and tried out our new hammocks from Christmas.

Bible time went well. We're singing "Great is Thy Faithfulness" this month. I've also decided to work together on memorizing the book of Jonah this semester. This week, we worked on the first two verses with a song. The boys especially love walking around the table while I sing and then switching directions when I say "switch!" We watched the Bible Project video as an overview of Jonah. We also read devotions from Louie Giglio's How Great is our God book.
outside time. We're a little behind what we usually get outside, but we've spent some quality hours outside this week!

What could improve next week:

starting right at 8:00. This is weird for me, of all people, to say because when I was teaching in a traditional classroom, I purposely didn't have a clock because I didn't want my students tied to certain times. But, the morning goes better when we can start as close to 8 as possible. This also frees us up to be able to go outside earlier, once independent work is finished.
I really want to be more consistent with doing piano lessons with the boys. We have a couple of stuck keys on our keyboard (right in the middle!) which isn't helping anything.
I also need to be more consistent with assigning chores and having them all pitch in to help tidy at night.
I would like to come up with a plan for checking over their work. Often, I'm lazy and don't look at what they've done.
I'd also like to be more intentional with Cooper and Colson. I feel like they get the short end of the stick. I have a simple, play-based preschool curriculum to use with them, but I haven't kept up with it.
I'd like to use our Scripture memory box to more systematically review the verses we've learned. And maybe incorporate the catechism into it?