What's working? What isn't? Podcast Show Notes
Links to Curriculum Mentioned in this Episode:
The following is the outline for this podcast episode:
What’s working? What’s not?
Now that it has been a semester, I just want to talk a little about what is working for me and what isn’t.
A picture of our stick system for daily homeschool tasks.
This year I have started using sticks to help organize my kid’s schoolwork, I have coordinated the classes I am teaching to similar topics, I have prioritized my health, and I have been SO consistent on core subjects. However, I have not posted on Instagram for my business in months, or created new products, and took on a heavier schedule than I usually prefer! I’m going to tell you a little bit about the curriculum I have loved curriculum I have dropped and habits that have made or broke me so as we head into the holidays and next semester you can take another look at what is working for you and what isn’t.
Let’s break it down:
1. Sticks
a. How they work
b. Autonomy and control to the kids so work is student-led
c. Making sure it gets done and putting it on a rotating schedule if it doesn’t
d. Change the sticks as needed
e. Built a culture of school time in the home and taught them to self-direct when it is time to work.
2. Subjects picked up/dropped
a. Mediation cards
b. Pimsleur for learning Italian (Using the method recommended by Charlotte Mason)
c. Kung fu which I will get to later in the podcast
d. Picked up a spelling program for my oldest.
e. We continued with the Logic of English, Writing & Rhetoric, and the Good and the Beautiful Handwriting.
f. Continued with Beast Academy for 2 of my kids but switched back to Right Start math for one of them.
g. Dropped trying to do history projects and have stuck with listening to Story of the World, reading living history books and biographies out loud, and watching YouTube videos and documentaries.
h. Only do Science once a week in either their Jr. High-level Biology class I am teaching or the Landforms and Biomes class I am teaching at Coop.
i. Aloud self-led projects to take over from time to time like the novel my 10-year-old wrote, the wooden sword my 8-year-old made, or the dioramas my younger kids ended up working on all day.
j. I also ended up dropping geography this year since we are going to do some in-depth geography next year.
3. Consistency
a. The biggest impact however has been the consistency with the core subjects I am seeing some major growth in all my boys as the short lessons compound.
b. To help make sure that I get the core lessons done every day when they draw a stick I set a timer and it’s not for them, it’s for me. With all the ADHD awareness all over Instagram, I realized that the diagnosis I have since received explains my ENTIRE childhood! And I’ve been able to in to practice tools that help me focus like committing to pay attention for 20-minute segments. When the timer goes off we switch subjects. Because of this, I have broken down bigger lessons into chunks that will fit in that timer so when we do our English lesson one 20 minute timer is for reading together another 20 minute timer is for teaching and practicing phonics. This way I stay conisitant and getting the core things done without letting subjects run away on me as much where I end up spending 2 hours trying to get one lesson done with one child.
4. Coop
a. Coordinating classes with biology
b. Doing a class, I love for the joy of it “What is art?”
c. The showcase giving us something to work toward
5. Health
a. Weight loss journey
b. Found out the hemiplegic migraines, for me are hormonal and am working on a plan to fix them forever.
c. I am trying some ADHD medication to see if it helps me not to spiral with overwhelm and overstimulation.
d. I’m getting more sleep.
e. By taking care of my health it has given me the energy and focus to fix more into my day without stressing myself out.
6. Kung Fu
a. Health, coordination, and strength
b. Discipline & character
c. Outside mentors to look up to
7. Habits
a. I still didn’t love leaving the house as much to take them to the activities and seriously thought about quitting despite the incredible confidence and strength martial arts has already started to give my boys but watching them thrive stopped me. I decided to give it a full semester as a fair trial and in the meantime hone my habits to make sure I wasn’t sabotaging myself.
b. Sure enough as soon as I started getting more sleep and focusing on my health, recommitted to waking up earlier and working on the plan the trips into town didn’t seem to bad anymore. I added more mindfulness, connection with my husband, and rest on the weekends into my schedule and embraced the busy school days as the blessings they are for my children.
c. An attitude and energy shift changed my entire experience.
8. Business
a. However, there is never enough time in the day to do EVERYTHING we want to do, and because of the extra classes at CoOP and the new demands of the schedule I have not taken the time to grow my business.
b. I keep up on orders and evergreen ads I put in place still run but I haven’t posted to Instagram, made a new podcast episode, collaborated with any other businesses, or created new products all semester.
c. I still love what I do and am SO excited to work on the Africa unit for the next month to re-launch next semester but am happy with the level my business is at right and where it fits in my life.
So that is what I have been up to this semester. I hope it inspires you to look at what is working and what isn’t in your life and gives you some ideas on systems, curriculum, or even perspectives that might help your homeschool thrive.
If you have any questions or ideas for episodes feel free to reach out to me on Instagram @hatching curiosity and until next time, stay curious!