{This and That}

A little late, but -- are you still thinking through your Thanksgiving plans?  I have some of my favorite activities and resources from previous years here in the archives!

My personal favorite: Cooking Up A Thanksgiving "Feast" .  Even if you have nothing but your grocery shopping list ready to go and are already feeling overwhelmed, you can still have a lovely, fulfilling, CM-ish Thanksgiving weekend with your children.  Take a peek!

~~~

We have been enjoying some chilly, wet, green nature outings lately...

...and some slightly warmer days!

from a few weeks ago -- warm enough for swimsuits at the beach!

~~~

Reading around the web...

I just finished Shadows on the Rock and much appreciated Willa Cather's Answer to Exile.
For all you fellow Fabre fans: The Sacred Beetle: Fabre's Book of Insects.
A brave post about a difficult topic: The Hard Truth.
Kinda neat to show the kids these Historical Presidential Elections.

~~~

I updated my School Plans page so that all our current plans are at the top and previous years are organized underneath by grade.  I'd like to eventually make this page a bit more user friendly, but this will have to do for now!  I hope it helps you more easily find what you're looking for.

~~~

Very late with this share, but for those of you who don't follow the Joyous Lessons Facebook page or my Instagram account: our (super blurry) line-up of saints for this year's Halloween trick-or-treating and All Saint's Day party!

left to right: St. Agnes, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Joseph, St. Ignatius of Antioch,
Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Juan Diego, St. Brigid of Sweden

And some better (daylight!) pictures taken by a friend's husband...

 

Grateful for Catholic friends who host parties even though a handful of families means dozens and dozens of kids! :)

~~~

Justin turned ONE!  This little sweetie is such a joy...and such a challenge!  Super independent and determined, into everything, and my first honest-to-goodness-CLIMBER.  I have had feisty babies before but he takes the (donut) cake! ;)  He is also affectionate and adorable and gets spoiled by all his older siblings.  A sweet little love.

~~~

This Sunday is the beginning of Advent!  I've written a lot about how we keep Advent over the years.

I haven't quite nailed down how we'll be keeping the season yet (I hope to get some quiet time to sort my thoughts this week), but I do know that we'll be praying the beautiful St. Andrew novena each day, one of my favorite spiritual practices of the liturgical year.  You can download your own printable prayer card here.  Enjoy!

~~~

Answering a reader question:

How do you handle short school weeks?  Do you spread the week of school work over two weeks, or try to cram it into a couple days, or something else?  We have lots of weeks pop up that leave me with this problem.  Sometimes the kids are sick for the first half of a week, sometimes there's a holiday or special event that will take one or more days of our school week, etc.  How do you stay on track while accounting for these interruptions?

Since it's Thanksgiving week, it's a great time to answer this question!  Local schools have the whole week off, but my husband is working Monday through Wednesday, so I didn't want to do that.  When we have a short week, we aim to cover most weekly items and skip all daily items -- pretty much the opposite of what most people do on a "light week"!

So, for example, this week my Big Kids aren't doing any math or copywork, only one lesson of Latin (rather than two), no grammar, no written Italian.  That frees up their time to do all four days' worth of readings and narrations in three days.  Together, we will still do some daily assignments: Morning Basket, Italian, and memory work/recitation, but only on the three days of "school."  And we will do weekly assignments, like readings we do together, picture study, and composer study.  My younger students have the same schedule: no math and copywork so that we have more time for readings and narrations.  I am especially careful about overloading my young students, so I will often pick a reading or two to skip and pick up during a later week.  (This year, that's A Wonder Clock, since I didn't formally schedule that out -- we're just reading for two 15-minute sessions per week.  We may also shift half of the chapter from Wind in the Willows to the weekend since that's their favorite.)

We could just take the week off, but that means sacrificing a week of our summer break, and that's not worth it to me.  I'd rather get a "short week" in now and maintain a long vacation time.

When kids are sick, we do much the same schedule, because it's a lot easier to read and narrate from a comfy sofa than it is to sit at the table.  Obviously, if my kids aren't well enough for that, we just take off and lie around and rest -- while we enjoy audiobooks, usually.

One other note: does this put us "behind" in math? I don't pay any attention at all to beginning and finishing one math book in one year.  We just work where we are and move ahead from there.  We also do 1-2 days of math during the summer, so I feel like we have quite a lot of wiggle room it that area.

~~~

That's all for today!  Pre-reading and planning post coming up next. :)

This Year's Paper Plans :: Schedules, Chore Charts, Checklists, and More

Instead of my annual monster post on our schedules, I'm going to break this post into three parts.  Today I'm sharing our routine and checklists, and then next week I'll chat about my Weekly Planning and Pre-Reading Session and our Weekly Meeting.

Also, if you really looking for more nitty-gritty details beyond what I have here, you might take a look at my scheduling post from last year. You'll find that they're very similar.  :)  I have changed bits here and there, but our routine really is roughly the same.  You can also take a look at my Year 5 and Form I plans from earlier this fall for more information.

As usual, my organizational strategy consists of a series of paper forms that keep our home humming along:

:: A Weekly Routine / Average Day Schedule / Average Day Chart.  I put a little more time into forming our weekly routine this year since I added another student and wasn't sure how I would fit it all in. We follow this time table roughly on the days that we are home.

Why schedule down to the quarter hour when I'm a mom with lots of littles in need of flexibility?  Because it gives me assurance that it is possible to meet all our goals for the week: there can be short lessons, outside time, chores, and free time, all without chaos or stress, if I'm inclined to stick to this.  This schedule provides an order to rest in and a set of guideposts on which to peg my day.  For example, I plan math and copywork with my Form I kids first thing in the morning and aim to stop for prayers and breakfast at 8:30.  I don't care what order we do math and copywork in, and I'm changing diapers, pouring milk, and snuggling littles during that block too.  But I have a guideline that keeps me from overdoing morning work while holding me accountable so that we're not left with unexpected to-dos at the end of the day.

That said, I built ample margins into our routine.  Not listed on here are bathroom breaks, stops to switch out the laundry, feeding the baby, and so on -- those happen within the school blocks.  That means my kids are actually schooling for less time than this suggests.  So in one sense it is representative of our assignments and our time table, but in another sense we are much more flexible than an "average day schedule" can express.

:: My Weekly Checklist.  This has all the work that I am responsible for.  That includes all my Form I kids' work, since I don't require them to be independently responsible for anything but chores.  And it includes a small bit of my Year 5 kids' work, since I do require independence of them.  Listed here is the Year 5 work we do together, and then the rest of their work is on their weekly checklist.  Last year I had everything on mine, but this year, it made more sense to streamline my own lists so that they represent what I personally am responsible for.  I just print out a new one of these each week and spend a bit of time during my Weekly Planning Session filling in any blanks and making any adjustments.

:: My Term charts. In the past, I typed the assignments for each book for each week onto my weekly checklist.  Now that I'm juggling three years, the extra time that takes isn't worth it to me.  So I just have the book listed and I look at the actual reading assignment in one of two places: our schedule bookmarks (in every assigned book) or my term charts (in my school folder, and the Big Kids have copies in their binders too).  These are taken from the AmblesideOnline website and adjusted for our needs -- they have editable Word documents at the top of each year's booklist that I download and tweak for our terms.  So easy!

:: My kids' checklists.  My Year 5 students have a robust weekly assignment sheet that our homeschool couldn't run without.  It lets them know what to do and suggests when to do it.  I divided it into days this year because now that they're managing their own time, it is a help to them to know how much to get done on a given day rather than confronting an overall list of weekly items.  And they also don't need as much flexibility as I do since they're not taking care of the baby, working around naptimes, and such. (As you can see above, my checklist is not broken into days.  I need the flexibility since I'm managing the littles.)

My Year 2 student also has an assignment sheet, simply because she begged for one. ;) I think it's probably a good habit for her anyway, as she is more productive and cheerful when she sees what needs to be done.  But it's not technically necessary since she does all her schoolwork with me.  (My Year 1 son doesn't have one, though now he's asking too.  Maybe next year.)

:: A Pre-Reading and Planning Sheet.  This is the bit which I have gotten lots of questions about this fall since I have been posting about my weekly planning session on Instagram.  It's going to get its own post next week.  Lots of details to come!  Simply put: this is what I use to structure my weekly planning session (for both school and home) and my weekly meeting with my Year 5 kids.  I also keep my reading notes on the back.

:: Last, our Chore Charts.  We adjust chores every summer so that we can iron out the kinks before the school year rolls around.  The weekly schedule is posted on the fridge for easy reference.  Yes, this is a very thorough list.  Yes, it needs to be that way for things to run smoothly!  Everyone knows his job and things get done much more efficiently.  When I didn't spell things out so clearly, I was constantly sorting squabbles, bossing around, and just generally having to micro-manage.  Now the chart micro-manages for me while I play with the baby. ;)  I also built several inspection times into my day for when I'm noticing my kids are slipping in their habits and need some oversight.  And that "Bi-Weekly Chores" list at the bottom is for a bi-weekly slot in our chore schedule and for assigning extra chores for misbehaving kids. (Let's just say I have to use those more often with some kids than with others.  Ahem.)

~~~

These are the paper plans that help me hold myself accountable and let my kids know what to expect.  Our household couldn't run without them!

But I can't forget my usual caveat: the truth about organization is that there is no one solution to your organizational problems.  Effective organizational strategies have to do with knowing yourself and your family really well: your needs, your home, how your mind works, how much you can handle, how your kids thrive, your personality, your goals, your vision of success.  If you start there (rather than with these forms here!), you'll be much more likely to find a plan that works for you.

Still, I share our plans because I think examples can be very helpful and give curious moms a place to start.  And because I enjoy gleaning ideas from others! :)  I hope this gives you a glimpse into one way of structuring a busy home life.

Back with lots of pre-reading, planning, and meeting chat soon!

Keeping Company :: November

Hi friends!  I'm here a on the second Tuesday rather than the first because last week I took a break for All Hallows Tide. (That's the three-day observance of All Hallow's Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day -- a Holy Day surrounded on either side by a day of penance.  Whatever the form, I love liturgical triduums!)  Luckily, it's a five-Tuesday month so there are plenty of days to link up here in November.

There were wonderful submissions for October, and I'm excited to point out some of my favorites.  But first, a bit about what we've been up to...

Starting the Discussion

We had a couple chilly, rainy weekends here and my body went into hibernation mode!  I didn't feel like doing anything with my leisure time but lie on the sofa reading.  That has meant lots of catching up in my commonplace book and lots less work in my nature journal.  Is everyone else as seasonal in their keeping habits?  This is actually why I schedule my keeping: I have small personal goals so that I'm always stretching myself, just a bit, encouraging myself to grow in understanding and in practice. But I absolutely do embrace those seasonal shifts beyond that!

This week I spent most of Sunday reading Willa Cather's The Shadows on the Rock, which is a beautiful novel that I highly recommend.  (I stumbled upon this first edition hardcover in a bookstore years ago and it has been sitting on my shelf unread since then!)

I came across this relevant quote about the practice of keeping a Calendar of Firsts:

Another fun bit from our keeping this month: I did a progressive peek at my weekly nature journal entry over in my Insta-story...

I think I might do more like this now and then because it was kinda neat!

This Month's Round-Up

Some beautiful moments captured over on Instagram this month -- I especially love that fall leaves have nearly taken over the feed!

aolander - jeffsjessie - italianfarmgirl19 - athena_amidstthereeds
theycallmemommy618 - all.saints.academy - beuniqueheather - angelaboord
ambervanderpol - vlcjrogers - sarahjokim - dove_tania

mariasugiyopranoto

kaypelham

thanks33

Melanie shares bits of her keeping life: notebooks, posters, pressed flowers in the window, and a mother's snapshots of her time with her children -- because that's what we do as mothers, isn't it?

I found Nancy's suggestions toward a citizenship notebook to be tremendously inspiring.  Even though I'll save the formal keeping of this nature until my kids are a tad older, her comments here affected our Plutarch discussions this past month very fruitfully.  Don't miss it!

Looking for some fall fun?  My Peace in the Puzzle is leaf stamping into nature notebooks with her littles.  (Right alongside The Iliad and Til We Have Faces -- there's a lot going on in her home!)

Lisa notes some favorite Amy Carmichael passages that are both beautiful and convicting.

Carol is always drawing such interesting connections among books she's reading, and this month is no exception: peeks at heavy-hitting commonplace entries from Chesterton, Tozer, Wallace, and Chambers.

I cheered at Gina's post: I am a CM student too.  (I am!)

And now it's your turn...

The Link-Up

Instructions:
:: For bloggers: Click on the "Add my link" button below, and it will prompt you to include the information for your post.  Once you submit it, your link will be added to the list, and others will be able to click over and read what you have shared.
:: For Instagrammers: Tag related photos with #KeepingCompanyCM to join the link-up.

Guidelines:
:: Remember to link to a specific post and not to your blog's homepage. 
:: Any posts about CM-style Keeping are welcome!  The prompt is optional.  Your post can be as simple as a photo of your commonplace book.
:: Feel free to add more than one post.  The link-up will be open for a month, so you can come back and add more if you are so inclined.
:: You can grab the button over there on the sidebar if you'd like to add it to your post or site.

As always, thanks for sharing!

An InLinkz Link-up