Keep The Balance Right

The past few weeks have been overwhelming at times. We are about to start what will be our "everyday schedule" for fall. I feel like we have fallen into a nice rhythm with first grade schoolwork and I have managed to get Maggie weekly work binder put together in an hour (or an hour and a half) on Saturday afternoon and now we're going to shake things up a bit!

Monday-dance class for an hour in the evening

Tuesday- Maggie's sign language through music class in the afternoon, Ellie will be in a preschool class and I'll help out where needed (these classes cut into ou school time and Ellie's nap, so we may not take them again in January)
Wednesday- Awana- I'll be teaching Cubbies again, Ellie will be in Mission Friends and Maggie and Callie (she's coming along this year) will be in an Awana class
Thursday- Storytime at the library in the morning

Even though the activities only last for an hour or so, I feel a little overwhelmed. I decided that it may be best if Maggie doesn't do children's choir at church on Sunday evenings,but I'm thinking that she'll be doing it in January. If we hadn't already signed up for the sign language and preschool classes through the homeschool network, we'd do it. It's a Christian homeschool network, so the songs that Maggie does will be faith-based. I already have a list of things that we'll be doing or not doing after the first of the year. I want to mix fun and educational things, so Maggie may take a children's literature class or something like that through the network. We'll see how our schedule looks.

Big Daddy and I have always wanted Maggie (and Ellie) to be involved in extra curricular activities, but we have seen too many children that seem to be over-scheduled. I want to have a good balance of fun, educational, free time and family time. I'd like to have a little free time too, but I feel like that will come later. Even though I have only two children and really only work at homeschooling one of them, it takes quite a bit of planning, commitment and time. When things seem so busy, I remember that this is only a season in my life...or maybe two.

I'm going to try and put together a post of Maggie's weekly work binder and our curriculum choices soon. I'd like for her to look back on what we did one day and it may be of interest to someone else that's homeschooling.