Homeschool Life: Heading into Second Semester

One of the things I love most about our homeschooling lifestyle is being able to know intimately where my children are in their learning and adjust course according to their needs and goals. The Christmas break is always my mid-year evaluation time. I look at each child's progress in their subjects. Are we on target to meet their goals? Have their goals changed? Where are they in their courses: on time, behind, or ahead? Do we have any life situations or opportunities this semester to work around or add in? Then we plan out our second semester accordingly. Let me share a few current examples so you can see what I mean.

Example 1: Language Arts
When I look at the oldest 4, who are each using a level of The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts this year, I can see exactly how far they are and how many weeks of work they have left for the year. Makayla has 15 weeks left, putting her at finishing at the end of April. Joseph, Emma, and Daniel have 13 weeks left, finishing in mid-April.

Example 2: Latin
Makayla's goal is to finish her current book by the end of the school year. That means she needs to do at least 4 pages per week to finish in the next 18 weeks. She also has the flexibility to do more than that and finish Latin early.

Example 3: History
For all the kids from Joseph down to Samuel we use The Good and the Beautiful History 1. We have 22 lessons left. We can spread those out over the next 18 weeks if we wish. Instead, we're going to focus heavily on history for January and early February and finish it up. The elementary age kids will actually take a break from science during January to make room for more history work.

Example 4: Goals
Joseph and Daniel wanted to work on their handwriting at the beginning of the school year, so they added in a handwriting course each. After a semester of work they both are satisfied with their improvement and are not doing a handwriting course for second semester. Goal met!

Caleb, on the other hand, has not met a personal goal he set for reading fluency - yet. He has committed to doing more reading practice during second semester to help him reach his goal.

Example 5: Life Situations
Semester two brings a few new life situations we're going to be working through. Mason is back in physical therapy weekly, and the available time slot with his therapist is mid-morning on Thursdays. This will impact school lessons on those days a bit. However, our second life situation affects life more while also negating some of the impact of Mason's physical therapy time slot. My husband had knee surgery January 2nd and will have shoulder surgery January 30th. He is off work and home for the next four months. That means even if I'm at an appointment with Mason the homeschooling can go on with Daddy in charge. Of course, it also means we may have a physical therapy schedule at some point for Daddy after his shoulder surgery later this month. We will tackle that if it comes.


I have tried to sit with each child over break to chat about school and their personal goals. We've talked about ways I can support them, or resources they need. One child wanted reminders to practice piano so they asked me to put it on their weekly school assignment sheet. Another asked for a scripture study reminder on their assignment sheet. One wanted to learn more about Alexander Hamilton so we found a biography at the library. One is wanting to learn to cook more things, so they've asked to be invited more often to help when I'm preparing meals.

We get back to school tomorrow. We're crafting new routines for the season we are in and taking it one winter day at a time. If all else fails, I know a good read aloud and some hot cocoa can save just about any day!