A Fresh Start

A new year always seems to begin with new plans, renewed hope, and positive changes.  I think it's easy to look back on the year and see all the things I (we, as a family) failed to accomplish and to be consumed with the changes that need to be made.  We certainly need to do some things better and add in positive changes!  I thought, though that I would start with the things that are working well for us.

❧ Our Morning Routine ~ Since September our morning routine has been as follows:
                                           5:00-5:30 me up
                                           5:30-6:30 quiet time for me (prayer, e-mail check, laundry start)
                                           6:30 shower/dressed
                                           7:00 work with Sarah
                                           7:30 finish getting ready/tidy bedroom
                                           8:00 breakfast
                                           9:00 rosary/read aloud
                                         10:00 morning chores for the day
                                         11:00 Alphabet Path with girls & Levi - independent work for older boys
                                         12:00 lunch

                                         after that the afternoon tends to fall apart a bit ~ we need to work on that.

❧ Boys completing math before breakfast ~ Aside from some initial complaining, this has worked well.  As we are continuing to move more into the self-teaching mode, Jonah in particular is becoming more confident in his abilities.  Jacob continues to struggle a bit with math, mostly because he doesn't really like to be challenged where math is concerned.  I have tried several different things with him, all with the same result.  I decided that the more he lacks confidence, the more he is going to struggle.  I am going to require that he buckle down with one program (Math U See) and just get his work done. Trying to come up with the "perfect" program has become a way for both of us to procrastinate.

❧ Keeping our outside activities to a minimum ~ after a crazy 2009/early 2010, we finally learned our lesson.  The kids are involved in TaeKwonDo two nights a week and Leah has speech and occupational therapy once per week.  The rest of us have time to get to the library and get books for the week while she is at her appointments.  Jonah is currently in need of an activity.  He did wrestling for a short bit and as much as we thought it would be his thing, it doesn't seem to be so.  Other than that our schedule is wide open.  This schedule is working out really well for us right now.

Now we need to focus on trying to tweak what isn't working :)

I am linking up this month at No Ordinary Blog Hop