February Freak-out & Vintage Catholic Homeschool Schedule (Winter 2018 Term)

Our Lady of Sorrows

In the past I've heard that February is the most difficult month of all for homeschool teachers; yet I don't think I've really experienced this myself. Until last Thursday. First, the dogs started barking as soon as we had begun our lesson time. Then my beloved daughter Beezy's attitude about going over the vocabulary for the chapter she was about to read was the opposite of enthusiastic. I had a meltdown, and not just one that day.

Since becoming Catholic, I don't think I've ever gone through Lent without some sort of tragedy or personal crisis occurring. This year, right on Ash Wednesday (also Valentine's Day) there was yet another horrific school shooting, this time in Florida, leaving 17 people dead. Following the news surrounding this event has left me with frayed nerves and a broken heart, as I'm sure it has most everyone else. Maybe another contributing factor to my explosiveness is the detoxifying process of giving up coffee and dairy. We've seen very little of the sun lately. None of that is any excuse for being unkind and severely critical toward my child, and I'm having a hard time forgiving myself.

My saving grace is that I know that God works all things for our ultimate good, and he is helping me to see the areas where my family needs to grow and function better together. And today this idea of February being "homeschool burnout month" crossed my mind. By this time of the school year, we have been working hard for many months, and we still have a few months left before we can take a long, much needed break. Perhaps we haven't progressed as far as we had planned, and we're beginning to panic about reaching our goals and finishing the year in good stead.

I think that this month is also the time that many of us begin to look ahead to next year--and the state of feeling overwhelmed sets in. For me, the upcoming year is 8th grade, which is the prep year for high school. With that thought, I am no longer in the present moment. I'm no longer resting in His presence. I'm already feeling frantic, trying to plan all four year of high school in my mind.

We can only live one day at a time, my friends. Yes, we want to be prepared for the future. But we can only be prepared for tomorrow by focusing diligently on our work for today.

Since I decided to take a minimalist approach to homeschooling, I've felt relieved of much of the pressure that trying to present the ideal Charlotte Mason education had put on me. Yet I still don't feel like we've been able to make enough progress with those subjects that I deemed as top priorities. I think this has to do with the fact that I stopped following a set schedule. Things seemed to be humming along fine, with simply moving from one book to another in our ancient history unit studies. After much prayer over the last few days since my freak-out, I've decided to get back to a weekly schedule and having the satisfaction of checking items off the list.

There are three subjects to be done daily, four days a week--math, cursive writing, and piano practice. The subjects listed under alternate (the verb) are put into pairs. One item of each pair will be done a day. In other words, the subjects in a pair will be alternated every other day. For example, Bible History will be done on Monday and Wednesday, and Cleopatra of Egypt will be covered Tuesday and Thursday. There are a total of 6 alternating subjects. So 6 subjects are covered each day, with a total of nine for the week. The weekly category is composed of activities outside the home.

We are technically working on the ancient Greece unit, but as I've written before, the Cleopatra novel encompasses the entire region of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. In world history, we are covering the chapters on Greece. When finished, Beezy will choose another art project from Draw and Write through History. Most likely it will be the drawing of Alexander the Great's horse! I would like to get back to the nature study book we used in the fall for the upcoming spring term, but for now, here is the schedule:


Vintage Catholic Homeschool Schedule, 2017–2018

Term 2, Ancient History Unit Studies (Greece)

Daily:

- Saxon Math

- Piano Practice

- Cursive Writing (Seton)

Alternate:

- Bible History (Seton)

- Cleopatra of Egypt (Hornblow)

- CHC Grammar & Composition

- Intermediate Language Lessons (Serl)

- World History (Seton)

- Religion (Seton)

Weekly:

- Religious Education Class

- Piano Lesson

- Co-op Choir & Musical Theater (Mary Poppins)

Please let me know if you have any questions. For inspiration to get you through this tough time, here's a link to a blog post that inspired me today: http://jessconnell.com/did-you-know-february-is-homeschool-burnout-month/