* Sunday evenings (8pm, after kids are in bed) Kit and I will sit down together with calendars to go over the week. We do this currently in FHE but things quickly deteriorate with the kids’ short attention spans. We’ll still do a fast one on Monday nights, especially since I just started C with a calendar of his own for scheduling, but the real weekly calendar discussion for now will be on Sunday evenings with Kit and me. We’ll discuss any concerns we have for the upcoming week and then discuss each child and any concerns, academic or otherwise.

* Sunday afternoons we’ll do counsels with the kids two-on-one. Distract the other kids with something and then meet with the kids to discuss any concerns they have, to do something more formal to check in with them. We are resolving to be better about our one-on-one dates with them but that’s suppose to be a fun, informal time with them and I want a sit down talk with them to be more formal. Not unfun! But something in which we’re meeting with them specifically to talk and for them or us to bring up concerns or goals. This will be mostly to get in the habit with the younger kids but with the older two I want to do some structured discussion about setting goals and their academic and personal pursuits.

* For the new year now that C’s older and showing a lot more maturity we are passing more responsibility to him. He’ll keep a calendar in his binder, and we’ll do a new lesson planning program. I typed up the lessons he needs to get done each week and wrote it in a column where he can write the dates for that week at the top then check off as he does the work or write in which specific lesson he did (making it much easier to keep tabs of progress.) This lets him determine what days he wants to get it done and help him (I hope) teach him to NOT save it all until Friday.

* More to come… Emy and Bennett both want to start “lessons” like the big kids so I’m working on binders for each child that has work (worksheets, coloring pages, fun and/or serious work stuff) for them to explore. We also set up book bins and labeled them: board books, easy readers, library books, early readers (advanced just past the “easy” readers) and the novels. We also have our science shelf, our social studies & art shelf, math & language texts, etc. I am organizing!! 🙂