Change is needed for a frazzled mum!

This first term of the year has been very stressful for me. If you scroll down and look at previous posts you will see a patter of a lot of chopping and changing as I try to find a groove that works well for all of us.

I really haven't found that this term and as a result I am ending the term feeling very burnt out. I have tried to stick to schedule and have failed miserably because we have had so many extra curricular activities on that have broken up our days and taken us out of the house before we have finished our days school work. This has left the kids and I feeling flustered and frustrated and the boys have begun to resist all forms of academic learning as a result.

It is really not their fault as it is very hard to work diligently at something when you keep getting interupted and dragged out of the house. Routine has gone out the window and our lives have become somewhat chaotic as a result. I am getting very little done around the house and am unmotivated and burnt out.

Sooooooooo

We will be taking 2 weeks off with my dh to re-energize ourselves. The kids haven't really achieved much this term but I am in desperate need of a break so I will give them one too.

When we start back next term there will be some definite changes to our lifestyle with our routines and structure being much easier to work within. (I hope!)

We will be cutting back on our daytime sporting pursuits in favour of late afternoon sports instead. Swimming will have finished as we head into winter, rugby will have started but training will be in the evenings with games on Saturdays. Thankfully the rugby grounds are next door to our house so the boys walk by themselves to trainings. MissM7 will be taking a break from gymnastics in favour of netball which will be from 2:30 - 4:30 on Mondays followed by Ds12 basketball. Ds10 will continue with gymnastics but once again this will be a late afternoon activity that I only need to drop him off and pick him up at. The only early activity we will have all week is Ds12 basketball training which will be at 1pm on Thurdays.

So it is going to be much easier to plan and implement our weekly workload which much fewer interuptions.

As far as changes to our academic program here is what I am thinking....

Back in 2007 when I was pregnant with ds14 months I had 3 older kids and I knew I no longer had the time or energy to plan and prepare all their school work myself. So we began using ACE for some subjects in the hopes of easing the mental burden I was carrying at the time. It was really great for us and I feel the kids did really well. However I have to admit I let them cut corners and the discipline side of this slipped due to my pregnancy exhaustion and then when I was caring for a newborn.

We decided around November last year to take a break from ACE and try something
else for a while as we were all sick of workbooks. Charlotte Mason was the first idea but I could never manage to keep up with all the read alouds, copywork and dictation so I soon scrapped that idea. We then flitted around tryinga range of options and incorporating a few alternative workbooks in some subjects.

This has in part been successful but in other areas has seen my older two boys slip into some bad habits, bad attitudes and poor work ethics.

So I am gradually finishing up with what we have been using and transitioning
back to ACE. However I will not be enrolled with a registered ACE program but will instead be
managing it myself.

We are already currently using ACE Math, ACE Word-Building and Dd8 is also using ACE
English.

At the moment I am not teaching formal Science, Social studies, Literature or History as we are trying to focus on the core skills of the 3R's. DS12 is at a very good reading level and reads a lot for himself so at the moment I just assign some recommended literature every few weeks. We will begin with ACE science and Creative Writing and Lit' next year once I feel they have a good
grip on the basics and have developed some good work ethics in a core few subjects. I would also like to add in Fine Arts for ds12 as he is artistically inclined.

For now we will not be doing ACE quite so intensively as is recommended by the publishers as I am a relaxed person by nature and prefer to keep bookwork and academic teaching to a minimum allowing plenty of time for child lead learning and other pursuits in their own interest areas. I am not sure how long I will do this as I am thinking that Ds12 in particular will need to do some formal science soon so will probably incorporate ACE science from grade 7 onwards.

Here is the work load expectations I think I will have for each week once we get back to our schooling...

ACE Maths: 10-12 pages
ACE English: 10-12 pages
ACE Word-Building: 10-12 pages
Assigned Reading: min' 4 chapters a week + reading aloud 2 x a week
Penmanship: 2 x a week
Creative writing: 1 family activity a week
Proofreading and Editing: 1 x a week
Science: 2 lessons with variety of activities and independent reading
Family Read Aloud: 3 - 4 x a week

Anyway that's us this post ended up being much longer than I originally
intended. LOL