I Resolve To...

I do not particularly like New Year's resolutions. In fact, I avoid making them altogether. I mean, shouldn't I be eating healthy and exercising everyday? And shouldn't I make an effort to pray each and every morning? And I am challenged to be patient with my family enough as it is. I don't need a list of ways to better myself screaming out at me every day!

Instead, I usually take this time to look back at last year and to see in what ways we can improve. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my husband and I spend our anniversary, which happens to be 3 days before the new year, reminiscing about our past year and we set goals for the next. I also do the same thing in terms of homeschooling. By the end of December we (hopefully) have a few months behind us and five or so more to go. It is a natural time for me to stop and assess how our year is going.

Some years I find myself discouraged at the lack of what we've accomplished. Like the year I had Benjamin. He would be six months old when we started our new school year and boy would it be easy to get all that work done during the two naps most babies take. Of course he had his own plans. He was a tough one and never really cooperated with the schedule we had planned.

And there was the preceding year, when we moved in August. (You know what they say...new house, new baby). It was hard enough unpacking the school books and finding the box of pencils, let alone actually finding our way through the maze of boxes to sit down and use them.

So far this year has not been like either of those. We have had a really good year so far. (I'm almost afraid to admit that, lest the proverbial shoe should fall.) We've settled into a pretty good rhythm. We love the history program we switched to last year. Christian's reading has improved tremendously this past year after a bit of a struggle and Damian is learning phonics and getting better each day. Both boys are ahead in math. We finally started Rosetta Stone and seem to be doing well with it. Oh, and the music lessons. Both boys added an instrument to their repertoire in recent months. Damian has been playing the violin for just less than a year. He has picked it up easily and even enjoys practicing. Christian recently started taking pipe organ lessons and surprise, surprise. He LOVES it. I would never have imagined that a ten year old boy could make room in his world of Star Wars and Wii for the pipe organ. His teacher, who travels the world giving organ recitals, says that he has a natural talent for it. I truly cannot wait to see what God has in store for this gift of his.

Of course, since our schedule seems to be working so well, this is a good time to think about adding in a few things. I am waiting to order a new writing program which gets rave reviews, but is quite expensive. Christian misses diagramming sentences, since our new grammar program does not incorporate it. OK, maybe misses is not the right word, but he did enjoy it last year. I'm still bummed that Susan Wise Bauer is not continuing her wonderful program past the fourth grade. So I have to order a diagramming book soon. In the meantime I think that maybe we should dust off the science program that's been sitting on the shelf since September. After all, Christian wants to go to MIT, and I think they might like seeing that he's had a little bit of science.

Well, that should be enough to keep us busy. Debra Bell, who wrote one of the most comprehensive books on homeschooling, recommends that parents set goals for each school year and write down how they've met those goals at the end of each year. It was one of the best things we've ever done, especially the year that we moved and no one slept. I was amazed at how much we actually did accomplish. (Did you know that watching an entire DVD series of Planet Earth while Mom unpacks counts for science? Just ask the seven year old who randomly throws out trivial facts about our planet.) I would only add one thing to Debra's suggestion. Don't wait till June to do it. Do it in December while your kids are still busy playing with the mountain of gifts that all of your generous relatives gave them.