The months for the new school year have plugged along like a train on a track. We took off a good amount of time in December to celebrate Christmas and do lots of family activities. Now it’s time to kick it into high gear with school work.
We usually do school Monday through Thursday at the beginning of the school year. But, for the month of January we will do school five days a week. It’s cold outside and there isn’t much else to do around here. Doing a little extra now will give us more freedom in the Spring and Summer months to take off when we want.
We do school on snow days as well. My boys still get plenty of time to play in the snow but they have to come in eventually. That gives us freedom to take off for “nice days” in the Spring.
Sounds like we do a lot of school work but in reality, we do school work for two hours a day. Nothing compared to public schools with their six hours. I still get some grumbling from my boys every once in a while so we talk about a typical public school day. That usually suffices for a good month or so.
In January we will be studying Winter. I have about 40-50 books to read aloud. Our goal is to read one to two of them every single day. They are all picture books so they will be easier and my oldest son can help. As we study Winter, we will do nature journals of all the Wintery things we see outside. We will read books about Winter and we will study different kinds of Wintery art. We will also read poems and do crafts along the same theme.
On top of studying Winter, we will also do our usual work such as math and language arts. I think we will probably get a lot done in these subjects since it will be too cold to go outside. I am going to give them incentives to do an extra page or two each day. Perhaps a trip to get ice cream or a movie night at home. I am hoping that will help start a fire in them for doing more work.
Whatever your school may look like in January, we can all agree that it’s hard getting back to it after a little break. The first week may take some adjusting but after that my boys will be in the groove and know what’s expected of them. Things will run very smoothly.
