Glad you're figuring some things out to help get yourselves out of the slump. I feel you - I only have 3 boys under 8, but same situation on the constantly doing everything solo/spouse work and the terrible Midwest gloom, which I think has been worse than average this "spring." Kudos to reevaluating priorities and keeping on keeping on. I'm really interested in hearing more about block schedule. I'm debating trying that next year, as one of my sons really struggles with transition. Speaking of block schedule, one thing that has helped us a lot is to block schedule big chores. I try to clean the kitchen and do one load of laundry daily, but Saturday morning we make pancakes and then do a "chore blitz" for a few hours. I write everything down, all kids help, and I alternate between tasking an older kid to play with the youngest and having him "help" me. When everything is done, we try to go do something fun. It has been a game changer for me in terms of getting house chores (vacuum, cleaning bathrooms, laundry catch up, organizing tasks) done without losing my mind. And my kids are motivated to help more if we only do it once a week as part of a routine and something fun after.
This has been a hard spring 😌 I try to get out us out as much as possible! But even still it’s been rough 🫠 I love the idea of blocking chores too! We do have one day a week where our major cleaning gets done (bathrooms, floors, kitchen etc) but I may need to do this for laundry too… thanks for the idea! ❤️
I’m in Ohio so I totally understand your weather situation. We will be starting Kindergarten with my oldest in the fall and this year I tried doing preschool, and same as you it was just a hard year. I started in September and did it here and there but didn’t fully get into it regularly until the end of January. So for me (I’m a planner) I want to start clean with Kinder in September, I will have to finish teaching him his preschool lessons all summer. I’m taking it a week at a time.
Taking it a week at a time is the best route to go! 👏🏻 when I did preK & kinder with my older boys we did formal school maybe 1-2x a week for 30-60 minutes at most! I spent most of our time playing, reading & going on field trips 😀
Would definitely love more info into block scheduling! Do you decide this is the amount of time we'll give to LA or Math on their respective days so it doesn't get too long? Idk how to determine to do one lesson or two each day. I don't want it to feel too long and lose attention. But a block does sound lovely.
We just moved from Michigan to Wisconsin. It's not any better over here lol. I really want to do block scheduling. I feel like it's the way my brain works. But my daughter has a very low threshold for how much work she is willing to do before she needs to move onto something else. So I don't think she would be willing to do multiple lessons in the same topic in one day.
I saw your face in my feed and was like WHAT! Glad you are back
So glad to be back ☺️
Glad you're figuring some things out to help get yourselves out of the slump. I feel you - I only have 3 boys under 8, but same situation on the constantly doing everything solo/spouse work and the terrible Midwest gloom, which I think has been worse than average this "spring." Kudos to reevaluating priorities and keeping on keeping on. I'm really interested in hearing more about block schedule. I'm debating trying that next year, as one of my sons really struggles with transition.
Speaking of block schedule, one thing that has helped us a lot is to block schedule big chores. I try to clean the kitchen and do one load of laundry daily, but Saturday morning we make pancakes and then do a "chore blitz" for a few hours. I write everything down, all kids help, and I alternate between tasking an older kid to play with the youngest and having him "help" me. When everything is done, we try to go do something fun. It has been a game changer for me in terms of getting house chores (vacuum, cleaning bathrooms, laundry catch up, organizing tasks) done without losing my mind. And my kids are motivated to help more if we only do it once a week as part of a routine and something fun after.
This has been a hard spring 😌 I try to get out us out as much as possible! But even still it’s been rough 🫠
I love the idea of blocking chores too! We do have one day a week where our major cleaning gets done (bathrooms, floors, kitchen etc) but I may need to do this for laundry too… thanks for the idea! ❤️
Block scheduling sounds really interesting... this might be something we might consider! Glad you are finding your rhythm mama!
It has been the best game changer for us 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I’m in Ohio so I totally understand your weather situation. We will be starting Kindergarten with my oldest in the fall and this year I tried doing preschool, and same as you it was just a hard year. I started in September and did it here and there but didn’t fully get into it regularly until the end of January. So for me (I’m a planner) I want to start clean with Kinder in September, I will have to finish teaching him his preschool lessons all summer. I’m taking it a week at a time.
Taking it a week at a time is the best route to go! 👏🏻 when I did preK & kinder with my older boys we did formal school maybe 1-2x a week for 30-60 minutes at most! I spent most of our time playing, reading & going on field trips 😀
@@sixheartshomeschool That sounds perfect!
Would definitely love more info into block scheduling! Do you decide this is the amount of time we'll give to LA or Math on their respective days so it doesn't get too long? Idk how to determine to do one lesson or two each day. I don't want it to feel too long and lose attention. But a block does sound lovely.
Sharing a video detailing our block scheduling on Monday 🤗❤️
We just moved from Michigan to Wisconsin. It's not any better over here lol. I really want to do block scheduling. I feel like it's the way my brain works. But my daughter has a very low threshold for how much work she is willing to do before she needs to move onto something else. So I don't think she would be willing to do multiple lessons in the same topic in one day.
It was definitely a transition for us too. But once they realized they only have to focus on one subject a day - they love it now!