School goals

I have been thinking about a few main goals for the next year, so I went back to look at what I had last year. Uh-oh. One of them I must have forgotten completely, because it's what I was thinking I need to work on for the year ahead.

But, to evaluate, this are the goals I had last year and how we did with them:

• Recording nature study--The girls did lots of this! It was very disorganized, though. Jaan usually sat with us, but couldn't often get past his art paralysis. So, I would say progress was made, but there's still a ways to go.
• Reading--Yes!
• "Enrichment" or whatever you want to call it--Kind of? Did some, could do better.
• Move along--No. This will have to happen in the next year.

I also questioned whether our schedule would be too busy. It wasn't. In fact, it was just right. We didn't end up getting Bogdan into anything, but that was okay. This year he'll start art school. He's so excited and much more ready for it than he was last year.

I never did "restructure our mornings." Morning School just has to be Morning School, meaning first thing. Although, many days Jaan and Raia did get independent work done before that, just not with me.

A few big things for this year:

• Move along! At least for the older two, we need to get a whole AO week done each week.
• Organized and boy-friendly nature journaling--The girls need to learn to start at the beginning of their journals, move forward, and record what they see, not what they imagine. I need to find a way that catches Jaan's interest: writing more? "special studies"? Something once a week will be a requirement for all.
• Add a bit to Morning School: some grammar, more poetry, pick up the pace with Latin and Shakespeare and Plutarch (since they love those so much!).
• Start on time in the mornings: no dawdling before school. This is mostly for me.
• Reading and writing: Asya learned to read in Russian last year; this year she needs to become more proficient in that and start in English. Jaan started written narrations last year; he needs to keep on with that. Raia will start with one a week, too.
• Math: Asya will do a lesson a day now; she didn't necessarily do math every day last year.

Tuesday is the first day of school, and I'm mostly ready. This has been a very good, refreshing summer. My students are excited to start another school year. So here we go!