I don’t know about you, but I love back-to-school sales. I have to stop myself from buying all the cool pens, notebooks and reams of paper because I still have stuff left over from last year – in fact, a lot of it is still in the package! But, it is back to school time! A fresh start! We are all busily making plans to work through textbooks, earn a certain amount of credits, complete great projects and prepare for important tests. This is a time of great promise. In fact, this is the year that we will finally ________(fill in your own blank here).
In high school, though, it can also be a time of intense pressure because we’re now concerned with credits and college testing and validating our work. We purchase curriculum, schedule classes and organize our weekdays – and if you’re like me, you even overplan a little. Could it be that we have a little bit of a worrier living in us? But, as life would have it, even with all that planning, we can pretty much guarantee that some time in the next four to six weeks, something is going to fall apart – or at least unravel a little at the seams.
So, my goal today – here at the beginning of the year – is to encourage you to expect the unexpected and then just roll with it when it happens. Change curriculum, talk with your student’s instructors or just simply rearrange your day to take care of those things that don’t work. That’s one of the great beauties of homeschooling – flexibility! Summer is over and we all like getting back into a routine – but if the routine isn’t working, change your dance steps.
I’m not saying that it is futile to plan. In fact, you must plan your year if you’re going to accomplish anything. You know that you will need to squeeze in testing, vacation, field trips and recitals along with all those academics, so go ahead and get those things on the calendar now. That way you don’t get to the end of the year trying to pack in loads of school work that you just didn’t get to. But, once that planning is done, you can only take one day at a time. When you have those few bad days, get back on track and keep going forward.
Most importantly, enjoy the ride. There is power in the journey – no matter where it takes you.
~to your success!
Joanne
Image courtesy of Mister GC at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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