Week 2: What are your plans and goals for 2016?

This week I'm playing catch up with the Australian Mum's Encouraging Mums blog hop.  I had so many good intentions and not enough time in my week to follow through. Last week Monday I shared about how I stayed blogging and all the why's and in week two Belinda asked: What are your goals for different areas of your life, including homeschooling? Hmm I am not really an active goal setting kind of person so these questions have been a lot harder to answer than I initially thought they would be.

What worked for you last year – and what didn’t – and what you are going to change

• Changing our homeschool to more of a Charlotte Mason philosophy has really worked.
• Having too flexible a schedule really did not work.  I was trying to avoid a schedule because I thought it would help bring about a more peaceful day around here because of Aspergers Syndrome.  It did not.  Children on the spectrum really need routine to keep things peaceful and they need just enough change to learn flexibility.
• This year I want more of a rhythm to our day than a rigid schedule and that is what I'm aiming for.

Share your week’s schedule/plan – or share the stories from one day this week

• Last month I shared the day in the life of homeschooling an only.

Share how you plan your day/week/year – how do you find your priorities

• That's an interesting question.  This year I'm aiming for more of a daily rhythm in our homeschool.  As a result we are still working our way towards finding our perfect happy flow.  At present we follow breakfast with kitchen cleaning chores followed with school reading work with physical activity breaks. 
• We are aiming to attend a minimum of ONE field trip a month.  No amount of book work could ever substitute a field trip and what immersion in an experience brings to learning.
• Our homeschool group is also aiming to have one day a month where we get together for an afternoon of fellowship.
• I'd like to start piano lessons for Nathaniel and I this year too but I will leave that for term two. 

Share how you stay motivated to stay on track with your goals

• In one word:  FRIENDSHIP.  I love my homeschool friends they keep me accountable by asking me how it is going.  They inspire me to be a better home schooling Mom.  
• New homeschool Mom's  I love to attend any meeting of new home educating families.  Their enthusiasm and passion re-ignite my zeal and fill me with the courage to continue this journey and finish it well.
• INSTAGRAM.  I love to look through the photographs of other home educating families and be inspired to dig out long forgotten resources and use them. 

Blessings

Chareen