{SQT} Jobs, Early Planning, and Homeschool Writing

I’ve been working on a crap ton of posts for next week (a.k.a. homeschool post bonanza!) so I’m not feeling the takes so much this week BUT I’m going to try to get something down anyway and stop when it gets rambly.

First- Addie and Byron got jobs! WOOT! I knew I wanted them to get jobs this summer, but I also didn’t want them working somewhere busy before cases of COVID-19 went down. Thankfully, the stars aligned and Addie scored a job at JoAnn Fabrics and Byron will be working at McDonald’s. Addie’s job it a bit of a hike, but since Tony is working from home until at least 2021, she should be fine to use his car for awhile. Plus- HELLO EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT ON CRAFT SUPPLIES AND FABRIC!!!!! This year’s Halloween costumes are going to be even more awesome than usual. I’m also excited about Byron’s job because he can bike there when it’s not convenient for me to drop him off, and I love Big Macs. That resolution about eating better? Forgotten in a fog of discount burgers. So Halloween costumes will be great in October and I should be dead of a heart attack in December. 2020 will be my year.

I went out last Friday night with a friend for ice cream. It was wonderful because SOFT SERVE, and also adult conversation. As we chatted she shared that she’d learned her homeschool curriculum provider was seeing a huge spike in new families registering for the year. I immediately broke into a cold sweat because I realized my go-to strategy of planning out our school year and buying books the week before Labor Day might not work this year if lots of new families are vying for those same books. So I did something I don’t think I’ve done since, quite possibly, our first year of homeschooling: I planned out our whole curriculum and ordered books before August. Admittedly, our summer is much less busy than usual so I had the time to plan out everything. I also love this part of the school year because everything seems possible and the failures of the past year, or decade, have faded from memory. I expect my packages to begin arriving today and then the writing of the lesson plans can commence!

While researching was to incorporate Google Calendar into my lesson plans, I came across a blog post that mentioned using Google Slides (a spreadsheet program) to create lesson plans and I immediately created the most beautiful color-coded template for my lesson plans ever. Because it’s a new approach for me, and it’s pretty, I’m 110 percent sure it’s going to keep me even more organized than before. And this is the year we succeed at nature journaling- for real! (Okay, probably not, but it looks so nice included in my new yearly overview sheet.) I might actually get a curriculum post done before we start school. Heck, we might even be able to start school early because a.) I’m so organized and b.) we have literally nothing else going on.

So yes, I’ve reached a point in my life where my children’s employee discounts and novel color coded lesson plans are the highlights of my week.

Thank you to everyone who submitted questions here, on Facebook, and via my newsletter for next week’s homeschooling posts. I will have a new post up everyday (barring a catastrophe- it is 2020 after all) that will hopefully help provide answers both serious and ridiculous (per your requests). My new Homeschooling page has links to my top posts on the subject in the mean time. Be sure to follow my blog on Feedly, Bloglovin’, or sign up in my sidebar to get posts delivered right to your inbox. I’ll also be sharing a post over at Accepting the Gift about a curriculum designed especially for special needs children called Simply Classical. I had a great interview with the creator and I’m excited to help get the word out.

Other random happenings:

• I’m trying to restore my childhood bike which is 90 percent rust and 10 percent banana seat. Did you know you can use cola to take rust off chrome? I didn’t either and I’m not still not really sure it actually works.
• Tony has started playing Dungeons and Dragons with the kids at the insistence of Teddy because he and Fulton loved the idea of participating in a game where they could be thieves.
• I’ve started watching Mad Men and one of my favorite parts so far was watching a 1960’s children’s birthday party, and the subsequent parenting styles at play. But I’m hoping that eventually there are some genuinely happy people introduced into the show since right now everyone seems miserable.

Feeling rambly so let’s wrap it up there. How was your week? Write it down and link it up below and be sure to include a link back to this post so your readers can find the rest of the Quick Takes. I look forward to reading your posts!