We started back with our home-schooling today and it went reasonably well. I was looking forward to showing Dearest Son what I had planned but he didn’t seem too impressed (reason for this will be explained in a bit).

I don’t buy in a certain curriculum, preferring to take bits from various sources as needed. We do have an online course for science (biology at the moment) and another site we use for maths, as well as a third which I turn to for ‘other’ as it covers so many topics. We also have a nice little library and a stack of books at home so we are well covered.

I took quite a lot of time during our break to sort out topics and worked out the next 5 weeks with the plan being to review after that and decide what direction to take things in. I am also excited to introduce our son to Macbeth as I loved it in high school. However, I’ve come to realise he will never love anything the way I did or do as he is quite a reluctant learner, hence the ‘not too impressed’ part of this tale.

I could go on about his time in school and how it affected him but there is no point looking back – I concentrate on now and have to find ways to make it interesting enough he actually wants to find out more! It’s a challenge but I find I learn a lot along the way too.

So Macbeth it is and today was a brief introduction to the real history compared to Shakespeare’s version – it did seem to light a spark so I’ll need to keep the energy going with that!

I was told he wasn’t ‘too keen’ on the timetable I’ve come up with. What puts him off, I believe, is that I’ve said we have to walk Scooby at lunchtime which is a bit earlier than we have been doing. The thing is, I’m already noticing it’s getting darker earlier and by the end of next month it will be even more noticeable. We used to go out after dark without a second thought but I’m not going to do that anymore as I don’t feel safe enough – even in this small town. So lunchtime walks it is! (Scooby will be pleased no matter when he goes).

With home-school routine comes cleaning routine and all the other household things needing to be held on a tighter schedule. Day one: success – fingers crossed I can keep it up for the rest of the year.