Hope Falls Eternal

It's not about New Year's resolutions.  The freshness of spring doesn't do it, either.  For me, autumn is the time of new beginnings.

As I get ready for the latest academic year, I am filled with hope.  Although years of experience have shown that I won't (don't?  can't?) get everything done, I still make a plan.  Maybe this time . . .

I could get discouraged and consider these efforts a waste.  But I don't.  It's good to have a vision, a goal.

This year I want to concentrate on fewer subjects, but with more depth.  Botany will include more time outdoors than usual, with nature notebooks and drawing (an old habit renewed).  The girls will write with structure and style all year.  We'll learn to draw.  How to keep all that going?  I'm back in a co-op.  Accountability works!

Of course, there will be traditional studies (math, spelling, etc.) too.  And inspired by Elizabeth I'm going to try for the third time to teach daughters (and myself) to sew.  How to stick with it?  That's a good question, and I have a few ideas. 

On sewing days, we'll start right after prayer and Bible time.  We won't cover math or piano first.  We won't start after lunch.  We won't skip it while we finish other subjects.  Sewing will be the priority, not the good idea we don't have time for.

I'm hoping that having a dedicated sewing center will also help the three of us continue.  My house isn't small, but I still had trouble finding enough room to set up shop.  Then I thought outside the box and came up with . . . our schoolroom!

This is the open (with only 2 1/2 walls) dining room just off the front door, and as such is a visual part of the entire main level.  For my own sanity, it must be tidiable.  We can't just toss piles of supplies in there and walk away.  Besides, right now the classroom is full!

So I'm in the process of packing away books we won't use this year.  I'll declutter a bit, too, and use the table for the sewing machine.  With desks elsewhere plus the kitchen table, there are other spaces where my girls can do their seatwork.

So far this is just a great idea.  Will I persevere?  I pray.  For now I'm looking forward to fall (even though I'm so not ready)!  :-)