Another School Year Begins

Y'all - we just started our 5th year of home school two weeks ago. What?!  It seems like just yesterday we decided to keep Jeremiah at home for Kindergarten and we embarked on our adventure of learning together. Here we are now with a 4th grader and a 2nd grader.
There are some significant changes this year. First, it is our first year doing two completely separate Cores. I tried to do that last year but it didn't last, not because it was hard but because Nathaniel seemed interested in what Jeremiah was learning so I just went with it. This year though I could feel that it was time for Nathaniel to have his own Core. So this year Nathaniel is doing Sonlight Core B: Creation through the Fall of Rome and Jeremiah is doing Core E: American History Year 2.
Second, Jeremiah is doing two classes at Hilger Higher Learning this year (Science and Creative Writing) and doing much more work independently. This has been an adjustment. I kind of miss the daily block of one-on-one time that we used to have together.
I think we have a good routine down. I spend most of our school time working with Nathaniel. He has some independent work but we work together reading good books, looking at maps, doing Language Arts. Jeremiah works at his desk in his room. He does his history readers, math, and his Science and Creative Writing homework on his own. If he needs help or has a question he asks me. When he is done I talk with him about what he did and I look through his binder to make sure he is getting a grasp of what he is learning. We still do one of the history Read-Alouds together because I just can't give up that time together.
Every year I am more aware of how fast time is going. We only have 2 years until Jeremiah is in Middle School. Seriously. So this year I really want to savor our time together. I want our morning school hours to be time that we enjoy being together. Time that builds our relationship.