After ups and downs, crazy-busy weeks and me getting wound up and tense about whether we're on track, in later October I started to look for ways to be more relaxed and yet continue catching up on the essentials. It worked!

Our absolute essentials are math, Latin, writing skills (for Son1 primarily through his history curriculum), and, for Son1, science. Everything else can be done as we have time and opportunity. I realized the boys' secondary subjects truly get done over fewer days and in less time than I planned. I chose to stop fretting over whether each boy gets 20 minutes of reading in each of three different subjects every day.

Also, I started looking for opportunities for discussion with each boy. In particular, Son1 and I discussed his history topics rather than making him do yet another three-level outline or create a presentation (the history projects are fast and furious lately). This allowed him to catch up in history while still practicing analysis skills. Son2 and I discuss the books he reads. I've asked dear husband to conduct a weekly Socratic dialogue with Son1 about his current physical science topics.

Somehow all of this has freed me from the recent tyranny of my daily and weekly plans, making homeschooling more relaxed and yet successful. The boys are back on track with their essentials, and not far off with the secondary subjects. I rejoice, also, that reading time is being enjoyed again, now that we do it "after school".

The boys' weekly checklists felt like another tyranny of the "must do", so yesterday I reworked them. I removed the mention of specific days, kept the checkboxes (four per week, two, one, whatever), and rearranged everything into three groups: essential, important, and occasional. Now the boys will be able to see our weeks the way I am looking at them.

Hurrah!