Evening! Still tricklin' along. Got some essential stuff done today, still left: dinner (made of various leftovers + salad, fresh veggies, dip, hard-boiled eggs); some piano exercises for boys & I; some exercise for me; house stuff; plan weekend.

Good afternoon! Today is fairly mellow. Goals piano work: boys + me: several rounds (6 or 7) of "kung fu" and finger pushups me: get old repertoire to new instructor, with links + (if possible) sheet music they've liked + (if possible) elder's "etudes" quick & dirty plans to use next term to finish stuff up: younger: AO reading, math games, crates, chemistry (McHenry, RSO) elder: l geography, c&p, chemistry (?), How Life Works, both: Misdummer Night's Dream. plan for autumn/winter clothes, incl. sneakers, fitness (sweats?) fitness for me (strength, aerobic, some yoga) + boys dinner: pasta with sausage & broccolini, fresh veggies.

Evening! Gettin' late here. Temperatures are dropping & the air is clearing (from wildfire smoke), thank goodness: I hope the cooler temps bring fire relief despite the winds. Today we had one emergency that turned out Just Fine, one trip to the city to try new piano lessons with an instructor who'll be part of our "pod" -- I think that we are her only podding family, and she is the only extension to our living-under-one-roof family pod, and news that a friend lost her job on short notice -- though there's the possibility that she can freelance from home. The boys are in good spirits: whoo-hoo! For tonight: bath & bit of yoga for me, plus run laundry during off-peak hours (limiting energy use during peak hours); straighten a bit; come up with plan for tomorrow; watch a show with DH. And tonight or tomorrow I need to e-mail our RPG group, because it is clear that I won't be able to run games during the fall semester -- no way I can keep up with the homeschooling & the homefront while I run it, esp. right now when the boys are having some extra challenges, we still don't have our dog back and we need to work hard to be ready for full-on 5th/9th grade by the end of December. I'm disappointed that I can't juggle it all, but glad that the boys are thriving when I have time to focus on the home stuff.

Good morning! I haven't had okra in the longest time ... We're taking a week off of most school -- just piano + memory work -- while DH takes a vacation week. There are 4 streams of stuff I want to work on this week, the goal being to come up with workable plans + goals: school (general goals for year, goals + plans for term through Christmas) house (room-by-room rough list of stuff to do, stuff we'd like to have) RPG game (at least have a plan for planning my campaign in a do-able way once school &c picks up) Finances -- we're fine, thankfully, but I need to get a better handle on our money also .... plan for elder's 15th birthday at the end of August 🙂 For today: straighten house; spend an hour or so on each of my Big 4 & work on elder's birthday; piano + school; fitness all around; dinner: it'll have to be made outside tonight on the grill where I have one burner also -- probably grilled pork chops, potatoes (may boil & do a quick mash, I'd love comfort food), salad. It'd be lovely to have molten chocolate cakes. Maybe I'll make that a priority.

Critterfixer, from here it looks like you've had a super busy week. Whoo-hoo! Okay, I'm taking a moment to review the week and think ahead. The good: we incorporated Bible Studies this week, kept on track with the must-do list, and kept up with poetry memorization. I did several e-mail related chores and have been fairly successful at helping the boys be essentially well despite the loss of our dog (Monty Python and Dave Barry are both playing a large part in my Grand Plan). The could-stand-to-be-improved: not much math this week, no art or art/music history, and we need to bring on some history + science memory work. The boys could use more time on piano but I need to seriously troubleshoot this. Next week's big goals: keep going with our essentials, poetry memorization, oral French and Bible studies and add art + art/music history. Will need to plan time for this. Also, house was seriously neglected this week. Garden too. I'm going to need to teach the boys to do more chores & give them more responsibility. I'm on a break from running the group's RPG. This weekend I'd like to make sure my character for the current campaign (ie, not mine) is ready to go and have spells printed out and be familiar with his skillset. Then, work on my story/campaign world/system knowledge. All in all, so much to be grateful for and so much to do. Rest of tonight: fitness for me, dinner (reheating stuff), walk or run, movie with DH.

quickly: left to do today: my fitness; dinner (grilled pizza); run; bedtime reading with boys; then I need to do some e-mail work + micro-yoga before bed.

Morning! whoo-hoo to Those Among Us Who Were Up and About at 7:00!!! Today's school: minimal: touch on math, grammar/writing, quick French + memory work (CS, poetry, MP). Home: also minimal: few chores, do sheets, water outside. RPG: this is bigger: prep game, go over last week's list, figure out how to handle characters of my players who have to be away this week, set things up for my DMing break of few weeks. Spend 15-20 minutes after game taking notes. Planning term: I need to sketch in enough to get us going tomorrow with stuff I'd like to finish before Christmas. For elder, that means adding his Christian Studies schedule and locating a living book for geography; for younger, add in various MP subjects (Astronomy, States & Capitals, D'Aulaire's, Christian Studies) + science (look at RSO Astronomy, McHenry Elements, RSO Chemistry) + SoTW reading. Fitness for boys esp. Ideally me too.

Morning! First thing: get list for today + this week. If all goes well I'll report back later & update. 🙂 Adding: schedule term's Christian Studies and MP States & Capitals + Astronomy for younger. Good news! I know what the term is: the 18 weeks of school between now and our Christmas break.

Evening! Checking in to motivate myself to Get Stuff Done. Things to Get Done: minimum work for Monday's game outline of school goals for term: either 12-week term, or until Christmas, depending. Suppose that's one of the first things to figure out.

Morning! 🙂 for Salsa Success! Today: house chores; garden chores; school to include art & schedule SoTW for younger, draft history plan for elder for the rest of this month and post on the high school forum about his literature list OR just brainstorm it. Yoga for me, fitness all around. RPG work -- finish NPC write-ups and outline the current situation in the city. Troubleshoot our music stuff. Dinner is pasta w/cheese & broccoli plus maybe baked apples. Mainly I need to line up our fall work/goals. I'm not ready to start high school. Just don't want to do it. Okay, putting on my Big Girl Pants ... Nptes: find How to Read Literature Like a Professor for kids + schedule; find + schedule rest of Figuratively Speaking; get hands on last level of AAS for elder; schedule some AAS for younger + handwriting.

Afternoon! And: Happy Thursday! Done: various AM chores in house & garden, some piano, some legal stuff to get our dog back, set boys up to send neat-o e-cards to friends celebrating their 10th birthday. To do: I need to get a handle on my RPG work: there is specific stuff to do, and also I need to begin to have a regular plan & predictable schedule of some sort. The four main elements are mastering the rules system we use; developing my game-specific amendments and unique game items/realities; work on current session/encounter; work on broader world. Currently I have broad strokes for the session but would like to build up a lot of plot elements that my players are poking holes in (non-player characters, "the council" of the current city, rest of city life, address questions of resistance to an oppressive authority change) develop a few plot paths + a stand-alone element or two to ensure that the game ends on a cliffhanger with good player engagement ideally, build the emotional commitment from our the cleric & rogue/thief characters cleric: (could end on some sort of loaded scene + the cleric hears his dragon egg beginning to hatch) thief: ???? warrior character who was less-involved in last week's game: play on hunting background? look for other skills? research/develop mechanics to allow players to co-operate during combat get familiar with my player's characters: review their skills, mechanics, and have a sense of what they need or want when they level up work on map for city, map for excavation, ... I have a game on Monday and then have 1-3 weeks break while another homeschooler picks up. I'm not sure how we are going to swing it during the school year b/c we really want to keep the group together, but both of us who seem up for running games these days have somewhat intense homeschooling situations. I shall try to stay open & curious about solutions! and engaged in the process. School: basic school stuff, fitness all around. Home: some cleaning, dinner (roast chicken, cheese biscuits unless we don't have the cheese -- in that case popovers, fresh veggies + some sort of avocado dip).

Afternoon! We are toodling along. More or less. Okay, less! 😉 Did micro school today + RPG work + sent out a note asking if other folks can run games for a bit while we pick up with school + got several garden chores done. Remaining: sketch out week's school, finish RPG prep -- would love to find character sheets, copy critical hit/fumble charts, go over younger's character with him -- and set up for game, dinner is Vietnamese takeout, pick up house.

Oh yes on the caffeine. Hadn't even really flagged it as I looked down your list: seemed a necessary pre-req for what followed ... I'm on afternoon-tea caffeine soon! Today was largely a Mental Health day. Jury is out on whether this "mental health day" means day to restore said health, or day lost to sheer lack of it. Did various little-but-time-consuming stuff earlier. Now: 20" RPG work, some school with boys, more RPG, fitness, clean. Sketch a plan for week/month. Dinner is frozen pizza (served in its un-frozen form) and fresh veggies. Before-bed stories for boys this PM. Hugs to anybody who wants'em. I myself am getting them where I can today. 🙂

Thanks so much for this! My boys are going to be at either end of the given range this next year, and SWB's advice for how to skim if the child knows the material + the linked chart are so incredibly helpful.

Evening! Survived today! 🙂 Dinner: grilled chicken, rolls that I didn't make last night, veggies. Today was: a lot of piano work; outside chores; basic school; fitness. Evening: dinner, a walk, movies/videos, popcorn with DH.

Afternoon! Today's minimal school, home stuff, fitness all around, RPG stuff (e-mail note to A; get recap out to players and into online records; go over notes of stuff to improve; do some game work, campaign work, and system review). Dinner: ??? rolls? some sort of protein. More on this as events develop. 😉 ETA: no rolls; breaded chicken + salad.

G'afternoon! Today is minimal school; working with attorneys to try & recover our dog (DH found the most lovely office; they write e-mails like actual people and are only planning to bill us for an hour or so of work, though they've put in several hours already -- I think that it made the senior partner very cross that the children's dog was taken away, and we're more-or-less a charitable cause); minimal housework; prep for RPG. Prep should include: stat charts + names for NPCs, Big Baddies; I need a rough map of town, tavern, guardhouse, prison, excavation site; clean up my story at the excavation site; copy (maybe have boys do this for me?) relevant fumble + critical roll tables. And loot chart for current dungeon.

Whoo for The Usual! It is amazing to me how much The Usual accomplishes. No schedule yet for today; just saying thanks for your empathy, cf, and checking in to help me focus. First things are to get notes out to my players and get some work done with boys.

Sorry I've been absent! Quite a week, and this AM I woke up early to get started on my RPG and learned, as I checked for e-mail from my players, that our guardian dog's breeder (who picked her up for "testing" over three months ago and then never returned her, breeding her in the meantime) intends to keep her for the "foreseeable future". Not happy news, not clear what can be done, general sadness. On the happier front: we're really well and quite fortunate generally. Today was a sort of processing day, not much got done, boys had a Zoom playdate. I'm headed out for a run while they get to watch half of "Madagascar 3". Then bedtime routines and tomorrow. AND: happiness on the rain, not-having-to-water-front, Critterfixer!

Evening! Did some school today, prepped RPG. The following are goals left over from Saturday, with a bit added. RPG: add possible spells for PCs to learn in adventure, draft gods. ETA: also, have ready for game: fumble charts; critical charts; spells for the spellcasters; chart of characters + their goals/desired rewards. Clean house, work in garden a bit, get a grip on younger's Latin schedule, get online language enrollment for Fall set up. Make the johnny cakes that didn't happen yesterday. 😉 Fitness for boys, exercise for me.

Morning! Afternoon! Today is focus on RPG, setting up the week. RPG: most important: prep Monday's game. Round out current adventure, work segue, plan travel + urban encounter. Then, go over system mechanics and the player characters. Work on stasis + displacement spells (lower power on displacement?) and add possible spells for PCs to learn in adventure, draft gods. Clean house, work in garden a bit, get a grip on younger's Latin schedule, get online language enrollment for Fall set up. Make the johnny cakes that didn't happen yesterday. 😉

Briefly, to the OP: Ambleside Online's Y1-Y6 books are in many ways rigorous, and there are many excellent ones there. There are two areas I've seen people using AO for years struggle when the children hit high school/college. One is writing: written narrations, however delightful and erudite, are simply insufficient writing preparation for a rigorous education. But if you aren't doing LA via AO then that's fine. The other block children hit is using science textbooks in the upper years. This can be a hard transition. I'm not quite sure why, because many WTM families don't use any science textbooks until high school and the children do swimmingly. Perhaps it is the transition from nature-study to a different type of thinking? At any rate, it is something I've seen in my years of reading AO posts. I love much about AO but have problems similar to those above, plus I need science materials that reflect our beliefs (both old-earth and not suffering from racist/colonialist rhetoric). HTH.

Glad to hear that the writing is a salve for the stress. 🙂 Today: migraine management (do 4 cycles of heart rate up/mental work, do yoga, get in strength + aerobic); necessary school for boys + poetry writing if can possibly manage it; get my campaign notes into WorldAnvil and begin looking for a way to offline backup access to them; house + garden work; lunch take-out Indian; dinner comfort food: split a leg of lamb with my mother-in-law, cheddar muffins, salad, fresh veggies, plum johnny cakes.

Morning! Peaches, happiness! hope they're succulent. Right now: migraine treatment/prevention, tonight's dinner is yesterday's (because Wed was date night, forgot b/c of head ouchies), piano lessons this AM which I need to sit along with (they are online, because pandemic) so supportive thoughts/prayers appreciated. And happy thoughts + prayers back to you, friends! Esp. Critterfixer: it brings me a sense of good things in the world, that you are writing & revising &c throughout all this. e-hug!