Taking Another Path

Those of you who know me personally, know I'm crazy about schedules for homeschooling. We have a weekly schedule that I print from Ambleside. I then make a daily schedule from this.
I save these each year as a part of our school records. Now, first of all, don't think we follow these to the letter. With our extra-curricular schedule sometimes there's no way to get it all done. I really just like knowing where we are and being able to see what's left to accomplish and the approximate amount of time it will take to get it done. This school year, with traveling, moving, etc we've gotten behind. We have a very heavy reading load anyway-to get behind is to fall into a deep hole! LOL! Lately we've been pushing to get caught up, slowly but surely.

In the midst of this we found out one of our daughters has a heart arrhythmia. Nothing life threatening or serious but something the docs say she won't outgrow. When this happened I was trying to explain to all the girls what was going on with Grace's heart. I realized that they don't know a whole lot about the heart or the circulatory system. That led me to one of our favorite places...the library. I came home with all of these:
We took one whole school day to read through all the books and discuss them. Then we watched a DVD on the circulatory system. Afterward I had the girls draw/trace the heart and label it.
Now we're in the process of working through a DVD on CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. This is all stuff that with me being a nurse, I'm crazy about. I think the girls might have enjoyed it too. I know for a fact that they learned a lot.

I'm glad now that I broke away from the trusty schedule for a day. Isn't that what homeschooling is all about-being flexible, following your interests and having the freedom to take another path? It works for us.