Hey Reader,

This past week has been a doozy.

My kids got sick. Then I got sick. Plans changed, then changed again, and then changed one more time for good measure. 🤪 Students were out, I was out because my own kids were home, and the schedule I had so carefully mapped out for October basically crumpled up and threw itself in the trash. 😅

Life

Let’s be real. There was a moment where I looked at my lesson plans and thought, “We are so behind.”

The fractions unit I’ve been working through with my students is taking longer than I planned. Like, noticeably longer. And my first reaction was to feel that little squeeze in my chest, that voice that says, “You need to pick up the pace. You’re supposed to be further along by now.”

But then I caught myself.

Because here’s what was actually happening in my classroom: the students needed more time on a few concepts. They didn’t necessarily need more worksheets, or even more explanation. They just needed a little more time to sit with it, talk and work through, and really let it settle.

So we slowed down and backtracked a little, and then spent an extra couple of days on something I originally planned to cover in one session.

And you know what happened?

Every single student is now solid on that concept. Not “I can follow the steps if you walk me through it” solid. Actually solid. The kind of solid where they’re excited to do their math homework, which, if you teach math, you know is not a sentence you hear every day!

Homeschool + Math

If you only take away one thing from this email here’s what I want you to get, especially if your October is off to a rocky start too:

Your curriculum is a guideline. It is not a law.

The scope and sequence, the weekly planner, the “by the end of this unit” timeline? Those are suggestions. They’re a map someone drew before that was drawn for the “general public” and who has met your child. They didn’t know your kid would need three extra days on equivalent fractions, four extra days on adding and subtracting fractions, and an extra two days on mixed numbers. They didn’t know your household would get hit with a stomach bug in week four. They didn’t account for the fact that real learning doesn’t move in a straight line.

Mastery is more important than a lesson plan or a calendar.

If your student needs more time, give them more time! If you need to backtrack and revisit something from two weeks ago because it didn’t fully click, do that. Going slower right now so your child actually understands what they’re doing isn’t falling behind, it’s the whole point of what we’re doing as homeschoolers.

You chose this life because you wanted your child’s education to fit them. So let it! Even when that means the timeline bends a little, or when it means October doesn’t look like you thought it would.

Grace

If you know me, you know I’m a planner, and things NOT going to plan is not my favorite thing. So there’s a verse I keep coming back to when I feel that squeeze in my chest about timelines.

In Mark 4, Jesus tells a little story about a farmer who scatters seed on the ground, and then the farmer goes about his life. He sleeps, he gets up, he sleeps again. And while the farmer is living his life, the seed grows, and the farmer doesn’t even know how. Then Jesus says:

“The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.” (Mark 4:28, ESV)

First the blade. Then the ear. Then the full grain.

Nobody walks out to a field of green shoots and scolds them for not being wheat yet. And it would be silly to dig up a seed to check on its progress. The farmer does his part: he plants and waters and shows up, and then he trusts that growth is happening even on the days when it looks like the exact opposite of growing is happening.

That’s what those extra days on equivalent fractions were. They weren’t a delay. They were the blade stage. And the blade stage counts!

Sometimes as homeschool moms we look at the blade and feel like we’ve failed because it isn’t grain yet. But understanding grows in stages, and you can’t skip one to get to the next. Your job is to keep planting and watering: show up, explain it another way, try again tomorrow. The growing part is not something you have to force, it will come with time. ❤️

So if your October looks a little crumpled right now, take a breath. Your kids are not behind. They’re growing. ❤️

See you soon!

- Mrs. Holman

P.S. Keep an eye on your inbox Monday morning. I've got something coming that I'm really excited to share with you. 😊