Cycle 2 Week 19: What Our Homeschool Looks Like During a Busy Week
A Look Inside Our Simple Daily and Weekly Rhythm During Cycle 2 Week 19
Some weeks in our homeschool are full and steady. And some weeks are just about doing the basics and giving ourselves grace. Cycle 2 Week 19 was one of those weeks for us, and I want to share what it looked like because I think it is just as important to talk about the simple weeks as it is the full ones.
This week my daughter had a birthday, we left town on Thursday to celebrate, and a few of us were still getting over sickness. So we kept things really simple. And you know what? It was completely fine. More than fine, actually. It was a good reminder of one of the greatest blessings of homeschooling — the freedom to simplify when life calls for it.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
You Don’t Have to Do It All Every Week
Before I walk through what our week looked like, I want to say something to the mom who is having a week like ours. Maybe someone is sick. Maybe you have a big family event. Maybe you are just tired and need a slower pace.
That is okay.
You do not have to do everything every single week to have a successful homeschool. Some weeks are full and rich with activities, games, and deep dives into each subject. And some weeks are about doing the basics, reading a few good books, and resting. Both kinds of weeks matter. Both kinds of weeks count.
One of the things I love most about homeschooling is that we get to adjust. We are not locked into a rigid schedule that does not bend for real life. When your child has a birthday, when someone is under the weather, when your family needs to slow down — you have the freedom to do that without guilt. That flexibility is not a weakness in your homeschool. It is one of its greatest strengths.
Morning Devotional Time
Even during a lighter week, I try as much as possible to keep our morning devotional time. Some mornings it was shorter than usual, but we still gathered around the table, read from The Child’s Story Bible, and started the day grounded in Scripture and prayer.
This is the anchor of our homeschool day no matter what kind of week we are having. Even if nothing else goes as planned, beginning with God’s Word always makes the day feel meaningful. Some mornings this week we had a full devotional time with reading, singing a hymn from My First Hymnal, and talking through our 24 Family Ways verse. Other mornings it was just a short passage and a prayer. Both were enough.
Math and Language Arts When We Could
During a normal week, we try to get as much math and language arts done in the early morning while the house is calm. This week we still did some math and language arts in the mornings, but we did not do as much as we usually do. Some mornings we only got through part of a lesson. Other mornings we skipped it altogether because someone was not feeling well or we had birthday preparations to take care of.
And that was just fine.
We use The Good and the Beautiful for both math and language arts, and one of the things I appreciate about their curriculum is that it is easy to pick right back up wherever you left off. There is no pressure to stay on a specific schedule. We will simply continue where we stopped when we get back to a normal week, and we will not have missed a beat.
If you are having a week like this, I want to encourage you — a few lighter days of math and reading will not set your child back. What matters is the consistency over time, not the perfection of any single week.
Keeping Our Daily Subject Focus Simple
Even though we scaled back on a lot this week, we still followed our daily subject focus. Monday was geography. Wednesday was history. Thursday would have been science, but we left town that day so we did our science activity page earlier in the week instead. Having a subject focus for each day has been so helpful for us, but during a week like this, the beauty is that you can be flexible with it and still cover the material.
On the days we were home, my girls opened their Cycle 2 Memory Work Activity Books and completed the activity page for that day’s subject. These pages are quick and simple — usually just a few minutes of coloring, tracing, or fill-in-the-blank — and they gave us an easy way to stay connected to the Week 19 memory work without adding anything extra to our plates.
We listened to our memory work songs throughout the week as well, which is one of the simplest and most effective ways to keep the material fresh. Even on days when we did not sit down for a formal lesson, having the songs playing in the background meant the girls were still absorbing the memory work.
That was it for our subject work this week. No extra activities. No games. No deep dives. Just the activity pages, the placemats, the songs, and moving on with our day. And honestly, that felt like exactly what we needed.
What Geography Looked Like This Week
Monday was geography day, and this week we learned about southeastern Asia: North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Guam.
My girls completed their geography activity page from the Cycle 2 Memory Work Activity Book and we listened to the geography song for the week, but we kept it simple and did not add any extra activities on top of that.
Since we had just come off of review week, we also did not worry about doing another country in their European Countries Workbooks this week. The girls had already worked through several countries during review, so it felt good to give that a rest and pick it back up the following week.
One thing I did make sure to do, though, was review geography with my oldest using her Cycle 2 Geography Passport. She is working toward Geography Subject Master this year, so I am trying to be faithful to review with her each week so all the material stays fresh. Her passport has made this so easy to do. We can flip through the pages, go over each week’s locations, and quickly see where she feels confident and where she might need a little more practice. Even during a simple week like this one, taking ten minutes to review geography together was very doable and well worth the time.
If your child is also working toward geography mastery, I highly recommend using the Geography Passport as a weekly review tool. It gives them a visual way to track their progress and makes it easy to stay consistent even during lighter weeks. You can grab it in my shop!
What History Looked Like This Week
Wednesday was history day, and this week we learned about the Korean War. We kept it very simple. My girls spent a few minutes doing their Korean War activity page in the Cycle 2 Memory Work Activity Book and we read through the history placemat together, which gave us a really nice overview of the topic. The placemat had enough visual detail and information that the girls were able to understand the key ideas without me needing to pull out any extra resources.
That was it for history this week. Activity page, placemat, and the history song. On a fuller week we might have read a picture book or two about the Korean War or pulled out extra materials, but this week the basics were plenty. And the girls still walked away knowing the memory work, which is what matters most.
All together, just like geography, history takes around thirty minutes. It feels gentle, steady, and very doable.
Cycle 2 History and Science Placemats
These brand-new Cycle 2 History and Science Placemats are designed to make memory work fun and interactive for kids, whether you’re using them alongside Classical Conversations or on their own as a way to dive deeper into history and science.
Each placemat is filled with colorful visuals and simple explanations that bring the topics to life. Just print, laminate, and use them again and again during meals and review time. They’re an easy, no-prep way to dive deeper into the history and science topics with your kids. Get your set for Weeks 19-24 below. The other three quarters are also available HERE!
What Science Looked Like This Week
Since we left town on Thursday, we shifted science to earlier in the week. This week we learned about the first law of thermodynamics. Just like with history, we kept it simple. My girls completed their science activity page in the Cycle 2 Memory Work Activity Book and we read through the science placemat together to get a good overview of the concept.
We also sang a fun song together to the tune I’ve Been Working on the Railroad. We will add onto this song the next few weeks and sing all three laws of thermodynamics!
The placemats have been such a helpful tool for weeks like this. They give us just enough visual information and explanation to introduce the topic without needing to plan anything extra. My girls could look at the placemat, talk through the key ideas with me, and then complete their activity page — all in just a few minutes. On a busier or harder week, that is more than enough.
The Great Energy Race Game
We did play this fun Thermodynamics game I made this week, which helped us understand energy and what these three laws are all about. You can grab this game, as well as a fun Latin Bingo and Shapes game from my resource library below!
A Few Great Picture Books
One thing we always make room for, even during a simple week, is reading. This week we enjoyed a few picture books that connected to our Cycle 2 Week 19 memory work, and it was such a sweet and easy way to stay engaged with the material.
Reading aloud is one of the most valuable things we do in our homeschool, and it requires almost no prep. I just grab a few books from our shelf or the library, and we curl up together. During a week like this one, reading felt like the perfect pace — calm, enjoyable, and still full of learning.
If you are looking for great books to go along with each week of Cycle 2, be sure to check out my Cycle 2 Picture Book List where I have gathered read-alouds that connect to every week of the memory work!
What We Skipped This Week and Why That Is Okay
Let me be honest about what we did not do this week. We did not play as many review games as we usually do. We did not do any extra geography activities beyond the activity page and passport review. We did not do a science experiment or read from The Story of the World. We did not do handwriting every single day. We did not add a European country to our workbooks this week.
And our homeschool did not fall apart.
Sometimes I think we put so much pressure on ourselves to do all the things that we forget the basics are enough. Scripture, a little math, a little reading, the memory work activity pages, the placemats, some good books, and a quick geography review — that covered our week beautifully. Everything else will be waiting for us when we are ready to pick it back up.
The Beauty of Flexibility
This is one of the things I want to encourage you with most. Homeschooling gives you the ability to still do school while simplifying things when you need to. You are not abandoning your children’s education by having a lighter week. You are modeling wisdom, rest, and the ability to adjust when life requires it.
My daughter’s birthday was special this week. We celebrated well. We rested when we needed to. And we still learned. That is the beauty of this life we have chosen.
If you are in a season where things feel busy or hard or just a little off, give yourself permission to scale back. Do the basics. Read good books. Play your memory work songs. And trust that the consistency you have been building all year long is carrying your children further than you realize.
A Final Encouragement
Not every week will look like a Pinterest-worthy homeschool day. Some weeks are messy, slow, and bare bones. And those weeks are still good weeks.
If you showed up for your kids this week — even in the smallest way — you did enough. If you read them a story, played a song, said a prayer together, or simply loved them well through a hard day, that matters more than any worksheet or activity.
Homeschooling is a long and beautiful journey. There will be full weeks and simple weeks, and both are part of the rhythm. Trust the process. Give yourself grace. And know that you are doing a wonderful job.
If you would like more encouragement and simple ideas for Classical homeschooling, you can:
- Browse my Cycle 2 resources here
- Visit my YouTube channel for weekly memory work ideas
- Or join my email list for free games and encouragement
Wherever you are in your homeschool journey, I am cheering you on.
Picture Books for Cycle 2 Week 19
Here are all the picture books we enjoy this week:
- How to Build an Orchestra by Mary Auld
- A Child’s Introduction to the Orchestra by Robert Levine
- Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo by John Lithgow
- Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood
- Nainai’s Mountain by Livia Blackburne
- I Dream of Popo by Livia Blackburne
- Living in South Korea by Chloe Perkins
You can see my ENTIRE Cycle 2 picture book list for each week of Cycle 2 here!
A Few Simple Review Games for This Week
We did pull out a few of these fun review games in the afternoons to keep memory work fresh and fun. This week I created a science game, a Latin endings BINGO game, and a geometry review game that match Cycle 2 Week 19.
These are not required to have a successful homeschool week. They are simply tools that make review feel joyful instead of repetitive.
If you would like to use them with your children, you can sign up below to receive the free downloads.
