Messes seem to paralyze me. You would not guess this from the state of my house.
(this is our sock and laundry pile)
However, I am also a low key, not a high energy person mostly due to health issues and fatigue. So... I plan. I love to plan actually. I plan meals, I plan organizational ideas, I plan school, I plan to plan.
My school year starts out with me reflecting on what I didn't like and did like about the last school year. There are some years I realize that we used a method or curriculum that is diametrically opposed to our homeschool philosophy. This past year is a good example of this reflection. For our family, workbooks aren't necessarily a good tool for us to learn, neither are lapbooks. This year I picked up a workbook for everything. I even had more than one for most subjects. Just the 3 R's took hours, retention was lower than I wanted and the fun Konos stuff tended to be left out in favor for, another workbook.
So armed with this information. I decided to pick curriculum that would get the job done quickly, efficiently and leave time for more natural learning experiences. I look at our planner/ calendar and mark off days I know we won't be having school days. We mark off vacations, co-op days, holidays. I then count how many days that leaves us with. This gives me an idea of how many pages or lessons we need to cover during the time period.
For instance we only do school 4 days a week due to co-op. Three of those days we complete grammar, writing, spelling. We do math, phonics and reading (usually a book that goes along with our Konos unit) all four days. We also take one school day to tidy up all co-op homework. The goal is to be finished the 3R's by lunch time. This gives us two or three days to work on Konos. My unit study planning is done separately.
I have used almost every planner known to man, from spiral notebooks, to Homeschool Tracker, to freebies off the internet and almost anything else you can imagine. I finally found one I am going to buy more than one year.
The Ultimate Homeschool Planner. It has enough room for six children!! My high school students get their own.
Messes seem to paralyze me. You would not guess this from the state of my house.
(this is our sock and laundry pile)
However, I am also a low key, not a high energy person mostly due to health issues and fatigue. So... I plan. I love to plan actually. I plan meals, I plan organizational ideas, I plan school, I plan to plan.
My school year starts out with me reflecting on what I didn't like and did like about the last school year. There are some years I realize that we used a method or curriculum that is diametrically opposed to our homeschool philosophy. This past year is a good example of this reflection. For our family, workbooks aren't necessarily a good tool for us to learn, neither are lapbooks. This year I picked up a workbook for everything. I even had more than one for most subjects. Just the 3 R's took hours, retention was lower than I wanted and the fun Konos stuff tended to be left out in favor for, another workbook.
So armed with this information. I decided to pick curriculum that would get the job done quickly, efficiently and leave time for more natural learning experiences. I look at our planner/ calendar and mark off days I know we won't be having school days. We mark off vacations, co-op days, holidays. I then count how many days that leaves us with. This gives me an idea of how many pages or lessons we need to cover during the time period.
For instance we only do school 4 days a week due to co-op. Three of those days we complete grammar, writing, spelling. We do math, phonics and reading (usually a book that goes along with our Konos unit) all four days. We also take one school day to tidy up all co-op homework. The goal is to be finished the 3R's by lunch time. This gives us two or three days to work on Konos. My unit study planning is done separately.
I have used almost every planner known to man, from spiral notebooks, to Homeschool Tracker, to freebies off the internet and almost anything else you can imagine. I finally found one I am going to buy more than one year. The Ultimate Homeschool Planner. It has enough room for six children!! My high school students get their own.
Comments
Looking forward to seeing you Monday!
Deb