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Helen
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| Posted: March 14 2008 at 4:48pm | IP Logged
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julia s. wrote:
Helen wrote:
It also helped to have a year of Homeschool Austerity. |
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Helen,
I'm so glad this year has been better and I'm even more tickled with your growing family.
I was kind of wondering what you meant by this comment. I'm sorry if I'm just not remembering a previous conversation -- I've got sever mommy brain right now  .
God bless you.
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Thanks Julia!
I don't believe that we discussed homeschool austerity in this thread. I called this past year austere because with my pregnancy (which I found very difficult), I just stuck to the basics. The children used a lot of workbooks which they kept in backpacks. They brought their books to me where ever they could find me. (This happened to be my room more often than not.)
I didn't try to get much art study, music appreciation or anything else that required a lot of teacher preparation. In a way, I took the year off and just concentrated on surviving the pregnancy. The children made progress even if it wasn't fancy.
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Ave Maria!
Mom to 5 girls and 3 boys
Mary Vitamin & Castle of the Immaculate
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julia s.
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| Posted: March 14 2008 at 5:02pm | IP Logged
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Thank you. I think you had the right approach. Every season requires different sacrifices from us and different graces from God.
I'm so glad yours was a year of peace and joy.
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julia
married to love of her life
with ds12 ds8 ds3 and ds1
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BrendaPeter
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| Posted: March 15 2008 at 9:04pm | IP Logged
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Hi Helen,
I came across this list today - "Ten Ways to Simplifying Homeschooling" - which I thought was excellent & really speaks to the heart of this topic. Don't remember how I found it though - I think I started out at Elizabeth's blog & then that domino-effect link thing started to happen...and, of course, being 40+ I forgot where I started off...
Anyway, I tell everyone that I'm a big fan of the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method. Works for me!
So happy to hear you are doing well  !
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Blessings,
Brenda (mom to 6)
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ALmom
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| Posted: March 25 2008 at 12:22am | IP Logged
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Helen,
So glad for you and the way this year has turned out. It has been amazing to me how the years that are the hardest for me are the years I learn some of the biggest and longest lasting lessons. It is wonderful when that hard year bears fruit in such a fulfilling year. I retain the learning so well from the years we've made some of our biggest mistakes. (The year I desperately signed up for a full Seton is never to be forgotten) I try to remember that - and use it to help my perfectionist tendencies (and the ones in my children) - the lessons you learn perfectly and with ease without stress are sometimes the ones you forget later - but you never forget the lesson you learned because of the agony you caused by your mistake.
I'm starting to hit that end of the year reflective stage when ideas for next year are bouncing around. There are a few lessons from mistakes that stand out from this year that should make next year even better - or am I just getting mellow finally in my old age?  But the wonderful thing about this year is that I really feel like we have accomplished so much in our homeschool - more than ever before with each and every child. There are certain organizational/planning techniques from this year that I won't change.
Janet
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Helen
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| Posted: March 25 2008 at 6:31am | IP Logged
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ALmom wrote:
| But the wonderful thing about this year is that I really feel like we have accomplished so much in our homeschool - more than ever before with each and every child. There are certain organizational/planning techniques from this year that I won't change. |
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Ohhhh -- please share Janet!
Would planning over the summer be one of the ideas that you won't change?
Amd thanks Brenda for the great link!
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Ave Maria!
Mom to 5 girls and 3 boys
Mary Vitamin & Castle of the Immaculate
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ALmom
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| Posted: March 25 2008 at 1:15pm | IP Logged
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Yes, planning over the summer. (I'm, I think, the maverick in this group, but because of the number and spacing of my children, my inability to think on more than one thing at a time and my children's single passion tendencies, a specific day by day plan for every day of the year for each child has been the biggest plus of this year. I also cannot work in groups so I have to be able to efficiently float between children and assist as needed and plan in certain time for one on one for each child in their area of greatest need. (I only had plans for half the year, and there were some very stressful months when all my children wanted the plan for the second half of the year. All my children seem to like to know the expectations and it seems to make sure that dreaded subjects get done. It is like a roadmap for us and I am super specific with the child in their dreaded subject and very open ended on the plan in their area of passion. Left to their own devices, my children would each spend the entire day on one single subject and never get beyond this - and each would have one thing that would never, ever be touched).
The other organizational planning thing that is here to stay are DEADLINES for my highschooler. Nothing helped this child get the dreaded science until my dh came in one day, looked at her and then at me and told her in front of me that she Would take the Biology test by noon on the following day. She panicked, thought she would flunk, etc., etc., etc. Now this is a child that was in her 2nd year of trying to finish Biology and still hadn't taken beyond the first test. We'd tried everything from no textbooks aka MacBeth's recommendations, hands on, reading, going at your own pace .... (I"m not ordinarily a textbook/test fan but for this child in this subject, it finally turned out to be the only way for her to become reasonably conversant with the science vocabulary even). She took the test, did better and comprehended more than ever before. In the remaining quarter of the year, she finally finished Biology!!!! (There are certain test questions that have become inside jokes much like my history test where I made up a story about Gen Kamikaze. I may forget details from my history, I'll never forget what the kamikaze's were.) After that deadline induced test, she had an aha moment. "I think I've been overstudying." She expressed how the deadline helped her. We put dates on the remaining science and math stuff - and woo hoo, suddenly she is doing better in those subjects and staying on track!!! The deadlines aid in developing some of those planning skills - I do my best given the time I have to complete the task and plan my time accordingly. She is retaining science for the first time, has enough of a familiarity with the background vocabulary that she can now pick up and peruse books she wants and is capable of following a science trail - and much more likely to comprehend enough to be drawn in. For the first time in her life, she is not behind on everything. It is wonderfully freeing and she and I are now avid fans of deadlines for her. She also talked about how much more efficiently she worked if she knew there was a special activity at the end of the week or so - so....
The other thing that has been a real hit has been the Montessori style cards. So I'll be doing a lot of 3 part stuff this summer in science and geography especially. We're going to have trays all over the house.
We implemented a morning and afternoon outdoor physical break and that is refreshing. Getting up at a consistent time in the morning is another one of those wonderful things that happened this year. The children's afternoon break time also gives me a few quiet minutes for private prayer.
Maybe it is that I have boys mostly, but they thrive on having their plans, doing what is listed and then purusing subjects of interest (reading, making projects, doing experiments, even jumping in the Montessori room) for remaining school hours. They are not big fans of being mom dependent but are good about getting me if it is on the plan - "discuss with mom" and are particularly happy that their time isn't wasted while I try to figure out what it was we were supposed to discuss - it is right there on the plan, but it really is only a jumping off point.
It has been a bit humorous - probably a lesson in there for me about really looking at what it is my family needs - because while we were off adding structure and deadlines and schoolish looking stuff, seems like everyone else here were finding that cutting back, making things more flexible, giving more choice to the children, backing away from detailed plans etc. were the things that have helped them this year.
Janet
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Isa in Michigan
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| Posted: March 25 2008 at 3:28pm | IP Logged
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I have a year round schedule with a lighter schedule in the summer, so we take off days throughout the year as needed without feeling guilty.
Our first day of Spring here in Michigan brought a foot of snow, so we haven't really had a chance to enjoy Spring yet.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 25 2008 at 5:48pm | IP Logged
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ALmom wrote:
Yes, planning over the summer. (I'm, I think, the maverick in this group, but because of the number and spacing of my children, my inability to think on more than one thing at a time and my children's single passion tendencies, a specific day by day plan for every day of the year for each child has been the biggest plus of this year.
All my children seem to like to know the expectations and it seems to make sure that dreaded subjects get done. It is like a roadmap for us and I am super specific with the child in their dreaded subject and very open ended on the plan in their area of passion. Left to their own devices, my children would each spend the entire day on one single subject and never get beyond this - and each would have one thing that would never, ever be touched).
Janet |
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Can we talk a little more about this Janet. Like Helen, I was in survival mode for the first half of the year. I knew more planning was needed, but was unable to do anything while I was sick. The children suffered as a result.
I know - ok, I don't know, but I don't think - I'll be pregnant this year, and I'd like to plan more in the summer. Can we get specific about how you plan that far out in advance?
How do you do it?
What sort of format do you use? Computer? Lesson planner (if so what kind?) Grid paper?
How do you account for the inevitable slow down in a certain area, like for example if you planned to do a lesson a day in math, but a child needs to slow down and do some remediating or review? How do you plan for that?
Do you plan every subject?
Do you plan by date - like on "x" day this child will complete this lesson in this subject?
or
Do you plan by lesson - like this child will complete this work in this order - and then maybe you list the goals or requirements of completing a study of something?
How long does it take you to plan? I know you have all 5 that are still at home doing some kind of work.
Do you plan for little J.? Or do you just have an idea of the Montessori presentations you'd like to present to him, and then re-assess monthly/quarterly?
Thanks Janet! You're not the only maverick here that needs to plan a little. I failed miserably this year while "winging it." And while I don't think the children are any worse off for it (I had to just lower my expectations - this was not going to be an extremely academic year!) I know I felt scattered and like we missed several great opportunities for learning just because I was always just barely keeping my head above water (and truthfully sometimes my head wasn't above water at all.) Does that make any sense?????
I do appreciate your sharing Janet!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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ALmom
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| Posted: March 26 2008 at 2:07am | IP Logged
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OK, Jennifer: I'll try to summarize what my plans look like and such. If you need more detailed info, just e-mail me and I could send you a scanned page of my very, very humble plans (just tell me which age you want to see). The key for me is having one day on one page - all subjects together for the younger students. For the highschooler, I do plans by subject but still only one day on a sheet. For the youngest school age child, I basically just follow CHC plans but do adjust somewhat with Kolbe Ignatius Writes and my own booklists and supplements. I don't make elaborate plans for this child becasue he is either working with me or doing the next page in a workbook independently. For him, my summer prep starts when I finish everyone else's written lesson plans other than to create a booklist for him - read alouds and read independently. Same is true for the younger - I don't spend a lot of lesson planning time for them - just create order lists, gather things for baskets and make Montessori materials unitl I finish the written plans for the older children. Anyways for those older ones for whom I spend a lot of lesson planning time, if an assignment is given that requires them to trace a map, the plans include detailed instructions about where the map is (p of such and such book) or map x in CD masters. We have wasted more time hunting for resources, so now I make sure that is all organized over the summer, the resource found and noted. I hand a week of plans at a time to the child. It tucks in the outside clear protector sheet (where business men would place their logo or title sheet). I have a 3 ring binder for me and the child has one for himself. Each child has their own color. This particular child's is yellow. When he does the work, he puts a check mark on the plan by that work. When I go over the work, I mark it with a check in pen - add particular page numbers to math, grammar, etc. - circle books chosen. We discuss any difficulties, feedback about how the assignments are helping, etc. He makes corrections and I hand him next weeks lessons often modified while he did corrections. I store his completed plans in my yellow binder and it becomes a daily log of work accomplished. If I miss a meeting with him (due to crisis in house), then he simply knows where to get the next 5 days of plans (they are in my matching color binder tucked into the clear sheet on the outside front cover) and keeps on trucking. Anyways, that is how that works and it is so freeing for all of us. I also have read aloud time, time to work with my nephew, make dinner (my dh biggest request from me) and even a bit of quiet time for me (priority that was being sadly neglected).
Now the nitty gritty about building these plans. It does take time - plenty of it as I read each history spine, etc. I become intimately familiar with every major text or spine ( I do not read every single book on a list for my two oldest, but I will peruse any books that are new to me to make sure of content appropriateness, etc.). I will read more thouroughly in the areas of their greatest challenge. I start early in the summer - within a few weeks of when school is out and hopefully this will mean I finish by July or August. Last year I got a late start, didn't finish plans and figured I'd do second semester during Christmas break. Well, I needed Christmas break and well - plans for second semester are just now being completed for my oldest (though in her subjects of least need - the ones of greatest need were given first priority above everyone and everything else and were done early in the semester while some of my youngers floundered. We are working from plans for all again and it is delightful.
First there is nothing high tech about what I do. After the general goals, prayer, discussion with dh and the children, we have a basic idea of what we are going to study (IE American History, some sort of life science/biology based on age and then the literature is related to the history to some extent, grammar, etc. whatever particular subjects per child). I have a clear idea from the child about how they envision certain things - ie my American History child wanted to do projects with history. I peruse what we have available or what we might want to order to accomplish this and what plans we might want to use. I gather all lesson plans (These may give me pointers about major events, key figures or concepts, etc. even if I don't use the plans directlly)together and also the possible spines. I also gather books and resources in great piles and clean out a shelf by the child's desk for storing material once we have decided what the choices will be. With American History, I had about 3 or 4 possible texts to use, showed these to the child and allowed him to pick from among them.
Next step - notebooks and reams and reams of 3 ring binder paper and lots of ink pens. I discuss with the child - how much can he read at one sitting comfortably with easy retention using the spine he has chosen. That is the amount of reading assigned. Once these basics are out of the way, then I simply take my stack of 3 ring binder paper, and sequence what we will do - Ie read p x - p y in From Sea.... I list any things I want him to add to the timeline (he can obviously choose to add more). Now as I read this chapter, I think about my child and which aspects might appeal. I gather all my biographies, history living books and historical fiction, and projects and weave these things together in a sequence. (Now true confessions times: often booklists include books from catelogues that are on my dream list. Some of these never make it onto the order list, but since this was simply one choice we are not stymied. I star the ones I know we own so no one wastes time looking for a book we never ordered. If we are so fortunate and every time period is amply covered, then we may get to order a lot of these nice to haves or there may be a few additional Friends of the Library finds that get added to the choice list later and I star the stuff as it arrives). Now I have way more books than any one child could read in a year - even on a particular time period. So step 1 here is to call the child back over - let them eliminate books they've already read. Then I look at what is left and decide if there are any that are just too chock full to skip. This goes on the plan specifically. If I don't own it, it is a priority to order. The others are listed in the appropriate time slot sequence as part of a choice. Pick one of the following to read over the next week is what goes in the plan. I tried to intersperse a cut and assemble type project between the spine reading and other reading unless it is something I know is particularly engrossing for this child. If I didn't have a project, there is always a map to be drawn. The key here is to only put a very reasonable small portion down. Day 1 (#1 is circled in the top right hand corner), History; Read p - p. in From Sea ... The children know they are free to create their own projects - these are simply starters. They must give me a list of supplies needed on the day they pick a project.
Day 2 (new sheet of paper with # 2 in top right hand corner) History Place: list of people to go on time line. Are there any interesting things in the chapter you would like to pursue further? Either pick a book or resource to research about this topic (run it by me) or choose one of the following to read:
list of historical biographies or real books on the time period outlined in From Sea.
Day 3 (new paper with # 3 circled in corner) Begin to read chosen book. (I give plenty of time for the child to read the longest book in the choice so read book may be all that is listed on the next week or two for history).
Somewhere in all of this I also wove in the Holling C. Holling Books as they seemed to fit historically and the map work so he didn't get bored to tears with Sea to.... and also provided him with some science enticement into geography and history.
Now while what he is doing in history is still fresh on my mind, I figure out if there is a historical fiction or good literature read that can serve to make the time period come alive while we could learn a bit about something that is on my goals for English for him. I make sure that there aren't too many written assignments in one day - so if there is a history paper, then there won't be an English one and vice versa. Also if he is reading a major historical book, but it is a real book of good quality and not just the textbook spine - that often became history and English at the same time. Still I'd list English/Literature - read your chosen history book. An example of something we did here - one of the lit selections I wanted him to read this year was The Mathclock Gun and that was added into literature while or shortly after he had studied that time period in American History. If I have Hillside guides, etc. for one of these books, I make use of the step by step way they lead children to learn how to pick out main points, find the overall message, etc., the discussion of descriptive language, how a setting and mood are created. If things are really heavy, we may actually simply choose to read a poem outloud together and save the heavier lit stuff for another lighter time - like when he is building Jamestown and not doing any history reading or writing. (I referred to Kolbe's poetry unit but don't hold him to any of that info). So we may read aloud from a picture book poem of The Ride of Paul Revere.
This is basically the more specific part of things for this child in the subjects that are on the high avoidance list. Next step - Ok what about the passion. Now this is more about having ample resources on hand. This child requested chemistry, had already done every experiment in any experiment book written , etc., etc,, etc. It took me a while to get a vision for this child in this subject because I didn't want to ruin a good thing, but I wanted to have something that would look nice in a portfolio at the end of the year or rather something that would allow me the teacher to have some comprehension of what he really had learned over the year. There just seemed to be something wrong with the, gee my child always has his nose in some sort of science book, but I have no idea what he's up to. Inspiration finally hit - my biggest English goal for him was to write organized, coherent paragraphs on ANYTHING. Science was his thing. His science plans basically looked like this:
Decide on a project or experiment or research, write out needed supply list or gather materials(generally day 1) Work on project or experiment or research(day 2 - 5 but it could run over into the next week as well). I did not give any direction as to topic but he had free reign here (well until we found out, through his paper, that he'd been blowing up things in our back yard. Now he does need a preapproval for safety from dad). The key was that he had a science paper due every 2 weeks - as the year went on we slowed way down here, but he still wrote me about 4 papers per quarter in science for the first half of the year. Interspersed with his paper assignments were : choose something from Montessori science OR do a nature walk and sketch OR observe and record nature observations OR peruse a science topic or read a science book of your choosing. Record what you chose. (Believe it or not, the statement, record what you chose was essential). I showed him to circle whichever choice and write the title of the book if he chose to read or list the Montessori activities if that had been his choice.
I also had a lot of science type cards, so we have taken some breaks here, particularly when he had no plans for 2nd semester. We have studied types of rock and he has been working on a rock collection for this part of the year and on planning and building a garden, while we focus on trying to write in the same coherent style for literature that he was finally able to achieve for science. He went with me to bookstores, libraries, on-line as I perused what was available resource wise. I picked up old textbooks for a quarter from Friends of Library sales - and would bring them home as surprises. He pulled out my old texts, my husbands, these old college texts, etc. His big block with chemistry is needing Algebra to balance chemical equations - so he decided he wanted to get there as fast as possible.
When we had opportunities not on the plans - a field trip or something else like our tutor had a simple introduction to something in science planned for my nephew, she would include all my younger boys and that simply became the science assignment for the day in lieux of whatever was there. If what was there was a work on experiment...., we simply added extra days for doing this at the other end. If it was a choice of things, this simply became an additional choice and was chosen most of the time. If it became a real project, then I simply let them know they could pursue this if they wanted instead of the experiment this week, etc.. Simple cross outs and writing in the new activity was all it took. It didn't involve having to revamp the whole plan.
His math lesson plans - Do 30 minutes of math. A math text is sequential so you know you go from page 1 to 2 to...so no need to tell him what page to do. I did specify that he had to do the textbook work for anything that was a new concept before moving to the workbook. (Sometimes I wrote a reminder note in the workbook - Before you do this page, do textbook p. or see mom to review concept). He decided he wanted to do some additional stuff in geometry and he was testing out some slope/line type stuff for Senari. Now for this child, I really don't have to specify time on math. He does this subject for the sheer joy of it and is just hard to keep up with. However, the rule is extra math, science, etc. are fine ONCE the history, lit., vocab, grammar, theology are done for the day.
His grammar lesson plans basically involved one page a day in the CHC workbook. But whenever I saw a concept not sinking in, we took a week off from the workbook and did other stuff in grammar. I simply crossed out the assignment, and wrote in whatever it was we were doing instead when we had our weekly meeting.
Vocab. took some tweaking but we settled on writing sentences with his new vocab. - 5 sentences per day. I made sure he did things like start with a capital, end with punctuation but also that he spelled his vocab word correctly and used it in the correct sense with a sentence that was actually descriptive. This was good English practice for him as well. The plan basically looks like this:
day 1 Read words and definitions, write sentences, workbook p 99 just the antonyms
day 2 self Quiz, write sentences, workbook p 101 just the word associations
day 3 finish sentences, review
day 4 practice test and review
day 5 vocab and spelling test
When we were adjusting during the year, he'd come and tell me it didn't help him at all to do all the workbook pages. We looked through them and I tried to let him simply self quiz. He wasn't getting the nuances of meaning. We added in the sentence writing and I had him tell me which exercises he benefitted from. We simply crossed everything else off the list. Everything in my plans is hand scrawled on loose leaf paper so I just plan for white space to do cross outs and additions throughout the year. I only hand him 1 week at a time, so when we are going over work, it becomes obvious what needs adjusting and I simply cross out and write in stuff as I hand it to him. If there is something on the plan that we didn't get to, I circle or highlight it for me - but if it is something we're just rolling into the next week, I'll simply add this to the new plans I'm handing him.
Stuff like math and grammar were fairly easy because I know better than to write down page numbers on the plan for this child. If I put down one page, he'll do 20 that day. I simply write math on the plan or grammar. With grammar, I had to specify no more than 1 page in a day. But if I cross out a weeks worth of grammar workbook to add in diagramming and Winston with mom, it won't matter cause nothing else changes. I note page numbers on the plan as I check the work.
Theology - I follow Kolbes sequence fairly closely - but skip all the answer questions and Activity book stuff. I have him make cards from the Balt. catechism and intersperse seasonal faith practices throughout. I also noted where CCGS materials I had on hand would reinforce or introduce a lesson well and specifically wrote on the plan - Get mom to introduce "name the CGS presentation". Fridays were review catechism card days and set aside for private devotions especially and I did try to vary the routine a bit - so in this child's lesson plan, after we finished studying one thing, we took a couple of weeks to read St. Patricks Summer outloud. He took Kolbe quarter tests just so I could see what he was retaining and what we needed to reinforce more thouroughly. I recopied instructions, etc. from Kolbe plans onto the single sheet so that things were organized where all he had to do was grab the sheet for the day and check off when he did stuff.
Once I have everything laid out for me, I pull out a calendar and we date stuff. Little things like, oops, forgot that Holy Week comes early this year so there are some readjustments to make sure we have needed break times and to add in particular feast days we want to celebrate. Now we start putting a date on the top of the sheet. I have my dh look over everything, making sure it isn't too packed. I also puruse for things like if there is a day that has "get mom" in more than 1 or 2 spots, it won't be a good day and I need to adjust the plans.
Then I move to the next child, until each child is done.
With the highschooler, I counted number of days so that there was a start date and a test date on each segment for the subject. I started with a study sheet for the unit that she could fill out while she read. Her science assignments looked very specific - read p - p in Biology text. Define - list of words. At the end, I gave her a few days to fill in the study sheet (though if she did it as she read she'd give herself extra study and reading days) and a few days to study and then there was little mercy about when the test was given. I use the Kolbe tests which involve multiple choice, fill in blank and essay questions and diagrams to fill out. I have done this for Biology and Physical Science (Prentice Hall texts) using Kolbe plans and Kolbe additional reading (mostly church encyclicals and one anti-evolutionary resource to counter the annoyingly heavy evolution assumptions in this particular text. I rewrote the plans in my one sheet per day format but told her to read p in Kolbe plans for an explanation of .... when there were particularly helpful additional info in the Kolbe plans that I didn't want to have to keep copying.). On each page group that I had her read, I noted things she should think about, things that simply must be learned, etc. I did quite a bit of what is often referred to as spoon feeding. However, this is a child who has never had a formal science and her informal science was deplorable since she spent most of her life avoiding it and I never quite figured out how to provide basic vocabulary and opportunities with these older ones of mine.
Her math plans are likewise specific.
Her history and literature plans look more like my other child's science plans except that there are a certain number of books I want her to read - and we circled the paper topics I wanted her to do. She makes a timeline and keeps a history notebook. I am currently working on finalizing these as she said she really likes the specific plans and though I won't need to do any spoon feeding here, she would like me to go ahead and give her assignments in a time sequence, books that I deam essential for her to read and papers that she should finalize, those that she should outline points, those that are simply to be handed in in draft form, etc. She reads and will continue to read widely in both history and literature. She loves to write so it isn't like this is a chore for her.
I have since asked her to keep a log of volunteer hours and books read.
My planning for next year for my younger will involve some real thought about what Montessori materials to make/order/present. I really think that what works best for me is to do new presentations and focus time with my 5 yo in the summer and keep things much looser and easier in the school term for him (mostly snuggly read alouds) and whatever materials he already knows how to use. There are plenty of things for him to bring to the table to do while I'm working with others, but I just don't have energy during the school year to do and supervise the learning of new presentations. These are all things that benefit him - rolling play dough with a rolling pin, any Montessori activity he wants to continue doing, drawing, coloring, painting. Read alouds are the only things that I can do with more than one child at a time and since I'm working with my nephew as well, I've found that his 15 minutes of assigned read aloud time dovetails nicely as a group thing right before a wiggle break.
If I've done new presentations all summer, then during the school year, it becomse a sinking in time for him without me having to worry that he'll need lots of oversight/observation and what I need happens more naturally - and yet my poor little guy doesn't get left out of the learning. I also want to make the catechesis materials and I use those with all the children but if I'm presenting them to one, it naturally happens for all - one at a time. I do have to make whatever I think I might use during the summer. I won't have time or energy during the school year. I have much more time to be the enthusiastic observer with my youngers during the summer and I really do believe that we miss a lot if we don't keep that part of Montessori - so I'm planning to do my Montessori work with my 5 yo and perhaps even the more formal presentations for my 8 yo in the summer.
I am planning on having lots of basic science 3 part cards, geography pin maps, etc. Again my creative juices are there in the summer and early into the school year. By Oct. or Nov., I don't have time for anything beyond running a household, taking care of my children and keeping things moving forward and there are too many other demands. I surely do not have anymore creative juices then - so folks have to use what is there. I can also benefit more from my older children's talents during the summer. If I have to make a bunch of the people for COGS, it will be more beautiful and eye pleasing and durable if my 16 yo makes them. I may be able to hire her for a summer job.
You may notice in all of this that the one thing I did not do was the advice about looking at your spine, counting pages, dividing by # of school days and that becomes what you must read ... I don't care whether or not we finish something this year. We study in depth so we move through time a bit slower. I want to do what is comfortable, doable, comprehensible for my particular child. If we get through half the book, then we can pick up where we left off next year and keep moving. What has happened is that suddenly - about 3/4 of the way through the book (which I only really thought we'd get halfway through), my 11 yo history avoider suddenly is dying to get to the Civil War. We have accomplished something significant this year. He is also communicating in some sort of orderly manner. He knows how to plan and organize now - and has even begun to keep his desk clean!!!!! I don't know that I can say how it all worked, came together - but we had an orderly roadmap and so we got to our destination.
I hope this helps and answers your specific questions. My lesson plans are specific and geared for the child - but are not generally about finishing a text or getting to x, y, z. They include some of my written thoughts - ie I tend to discuss better in writing so even if my children don't read my complete notes - I have them in the plan when the child gets to that point and I remember the things that I wanted to discuss with them. I have specific goals in mind for each child and these assure me that we reach those goals and that my children will be able to even if I end up hospitalized for months on end (not something that is likely to happen but from experience, when you have a bunch of school age children, you do end up spending lots of time running child 1 to the doc, child 2 to the dentist for emergency, child 4/5 to the eye doctor to repair damaged glasses, a couple of hours with the car mechanic or transporting dh to or from work due to car problems or on the phone listening to your college age student or giving advice on how to handle her crisis or going back and forth with pest control, vacuuming for fleas, and before you know it your children would have lost months of school if they were waiting around for you to explain, show them what to do next or find a resource that has been misplaced).
My plans are mostly about the sequencing of things so I can take advantage of overlap in subjects, can gather resources ahead of time and have them conveniently organized for the child's use. As I'm reading Theology lessons for child, I remember all the COGS stuff and know that I simply will have to make x, y, z this summer so we can do this before the unit on .. comes up in Faith and Life. Then they experience the lesson first, and the Faith and Life becomes a lovely reinforcement and succinct summary of something they learned in an inspiring way - instead of bogging through faith and Life and memorizing some stuff and then months later finally finding the COGS stuff - and gee we should have done that back .... It is also about making sure that we have some fun stuff on hand that is easy to do and inspiring. For my science fan, he is all about projects - but some of yours might be about art and while you can still focus then you remember that lovely Roman fort that was just a matter of glue and cardstock that some boys will have fun reenacting battles with. I won't have time, energy or money during the school year to do any of this. I get it lined up in August. So I sequence and have some general goals in mind.
Janet
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julia s.
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ALmom wrote:
You may notice in all of this that the one thing I did not do was the advice about looking at your spine, counting pages, dividing by # of school days and that becomes what you must read ... I don't care whether or not we finish something this year. We study in depth so we move through time a bit slower. I want to do what is comfortable, doable, comprehensible for my particular child. If we get through half the book, then we can pick up where we left off next year and keep moving. What has happened is that suddenly - about 3/4 of the way through the book (which I only really thought we'd get halfway through), my 11 yo history avoider suddenly is dying to get to the Civil War. We have accomplished something significant this year. He is also communicating in some sort of orderly manner. He knows how to plan and organize now - and has even begun to keep his desk clean!!!!! I don't know that I can say how it all worked, came together - but we had an orderly roadmap and so we got to our destination.
I hope this helps and answers your specific questions. My lesson plans are specific and geared for the child - but are not generally about finishing a text or getting to x, y, z. They include some of my written thoughts - ie I tend to discuss better in writing so even if my children don't read my complete notes - I have them in the plan when the child gets to that point and I remember the things that I wanted to discuss with them. I have specific goals in mind for each child and these assure me that we reach those goals and that my children will be able to even if I end up hospitalized for months on end (not something that is likely to happen but from experience, when you have a bunch of school age children, you do end up spending lots of time running child 1 to the doc, child 2 to the dentist for emergency, child 4/5 to the eye doctor to repair damaged glasses, a couple of hours with the car mechanic or transporting dh to or from work due to car problems or on the phone listening to your college age student or giving advice on how to handle her crisis or going back and forth with pest control, vacuuming for fleas, and before you know it your children would have lost months of school if they were waiting around for you to explain, show them what to do next or find a resource that has been misplaced).
Janet |
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I'm not Jennifer, but I appreciate all the advice you gave. These two paragraphs spell out where I lose the most time and my over all goals about emphasizing the child's need. My planning might be different since I don't probably have as many resources as you do with all your hsing experience and I have to account for the fact that I'll be having a baby in August. I need to have a long term written plan because I know how turned around I can get.
It's nice to see how you have broken down each thing for you child over the course of a week or a couple of weeks -- giving him some independence and some structure. I was wondering the child who is doing Am. history and loves science and math how old is he -- he sounds just like my oldest son, but I'm thinking maybe I could give my oldest some more independence than what I do.
Thanks.
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julia
married to love of her life
with ds12 ds8 ds3 and ds1
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ALmom
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Julia, That particular child is 11. My 8 yo is still primarily with me, but he does use math, grammar and spelling workbooks and I have Montessori materials so that he does these independently - no real plans needed just do the next page or chose from the Montessori materials. These workbooks all together do not take him more than 30 minutes total. My 5yo needs quiet things to do when I am not reading to him. He can bring these to the table where I am working or he may choose to work on them in the Montessori room. He does replace them exactly as he found them when he is finished using it and this rarely requires reminders unless we've all become slobs for a week or more. My 13 yo and highschooler are working independently, except they put post-its on my desk in the kitchen with work to be graded or they come get me if they just cannot figure something out. I spend about an hour one on one every day with my 13 yo nephew (special needs) - some of it is stuff that requires real quiet and no interruption. Other of his stuff becomes a physical break for all the boys and they do it together. We are getting to the point where he can work independently with some things that have a paper product which is a huge step forward. I will tell you that if I don't get around to going over the 11 yo stuff, it does tend to drift to sloppiness or he rushes through and misses some minor detail that turns out to be not so minor. So while this boy is very independent in getting the work done, it is best if I go over everything at least twice a week - science not so critical, everything else probably. I, however, will never have to teach him how to research. I'll just tell him - "you know, do what you do in science." My older two are good and diligent regardless of how closely I monitor or how often I check stuff. Obviously you need certain things graded regularly, but I don't have to physically look at everything.
Janet
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asplendidtime
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BrendaPeter wrote:
Hi Helen,
I came across this list today - "Ten Ways to Simplifying Homeschooling" - which I thought was excellent & really speaks to the heart of this topic. Don't remember how I found it though - I think I started out at Elizabeth's blog & then that domino-effect link thing started to happen...and, of course, being 40+ I forgot where I started off...
Anyway, I tell everyone that I'm a big fan of the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method. Works for me!
So happy to hear you are doing well ! |
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I was watching a movie about the life of Mother Teresa on Easter Sunday, and was thoroughly enjoying her teaching method! She sat in the dirt, wrote with a stick on the ground, smiled and talked sweetly to the children! I commented to my husband how wonderfully simple that all seemed. My how we complicate things sometimes trying to get it all done perfectly! ----> That would be me! 
__________________
Rebecca~Mama to
Noah 17,
Katie 16,
Mary 14,
Tim 13,
Jonah 12,
Josh 10,
Zoe 9,
Will 7,
Peter 6,
Laura-Mae 4,
Emily-Joy 2,
Genevieve & Gabriella 1
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Mackfam
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ALmom wrote:
My plans are mostly about the sequencing of things so I can take advantage of overlap in subjects, can gather resources ahead of time and have them conveniently organized for the child's use. As I'm reading Theology lessons for child, I remember all the COGS stuff and know that I simply will have to make x, y, z this summer so we can do this before the unit on .. comes up in Faith and Life. Then they experience the lesson first, and the Faith and Life becomes a lovely reinforcement and succinct summary of something they learned in an inspiring way - instead of bogging through faith and Life and memorizing some stuff and then months later finally finding the COGS stuff - and gee we should have done that back .... It is also about making sure that we have some fun stuff on hand that is easy to do and inspiring. For my science fan, he is all about projects - but some of yours might be about art and while you can still focus then you remember that lovely Roman fort that was just a matter of glue and cardstock that some boys will have fun reenacting battles with. I won't have time, energy or money during the school year to do any of this. I get it lined up in August. So I sequence and have some general goals in mind.
Janet |
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Janet,
That was really helpful. I've seen your notebook planner pages before in the kids' notebooks. This has given me so much to think about. I'm not a huge fan of finishing a book just to say we finished either - and that is usually a disaster anyway if I try to push that method. Your planning covers many of my concerns, particularly about sequencing in order to take advantage of other common subject studies or rabbit trails. This, I think, is one of the reasons I feel so disjointed this year. I know I have a valuable resource to back up a study of something...somewhere...but where...and what am I missing...and do I need to make something??? How much more streamlined if I did some pre-planning over the summer to gather those resources, or at least note where they are.
Very, very helpful Janet. Thanks!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Helen
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Thanks Janet
I printed out your post (all eight pages!) read it, underlined, and found it extremely helpful.
Thank you!!
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Ave Maria!
Mom to 5 girls and 3 boys
Mary Vitamin & Castle of the Immaculate
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Plan for next year: No Burnout
