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violingirl
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 11:54am | IP Logged
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Okay... so help me get my head on straight here.
I'm planning for first grade next year. We decided to divide our school year into 6 terms of two months each and I want to plan work for 6 weeks of each term with the other 2ish weeks free to account for illness, breaks, unexpected opportunities, etc. We have extra time planned off in December and April to correspond with my work schedule.
Now for some reason I'm really struggling with breaking things down into weeks and then days. Like I logically know how that works, but I'm wondering if it also makes sense to just leave the term's work as a checklist and just mark it off as we complete it.
I guess I'm trying to hold on to flexibility for my own sake, but I know my son does really great with a super-planned out checklist. We're just very different personalities, and I guess my brain is stuck on trying to find a good way to set up our planning that works for his need for structure and my need for flexibility.
Does anyone plan a little more broadly than a daily or weekly checklist? Is there a disadvantage to leaving our plans as "term" plans that I'm not seeing?
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Erin
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Erin
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I plan a term (10 weeks) at a time. When I planned weekly I was always running behind on a Monday morning. Simply once I finally got my head around it (took a while) I simply multiplied the weekly reqs by 10.
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 10:13pm | IP Logged
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Erin, what you are describing looks great! I do plan broadly because I'm a macro-thinking mom. I provide checklists for my children, too. I don't break things down into days or weeks. I'm too detail impaired. They fill in what they've accomplished or I fill it in for them.
Honestly, I look at a year at a time and "school" year round. I do break it down by quarter (I have one child in high school.) Then I break it down by daily skill requirements (reading, writing, math, spanish), plus what we call "rotation" knowledge (other subjects via living the liturgical year, nature study, movies, craft, experiements, etc.)
Love,
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Angie Mc
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Erin
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| Posted: April 12 2011 at 11:33pm | IP Logged
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Angie Mc wrote:
| I do plan broadly because I'm a macro-thinking mom. I provide checklists for my children, too. I don't break things down into days or weeks. I'm too detail impaired. They fill in what they've accomplished or I fill it in for them. |
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Angie
You've just created a lightbulb moment for me!! This is why the term checklist works for my children, my boys in particular are macro, worldview thinkers. Often they choose to do a whole term's work in a particular topic and nothing else that week.
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Erin
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: April 13 2011 at 12:58pm | IP Logged
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Erin wrote:
| my boys in particular are macro, worldview thinkers. Often they choose to do a whole term's work in a particular topic and nothing else that week. |
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I get that! I'm the same way  .
That's why I keep the daily skill work short, focused, efficient, effective...to make room for all the BIG projects and BIG passions in this family  . Checklists keep us honest about our daily work (getting it done) plus it keeps track of what we are doing toward big goals.
Love,
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Angie Mc
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violingirl
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| Posted: April 14 2011 at 12:10pm | IP Logged
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Angie Mc wrote:
Erin wrote:
| my boys in particular are macro, worldview thinkers. Often they choose to do a whole term's work in a particular topic and nothing else that week. |
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I get that! I'm the same way .
That's why I keep the daily skill work short, focused, efficient, effective...to make room for all the BIG projects and BIG passions in this family . Checklists keep us honest about our daily work (getting it done) plus it keeps track of what we are doing toward big goals. |
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You guys are making so much sense to me with the "worldview, macro thinking" term. That's much more how I am- I know what we want to accomplish and the tools at our disposal, but I want the freedom to do what we'd like on the details.
And Erin, you said that your boys often choose to do a term's work in a week or two on one subject- I already see the beginnings of that type of nature in one of my boys.
I think I'm going to set a 30-45 minute time first thing that is the "dailies"- religion, math and reading practice and then have the rest of our day be optional from the checklist so we can choose to sit and read books all morning or do a big art project or whatever is the mood of the day, but it will still be organized and part of the learning agenda.
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Erin
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: April 14 2011 at 10:27pm | IP Logged
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violingirl wrote:
| I think I'm going to set a 30-45 minute time first thing that is the "dailies"- religion, math and reading practice and then have the rest of our day be optional from the checklist so we can choose to sit and read books all morning or do a big art project or whatever is the mood of the day, but it will still be organized and part of the learning agenda. |
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Sounds lovely! Keep us posted, Erin.
Love,
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Angie Mc
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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: planning for different personalities?
