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mommy4ever
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| Posted: Aug 17 2012 at 9:24am | IP Logged
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I had intended to do more school this summer than we did, but seems we were so busy! 1 week away, 1 week of camp, home for 2 weeks, gone for 2.... and here we are! We did a couple days in July..oops. I guess with being away 3 weeks and camp for at least 1 week, that doesn't leave much of an 8 week summer break.
Monday, dd8 asked to start school. Sure! I pulled out a few things to start gently. Started our new Spelling workbook, and continued in All About Spelling(it's a great blend of us, her work book takes her 3 minutes, so it's not much to add). And All About Spelling will be done before Christmas, so the workbook is a great things for the full year. We did some mapping, handwriting and social studies. DD8 LOVES her new social studies. I took it from the school board. I am not fond of their items for the most part, but this is about our province, and it's done in narrative. DD8 has learned so much in a week.
DD13 of course has been saying she wants to do her school work this summer, yet, she took out one book, worked on it for 10 minutes, and I haven't seen her work since..lol.
She is my challenge. She is at an age, gotta love the teen years, that while she 'should' be able to work independently, there is SO much that distracts her, that she never puts much time into her school work. Then at the end of the year, she is in tears because she didn't get it done earlier.
So, I am being proactive, and nipping it in the bud.
I am eliminating all potential distractions. I'll be setting up 2 screens on her computer. One for school, that only allows her First Class, Elive items, her curricula access, then as needed related research with permission. I made the mistake of allowing Facebook for the kids, and it's a major distraction. So there will be 0 access to any of these things. The 2nd screen will need me to log in and be used after school hours only. Meaning after 2pm, once school and chores are complete. It will also mean any handheld gadgets are with me during school hours. She claims she likes her music to help with drowning out the littles, however, she has a non gaming/browsing mp3 player that will suffice for this. TV is off during the day, not even my favorite home decorating show during lunch. If it goes on, it seems we're all distracted. So hopefully, we can make it work.
I am enforcing a schedule this year too, last year we went with a relaxed almost un-schooling attitude. She has been staying up later and later at night, then sleeping in. Not this year. We have 2 early mornings with outside lessons to get to. And the rest of the week we are starting early. My day starts at 6 am, so I will be waking them by 7, to get the shower thing happening before 11, and make sure everyone is eating, she didn't eat well last year either, not eating until mid afternoon. If her work was getting done, i wouldn't worry about it, but it's not, and the quality was minimal effort put in to be passable. I am becoming more 'school-y', for the sake of efficiency. She will have time blocks to work on her subjects, as well. I am not going to be convinced that she got it all done 'last night'. We have a school day, if 'it's done' we work 'ahead.'  No lazy days here.
I tried the more relaxed approach and it doesn't work for us. I gave it a try. My family needs more structure.
I have dd8 lesson plans all plotted out. Thanks to CHC, i have modified the lesson plan layout to work for me. I did each subject by week, but each subject in their own section of my planning binder, so we can zip ahead if she wants in one area, and not have to try to find what week we were in for it, if we struggle in one topic and get behind a bit, again, we'll know where we are. It is set up to look and do what's next per subject, I have it numbered by week, so I have an idea of where we are, so I can see if we are on task, but by subject instead.
DD13, however, is harder to lesson plan! Her assignments for some things may need to be completed over a period of days, so it's hard to assign 'do this'. I am looking at units or topics as a whole, and assigning it by the week, with a month over view. Deadlines for chapter or unit completions, as well as essays, etc schedule quizzes or tests. I am planning to do a weekly 'meeting' with her and all her books, to see where she is on her assignments. She will have her copy of the assignments, and I'll have mine, so I can check off what is done to my satisfaction, mark what needs review work and be sure she's on task. And if she 'loses' hers, I can scan a copy of mine for her. I don't want to be a hard task master, however, she needs it this year. I'm not doing any favors, as come a few years from now, and she's in University, they assign chunks, she needs to be scheduled NOW, so she knows how to do it herself then. If she doesn't know now, how will she be able to then?
I am praying this year goes smoother. I love homeschooling, but some days I am ready to throw in the towel when things don't go as planned.
__________________
Mom to 4,
1 graduated June 2012
1 in Catholic school
2 homeschooled(one considering art school!)
ardently praying for a new addition to our family.
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Barb.b
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| Posted: Aug 17 2012 at 9:52am | IP Logged
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I hear you!!! Relaxed homeschool just would NEVER work around here for high school! Lets face it - for a teen they see the idea of relaxed and they will do just that - relax!! For my kids in high school its not that they don't know HOW to plan, schedule themselves. . . they just don't! I am similar to you in that for dd 9th this year I am have a syllabus for each subject outlining what she needs to do for each class: most will just show a generic week. For expample in history: read chap, do end questions, list online work on a review site I found, weekly test. Any additional/ occasional assignments will be assigned as the year goes on like essays. These will have a definite due date! I too will meet weekly: math meet daily, grammar, literature, and history are 2 times weekly (we will figure out WHICH two days and stick to it - for instance history we will meet Wednesday and Thursday, grammar Tuesday and Friday. . . ). My downfall in the past was being too relaxed about the idea of meeting. I thought " yes, we will meet 2x per week for a particular subject" - but I found if I don't treat meeting for subjects like an appointment - then it doesn't happen!
So I can't be relaxed either! We will have her "syllabus's" on her bulletin board and our weekly "appointment calendar" of our meetings (I figure if I treat meeting with her like I do a Dr. appointment then It will get done!).
I like my syllabus approach because that is exacly what they do in college! So if in a subject we meet Thursday to grade - she needs to have it done - if she chooses to do it all wednesday and not over a longer period of time - then we will talk about a better way to do it. I want to observe her habits and then talk about how she is studying and scheduling herself in a good way and how she can improve and do things differently.
Barb
added: I have a ds 4rth grade and doing CHC this year for 1st time! So far I think I will like their plans (with a bit of tweaking!) as the give us structure with built in flexibility (I love the flexible wednesays!)
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mommy4ever
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| Posted: Aug 17 2012 at 11:36am | IP Logged
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Barb, I loved CHC last year! So we're doing it again this year. Our school facilitator is really impressed with how much dd8 progresses, and how MUCH we get done. If we're organized, lots gets done! I think they should figure it out with the curricula they write..lol...they could learn a little from the CHC lesson plans.
However, I do use a few different things, we're in Canada, learning about the US is a unit for us, not a year long study, so I use something different. We use a different math program as well. So it was too much tweaking in the planner. Plus, as I said, we moved through some things faster than others. Sometimes we explored more in some things, so we didn't get through as 'fast'. It was a bit of a scattered thing. So I did it by subject, same lessons plans, just laid out different for all the CHC subjects, but the ability to add my own, and tweak where we needed. to.
__________________
Mom to 4,
1 graduated June 2012
1 in Catholic school
2 homeschooled(one considering art school!)
ardently praying for a new addition to our family.
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SallyT
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| Posted: Aug 17 2012 at 3:32pm | IP Logged
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Have you seen the "Self-Control" app -- I don't know whether it's only for Mac or not, but my daughter and I both have it. Basically, you set it with any website you don't want to access for a given period of time (say, all day), and it locks you out. Period.
My college daughter is the one who discovered and got it, to keep herself focused during exams, but I use it, too. Again, if you don't have a Mac, I don't know if it's available for you (but if it is, it's free), but it is a VERY handy tool to have in your toolbox for keeping a computer-user from wandering off the path.
The same daughter really grew into being able to manage a syllabus throughout high school. At 13 she needed very definite guidance, and that wasn't always easy! One thing that really motivated her at that age at least to *try* was to do college research -- think about the kind of environment where she might picture herself in a few years, visit college websites, look at admissions requirements, and consider what she would have to do to find herself in her ideal college environment. I found it somewhat easier to guide her when I was also treating her as though her grownup life was just around the corner.
Starting back next week after a whole summer off, and I for one am READY!
Sally
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Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: Starting school- quashing challenges
