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kristinannie
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| Posted: Feb 20 2013 at 8:10pm | IP Logged
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I started out homeschooling by planning the lessons for the week and having checklists every day. This seriously stressed me out and led to burnout. Now I am scared that we are going too far in the opposite direction.
My oldest is in first grade. I have become really laid back with schooling. We do our RS and/or Miquon math, phonics, reading lesson, and copywork daily (usually 4X a week). We do Morning Basket time most days where I usually read three books. We always do one religious book (Neumann Press books or an Old Testament story...we are slowly working through the Old Testament), either US History (we are working through the D'Aulaire's books) or science (Science for Little Folks) or nature study, and a fairy tale or Pooh story or poetry. I don't really have a real plan. We just kind of do whatever I feel like each day. I try to do history 2 times a week, nature study once a week, etc.
Anyway, I know that eventually I will need to schedule better. Does anyone do this kind of relaxed schooling? I don't know when we will get through a book. We just kind of read it until we are done and move on. Honestly, I am still feeling out how much I can read per day for narrations (I usually still ask for a narration after each couple of paragraphs, but usually the kids do 3 or 4 narrations per book). We are going through US History and the Old Testament chronologically. Would I feel less stressed if I had a better plan or is this OK?
I sometimes wish I could just enroll somewhere for the accountability, but I don't really like any of the Catholic providers for elementary school. Plus, we do CM. I love the idea of LBC, but they are Protestant.
Sorry to ramble on. The education of my children is so important to me. Sometimes I feel like I am being way too lax with them and should demand more. But a huge part of me thinks it is only 1st grade and my son needs a lot of time to play outside. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated!!!!!
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Aagot
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| Posted: Feb 20 2013 at 8:26pm | IP Logged
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Honestly, it sounds wonderful and I would enjoy it as long as you can 
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jawgee
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| Posted: Feb 20 2013 at 9:02pm | IP Logged
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Aagot wrote:
| Honestly, it sounds wonderful and I would enjoy it as long as you can |
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If I didn't have a 5th grader in the mix, I think our days would look a lot like that.
And honestly, I don't schedule books. We read them until we're done. There's no rush. If we get into a book, maybe we'll read an entire chapter in a day. We just finished a Civil War book that took us three months to read, and that's OK too.
Now that we're done with that book, I check what's next on the list and grab a few library books.
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SallyT
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Yes, our days look very like that. My high-schooler not so much, but the 3rd and 4th graders? Yep. They do their independent work as they get up and get moving, and then we do "basket" over lunch. I have a lot of books going, but we move through them at a pretty relaxed pace. And as a child finishes a book, I just pop another one into the box for next time.
I make up these elaborate schedules every year, but inevitably we just settle into a rhythm. Eventually more and more independent work takes over, and the day gets longer, but we are pretty relaxed overall, especially by this time in the year.
Sally
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Claire F
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| Posted: Feb 20 2013 at 11:07pm | IP Logged
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I'm working my way backward to more of what you're doing. I'd gotten more scheduled and rigid, feeling like we had to finish things each week and it has been stressing me out. I'm trying to find a happy medium, I think - where we are organized enough that I can be well prepared for what we're doing each week, but not so overly organized that I wind up stressing over what we are or aren't getting done.
I want to build in more flexibility so when interest strikes, we can drop the plans and do something spontaneous once in a while. For example, we're doing a lesson on the nervous system this week and today my 2nd grader thought up the idea to make a full sized outline of himself on big paper and draw the nervous system. What a great idea! It took a huge amount of our time today, which means other stuff didn't get done. But gosh, it was such a fun activity - the other kids colored life sized outlines of themselves, and they are really happy with the result. It was one of those days that reminded me that I need to be more flexible and plan in such a way that, like I said, I can be prepared, and still go with the flow.
I always find it easier to encourage others to be relaxed than to actually do it myself  . But honestly, it sounds like you are doing a great job.
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4 lads mom
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| Posted: Feb 21 2013 at 10:25am | IP Logged
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There always seems to be too much “life” that will not bend and wield itself into tidy little packages called “The Schedule” in my life! 
We like rhythm around here....when I schedule things, (which I did an extensive schedule this year) we are off that bandwagon within a few months, settled into more of a rhythm to our day vs. a tight schedule. I guess I just repeated what Sally said  but it looks pretty much the same here as well. What you are doing, Kristinannie, sounds lovely. If it works, don’t stress! 
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SallyT
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| Posted: Feb 21 2013 at 10:44am | IP Logged
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I tend to think in terms of the year, not the week, at least until late middle school. If we finish most of most of the books I wanted us to read/do by the end of the year, then score. I don't remember ever finishing a textbook or workbook when I was in school. I begin the year knowing that I've overscheduled, with grandiose ideas about how many books we're going to get through; usually by mid-fall reality has struck and we've pared back/ditched things that weren't working, and settled into a groove. We just lost a whole week recently, when the younger kids and I went to help my mother move to a retirement community, but we'll catch it up one way or another, and I figured that being there for my mom was important for all of us. If we work a little farther into the summer to get *mostly* through the year's work, so be it. It will come out in the wash one way or another!
Sally
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Erica Sanchez
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| Posted: Feb 21 2013 at 11:24am | IP Logged
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We have been making checklists/schedules which has been extremely helpful for all of us in just knowing where we are in a certain book and how much progress we are or aren't making, but we are very flexible about just moving things that didn't get done to the next week. The one subject we now try to stay on top of is Math and the checklist is very helpful with this. Everything else is like what everyone said above. Most of my kids thrive with checklists, but also feel fine if something didn't get done because something 'better' came up. Like Journey North or the symphony which we are going to today. :) Make sense?
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Erica Sanchez
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Adding that my current first grader does a maximum of 45 minutes of 'school' 3 or 4 days a week. :)
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(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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3ringcircus
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My kids are close in age to yours, and our day is similar, although we are out of the groove for religion right now (we are active in the local Catholic HS community, but I know we should be doing more at home as well). I'm still getting a feel for G's style of learning for various subjects and try to be flexible w/ him instead of beating my head against the wall by rushing him along or using materials that aren't a good fit. A lot of mamas here and IRL have mentioned that things naturally get more formal as they get toward upper elem.--maybe as they are capable of reading their subject work?
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kristacecilia
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My days looked exactly... EXACTLY... like that when my oldest was in 1st grade. It was a really lovely time. We are just easing into a more structured schedule for my oldest (he is almost nine now). For the rest of the crew, the day looks pretty much exactly like that still. It's great.
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kristinannie
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| Posted: Feb 23 2013 at 9:41am | IP Logged
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I just want to thank you ladies. I have been really feeling guilty about how we do school and I have been getting a lot I'd pressure from family. My son is so advanced and I don't want to gold him back academically, but I truly feel like this rhythm of Schilling is really working for us. My kids retain information so well from our books and are progressing in math and reading. Still, it is easy to second guess yourself when you are doing something so different from what society expects. Thanks again for the peace of mind. God bless all of you!
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Mrs. A
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| Posted: March 12 2013 at 3:11pm | IP Logged
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I'm glad to come across this thread because I have the same worries sometimes. Our days are also very relaxed. I do my best to make sure we hit math, copywork and reading, but beyond that other subjects happen or don't happen based on what each day is like. I have been thinking about planning for next year but I feel overwhelmed when I think about all the things I'd like us to do. Which probably means I want to do too much.
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Elena
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| Posted: March 12 2013 at 5:28pm | IP Logged
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Kristieannie, I have high school students and my days aren't as structured as yours!! I think you're doing fine. You could even relax a bit as long as reading and math are coming along nicely!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Relaxed scheduling?
