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Rebecca
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cathhomeschool wrote:
| When you get side-tracked and go back to the plans where you left off, what do you do at the end of the year when you're not "finished?" |
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I just had to start a new thread with this great question. It has been the bane of my existance for OH SO LONG!
Please, please someone answer this question! What to do with the plans and books that are two thirds of the way complete?
Right about April 1st each year, I realize that the 20 minute lessons I have been implementing all school year have brought us to about Chapter 10 in any given book and I make some haphazard ridicuous rule that for the next sixty days they will need to complete 18 pages of math each day to finish the book  . Of course, no one ever does and I never reinforce it but the temptation is there.
The problem with me is that I fluctuate between ridiculously organized perfectionistic planning mom and completely unstructured "Lets just read books, celebrate the Liturgical year and spend a lot of time outside" mom.
These two people are highly incompatible and their homeschool is a funny mix of the Odd Couple only in a hormonal female form.
Anyhow, I am done ranting and am waiting for your wisdom dear ladies  !
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Dawnie
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Rebecca wrote:
The problem with me is that I fluctuate between ridiculously organized perfectionistic planning mom and completely unstructured "Lets just read books, celebrate the Liturgical year and spend a lot of time outside" mom.
These two people are highly incompatible and their homeschool is a funny mix of the Odd Couple only in a hormonal female form. |
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ME TOO!!!
It's like I can't decide whether to unschool or not. 
I'm not terribly organized anyway, although I KEEP TRYING TO BE...ARG!
Our problem is that I'm a night owl by nature and dh is working 2nd shift and we have a new baby...so getting up early is VERY HARD right now. I actually *got out of bed* this morning at 8am, but then fell asleep again in the recliner while nursing my little warm, cuddly baby. But the morning is the best time for school...once we get into the afternoon/evening, which is when I feel up to it, everyone is getting cranky and tired and hungry and dh isn't there to help with the littles and we just end up reading out loud or watching "The Sound of Music."  I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle here.
Sorry, Rebecca, I'm not much help.
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Paula in MN
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I don't sweat it! There is no rule that says I have to have so many lessons finished or chapters read by an arbitrary day, date or time. I try to do as much as I can with the Liturgical year, so in my mind we never stop *having school*.
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 Paula
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marihalojen
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Brick and mortar schools rarely finish texts either!
I think this is why I prefer any type of schooling that doesn't involve a text book, I can just call it the end of the year when we are finished studying the Presidents or Pirates or Botany or whatever we are studying at that time and I'm not left with any unfinished plans. I just return the books to the library and pick out our summer reading selections.
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SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading
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Rebecca
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marihalojen wrote:
Brick and mortar schools rarely finish texts either!
I think this is why I prefer any type of schooling that doesn't involve a text book, I can just call it the end of the year when we are finished studying the Presidents or Pirates or Botany or whatever we are studying at that time and I'm not left with any unfinished plans. I just return the books to the library and pick out our summer reading selections. |
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So what you're saying Jen is that I need a boat ! I might just run that past my husband each time he says that we have too many books. "Well, buy me a sailboat and I will get rid of them all and only use the library"
Sounds good to me!
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MaryMary
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marihalojen wrote:
| Brick and mortar schools rarely finish texts either! |
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You took the words out of my mouth, Jennifer. And any school teacher worth her salt will fret about what and how much was covered, if it was covered adequately, and how her students will fare in the next grade.
Lucky for us as homeschoolers, we have the same students again next year! We can pick up right where we left off if need be. Don't be too worried, my dear. My instinct tells me your children will end up exactly where they need to be at the end of the school year!
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Mary
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Theresa
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MaryMary wrote:
Lucky for us as homeschoolers, we have the same students again next year! We can pick up right where we left off if need be. Don't be too worried, my dear. My instinct tells me your children will end up exactly where they need to be at the end of the school year! |
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We just pick up where we left off...
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Elizabeth
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I finish in the summer or the next fall or whenever. The problem is when the text/lesson plans are keyed to the calendar year or the liturgical year and I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time. That leads to questions like this..
This is one reason I'll never be one of those four-year-cycle Classical educators. The other reason is that I have several children and I like to do as much as a group as possible.
I work better with unit study. I can plan four to eight weeks of great books and activities that interest me and excite my kids and I can usually stick with the plan that long and get it finished. If we don't finish, there's no harm in having an extra good book or two or a craft on a shelf for another day (unless, of course, you live on a boat ).
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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cathhomeschool
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PaulaL wrote:
| I don't sweat it! There is no rule that says I have to have so many lessons finished or chapters read by an arbitrary day, date or time. I try to do as much as I can with the Liturgical year, so in my mind we never stop *having school*. |
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We usually school year round and we do continue using the books that we've bought, like math texts, All Ye Lands, History of US. My question was about those lesson plans that cost money and are geared towards a one year cycle. If you pick them up next year (say it was 3rd grade that you didn't finish), do you skip using the next year's plans (4th) or do you just start those at Christmas? Do you stop using 3rd grade at some point, finished or not and move on to 4th? My problem (I think) would be having paid good money for a plan that I don't finish using or that puts me at the wrong starting place for next year's plans if I do finish using them. I guess that I could always say, "I'll use those with the next child." But then I'm not too fond of having each child in different plan. That's why I prefer Jennifer's approach, even though we don't live on our very little boat. The textbooks I do use I use loosely and never plan on covering the whole book in a year. Except for math, I use the textbooks as supplements, not as the core. Still, every year when people start talking about CHC and other plans, I tend to get excited and think, "Maybe this is the year that I should try that!"
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Paula in MN
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cathhomeschool wrote:
| My question was about those lesson plans that cost money and are geared towards a one year cycle. If you pick them up next year (say it was 3rd grade that you didn't finish), do you skip using the next year's plans (4th) or do you just start those at Christmas? Do you stop using 3rd grade at some point, finished or not and move on to 4th? |
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I see what you mean. I looked through all my CHC plans (K, 1, 2) and I don't really feel that there is a lot of *building* on things from one year to the next. If YOU think the kids have learned what you need/want them to learn, just start with the next year. I know what you mean about cost. I love the CHC, but it is getting expensive, that's why I am looking at switching to MA next year.
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Willa
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Rebecca wrote:
The problem with me is that I fluctuate between ridiculously organized perfectionistic planning mom and completely unstructured "Lets just read books, celebrate the Liturgical year and spend a lot of time outside" mom.
These two people are highly incompatible and their homeschool is a funny mix of the Odd Couple only in a hormonal female form. |
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LOL! That is picturesque! Been there, done that too.
After seeing one child through all the way to college I see that all the unfinished books didn't matter a whole lot.
Most of those textbooks that build on themselves provide a lot of repetition so that if the child missed something the first time he can get it the second or third time. With the lesson plans, I think it's somewhat the same or the material covered is broad enough that it could easily come up at a different time... for example, learning about a saint.... it comes up again.
Part of what I expect to do in a given school year is cover "gaps" from past years. There aren't really that many though. Often the children end up filling up the gaps themselves in the interim.
I finally am getting to where I'm making a bit of peace with my inner Felix and Oscar and realizing they both have a part to play. If you read Melissa's Tidal Homeschooling there is a very good description of how you can flex the method a fair bit from season to season and it can add up to an academic balanced diet. Long before the time of blogs Leonie was expressing a similar wisdom on CCM.
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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ALmom
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We assess what really needs to be done, what is simply not needed (either because we learned the same things with all our sidetracks or the child knew the concept better than I thought or it will be covered again next year in next years plans). Then we only do those things that I really see as important. If things are skipped in a subject that is the child's strength, we really don't worry and call ourselves done. If it is a weakness and we feel we need it, we divvy it up in reasonable chunks to go over a little into the summer or we save it for next year. If there were some neat activities that go with the liturgical year, I pull them for use at the appropriate time next year and we may have choices for several different children together.
If we are out of order in the Liturgical year stuff with a program, we just skip lessons, do the liturgical year stuff as it comes up and then go back to lessons.
I save lesson plans in case we do hit a concept that maybe we need to go back to the year it was first introduced (as that is when more concept explanation is given) and then jump back in the current lesson plan. If my dc have learned what we needed to learn, then I don't look at the plans as wasted even if we don't finish. We all tend to overplan - which is fine as long as we remember that there will be stuff we don't get to and we can choose what is best for us to do about it!
I have often found that those tucked away plans/books etc. pop out at you years later when someone needs something and nothing in their stuff is working - whallah - I have something, don't have to wait or hunt or.... It saves me time and as long as the plans are doing that and helping us, they are working for us. When they start to become a brick around the neck and make us sink, then we need something to change! I absolutely love lesson plans - they save me so much time - but use them in ways very unique to each child and do feel totally free to ditch, replace, change, skip, add. I own the lesson plans, they don't own me! It does take being conscious and reminding yourselves about this.
Janet
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Erica Sanchez
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Dawnie wrote:
Rebecca wrote:
The problem with me is that I fluctuate between ridiculously organized perfectionistic planning mom and completely unstructured "Lets just read books, celebrate the Liturgical year and spend a lot of time outside" mom.
These two people are highly incompatible and their homeschool is a funny mix of the Odd Couple only in a hormonal female form. |
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ME TOO!!!
It's like I can't decide whether to unschool or not. |
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ME THREE!
I had this very conversation with Lissa today regarding Math. We've used MCP very successfully since the beginning, but I got it in my head that I wanted to go a more 'unschoolish' or fun route and try games and such and maybe Math U See. Because I haven't truly decided, I feel like we've done very little math this school year.
One solution to the unfinished workbooks was, midway through the year, I let the kids pick which chapter they wanted to work through. At least some of the chapters near the end of the book got done!
Or, just keep them year after year and then in a mad-marathon-clean-out-the-schoolroom-weekend, recycle them!
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Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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LH
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We've never stopped in order to start back up again
We go year round and just take things as they come
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: What to do at the end of the year...
