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Excellent article – I am; I can; I ought; I will. Or Doing the Work of Homeschoo
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Excellent, fantabulous, encouraging, and convicting! All words that accurately describe Brandy Vencel’s new post on I am; I can; I ought; I will. Or Doing the Work of Homeschooling
I think I need to print this out and read it every morning. 😉
I have realized how much having well written plans helps on the days I don’t feel like schooling. If I write “composer study” in my plans, I may ignore it or hold off another week. If I write “Listen to track 3 of the Bach cd”, we’ll actually get it done. It seems like such a small difference, but for some reason having pages or specific directions makes me more likely to follow through instead of putting off the lesson until next week. I think it’s because when I read “composer study” in my plans, my mind panics about what to actually do for composer study. With the DC talking and playing in the background, my mind focused on dinner/laundry/etc., it’s hard to plan on the spot what pages we’ll read (or CD track we’ll listen to). When I have specific plans, I can carry out those plans on auto-pilot.
The older my DC get, the more I see the need for consistency. It was so easy to take off the day when my DC were young (and I was kept up all night by a colicky baby or a good book). Now that my oldest is approaching high school, I see the importance of getting school in anyway. I’m also realizing how important of a habit it is for them to work hard each day…over the summer they spent too much time watching TV or laying around reading books. I’m beginning to see the need for more structure in their days. There are days when we can take off and have fun, but I think they need to be the exception rather than the rule.
Thank you so much for posting this. I’ve already read it twice. And Holly, there is something rather comforting in your post bc that’s exactly how I am and I tend to think of it as a character flaw (not being able to really THINK on my feet with children all around) but maybe it is more a human tendency. (If everyone else thinks it is a character flaw, don’t tell me! :))
Best,
Shannon
THANK YOU FOR SHARING CHRISTIE 🙂
I really needed to read that !! And yes I agree with Holly about being specific with our daily /weekly plans !! It is so easy to just skip something when the task is vague, lacking any detail . By bringing in specific details for each area it will create accountability for myself , and I guess motivate & steer me to get more accomplished . I guess in Brandy’s words “Make hay while the sun shines ” and to just simply practice be disciplined more than I have been.
I sat down for 1 hour Sunday afternoon and made our SPECIFIC list for the week of what to address and work on vs. just a broad “to do” list , and things went so much smoother – I pray that whatever life brings our way this school year that us moms can keep up the task of being disciplined and focused 🙂 Here’s to another year ladies !
Blessings to you all on your journey this year,
Jamie
As far as being specific goes, I also need to be specific for our History, Geography, Science, etc. It seems like being specific on my “lesson plan” sheet helps me remember where we are so that I can review w/ the girls before we start. For me, too, it seems to help me get it done.
And I don’t think needing the specifics is a character flaw – I think it’s human nature to be lazy while we’re making our plans or to-do list and not write down the specifics. When we just write “Science” on the list, we’re being lazy and not taking the time or spending the energy to do a wee bit of planning.
Oh, the things we learn (and sometimes ignore) about ourselves when we homeschool!
I’m glad the article was helpful. I plan to revisit it often!
For my planning, I prefer planning by the year by subject. I’ve used the CMO here and it is terrific! Last year and this year, I’m using One Note and I love it, too. I make a notebook with pages for each subject planned out. Then I have a general weekly page. That helps me to avoid rewriting or re-typing which I hate.
Christie, you inspired me to use OneNote, too. I have used it for years for our farm stuff and for my canning notes, but it had never occurred to me to use it for homeschooling.
I don’t use it to the extent that you do, with your children working from it, too, but it is so nice to have a place to jot notes about curriculum for future years and to save screen shots and whatnot.
And now that we have a tablet, I use OneNoted even more.
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