Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

This topic has 18 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 2 months ago by blue j.

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March 12, 2014 at 8:20 pm
TreasuresFromHeaven
Participant
I am a very Type A personality. I love order and plans. When I plan out my year, I have a spreadsheet that is very specific and tells me exactly what to do each daily. I usually plan out exactly what days we will school and what days we will take off, a year in advance. We school exactly 180 days. This has worked for me in the past.
But this year, it has really been on my heart to have our schooling more of a lifestyle rather than a checklist. In the past, I have not been able to spontaniously take off for a playdate or walk in the park without rearranging the rest of my week or doubling up on a day. I want to have more flexibility.
This year (we start in January), I didn’t plan out what days we would school/take off. This has been hard and very much against my personality. But today, I counted how many days we have schooled and what day we should be on in our curriculum. I am 4 days behind. I know we have taken a few half days and we have only take off about 6 days since the beginning of the year (we school year around). This is driving me crazy that I am 4 days behind. I feel like I need to double up for the next few days to catch up.
Now, for Math, we work until the book is done and then start the next one. But all my other subjects are started neatly in January and completely finished by December. For some reason, my brain will not let me apply this same idea to any other subject except for math. I dont’ know what is wrong with me. 🙂 It is against my nature but I want more relaxed days. I dont’ know how to get there.
Any ideas? I know I am rambling and I hope this makes sense.
March 12, 2014 at 8:28 pm
Misty
Participant
Totally makes sense I am the exact same way. I plan and need to know how, when and where I will be at all times. BUT I had to learn to let go sometimes. Change when needed and just keep moving forward in regard to school. I know this isn’t helping I just don’t have a lot of time right now to go farther. I love checklists, and seeing something done at the end of the day also
March 12, 2014 at 8:37 pm
eawerner
Participant
If you school year round, you need 15 days of school per month. So, 36 ish days so far. Are you still 4 days behind on that count? If not. Relax. If you are, that means there are 4 months coming up where you will have 16 days of school instead of 15. Um… not really anything to worry about. Relax. Breathe.
March 12, 2014 at 8:37 pm
Kayla
Participant
Can you just plan out the days and number them 1-180 and just check off each as you go?
And maybe plan on doing school a minimum number if days each month. Or say 8 out of 10 days of the school week. That way which day you are off is flexible but the days requirements are not.
March 12, 2014 at 8:44 pm
TreasuresFromHeaven
Participant
Curriculum wise, we are on day 38 but we have schooled 44 days this year. The main thing that gets me and makes me feel behind is history. The rest of the areas, I don’t feel the pressure. And it is not the curriculum that makes me feel pressures, just that it is numbered for me. Which totally contradicts what I said earlier…lol.
I wish I knew how to relax…lol. My husband says my shoulders are always so tense and I don’t know how to sit and do nothing. I want to know how to relax and be more flexible. I am such a work in progress…lol.
March 12, 2014 at 10:24 pm
mycupoverflows
Participant
I am the same way; I struggle with letting go, relaxing and being flexible!
That being said, here are a few things that help me:
1) I type up our schedule each week, picking up where we left off last week. I don’t worry about what week the curriculum teacher’s manual says or how much we did or didn’t do last week; instead, I focus on how many days we are actually doing work. For example, right now the teacher’s manual says we are in Week 20 but my schedule says we are on Week 22 so that’s what I count.
2) I don’t know where you live, but here in CA there is no legally required number of days to school. So I don’t worry about it. I start off planning three terms of 12 weeks each so technically we schedule 36 weeks or 180 days. But life happens. Even in public school, students rarely go to school for 180 days. They get sick, have teacher work days, inclement weather days, pizza party days, PE athletic event days, etc. I don’t know exactly how many days public school students actually do work, but I guarantee it’s far below 180 days!
3) I have a good friend who was an elementary public school teacher for many years and she told me that most teachers rarely get through all the material they have planned for the year. This was very freeing for me and now even if we fall a few weeks behind from the teacher’s manual I don’t feel pressure to “catch up”. Especially in the elementary years, so much material like history and science is repeated later when they get older.
I hope this was helpful! We are all works in progress! I’m still learning to let go but it’s getting easier with each passing year. So many things that we think are so important really aren’t. What are the real priorities for your family? If you and your children are making progress in that direction, then their education is successful. Don’t let a pre-determined set of “achievements by a certain age” rule your life. 🙂
–Leah
March 12, 2014 at 10:30 pm
Tristan
Participant
I guess I don’t really have any helpful advice. I was a lot like you but as more children came along and then all of Mason’s medical needs were dumped on top I had to relax. There was no other option, I didn’t get to choose when we would be at the hospital or in another surgery, I had to just do school when we could. We don’t number lessons now. It’s just not productive for me. We do school when we’re home, we take time off when we need to. The kids have become more independent in schoolwork and Daddy has stepped up to do some of the homeschooling on days where he’s home and I’m not.
An example – tomorrow Mason and I head to Children’s Hospital for the day before breakfast. We hope to get home by dinner time. Tomorrow will probably give us dates for his next surgery, a really scary big one that will put him and I staying at the hospital for at least a week, maybe longer. Daddy will oversee school tomorrow but when the surgery week arrives school will be dropped beyond one or two independent things like scripture study and reading in their current chapter book.
If I had created 180 lessons for every single subject we would never get to them all. I don’t think we NEED 180 days of every subject! Homeschooling means FREEDOM and at this stage I’m learning to embrace freedom from traditional ways of scheduling. 🙂
March 13, 2014 at 1:19 am
TailorMade
Participant
If you apply eawerner’s suggestion, you are ahead by a minimum of two days.
But, I know what you mean. I’m “behind” at this point on paper. I am having to learn to keep my shoulders and neck “loose” instead of tight. Those habits are especially detrimental after a wreck involving whiplash, btw. UGH!
A few things I’m trying to remember is to let my arms hang down, almost limp. BREATHE! (I’ve held my breath and kept my shoulders and neck tense for more years than I can count due to the very same reasons you’re dealing with at the moment.) I’ve started reminding myself that I’m not facing physical giants, walls, or armies. I’ve intimidated myself and been intimidated by others by setting unreasonable, sometimes unnecessary, or unrealistic goals for myself and my children. I remind myself that God is right here with me, with us. He knows the plans I’ve made, but sometimes He adjusts them to help us learn something He thinks is more important.
I’ve always been a paper planner until this year when I started using the CMO. I stepped away from the paper planner for a time, but that paper does “feel” more secure, more controlled….that happens to be a problem for me because I tend to freak, fret, or feel like I’ve lost my land legs without something to hold in my hands that says “This is going to be exceptional.” But, that ends up destroying me if I can’t pull it off. It ends up making me “see/think” I’m not able to pull it off, or NOT exceptional. That’s not helpful because then I dwell on it. Some might push harder to double up. I used to when I was younger. The longer I’ve homeschooled, the more challenges have cropped up and I haven’t had the energy/endurance to do that anymore.
I really enjoyed reading eawerner’s perspective. I hope to have that perspective become automatic sooner rather than later. It takes into account fruit, truth, and reality. Instead of focussing on what hasn’t happened, look at what has been learned.
For me, it’s been a serious matter of learning to say “no” to some subjects/activities, even history at times! GASP!
I don’t know how many children you have, or old they are, but if they are young, and if your state doesn’t require all sorts of subjects, taking time in the three Rs and habits will help you make up for lost time later down the road. The children will be able to study on their own and learn all sorts of things you may feel you might miss now if you fall behind.
I’m not saying to get lazy about it, but if you don’t learn to let God be your strength in homeschooling, you’ll run out of steam on your own and then you will find yourself truthfully behind because you won’t be able to follow through on much of anything due to exhaustion (I know from experience.)
You are likely planning too much. Instead of planning a year, just plan a term, giving yourself room. None of us learn as scheduled. Math concepts might take longer to understand than planned. You’ve already recognized this, I’m assuming from your post. Revamp with a much simpler routine to begin to see what is being completed. Then, add in things you miss studying and realize you can fit in without overwhelming everyone. You might do just a few subjects and leave out the pretty CM extras. Save them for off times and do a day of fine arts, or science experiments, or watch plays and documentaries that go along with the overall plan for the year. It will feel like time off because of the change of pace, but you will be able to “count” it and feel good about it while relaxing.
I hope some of these ideas help a bit.
March 13, 2014 at 2:11 am
TreasuresFromHeaven
Participant
Thank you ladies for you input. I have a lot to think about from your wonderful suggestions. God has been revealing to me over the past couple months how much I have to control things. Very bad! And I am having to change the way I think and it is very uncomfortable. I am having a very hard time thinking outside of the control box I have lived in for so many years. I feel like all this work has to be done by December and it never crosses my mind that it is ok not to finish something. Or let it run over to the new year until it is finished.
There is also pressure when you do your own curriculum with Charlotte Mason to feel like you have to do everything in order to be doing it “right”. I need to let God be the judge of that.
Thanks again for all your help!
March 13, 2014 at 6:57 pm
Shanna
Participant
If you are not using the CM Organizer I highly recommend it. It helps me from feeling overwhelmed by the numbers. If we miss a day it is okay. The organizer will not put more work on top of what is already there. It keeps up with what you get done on a daily basis.
March 13, 2014 at 7:06 pm
TailorMade
Participant
I never got back to the CMO in my reply. I agree with Shanna! The “in control” feeling I get from having paper in my hands is also a huge source of stress. The CMO keeps track of everything now, without having it all in my face (even with the new weekly overview). I did move some things to the weekend days to help have even less on the week days, but that was mainly to keep those subjects available in case we can get to them. I’ve had to cut way back on what we are actually doing lately. It’s not that pretty CM schedule it was for a while. We are maintaining basics out of necessity. Those things I’ve determined to be extras at this point are still available, but rarely get touched. I’m not stressing over it (as much as I used to) because reality will not allow for it all to happen. I don’t feel pressure to erase/rewrite. I’ll be able to pick up from where we left off in those areas we’ve set aside as soon as we can do that and it will all be in order, ready to go. Yes, I’m disappointed that we can’t do it all, but I’m reminding myself that God will finish the good work we’ve started in His timing, not mine.
Another help is afternoon and evening hot chamomile tea. ;0)
hth

March 13, 2014 at 7:51 pm
Karen
Participant
Personally, one thing that keeps me from relaxing is the whole “I need 180 days” thing. The sad fact is that, in PA, I DO need 180 days!!! (Despite the fact that the local school district’s calendar lists the 3 Act 80 days as students days and plainly says that the students are only in school for 177 days, not 180!!!) Anyway, my hang-up happens when I think, “how will I prove this was a school day??” and “what can i put in my daughter’s notebook to show that she learned this?”.
Currently, I plan things a week in advance. Well, 5 school days in advance, not a calendar week. If we have a day that’s a “weird” day (that is to say, a day that does NOT include all the subjects I would like to do or have planned to do), I jot that down on a different piece of paper. So I really have two “planners.” The one that shows 5 un-dated, perfectly completed school days per page. (Not that our days are perfect, but sometimes we do actually complete most of what i want to complete. i just check off what we’ve completed that day.)
The “Weird” days planner is a blank spreadsheet – 5 blocks across by 5 or 6 blocks down – and then on our weird days, I jot in each square what “school-ish” thing we did. (My oldest wrote 3 letters today – that was Lang. Arts; she did a math lesson; she did chores; she read independently; that’s 5 blocks, that’s 1 day done!). I do NOT plan on turning either of my “planners” in to the Superintendent — I just use them to make me feel better. I date the weird day planner as it happens….and sometimes, I fill in squares in advance. For example, if we go on a field trip, that takes up a square or two, depending on length. Some weeks, I feel like I need “days”, so I count Good News Club and the hour gym-time that she gets there. So we’re way ahead as far as “Days” go, but behind as far as the curriculum are concerned. (We’re on day 130-something out of our 180; but in history, we’re at lesson 90 and in Science, well, let’s not say where we are!)
Now, my biggest problem is learning to relax enough to not care about staying with the SCM Module 6 guide – and take a day’s History time to read library books on WWI, or to take the time from a Science lesson to draw the airplanes we were learning about. I get so uptight about not getting every thing done…and yet I have scores of library books borrowed that I’m not reading to the littles, scores of ideas of things to draw in our nature journals / science section of our notebooks that I’m not doing because I feel guilty that I’m not finishing the curriculum.

March 14, 2014 at 6:29 pm
mama_nickles
Participant
I don’t remember if you said how old your kids are, but I remember I talked to a veteran homeschool mom of 5 kids once last year, and she said that there was no need to “finish” a curriculum in the elementary years. It sounds like you are doing fine from a legal perspective at completing 180 days. Why not just keep minimal records, and not even track what day you are on of history or science? I know for me, I just kind of have a list of books we’d like to read, and when we finish one, we start the next. Don’t miss out on reading books to the preschoolers! Do you have a good schedule to your day? I have elementary and preschoolers, and have a time block for both groups, so I can make sure I am not neglecting the “preschool” time with my littles (which is really just chores, books, puzzles and games!) in order to accomplish my goals with my elementary schoolers. I think another thing that helps is having independent reading time for my big kids. Then even if I don’t get to teach them something I want them to learn, I can give them books about stuff and they can teach themselves! DS6 has “rest time’ every afternoon with a stack of books I have picked out. He has taught himself a ton of history that way, even though we only spend 10-15 minutes on history together each day.
March 14, 2014 at 7:11 pm
Karen
Participant
That’s good to hear, Mama Nickles. Thanks for the encouragement. You know, I specifically chose to do our history as a 4-year rotation (instead of 6) because I wanted the repetition! So, hopefully, even if we don’t get it all in this year, we’ll hit it again in the future.
I do feel guilty by times, remembering all hte hours I spent on the couch, reading to my first two daughters (now 9 and 8). My third and fourth (ages 6 and 4) have heard far more chapter books than picture books!
When other moms do projects, do you all spend just a short amount of time on it every day for several days? or do you spend a large chunk of time on it and just get it done in one or 2 days?
March 14, 2014 at 7:19 pm
mama_nickles
Participant
I don’t really do “projects” (lol) but I do sew for a 30-ish minute block every day. Not much, and kind of a pain to stop and start again, but I do make progress! It’s nice to have something tangible to accomplish every day during this time of child raising that seems like such slow progress!