Less Details, Less Scheduling … anyone else?

Well, I’m not horrified by any means, lol! But I know that I need more discipline in my life or we’d probably never get anything done and I’m afraid my oldest son, only 7, has the same tendencies. And I can’t really let him choose the books or subjects to much degree or we pretty much wouldn’t do anything.  

That being said, I wouldn’t be quite as worried about how much time we are spending on things (ie: sticking very close to our schedule) if I wasn’t hsing my niece, who doesn’t live with us. I don’t think its fair to her mom and family to keep her much past lunch. One of my beliefs about why hsing is better than ps is that the child has much more time with her family. Her mom needs time with her too to teach her handicrafts and housekeeping stuff, as well as whatever fun things they should have the time for. If I keep her as long as ps does, where’s the benefit to the family? So that’s actually my reasoning behind my scheduling goals.

So that’s our story !  Becky

I go back and forth on this…sometimes too much detail leaves me feeling like a failure because life happens and I didn’t get the check off list done, and that nags at me sooo bad.  And other times I need the details to feel like we are moving forward, hence the back and forth.  This is what I am doing so far this year:

I planned out what topics and books I want.  (I too refer to the state’s plan to help me have an idea of what the PS kids are doing, even if I am not doing it) I used the Planning Your CM Education to the point of the week.  Then I just listed pages Week 1, 2, etc, with the topic for the week and all the books I have for that topic.  I decided to not say this amount has to be done this day, which leaves me the ability to pick and choose for a daily thing, yet keeps us moving along on a weekly schedule.  I have used the CMO and loved it, but also enjoy just keeping a basic journal of all things done that day which can include way more than I included on the CMO.  I am not as good about entering daily extras on there, so it is really not as complete a record as my journal can be.  Doing both is a great way to have good solid records. 

I have more than 2 kids, so I am not able to just ask what do we want to do today…I ask what we want to start with, LOL.  I have a basic list of things for the kids to check off daily for their individual things and they like that.  I insist that we start with family stuff first, because it is so hard to drag everybody together after they get interested in their own thing…we are usually done with “book type” work in the morning, leaving the afternoon for nature study, handicrafts, life skills, creative art, etc.

We get up at 7 and have breakfast and moring routines done, including family scriptures and prayer with Dad before he leaves.  I totally need my time alone with him and the silence (lol) after everyone is in bed…so that is why I insist on the early morning thing.  I also want to work on other stuff in the afternoons, whether it is reading, working around the yard, playing with the youngers, getting on this forum (haha), etc.  So that is what works for us.

It is so amazing to see how many people can take an idea and apply it in their life different from anyone else and be so successful with it.  This is actually what drew me to CM…a few basic ideas and guidelines for incorporating those ideas, and I can be my own decision maker…love it, love it, love it.  I love seeing and learning from so many people.  I may not use the ideas today, but I make connections with it all at one time or another!  =)

@Claire – no, I did not particularly think of your homeschooling method as “unschooling,” just more laid back than some who post here. I suppose it was the free spirit in me that was attracted to unschooling a few years back, but my kids were young, we had just moved in with my elderly dad, and we were doing unit studies in a rather relaxed fashion while we all adjusted to the changes. Then, of course, about a year later, we began the process that led us to my son’s diagnosis with autism. We needed to have a certain amount of structure and routine for him. He has gotten to the point where he adapts to change and transistions a bit better, but if I was unschooling him, I think he would play with cars or beg to watch movies all day long!

I do know an unschooling family, and I had to chuckle at your hypothetical example of the child playing video games for a whole month. This particular family doesn’t use their tv except for occasional movies/educational dvd’s and they don’t let the kids on the internet unless they are researching something for school.

Sue

I have three sons, 21, 8 and 7 so I’m homeschooling in two batches.  The oldest is a JR engineering major in college.  We’ve done CM homeschooling for years and I firmly believe it’s the best for my family.  One of my biggest regrets with my oldest, however, is that I did not know about CM’s beliefs about habits.  We were very laid back with schooling.  We started when we wanted, did what suited our fancy that day.  We just applied CM’s methods to those things…copywork, dictation, nature study, living books, narration, etc.  But it was just the two of us most days, unless dad was off.  We loved it all.  But when ds started college, it really hit him hard.  He did (and is doing) great with the actual work (although he hates the textbooks after being spoiled with living books all his life.)  But keeping to that rigid schedule has been very difficult.  I wish now I had had a bit more structure.  So with my youngest two, we have a schedule that we follow in the morning as CM did.  There are certain subjects we do on certain days.  It’s written there and they know it’s coming.    Then they usually have much of the afternoon “free.”  I’m not an organized, scheduled person by nature…at ALL…but after seeing my oldest struggle his first year of college, I’m convinced I’m doing the right thing with my youngers.  And honestly, I feel more relaxed schooling with a schedule.  I’m apt to get pulled off course and this helps us get back on track when I am.

Just my experience.

This is what I want to do this year.  I don’t need to plan math or grammar, their books are already divided up for me, they just do another less each day.  For the other subjects, we’ll be using more real books, no textbooks so what I’m planning to do is just make up a list of books for each child, the older ones will be more independent and I’ll work with the youngest who isn’t reading yet.  I’m also working on notes of things I want to have them do during the year like memorize the states or something like that, and work that in on a day that isn’t super busy.  For us, lesson plans have turned into a tedious disaster–if we don’t keep up exactly, I have to rewrite them.  Also some of the goals I’m writing down are related to their areas they really need work on with me because of the learning issues.  So…I’m really hoping with my booklists, goals list, and a general daily schedule, we’ll be able to cover everything I want to without the stress of trying to keep up with tiny details.