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planning anonymous
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I’ll be in the club also! It is helping me to have children who are now old enough to see these tendencies in me and to observe them as faults. That turns it around and helps me to see that my children are watching and learning. Am I teaching them diligence and perseverance or am I teaching them to keep searching because the grass is always greener?
When I began homeschooling twenty years ago, there was nothing available. Well, not exactly, but the choices were very limited. We had no money to go to homeschool conferences and no internet access to discover new things so we stuck with what was available. As much as I appreciate all the wonderful options, there was something so easy about that. I feel as if I had much more time back then and was more relaxed.
I’m really new to Homeschooling, so I am planning early and researching more than I expect to in the future. I’m still trying to figure out my boys’ learning styles, and what I really need from a curriculum. Once I have some of my choices narrowed down (and I pretty much do) I will be letting my boys look over some of the materials with me at the homeschool convention coming up before I buy (things like Draw, Write Now or other resources that I’m not too sure which would click better with one or the other). I do know that we will be doing our first SCM Mod (1), so I am ordering that this week so I have sometime to really read through and collect the books.
Planning and researching is one of those projects that can take as little or as much time as you let it. If you say “Ok, I am giving myself 3 days in August to get this all done” then that’s how long it will take you. If you let it, it can be a year long project without end. I don’t get overly detailed with my initial planning becasue life has a way of throwing all the best laid plans out the window, but researching at this point is time consuming. I hope it goes a little smoother in the future as I learn better how to address the need of my kids. Once I’ve choosen my resources and figured out how I’m going to use them, I create a basic skeleton plan and a weekly schedule (preferably with a light day Friday so we can hit the library and nrun errands).
Count me in! I know what we are doing right now, and Im not changing anything but I just like looking lol! I think in my head “oh we could use that in ninth grade…” and my oldest is in second! One good thing that comes from my planning addiction is I usually have suggestions for my friends who ask for help 🙂
I actually have a “book hoarder” phobia because I was homeschooled and we had an entire room filled with floor to ceiling books and curriculum. Then my mom started a used curriculum business and it was like living in the library. For a girl who adored books – great! For a girl who cannot think straight in clutter it was hard. I have a LOT of books (ans my husband is a pastor so he contributes a lot) but I only keep what I have nice storage for. I purge regularly and only buy the read-more-than-once kind of books.
My husband still have me raised eyebrows when yet another package of books showed up yesterday. Oh well!
Tara
Yippee,
I was wondering when we were going to start a club! I’m in! Definately on the book hoarders club. Free book! I think that would be the thing that would pull me in. Ok, suck me into the vortex!
I love the planning! I think if I have the subject down to what I want I am happy. For instance I am happy with Math u see. So, I will continue with that but add a few extra things like games.
I am happy with planning history/ Geography together. I love new ideas and I was doing great with the continent thing. So, I continued to do the continents but now I am doing the timeline with the continents which is good but a slower pace. So much information is out there!
Spelling I am happy with so far so I will keep that the same for now.
Writing/dictation I am still tweeking but I am sure that will have to do with next years curriculm when they do more with studies.( also in the planning stage)
Art/ music/nature study I am pretty much happy with and will be putting together what I want to study for this next year so when it is all done I will be happy AKA the planning 🙂
Science. Scientist study- Have the scientist study down just need to tweek it… As for the science study I am still working on that . I think I will do more of labs with bulletin boards/posters on different things they can velcro to the poster. ect… This way they are learning the words for their science…. EX.. parts of an eye… then they velcro on the names. This way they learn the names. Doing this with a vocabulary type thing also… This way it is vocab. and science in one… 🙂 ( Am I being sneaky or what? ) 🙂
I have been brainstorming ( ongoing process!) and I think I know what I want to do I just have to get it all together! ( the final process)
Once I do all of it I am happy to stay close to on course except I see things I want to do.
Like I want to do more Latin, sign language, and Spanish. I have taught them some this past year but I would really like to go in deep and soak it up. so I think I will add that to a poster of velcro also. 🙂 This way when I need a break I can let them do the posters and they can be checked and we will still be learning something.
Now for all the posters, and all the things that go on it!
More book hunting? maybe that can be the free book for our club? 🙂 Tehe he
Oh, I also have a dream when we add on to our bathroom. I wanted to add the roof all the way up so we could have a school room above the bathroom! It would have a book shelf to hold all the books in the house. (Well, at least I would hope it would. ) LOL… ( MY book hoarding habit contained in one room!) 🙂 ok, so maybe I am still dreaming, Dont pinch me yet!
Yeah. Count me in too.
“Hi, my name is Leslie, and I have a serious problem with planning and then not implementing. Thank you.”
I love the planning. I love creating things for our children to do. But often I don’t stick with it (and not always b/c they bawk at it).
Sigh.
I am already feeling the urge to go check out curriculum and such, but so far I am resisting. It is moment by moment though.
When is the first meeting? I need to put it on the calendar.
Looks like I am not alone! Yes it is not only planning, I must admit, free online book hoarding, my computer will explode!!
Maybe we should have online meetings!!
I am sure glad I am not a compulsive buyer as well because I would be in serious trouble!
This all makes me smile :o)
Knowing that we have a busy summer ahead (possible move, etc) I have been trying to get next year planned out now and I have spent hours thinking and researching……..I think I am finally at the point were I can sit down and map it out on paper, which will feel good because right now the planning is taking up a lot of mental space KWIM? I feel like once it’s written down I can drop it….maybe :o)
One if the things that has struck me is the crazy amount of REALLY good resources we have available to us, I mean the real problem in planning is how to skew down out of all the amazing resources what we can actually use in a year. Makes me so thankful. When my mom started homeschooling back in the day (as in close to 30 years ago now!) there was just Bob Jones, Abeka or write your own. She wrote her own unit studies for several years until more resources became available.
Looks like I am not alone! Yes it is not only planning, I must admit, free online book hoarding, my computer will explode!!
I am glad someone mentioned free online book hoarding – because I am guilty of this, too. I am constantly downloading free ebooks and I have a nice tidy looking “books” icon on my desktop that is hiding TONS of files… too many to ever find anything and I can’t remember what is there.
I have compulsive bookmarking problems as well – the bookmarks go on and on and I can never find any of the cool stuff that I know is there… Actually pinterest has helped with that, not made it worse as I was afraid it would (just another “stash” of bookmarks LOL) because I can go back and find things more easily if I have that visual cue as to what the info was when I marked it to save…
Maybe at our planning club we could give each other focus and structure by planning subjects on a schedule – like a different subject each month, and adding resources we find to the CM bookfinder, so they are ready when the sharing feature comes in, and starting collaborative pinboards for different subjects – oh wait the club is not real is it LOL… is it?
Whew! I’m glad I’m not alone with (compulsive, ever looking ahead at times at the expense of right now) planning. My sister and I were talking about planning the other day, and she called my planning obsession my “hobby”. Yikes! I didn’t realize it had taken on a life of its own.
Gem,
I totally understand the compulsive bookmarking thing! I have folders upon folders, just to organize my bookmarks. Then, sometimes it’s hard to remember where I put a bookmark, so it’s easier just google it to find the site anyway.
I love the idea about planning a different subject each month. I think I will do that! Right now I’m scanning/prereading the Yesterday’s Classics and Heritage History books to decide what I want to do for history. (I’m trying to use ebooks whenever possible, as our library is pathetic and I have a small budget.) If I give myself a time limit, maybe I’ll be able to finish the project and get moving onto the next thing!
Joanne
All of this talk of planning got me in the mood to purge! I filled up two garbage bags today. Mostly papers and some … gasp … I had printed thinking “Oh, I’ll use this resource.”
One thing I’m doing is NOT printing on impulse either. What a waste of paper and ink. I also purged my e-files on my computer and made folders for EVERYTHING by subject and/or timeframe (preschool, kindergarten, elementary, etc.). That helped a LOT!
I have 6 children from 13 down to 2. I saw an idea recently where the Mom had files based on subject and I am definitely going to do that (for the paper resources I do have). I have bins already for the major things like History, Science, Phonics, Letters, Numbers, etc. This was more specific though like “Native Americans”, “Christmas”, etc. I like the idea b/c I am often doing special things (well not often LOL but on occasion) with multiple ages and abilities and it just makes more sense to have it all in one place.
I am also on a bent to use what I have already rather than buying. I just can’t justify buying more art supplies when I have so many already. OK maybe those new pencils would be great but we have some already (even if some colors are all used up). Use what we have first.
I am very hopeful to ONLY need to purchase minimal things for this next year, like the SCM Module 4 book. I do purchase those as actual books. I like e-books where possible but I love my modules that I can hold and flip through (and mark in).
I was able to buy the Apologia Astronomy book for $10 at a local consignment sale last spring so we are using that next year for the younger 5. Oldest DS doesn’t like science. OK, that is putting it nicely. He will be 14 and technically in 8th grade. I guess I’ll push him to work in the Apologia Gen. Science book some more since we already have it but I had to let him take a break. He was getting NOTHING out of it. So, all of that to say, science is purchased and paid for. YEAH! History will be the Module and a few books I have on an Amazon wish list (two of the three oldest have b-days in summer/early fall so that will take care of those). The rest will try to get at the library or as e-books.
Math we use Math on the Level along with on-line resources and games. I really, really, really want the game Speed. Have any of you used it?
http://www.amazon.com/Speed/dp/B005E8W36C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334190795&sr=8-1
I have it on our Christmas wish list so hopefully it will appear under the tree. The grandparents are always willing to get things like that for the gifts.
I am really going to try and only spend what I sell in used curriculum. I have a few things here that we just don’t use, so I am going to try and resell it. Whatever I make, I hope to use for what we will buy. Every year is easier on the budget b/c I am beginning to be able to reuse things we have. I love non-consumable products as most of the SCM books are!
Loving the company here as well. Good to know I’m not alone in the e-file hoarding and planning “hobby”. I like that term much better LOL!
Count me in! *lol* To all of them – planning anonymous, ebook hoarders, bookmark hoarders, pin hoarders… Seriously, I am working on it NOT to waste so much time finding the new thing to do. I just read a blog from another HS Mom about this problem, unfortunately I can’t find the link anymore ( duh, tonns of bookmarks and pin but not what I am looking for!). She was writing about how much time she used to waste looking for and collecting resources instead on focusing on what her teaching goal was which could have been accomplished with just a few resouces and the Lord’s guidance with the material. Not a bad thought…
Blessings, Christine
I love to plan but my plans seem to always fail for whatever reason. We have a new child, someone has a bad day, we need to get groceries, someone is sick..we have 5 kids and my older three boys are all so different. My little 2 yo girl is the fourth one and she is already working on prereading stuff. She is blowing us all away.
I finally started using the organizer even though I don’t plan to use any other things from SCM. My dh really likes unschooling and I really like Waldorf. But, neither seem to fit all our kids. I have just been putting in the curriculum the kids like or books they are reading. I love that I don’t feel like a failure if they miss a subject. It just puts it forward without all the guilt :p
I think I am going to try scheduling in the more artsy stuff soon.
Something I recently started doing – besides the folders on my computer labeled for all subjects – SCM Modules with subdividers for all the modules where I can tuck in pertinent things or Language Arts with subfolders for copywork, spelling, reading, etc – is jotting down the recommendations in a notebook with divider tabs for each subject. As things are recommended on here, I jot them down in my book (with any other relative info) and then can “let it go” and come back to it later. It is so much easier! All the resources I needed to check for each subject are in one place and I can plan much more effectively and quickly. It is freeing to get rid of all the odds and ends of scrap paper notes. LOL At least my desk does look more organized and that makes me feel more “on top of my game”.
There are free library pograms for use to organize your ebooks and catagorize them. You can google those and see lots of them. It sounds like a good idea for some of us…
I just wish it was as easy to finish everything out as it is to plan it…
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