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Planning Your CM Education Problem/Question
- This topic has 20 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 11 years ago by
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@Wings2fly – Thanks for enlightening me with the 5-day plan. I didn’t give that a thought. The curriculum I previously used had a 5 day rotation. That would probably be a good idea with my own plans. I basically do the same, when things come up, I just pick up the next day. The only difference is, I don’t school year round, although I will have to continue math and reading through the summer this year. I will not specify a certain amount of work that needs to be covered for those subjects, because these are areas that just need to keep flowing.
So, this gives me an idea to do the 5-day rotation, based on our yearly goal for each subject. Other than math and reading, when we finish our goals, I stop the 5-day rotation and just keep working on the math and reading along with Bible, since that should be done every day in some fashion anyway. If I know we have a day when we can’t get everything done, we will just do Bible, math and reading, then go back to the 5-day rotation the next day. Getting 180 days will be a cinch with this plan:)!
It’s all coming together now! And it seems so easy! Thanks for all the ideas. Although I don’t have even a general 12 year plan figured out yet, it feels good to be able to get a year or two in place. When my older three were homeschooling, CM looked overwhelming. I didn’t think I would ever go this route. It’s actually fun:)!
psreitmom, glad the 5 day plan helped. It was freeing to me when I started it and was an idea I gleaned from another SCM member post over a year ago.
Shannon, As far as the 12 year plan, I’ve never done that, but the book and dvd was still helpful to me. I have to pull them out each time I plan and then something else seems to click. I don’t plan too many details too far out because something always changes for some reason. Usually it is because the resource did not work for us and I want to change it, or if we want to add in more books, etc.
I am excited now to plan the 12 years on posterboard (filling in with pencil) because I have ideas in my mind, but in a very disorganized way. The best example I can think of for this is for personal development/character. I have several books that I know I want my dc to read, but many of them have age appropriate windows that I don’t want to miss. And I agree with suzukimom that it helps to plan the history rotations. For math, I’ll go through the same program at the student’s pace.
As far as our days 1 – 5, they are planned out with a M – F in mind, but do not always work out that way and if it is numbered then it doesn’t really matter which day as long as it gets done and I get the 180 days in and they are learning and meeting our goals. I have a weekly Excel spreadsheet I print out to help me keep track. This has the number of days each subject is assigned and a place to handwrite in notes like page numbers done. You can pm me your email and I can send you what I use so you could get a better idea. But I make small changes to it each week and larger changes each term. Since it is a whole week scheduled, I can sometimes catch up during the week if something was missed one day as long as the 4 R’s got done that day. For example if geography is planned one day a week, I can do it a different day that week and just have the extra subject another day. I have also scribbled out subjects for the week if we just didn’t get to them. These are usually subjects like nature study or literature or if we did only one day of science instead of the two I had scheduled. We pick up the next week where we left off.
Separately, I have each subject planned out. Mostly it is “do this after finishing that” kind of plan so that if a lesson for that subject is missed that day, we just keep going. However, I do have history planned out almost too detailed this term because I wanted to fit X amount of books in and had to have history every day in order to fit them all in. I used SCM history guide for ideas but added in more books. I am thinking of scheduling 4 days (and less books) next time to give me more flexibility. You live and learn. I am thinking of using the TOC method of planning for history used by Sheraz. I tried to find the link for you from an older post but couldn’t. Does anyone else know where it is?
I never considered doing a 12 year plan with our older three children. Last year, heavily influenced by SCM and my other face curriculum catalog (IEW), I saf down and worked one out for our younger two. It was one of the most freeing things I’ve done the whole time we’ve honeschooled. It removed a huge burden because I can actually “see” into the future and not fret about what’s next. Mind you, I think it was easier to do having already done a haphazard job with the older ones. We’ve already weeded through curriculum choices, gathered favorites, and built a fairly good sized library. Now, for the younger ones, it’s mostly pull the next book from the shelf and enjoy learning.
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find a 12 year plan easier to sketch than it may seem. If you have a math curriculum chosen, start there. It fills up 12 slots quickly. 🙂 I went so far as to note field trips I want to take each year that tie to history, science, university open houses, etc. You may not need that, but I tend to forget to do these things unless I make a note. These kinds of little “don’t miss” notes have actually even helped with out co-op prep.
Becca<><
@TailorMade – I know exactly the feeling….haphazard! That is how it was with my second and third child. No consistency! My first started homeschooling in 7th, and he was fine doing his textbook/workbook type curriculum, So, we were able to follow somewhat of a pattern. No problems learning that way. My next two were a different story. So much changing over the years. They would have really enjoyed a CM education:(
Now with my youngest, who went to a Christian school for K, I knew I was in for a challenge. I know it was of the Lord that I found a CM based curriculum, all planned out for me, to use when she came home in first grade. While I thought I would be sticking with that for a long time, I ended up coming here, because her language course had changed, due to dyslexia. I felt we needed to have her curriculum “tailor made” (I like your screen name), since we would be cutting out a lot from the other guide anyway. I agree with you. It is freeing. I was feeling tied to everything that was in that guide, and it was frustrating, because my daughter was not able to do certain parts of it. I am planning to eventually again use certain parts of it, but more than likely, my daughter will need an individualized plan for all of her homeschooling years. So, all that has brought me to this point of planning, and I can see how having the years ahead somewhat figured out makes sense. It bears structure and consistency, which is something I so lacked with my other kids. They turned out great, but it would have made for more enjoyable and stable homeschooling years had we planned ahead. This is all making sense to me now. The other day I was overwhelmed to think about what I am going to do for nine more years. I may not get them all figured out for a while, until I know where my daughter is headed in her reading skills (we have just begun the Barton Reading System for dyslexia), but I can start formulating a general plan that will give that consistency we need so much.
Thanks for all the wisdom and great ideas while we enjoy this new venture:)!
http://fivejs.com/homeschool-curriculum-planning-how-to-create-daily-schedules/
I found this article about planning that might be helpful to you.
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