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Stuck, stuck, stuck
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But I don’t know what I’m stuck with. LOL Does this ever happen to you? It’s like, I’m moving right along, planning the curriculum (I am using the blog’s planning series), and suddenly I hit a dead end or something, and I don’t even know what the roadblock is! Frustrating…
I was in the middle of planning the year, choosing the resources and figuring out which things I need to buy sooner than later, and which things I can wait a month or more. That’s the part I guess I’m stuck with. What order do I go in? But even that I know the answer, but I can’t quite put it into my brain in order or into words or something. I’ve bought or found about 1/4 of the total books I will need. I have a 2nd grader, 1st grader, and a 3yo I am working on for this next school year. Any hints that might break this open? TIA!
I’m just trying to relate it to myself, Sara, and so I would say a break is in order, perhaps? Are you trying to focus on too big a slice of the year? Can you narrow your focus down to one subject, one child, one term…that sort of thing? Are you napping like you should be? Also, are you putting away the stuff that is already planned? Or do you have piles of books and papers laying around that have already been tended to or just need to be thrown away? Well, there is a peep into my life for you!
More importantly, remember that the enemy wants confusion to reign in us moms. So, prayer is crucial. In the OT, the word that is translated as ‘confusion’ truly means ‘disgrace.’ All instances except one, that is. The Lord used that word study to show me that my confusion (which is how a roadblock typically hits me) is actually disgrace (the opposite of grace) because when I am confused, I am searching for manmade answers and not trusting, nor waiting on the Lord to reveal what his plan is. That may not be your issue, but when I reply to posts here I can only go on what have been my own challenges
.Blessings,
Cindy
Aha! Thanks, Cindy! Once you mentioned focusing on one subject, that helped. What I didn’t realize was that I had moved onto the next section, Your Term, in the planning series. I thought I was still in Your Year! LOL Focusing on one subject at a time is exactly where I need to be. Thank you!
This is what I need to do as well, one subject and one student at a time, maybe I wouldn’t be feeling so overwhelmed if I did that and put away last years books, lol
OK, so I am figuring out my terms (the schoolyear dates), but I am confused now. I do year-round schooling, so I take Fridays off (but we use it for things like Nature walk, handicrafts, art, etc). So I’m only teaching Math, etc 4 days a week. How do I break that up into the terms? Also, how do I account for spontaneous days off, appointments that come up, etc – things that are impossible to plan for this far in advance? I have always been bad at this, even when using box curriculums (especially the ones that lay it out for you with 5 days in each week, no matter what, even if you take off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving, for example – throws everything out of whack, kwim?).
Thanks again for all your help!
Sara, have you used Sonyas “Planning your CM Education”? This is so helpful in figuring out how to break up terms, scheduling days on & off, breaking up resources needed per term -thus knowing what to purchase when, etc. It simplifies planning imensly.
Cindy, thank you for sharing that bit on confusion verses grace – I needed to hear that! Praying that Gods Grace covers us Moms today.
~ Heather
If you school year-round, Sara, the easiest way to figure terms would be four months for each term. That will give you three equal time periods for planning, but you can always adjust and tweak as you go along.
Oh, silly me, 3 terms of 4 mths each would be easier, wouldn’t it? 😛 I will try that and see what I come up with. Hopefully that will put me where I need to be! The way I was figuring it, I would start Aug. 9 and be done Aug. 11! I am trying to do M-Th regular schooling, and Friday as a “fun” school day (art, music, nature walk, etc). I have a goal of being done in early to mid June so I can start the next school year in late July rather than early August next year (we got behind this year with a lot of moving from state to state). Thanks for the suggestion! I will let you know if it works out better.
I got stuck again. <sigh> Story of my life lately, huh? OK, I must be overanalyzing something with planning out my school year. Can someone please plan my year for me??? LOL Seriously, though, I know what I want, I just don’t know how to make it work. Here is what I want:
School year-round (I have tentative dates of Aug 9, 2010 – June 10, 2011)
Take off 1 month in the summer (July would be best)
Do only art, handicrafts, poetry, nature study, picture study, and music study on Fridays (no “heavier” subjects that day)
Other work would be Mon – Thurs.
Would like to take almost all of Dec off, but I can cut that back to no more than 3 days/wk if necessary
Would like to have spur-of-the-moment days, for appts that come up, visiting with people on a whim, etc.
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I did figure out that part of my problem was before was I was taking the full 365 days rather than 11 months to make my schoolyear. I also am having trouble with math, especially. I am going to use BJU for 1st and 2nd grade, and looking at the 2nd grade table of contents, I have 176 lessons if I use each review as its own lessons (20 chapters, 2 reviews in each – chapter and cumulative). This does not include tests for 19 chapters, which brings my total days up to 195!!! Like I said, I MUST be overanalyzing something somewhere….. Please help!
Hey Sara,
Your schedule sounds a lot like my schedule. We school for 36 weeks, four days a week with three terms of 12 weeks. I take off from Thanksgiving until New Years’ Day week – about six weeks. We also take off about 5 weeks in summer. I try to school six weeks on, one week off.
Something like this:
start school term in mid August
–school for 6 weeks, 1 week off, school for 6 weeks
Thanksgiving until New Years off
start second term in the beginning of January
–school for 6 weeks, 1 week off, school for 6 weeks, 1 week off
start third term around the beginning of April
–school for 6 weeks, 1 week off, school for 6 weeks, 1 week off
school ends around the second week of July
then 5 weeks off until the start of the new school year
With my schedule, I really only have 144 school days. Usually our fifth day of the week is for fieldtrips, errands or a little school catchup. Our math program has more than 144 lessons. Therefore, I often do the basics during our weeks off. A little reading, a little writing and a little math.
Every homeschooler’s schedule looks atleast a little different from everyone elses. You know how your family runs and what works best for you. For example, in theory I should be able to run errands in the morning if i need to and do school after lunch. But I am more of a morning person, and if I don’t do school in the morning, most likely it wont get done in the afternoon.
A few ideas for your math situation:
– skip the lessons that your child already knows
– combine two easy lessons together
– schedule your review lessons for Friday
– schedule a lesson on a day off when you aren’t really going anywhere
– schedule a few math lessons into your winter or summer break
With these ideas, you wont be able to schedule your whole year at once. You will need to keep an eye on your progress and make sure you are “roughly” staying on schedule.
I hope you find a solution that works best for you
Oh, my, I finally know what I’ve been doing wrong! LOL I’ve been trying to make the school year fit the curriculum instead of the other way around! <smack forehead> I don’t know how I got into that mindset, since the blog series doesn’t say to do it that way, but I did. SO glad I am finally on my way! Thank you all so much for your patience and guidance! Between you and my own homeschool forum members, a few of you finally clicked it into my head. So thank you again!
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