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When Life Happens…Mostly?? History Question
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What do you do when your twelve year big picture plan gets off kilter because life happens, such as pregnancies, newborns, sickness, weddings, guests and growth spurts? I start each school year with the greatest intentions but I seem to forget to plan for the unexpected. This year hasn’t been any different. I had hoped to school through the summer but it has been almost impossible to do living on a farm and having a garden. Most subjects we just keep on going to the next lesson like in math but I’m tired of not being able to begin a new school year with a ‘clean slate’. We’re always carrying over a few unfinished subjects and feeling behind especially, but not exclusively, in history and science. (Or is this leftover traditional school mentality?) We use the SCM Modules which I think are wonderful. I have children in all age ranges including toddlers and highschoolers. This past year we were doing Module 3 which we haven’t completed yet because of countless interruptions. The older children did a lot of their independent readings but we didn’t get much of the family readings done. My question is, would you suggest we finish this module or move on to Module 4? Any other thoughts would be very welcome.
I move on! Life is always happening. Case in point, in the last 2.5 years I’ve had three babies (all single births) and the middle baby came with tons of medical needs. As in he’s had six brain surgeries, one spinal surgery, and one back surgery in his short 18 months of life, with seven of those before he turned 11 months old. And at the same time I’ve been raising and homeschooling 5 more children.
Just move to the next module. You cannot teach every historical happening anyway, so develop relationships with what you can and the next time around try to hit on areas you missed before. And even if that never happens know that your children will be able to read and learn about it as adults if they ever need or want to. ((HUGS))
You give yourself and the children lots of grace. You catch up when you can. You don’t sweat the small stuff. You take advantage of every opportunity for learning (going to the park, library visits, helping in the kitchen, chores). You realize that true learning doesn’t begin and end with dates on the calendar, but takes place everywhere–in the car, in the grocery store, at the park, at grandma’s, in the bank, when caring for a new baby.
My ds9.5 didn’t finish MUS Gamma when our school year ended. He has to do at least one worksheet per day, even when school is “over”, otherwise he loses it and forgets. Our year begins on August 19, and he will probably be on Lesson 27 when we start. Would I have preferred a “clean” start with Lesson 1 in Delta rather than finishing Gamma? Sure. But, that isn’t what happened this year, and that’s life. Maybe he finished all of Delta next year, maybe not. I’m not going to worry about it, because all that ends up doing is adding fuel to the fire that I can’t control anyway.
Finish the module you’re on. Double up lessons if you want to finish faster, but separate them with another subject so that you’re not spending an hour on history at once. Don’t miss out on the nuggets in Module 3 just because you want to start clean with Module 4. You can work toward finishing Module 4 by the end of your next school year, but don’t stress yourself or the children if you don’t.
Grace, grace, grace!
Lindsey
Move on if you want. No worries! I assign family readings to my oldest dd who is 12, that way she keeps on trucking if I get off with the younger ones. She’s quite capable of adding those readings to her own.
Thank you ladies! I have been reading this forum for about five years and always appreciate advice and suggestions shared here.
I really want to finish Module 3 because I believe there is a lot to be learned from it, particularily where we are at today and since I have all the books I hate not to use them, but……
So, what it really boils down to is, make a decision and run with it and stop the second guessing, right? Oh, decisions!
Move on if you like, or not. Its your 12 yr plan… you are allowed to change it. 🙂
I would suggest making modifications to help keep on track better in the future. Can you assign some of the read alouds to one of your teens for the younger ones? Or maybe have them each take a turn one day a week? Or get the family spine on audio so you can listen in the car or durring lunch, etc?
Either way you go, your kids are learning and growing. It will be fine.
I agree – with History it really doesn’t matter whether you finish the specific one you have or not. You choose! Now, with Math… I’d say finish it and with high school science you probably need to finish it, but with the history you’ll never learn it all and you don’t need to learn one thing before the next so you have LOTS of flexibility!!! YEAH!!!
Thank you for the reminder that we can never learn it all but that it is a matter of instilling in our children the love of learning.
And yes, I need to make modifications when necessary. I find I have a hard time doing it because I don’t want to miss anything. Foolish, I know.
I have to make modifications this year to ensure that we do get as close to completion as we can. But, I do realize, and hopefully you do too, that our dc will have read more (literature/history) in one year than I remember reading in all of my educational years! And my dc don’t even read as much as some, but I know they read waaayyyy more than others, plus, they are experiecing so much more than we (my dh & I) ever did.
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