Help me be real

[Haiku]

Ok ... here's the situation ... (my parents went away on a week's vacation ...)

 

I have worked up this American history program for dd's 8th grade year that will earn her a high school credit. I'm combining all sorts of awesome resources that include living books, videos with lesson plans, primary source documents, etc. It will be totally awesome ... if I do it.

 

The thing is, I'm a box checker. I like to have a plan. I like things to be scheduled out for me. I have "sorta kinda" scheduled my resources, but honestly, experience has shown that if it's not laid out for me, I tend to fail at it. We fall behind. I get frustrated. We give up.

 

Currently we are working through Homeschool in the Woods' New World Explorers. We just finished up their Renaissance and Reformation. The kids really like it. It's all laid out for me. It's project-y, which the kids love, in a way that doesn't overwhelm me, a non-project-y person. It's also not secular, which I could see being more of a problem as we move into American history and events are interpreted through a religious lens.

 

So, I need advice. Should I just be real and accept that I will not, actually, implement this awesome independent plan that I have worked up and go with what's "good enough" and likely to get done, or do I go out on a limb and say, "I can change! I can do this! This time it will be different!" and go with what could be perfect if I actually do it?

 

TIA!

[MiMi 4under3]

(..and they left the keys to the brand new car... will they mind?...)  sorry, couldn't resist.

 

 

Do whatever you will actually do.

 

An OK curriculum that gets used consistently is far superior to the perfect curriculum which you never get around to.

[Kiara.I]

If you like checking off boxes....

Could you put in the half-hour or hour required up front to schedule everything and make your own boxes, that you will then happily check off as you come to them?  You've said you've sorta-scheduled it, but that doesn't work for you.  Well, could you make yourself hyper-schedule it instead?  And then treat it like someone else's lesson plan that you're using?

[Haiku]

You've said you've sorta-scheduled it, but that doesn't work for you.  Well, could you make yourself hyper-schedule it instead? 

 

Not really. Since I have not used these resources, I don't know how much we can accomplish in our given time each day. I have broken each resource down by how many weeks I plan to use it for, but I don't think I could come up with a daily schedule at this point (or even a weekly schedule).

[Twigs]

Maybe you could post your current plans here and someone else can fine tune it for you. Maybe … Best wishes.

[Tawlas]

I have three things that have helped me keep to what I say I'm going to do.

 

I use really open and go programs like AAS, AAR and FLL that are more "do the next thing" rather than Week 1, day 1 type programs. I *can't* predict how long it will take a child to get the concept in each step of AAS or AAR. Sometimes it's two days, sometimes it's two weeks, right? And FLL usually takes all of 5 minutes to do each day, I just forget to do the darn thing lol.

 

I use a filing system where I've sorted out each page each child will do way ahead of time, with every sixth week either a holiday or a catch up period depending on needs. Each week, for those three subjects, I have a blank lined page with AAS, week 1. All week, all the work we do in spelling goes on that page, with more pages added as needed. Same with FLL, it will simply say FLL, week 1 at the top. Each week, in that week's folder, there's a page sitting there, staring at me in the face, reminding me to work on it. I sort the weekly file into each child's weekly binder, broken up by tabs each day. When we're done the day's work on the page, it gets moved into tomorow's file so it's staring at me in the face, reminding me to use it and making me feel guilty if I don't. I LOVE having all the pages done by the end of the week lol and so do my kids. I find it really motivating.

 

I'm not suggesting you go all out with the filing system (unless you want to) but maybe having some kind of open ended physical reminder sitting in front of you to work in a particular area would be helpful?

 

Another thing I do, mostly during that extra sixth week I schedule off, is look ahead through all the books etc and figure out what I'll need to have on hand. this is especially important for history and science and art. I have a big plastic bin with a lid that I keep these materials in, right next to the school area. It's pretty hard to shrug off building a paper mache model of a glob when I have the recipe paper clipped to a stack of neighbors sitting in a mixing bin next to a baggy of flour! Things like that got done! And by having a set week to prepare the next six weeks, the cycle continued.

 

The third thing I have is a memory box. Of course, we keep all our memory work in it of course, but more importantly it has daily, weekly, semi-monthly and monthly tabs. Besides memory work I put index cards in the box reminding me to "check the rain gauge" on a daily basis or "take a picture of the creek this week " behind the monthly tab(we are comparing how the creek and surrounding area looks from the same viewpoint as the year passes. Again, having a physical reminder makes a big difference for me and i have a hard time NOT doing it when it's that way.

 

Maybe some of this will help you?

[MerryAtHope]

Ok ... here's the situation ... (my parents went away on a week's vacation ...)

 

I have worked up this American history program for dd's 8th grade year that will earn her a high school credit. I'm combining all sorts of awesome resources that include living books, videos with lesson plans, primary source documents, etc. It will be totally awesome ... if I do it.

 

The thing is, I'm a box checker. I like to have a plan. I like things to be scheduled out for me. I have "sorta kinda" scheduled my resources, but honestly, experience has shown that if it's not laid out for me, I tend to fail at it. We fall behind. I get frustrated. We give up.

 

 

I totally get box-checker meets eclectic homeschooler! I'm a happy box-checker and have made this work for us!

 

Here's how I handle things like this:

 

1, I make a Yearly Plan. My yearly plan lists all of the resources I *could* use, in order that I want to use them. If you want to use a video sometime while you read a certain book, then list the video right before or after you list the book. 

 

Next, take a look at the books/resources/ideas and try to guess how long it will take to read them. Consider print size as well as number of pages. Some years, I totally just "guessed) on this--Oh, I think my kid can read a chapter or 2 chapters per day of this book--and I wrote down the # of chapters and then the number of days we'd spend on that book. Add in a day or two to round it out as needed. (I do have a more anal, slightly scientific method that I use sometimes ...)

 

Then when you make your list, put the week number, 1-36 (if you do 36 school weeks) before the book. Ie, a "3" means you think you'll start that book in week 3--that the previous book(s) would take 2 weeks. 

 

Map out all your books, count time for projects and videos, and you'll have a fairly decent guesstimate of how your year will go.

 

2, refine your yearly plan:  Next, think through what your priorities are--what books are absolute musts, and what ones do you just really want to get to? Put asterisks by the musts. If you get off-track mid-year, you can cross a book that's not a "must" off your list and be back on track with your weeks. Move the crossed off book to your optional list. The "heart" of your plan will survive rabbit trails if you do this. And you can easily decide if a rabbit trail is worth it by comparing it to your handy reference page. 

 

An optional list is so helpful--these are the books/resources that you think would also be good, but aren't quite as high a priority for you. If you find yourself ahead of schedule (which for me is typically unlikely but not unheard of), you have resources at the ready. You can choose or the student can choose--it's all good. 

 

3, Set your daily goals--not a "lesson plan" exactly (because you have your yearly/overview plan), but a plan to help you do a significant amount of work.

 

I have a daily goals that pretty much stay the same from junior high to high school, such as: I want us to spend X time on each of these subjects.  Sometimes my goal is more specific: spend an hour on math, or complete the lesson. If you complete the lesson in less than 30 minutes, do an extra lesson. If a lesson takes more than 1:15, let mom know and you can be done with math. (I don't want them to spend forever on a topic that they really need to study again, but I don't want them to just put math away and not tell me either.)

 

Or reading: read for 30 minutes or a minimum of 1 (or 2, or whatever I have decided is reasonable) chapters, whichever takes longer. If it takes way longer to read that than Mom thinks it will, come talk to mom. (I don't want them reading for hours if my goal was unreasonable, but I don't want them to stop at 30 minutes on the dot if they have a small amount left in a chapter either.)

 

For history my goal is usually a lesson or chapter, or read for an hour with taking notes (we use T-notes, similar to Cornell notes). You might have a day that is "movie or project day" if you do those regularly. Or you might look ahead at the next section of your yearly schedule--what's the next book with coordinating movie or project? When do you want to do the project/movie within the next week or two? You can write this day into your daily schedule so you don't forget.

 

4, The daily schedule--Think of your daily schedule as a type of journal. I like to compare it to my housework to-do lists. I make the list so I can check things off--but if I do something extra along the way, I also like to write that thing down just so I can feel the accomplishment of checking it off. I know, it's a sickness! 

 

My daily schedule is a "week at a glance" with 5 days across the top and subjects down the side. Each day when I check my kids' work, I write down what they did and check it off. Keep it simple--write in the full book title if you like on the first day, and then just chapter/page numbers on other days. (You can see a picture of it in my blog on my teacher binder.)

 

Weekly I compare where we are to my yearly plan--are we on track, ahead, behind? Do I need to write in any projects to make sure we do them? etc...

 

If you're behind--don't worry, you planned for this. Cross something off. Do it so your overall plan doesn't get derailed, and don't look back. If your student is working each day--who cares if that research project takes an extra week? Drop a book. 

 

Or, maybe you decide, "one extra week for this project was fine, but two is not;" and you tell your student to wrap it up, or don't worry about polishing this one, or set a deadline. Again, your yearly plan helps you evaluate--can we do this, does something else need to go if we do, do we have the time? How important is this compared to that? 

 

It will keep you on track. 

 

When you compare weekly, it might remind you, hey, I wanted to watch this video--and then you can write it in for one of the days. Then you can let your student know, "On Thursday, we're going to watch a video instead of doing a history reading." or, "This week we're going to work on a project..." 

 

This also helps if you are reading a book and it's just not working--you hate it, they hate it, or whatever. Drop it and move on, or do an optional book/project instead. Don't let those bumps throw you off your plan. 

 

Writing this out, it sounds more complicated than it actually is in real life! Once I know what I want to use, it only takes me a day or two to come up with my yearly plan, and then there's no planning each week--I just compare where we are to what I expected and adjust as necessary. 

 

 

Currently we are working through Homeschool in the Woods' New World Explorers. We just finished up their Renaissance and Reformation. The kids really like it. It's all laid out for me. It's project-y, which the kids love, in a way that doesn't overwhelm me, a non-project-y person. It's also not secular, which I could see being more of a problem as we move into American history and events are interpreted through a religious lens.

 

So, I need advice. Should I just be real and accept that I will not, actually, implement this awesome independent plan that I have worked up and go with what's "good enough" and likely to get done, or do I go out on a limb and say, "I can change! I can do this! This time it will be different!" and go with what could be perfect if I actually do it?

 

TIA!

 

 

LOL, well, maybe the thought that it could be "perfect" is part of what derails you when it's not? I'd let go of that expectation, and just know that it could be "excellent." If you can be okay with some wiggle-room--with adding or dropping things as needed to get through a lot of your plan--I'd try it out. I did Sonlight for a number of years--started with following the daily schedule, then dropped down to only following their one-page yearly schedule--and loved the freedom I felt there. I can check off days and what we did without being "behind" because it's so easy to cross something off of a yearly list. I have the satisfaction of knowing we worked hard every school day, instead of the disappointment of thinking "we didn't get all this stuff done..."  And from that I went to eclectic and making my own yearly plan. 

 

See what you think!

 

 

[Tess in the Burbs]

my experience putting together my own thing wasn't great.  I had book lists, movies, discussions, etc.  I organized it to weeks.  But a few weeks in I was still overwhelmed daily.  I, too, needed that box schedule done.  I tried to salvage my efforts but ended up buying a SL guide for history pretty much doing everything I had scheduled already.  

 

Interestingly, this year I have the SL schedule for history, and I am getting ready to dump it.  Life is just too hectic to keep up, we are dropping to minimum in that subject for this year. 

 

Do you have time to create the schedule by day?  Or have someone who can help you and then share it with them?  I know I hated just letting all my work go to waste last year.  

 

I'm debating doing science on my own next year....it's just so much work though.  hope you can find  a way to use it!

[PeterPan]

Tara, this is a totally different direction, but I can't remember.  You've got older kids and have done the hs thing, right?  Usually colleges aren't wanting to count history in 8th toward high school graduation credits.  So personally I'd do whatever is get real (either the thing you buy or pick out HALF of your great intentions list and do that) and then plan on assigning high school credits for 9th.  But if she's graduating a year early, it won't matter.

 

But yeah, if you just chop your great intentions plan by half, it probably becomes realistic.  :)

[MerryAtHope]

 

Interestingly, this year I have the SL schedule for history, and I am getting ready to dump it.  Life is just too hectic to keep up, we are dropping to minimum in that subject for this year. 

 

That's part of what moved me from SL's daily schedule to their yearly one. Sometimes there were just more books than we could get to and reasonably enjoy and discuss. It's so much easier to have a daily goal like "readers for 30 minutes" and go at the kids' pace, than to squeeze in everything. Plus you can still drop subjects some days if you need to--and just adjust the yearly list as needed. For me it moved the guide into proper place--a "guide" where I was in charge of it, rather than a task-master in charge of my homeschool decisions.

[Haiku]

Usually colleges aren't wanting to count history in 8th toward high school graduation credits.  

 

My philosophy is "when they do high school-level work, they get high school credit." So I'm not worried about whether she's actually in high school when she earns the credit. I'll do a transcript by subject, not grade level.

[Lori D.]

My philosophy is "when they do high school-level work, they get high school credit." So I'm not worried about whether she's actually in high school when she earns the credit. I'll do a transcript by subject, not grade level.

 

Just be prepared for some potential push-back.

 

Some colleges request completion dates on credits, whether the transcript lists by subject or grade, and that only credits completed in the last 4 years prior to college freshman admission are accepted.

 

You can lay out the transcript with any high school credits completed before high school in a separate section, with a heading of something like "high school credits earned prior to 9th grade". Additionally, for those credits, you count just the credit, not the grade (so credits earned prior to high school do not count towards the GPA).

 

Final quick note: typically, colleges only want to see high school credits that were completed in middle school on the transcript if they are from the "hard" academic subjects (math that is Alg. 1 and above, science that is Biology and above, and foreign language credits). "Soft" academic subjects (History, Fine Arts, Electives), are typically not included on the transcript, even when of high school level.

 

 

It's great you'll be able to get DD's feet wet with high school level work in 8th grade! :) But for the reasons above, and esp. because she'll likely have an abundance of credits by the time she completes high school and you don't want to make the transcript look suspect with an over-abundance of credits, you may find it works best to leave "soft" high school credits earned prior to 9th grade off of the transcript and focus on all the great credits (and most likely advanced credits) earned closer to college entrance.

 

Best of luck, however it all works out! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Haiku]

Thank you for all the information, Lori! My dd is planning to spend her "senior" year doing an internship, so we plan to finish up her coursework at the end of her junior year. Therefore, on her transcript I will feel perfectly justified listing her 8th grade work as high school or 9th grade work.

[Chris in VA]

Tara, I do agree with Lori D, but was thinking maybe she could just skip 8th grade and you could count it as 9th, and then count her sr year as a gap year?

 

But, whatever floats your boat. :D

 

AFA your own curricula--have you actually seen all the things you want to use, or are you just picking some things from descriptions? I.e., do you have it in hand (or have you "held it in your hand?") It can make a big difference--some books sound spot-on, but end up not working. It was that way for our Stobach stuff--I loved it in theory, but it was "eww-no way" in reality.

 

Also, I'd work on hyper-scheduling your own stuff, but not attaching dates, just Day One, Day Two type scheduling. Try for a monthly schedule--revisit every 4 weeks or so to see if you are on schedule. Give yourself permission to tweak several times.

 

It sounds awesome, really!

 

Do

[Haiku]

Yeah, I own or have borrowed from the library everything I plan to use.

 

[Maela]

I have three things that have helped me keep to what I say I'm going to do.

 

I use really open and go programs like AAS, AAR and FLL that are more "do the next thing" rather than Week 1, day 1 type programs. I *can't* predict how long it will take a child to get the concept in each step of AAS or AAR. Sometimes it's two days, sometimes it's two weeks, right? And FLL usually takes all of 5 minutes to do each day, I just forget to do the darn thing lol.

 

I use a filing system where I've sorted out each page each child will do way ahead of time, with every sixth week either a holiday or a catch up period depending on needs. Each week, for those three subjects, I have a blank lined page with AAS, week 1. All week, all the work we do in spelling goes on that page, with more pages added as needed. Same with FLL, it will simply say FLL, week 1 at the top. Each week, in that week's folder, there's a page sitting there, staring at me in the face, reminding me to work on it. I sort the weekly file into each child's weekly binder, broken up by tabs each day. When we're done the day's work on the page, it gets moved into tomorow's file so it's staring at me in the face, reminding me to use it and making me feel guilty if I don't. I LOVE having all the pages done by the end of the week lol and so do my kids. I find it really motivating.

 

I'm not suggesting you go all out with the filing system (unless you want to) but maybe having some kind of open ended physical reminder sitting in front of you to work in a particular area would be helpful?

 

Another thing I do, mostly during that extra sixth week I schedule off, is look ahead through all the books etc and figure out what I'll need to have on hand. this is especially important for history and science and art. I have a big plastic bin with a lid that I keep these materials in, right next to the school area. It's pretty hard to shrug off building a paper mache model of a glob when I have the recipe paper clipped to a stack of neighbors sitting in a mixing bin next to a baggy of flour! Things like that got done! And by having a set week to prepare the next six weeks, the cycle continued.

 

The third thing I have is a memory box. Of course, we keep all our memory work in it of course, but more importantly it has daily, weekly, semi-monthly and monthly tabs. Besides memory work I put index cards in the box reminding me to "check the rain gauge" on a daily basis or "take a picture of the creek this week " behind the monthly tab(we are comparing how the creek and surrounding area looks from the same viewpoint as the year passes. Again, having a physical reminder makes a big difference for me and i have a hard time NOT doing it when it's that way.

 

Maybe some of this will help you?

This was so helpful!  

[EKS]

FWIW, my son took several high school level courses in 8th grade (math, English, history, and science), and I listed them all on the transcript, gave him credit for them, and included the grades in his GPA.  His transcript was arranged by subject and I indicated that the courses were taken in middle school.  I would not have mentioned the middle school thing on the transcript, but the Common App requires that you provide a date for when the GPA started.

 

Here is what I put in the school profile to explain all of this:  "Consistent with local school district policy, high school courses completed during middle school are identified on the transcript and are given high school credit, and their grades are included in the GPA."

 

So far, we haven't gotten any questions about it.

[FriedClams]

I am of the firm belief that a good curriculum that's used is a million times better than a dream curriculum that isn't well executed. 

 

I'd either make a box checking schedule for the curriculum you dreamed up, or let it go. It sounds like you'd have plenty of time before she's in 8th to set it up, so I'd make it goal of doing that. Look at Sonlight, make your own version, and start filling in the blanks. I'd keep in mind that some courses in HS only meet 3 times a week. In my prep school M, F were full days, W was a half day condensed M/F schedule, and Tu/Th were labs and long classes. 

 

I agree with giving credit when due. My DD is in 8th and working through Algebra 2. She'll get full credit for it, and Algebra 1, taken in 7th. She's also planning on the AeroScholars aviation science class for the spring semester, and she'll get full credit for that one. 

[texasmama]

I created a US history year for my 8th graders by deconstructing a SL core and adding other resources.  It does not resemble the SL Core very much at all.  I also added DVD materials. 

 

We are halfway through the year, and it is working very, very well.

 

What I did prior to beginning is to make a daily schedule based on four day a week/36 week year.  We have held faithfully to the schedule because if I don't have it scheduled, it falls off the map for us like it didn't exist.  It was time-consuming, but I did the entire year this past summer so we were ready to roll once August hit.

[Haiku]

Where I live, things are the same as what EKS (Kai) indicated. High school credits taken in middle school are on the transcript and count toward the GPA. I plan to do just what EKS has done.

 

After a lot of thought, I have decided to go ahead with my own curriculum. I am looking forward to it and think my kids will enjoy it. I have divided American history into 12 sections, and for each I have planned one or more video segments, one or more primary source analyses, and readings from two different books on American history. Then I divided those 12 segments into the amount of time we will spending on history and came up with a guideline for how much time to spend on each section, with flexibility for certain sections to take longer and others a shorter amount. My boxes will consist of the video segment(s), primary source(s), reading assignments, and a writing assignment for each section. I figure that after we start I will be able to more accurately gauge how long things are taking, and I can refine from there.

 

Thanks for all your thoughts. :)