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Help me think this out


4ofus
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I've been thinking. Kids & I were introduced to the world of contests this year & although they (we)  were hesitant at first, they had really good experiences & I'd like to incorporate more of it into school somehow. 

 

Here's the thing. I kind of feel like our plate is full with the subject materials that I choose for their school year, so it's hard to also incorporate adequate time to prepare for the various contests. How do I manage this?

 

I'm definitely a book-finisher. I hear other families say things like, "well, getting ready for Science Olympiad IS our science for this season of the year." and I totally get that. I just can't figure out how to shift to that model of thinking. B/C if we shifted our attention from our regularly-scheduled-whatever (science is just one example) then by the end of the year, that thing will not get done. Do you see what I'm saying? Like, we wouldn't complete the Earth-Space science study (or whatever) b/c we took off a month & did something else. Something valuable, no doubt, but still...the book wouldn't be COMPLETE. This really messes with me. 

 

There's a wealth of contest opportunities in our area & I need help using them to help us work smarter not harder. Not b/c we're lazy, but b/c we already work hard.

 

 

 

 

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It's a matter of deciding how you want to use your time. It's a matter of choosing things based on priorities. If it's something your kids really want to do they might end up doing it in their free time anyway. Or if you really cannot shift from the must-complete-book mindset (and nothing wrong with this) then maybe wait a while or give yourselves a "gap semester" (especially if your kids are still young) to see what's the worst that can happen when you try something different from completing the book.

 

Whenever we've done something else, we have usually had to choose and put other things on the backburner for a while. So far, I've never felt like the backburner delayed him. It has expanded his thinking, revealed new interests or just shown us what he can achieve when given time to do things that are worthwhile. Life is too short not to take chances.

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We back burner stuff fairly frequently for competitions or other events, and like Quark says, I've never found that it holds DD back. We basically haven't finished an official science curriculum since she was 7 :). I will say that with contests/competitions, it's super-important to check scheduling and not overload yourself. A lot are in late Feb/Early March each year, and it can easily be overwhelming. This is especially important when you're getting into stuff that involves travel. Sometimes, you have to say "no"-for your own sanity, even if your DC seems to be taking it all in stride.

 

 

 

 

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We've rarely finished books. I'm a book completer too and up till DS was about 9yo maybe, it used to frustrate me that we were not finishing books. But I had to let it go...nurturing his intellectual curiosity meant a lot of messy, unplanned letting go of stuff on my part and getting out of the way too, and if I was lucky, I would realize about a month or 2 later, that we didn't lose much by not finishing the book. Now, he does finish most books because of the nature of outsourcing but at that time, it was something I had to learn to do or risk giving up other things that meant much to him (and I had to keep reminding myself that one of the reasons we homeschool is to enjoy this flexibility, to be creative with how we did things, to chase rabbit trails etc).

 

Once I figured out how to sell curriculum, I started to feel a lot less sad about not finishing books. :)

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A lot are in late Feb/Early March each year, and it can easily be overwhelming. This is especially important when you're getting into stuff that involves travel. 

 

We went into competitions without knowing that a lot of them are in Feb/March. This year, we had a deluge of them at that time and I wish I had stopped to consider how much scrambling we had to do just to prepare for them in that timeframe. Next year, I will moderate how much we will do.

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Thanks for the warning that they kind of cluster up in Feb/March. I know this year Science Olympiad, MathCounts, & our Federation festival were all on the same day! And before we realized that was a packed day, we had already picked that date for the Explore. We didn't get to do any of them :(.

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We finish books, but I am a "do the next thing" planner, so I don't mind at all if we finish the book in mid-September (or whenever) instead of June. So if we've taken time off to prepare for a contest or a special project, I have the next thing ready to begin whenever we do finish. My oldest is 8, so I'm not sure how that system would work once the student is approaching/in high school.

 

In fact, we tried WWE this year and I am a bit shocked that we may finish the book close to the end of the school year.  :svengo: That's strange for us! 

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I haven't been on the boards lately because life has just been too busy. I'm supposed to be finishing my taxes right now but decided to take a break and do some reading/planning first. I think I came here just to see this thread. Quark and dmmetler it is reassuring to know you don't always finish books. From reading your posts my dd has some similarities to your kids who are both a little older (she just turned 10). I've been frustrated about the fact that we seem to have a lot of unfinished books around here lately. We took a lot of time off preparing for contests this last year. I talked with a few friends lately whose children are on more structured schedules and I was feeling a bit like we are too unstructured because we always seem to have 20 half finished curriculum resources here. 

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We do not do contests, but we travel a-whole-stinking-lot for all of DS' speaking events. Not finishing bothers me as well. Previous years we have just rolled everything to continue in September, but as middle school, high school, and earning credits is really becoming front and center, rolling is not going to work quite as well. So the last two years we stopped the rolling for some new tactics.

 

I have found year round schooling so beneficial. Year round schooling allows for the traditional school year to spill over into the summer. It is still summer, so a full load is not reasonable. Ds still wants to go to the pool or the beach, to stay up late, play more games, and whatnot. However, doing math every other day, totally reasonable. Reading for longer chunks of time, a complete win. Doing more science labs, always successful. As long as it still gets to look like summer, then school can still happen and we get curriculum completed.

 

Digital schooling has been a savior. Ds is an audio/visual kid, so I do not know if the specifics of using movies, audiobooks, lectures, and apps would be helpful, but stacking everything on his iPad (including a schedule) made productivity jump. The curriculum fit him (not me) and it really showed. I stepped out of it and really just let him go. Everything was portable and allowed school to happen at Starbucks, or the library, or the park. It meant that I could redirect a badly started day by changing the location or making it seem more fun, but not lose time.

 

We moved a lot of activities to the evening. Instead of curling up and reading, discussing, and debriefing in the morning, we started doing it in the evening before bed. Art study, music stuff, reading chunks of fun non fiction, reading our read aloud, and talking all started happening two hours before bed. The hour after dinner was Ds' school reading time, then his hour of iPad time, then getting ready and our evening time in bed. Everyone got ready in their jammies, teeth brushed, all washed, and we snuggled up. This opened up our days, but I did not have to drop anything. By stacking all the small stuff into a place and space where there was no need for transitions, we saved way more time than I realized!

 

I do not know if any of that helps, but it has really allowed for us to get significantly more done just by using our resources more efficiently.

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