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Does anyone just "wing it" for a subject?


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I'm thinking about just having a list of books to pick and choose topics from for eighth grade. I would assign short writing assignments based on how much work is being done in the composition program that week (which will be WWS3 for the first semester). We would be focusing on modern history. Current events would be a part of that, but probably just choosing articles regularly and discussing, rather informal also.

 

I guess this isn't outside the norm from what we usually do, which is pulling plans from many sources and making adjustments during the year as needed. But in this case, I wouldn't plan anything, just have a book list, which includes a couple of good spines. We would look at everything each week or two and decide what to do, based on where interests were headed at the time. We could then look at Netflix and the library for documentaries if we wanted to. This would be our lightest area this year, because everything else seems like a lot just on its own. We used to do science this way until a couple of years ago.

 

Thoughts?

 

Edit: I was thinking about doing this anyway, but then I read Homeschooling at the Helm. And while I am confident I could do what is described there, I am not sure I want to try to do integrated unit studies. And I kind of like the history cycle progression we have been on. And regardless of whether I want to, I can't do that *this* fall. But then I look at my list for this child, and everything is in nice, neat subject boxes, and I feel like, even though he has had some input, I want to let him dig deep and be more interest-led for SOMEthing-- even if it is history in a nice, neat, mostly time period-defined box.

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This is what I'm doing for 7th for history, geography and science.  It's basically a big book list with writing assignments and added videos.....that I haven't planned yet.:)   I'm going to pull from various writing sources and TWTM, and adjust as we go.

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There is always quite a lot of winging it in our plans. They are definitely structured around the book list, and the skills I want to cover.  What actually gets assigned and done on a week by week basis is determined by the factors that are relevant at the moment, such as particular skills I want to focus on, engagement with the material, rabbit trails that come up, etc.  I'm constantly adding or dropping things from the list, sometimes very on the fly.  Some books I thought would be great aren't that engaging. Others lead us off to explore new directions. Some skills get mastered quickly, others require that we park for awhile and practice repeatedly.  With writing, I know what forms I want to cover this year, but the content will be entirely driven by the content we are studying when we get to that form/skill, because the writing will all be writing across the curriculum.

 

I always say I'm a planner, because I put a lot of time and energy into selecting materials and deciding the logical order to do them in, and explicitly looking for connections.  But, inside the circle of the plan, there is a lot of winging it, on a daily, weekly, and extended basis. I've also thrown entire plans out the window when it becomes clear they weren't a good fit for the time and place my student is in.

Ch-ch-ch-changes! Gotta keep changing, stay open to the moment.  All that to say, I think your plan sounds great, and very doable.

 

As far as Homeschooling at the Helm goes, I don't see it as all or nothing.  We are integrating our science, history, and lit studies this year, because it makes sense for us. We integrated science & history last year, and lit was totally separate.  What that book offers is not just a vision of how to do integrated unit studies, but also practical advice about how to set up a student's daily and weekly lesson plans so that you are really getting the most bang for the book out of the great material you choose to cover.  I found that whole section very helpful in creating lesson plans that help me reach the skills goals I want to, even though there will be flexibility about the exact content.

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There is always quite a lot of winging it in our plans. They are definitely structured around the book list, and the skills I want to cover. What actually gets assigned and done on a week by week basis is determined by the factors that are relevant at the moment, such as particular skills I want to focus on, engagement with the material, rabbit trails that come up, etc. I'm constantly adding or dropping things from the list, sometimes very on the fly. Some books I thought would be great aren't that engaging. Others lead us off to explore new directions. Some skills get mastered quickly, others require that we park for awhile and practice repeatedly. With writing, I know what forms I want to cover this year, but the content will be entirely driven by the content we are studying when we get to that form/skill, because the writing will all be writing across the curriculum.

 

I always say I'm a planner, because I put a lot of time and energy into selecting materials and deciding the logical order to do them in, and explicitly looking for connections. But, inside the circle of the plan, there is a lot of winging it, on a daily, weekly, and extended basis. I've also thrown entire plans out the window when it becomes clear they weren't a good fit for the time and place my student is in.

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This sounds very much like how it works in our homeschool. There is a lot of space for flexibility because of how organized and structured we are. It sounds contradictory, but works well for us.

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Last year, I did that for a lot of my subjects. We did tons of reading on many subjects and writing projects on whatever my dd was interested in. It was lots of fun. I do feel this year I need more structure, but I will probably revert back to that for the next year. It makes me feel less guilty if I do an on again, off again schedule or relaxed and structured. :)

 

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Oh yes. I know our first book is Huck Finn. We will decide as we read it what to write about. Next book isn't decided until we are almost thought with this one, although I have a general list. It's American Lit. That's all we know. I do have DS work on WWS1, which we will adapt as possible to our lit and history.

Sadly, I don't know how to plan. I simply can't wrap my head over the entire year, so yes, we wing it a lot.

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We are wingers. I actually have been on a funny pendulum swing as a homeschooler - I had previously taught and always had to plan my courses from scratch. I had to learn that, um, there are curricula worth using in homeschooling and it's not necessary to keep reinventing the wheel. So we have always winged things, but we've gone back toward that with a vengeance for middle school - in part because we're more explicitly child led right now. The kids and I are planning unit studies together. I'm not trying to integrate things at all though. That was where my head was previously - I did a lot more integration with history and literature and so forth. Now we're doing lots of separate projects and I'm feeling less need for there to be one overarching vision for the year. Sometimes I plan ahead stuff, but the vast majority of the time, I let the time and the books and the kids lead wherever seems to make the most sense.

 

I haven't read Homeschooling at the Helm yet, but maybe I will...

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I like to be planned enough to keep me on track but loose enough that I can be open to changes as needed. I find that if I plan too strictly then things will come up that they or I really want to do but then we don't have the time or energy to pursue them. We will be going back and forth on integration this year as I'm trying to embrace the fact that it is ok that there are ebbs and flows and instead of trying to make it all one level we will embrace it. I like the idea of everything connected but I'm leaning more towards child led and unit studies here as well. I'm also embracing the fact that everything doesn't have to be fabulous all of the time. Right now we are getting our feet wet  and getting in the groove of our new year with another student and higher expectations for everyone so somethings are easy right now and that is ok, ds has a stack of books for history- I didn't schedule which ones or how much- he is just expected to pick and read for 30 min any he chooses, for science right now he just has 1 book- I tried having him pick something but he couldn't figure out anything so for now I just picked out one resource and again he is just reading and the writing is separate as he is using Maxwell's as a continuation of TC to get both of us in a pattern of writing, which has proven to be very helpful to him. 

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What that book offers is not just a vision of how to do integrated unit studies, but also practical advice about how to set up a student's daily and weekly lesson plans so that you are really getting the most bang for the book out of the great material you choose to cover. I found that whole section very helpful in creating lesson plans that help me reach the skills goals I want to, even though there will be flexibility about the exact content.

I agree. I really enjoyed the book (HS@the Helm).

 

What I struggle with is not how to choose appropriate books or even how to schedule them and coordinate, even though I see how all that written out would be extremely helpful to someone who is coming from a boxed curriculum and wants to know how to DIY but feels overwhelmed. My main problem is figuring out how to schedule just the right amount of reading and writing for the content areas when I also am using separate programs for grammar and composition. I just don't have the confidence at this point to teach those areas organically when I haven't even gotten one student to the end goal yet.

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I hear you, Penelope.  That's one of the ways in which I have to wing it.  I do my best to schedule a reasonable amount of reading and writing, but I almost always schedule too much, so I am always having to cut things out on the fly.  It's hard to let go of things you wanted to cover, but it has to be done.  I'm always reducing/cutting to make the pace more reasonable, to prevent feeling frantic and rushed, and because other things pop up that we want to include in our days.  

 

Funny, I have never yet scheduled too little . . . maybe that should be my goal for the future!

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I never think too much about scheduling books and reading. I just get a giant pile of books. And I prioritize them to some extent. And some become read alouds (yes, even now) and others are independent reads. But I just start going through them with the kids. And when one doesn't work, we stop it. If another leads us somewhere else, we dive in. And if we don't get to half of them (very common) then that's okay. So I'm not scheduling pages... without prereading everything and doing a bunch of math and data entry that just seems impossible to me (no offense to anyone who actually does this if it works for you!). I'm just scheduling time to do "the reading" whatever from the giant pile of resources I accumulated that it turns out to be.

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I never think too much about scheduling books and reading. I just get a giant pile of books. And I prioritize them to some extent. And some become read alouds (yes, even now) and others are independent reads. But I just start going through them with the kids. And when one doesn't work, we stop it. If another leads us somewhere else, we dive in. And if we don't get to half of them (very common) then that's okay. So I'm not scheduling pages... without prereading everything and doing a bunch of math and data entry that just seems impossible to me (no offense to anyone who actually does this if it works for you!). I'm just scheduling time to do "the reading" whatever from the giant pile of resources I accumulated that it turns out to be.

That is exactly how it is going on here, my son has reading time and he gets to pick what he wants to read. I have another stack of read-alouds that I pick based on what I find interesting or are things I want to hit. 

 

On writing projects my aim is one writing project a week, which as I took it was generally how 8 does her writing. On reading I've sometimes scheduled by pages and sometimes by time, if your not sure if it is too much reading you can just decide you want to do x subject for x amount of minutes and then stop once you get at that point. You know you don't have to integrate everything either, you can do a bit at a time, just tackling one subject. 

 

 

I think we all want to be at the point that 8 is at, or other wise veterans but we just got to work our way there one step at a time! Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good!

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I haven't had the opportunity to really read this thread thoroughly, but I do have some random thoughts I wanted to share.

 

First, my household is crazy busy.  I have no idea how I would actually do things if I only had 1 or 2 children at home. Planning serves multiple purposes.  1- the kids know what they need to accomplish on any given day.  That means that they can grab their planners and work on necessary assignments while I am busy with someone else.  2- the planners keep me focused on the daily/weekly objectives. Since I planned the lessons, I know what I want the kids to accomplish.   W/o daily objectives clearly defined, life would take over and we would not make the progress that I know my kids are capable of achieving.

 

Second, I do not integrate all subjects.  I integrate what makes sense and don't what doesn't.  My 8th grader this year is doing a LOTR study.  She chose to do Plato for science.  That is about as far removed from integrated and whole book focused as you can get.  It was completely her choice.  That is fine with me.  In the book I chose to integrate multiple subjects b/c they naturally intertwined in a way that was compelling.  The subjects were also ones that that student was interested in studying. My dd, otoh, is a very girly girl.  There isn't much about LOTR that appeals in "real life pursuit."   ;)  The prose and philosophy appeal to her.  Her study is going to go in a definite literary direction.  

 

Sometimes for a single student I create multiple individual courses that are not directly related.  This year I am creating a fairy tale study, a linguistics course, and an anthropology course for my 11th grader.  Each one is completely its own entity.

 

BUT......these kids are older!  Their subjects need to be pursued at a high level with a more clearly defined focus.  My 4th grader's yr,otoh, will be far more flexible with more general objectives.  Again, that is also for multiple reasons.  1- younger kids progress at a less stable progression.  My 8th and 11th graders are not going to suddenly have radically different abilities 3 months into the year.  A 4th grader just might.  She might all of a sudden blossom in her writing or her reading speed might increase.  A younger child is just not as predictable.  2- I leave more room for rabbit trails when they are younger.  Our study might take a random turn in a completely different direction, and I want to be able to embrace that.  

 

And yes, Soror, 1 major writing project per week is pretty much my standard.  Only in their later high school yrs when they are spending a lot of time researching for papers does that really change.  They need more time to develop their theses.

 

 And PLEASE, remember, the entire point is NOT to replicate what I have written!!  (That is no better than being fenced in by a boxed curriculum!)  The objective is to find a teaching methodology that works for your family. You are the teacher.  It is your school.  The goal should be finding your own path and then following it with confidence. :)

 

HTH!

 

 

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When I only had one or two kids doing homegrown courses, sure I could wing it. Now I have five and a brand new kindergartner joining the table, and I cannot keep them all on a smooth path with just my brain cells as the guide. :tongue_smilie:

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A little OT - Homeschooling at the Helm is not showing up on my amazon.co.uk search. Can someone provide author details and/or a website?

 

 

It is by 8FillTheHeart

 
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