Getting back into a routine

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

We have had a fabulous summer. We traveled a lot putting 5,500 miles on our van in the last month. We've visited with friends and family from out of state, gone on field trips with friends, spent tons of time at the beach and pool, grew a great vegetable garden, and even got in 30 days of summer school, and we still have a weekend camping trip this weekend to look forward to. It has been an amazing, busy, enriching, summer.

 

Now, I'm ready to get back into a routine. We are starting back to our regular school work on September 19 and music lessons start back next week. I'm excited about fall. I have an idea of what I want our school year to look like. I've already researched, ordered, and received our curriculum. I've even planned out our rough overview of the year. I'm really excited about some new things we're trying and I think the kids will be too. I just need to do some detailed planning so that I can get a better idea of how the schedule will work and order any supplemental books or materials we may need. I love that part. But I can't seem to do it.

 

We've had the whole day to just be home and I've accomplished basically nothing. It's like I'm stuck in summer mode. I just keep thinking about the fun stuff we have planned for this week - beach day, date day with DH at an island off shore, two days of camping, maybe Shakespeare in the Park. I get excited thinking about school and finishing my planning, and then I get on Facebook or TWTM forums or play the piano instead of actually planning. I don't know what's wrong with me.

 

I'm not sure what the point of the post really is. Commiseration maybe. I already know what to do and how to do it. I even WANT to do it. I just don't have the motivation to. And that doesn't even make sense. 😛

[Jacbeaumont]

No real advice here. I suffered from the same feelings you're describing! The big details and planning were the most exciting and now that all the curriculum has arrived it took a real kick in the pants to get the minute details together.

The thing that got me going is that I am not allowed to buy any school supplies until I have budgeted out the first term of school for all the hands-on activities (science, preschool, art, etc.)

Once I forced myself, it was much easier to keep going!

 

You can do it!

 

Sent from my U9200 using Tapatalk

Edited August 29, 2016 by Jacbeaumont

[wintermom]

I'm not a minute-to-minute planner. I've tried, and it never seems to work out long-term, so I have no advice there. I do have a pretty successful method of starting back to school in fall, though. We only jump into a couple subjects to start with, see how the timing of these work, and then add in the rest of the subjucts one at a time. It also helps that our extra-curricular/out-of-the-house activities have staggered start dates, too. By the end of Sept we are rolling with everything. 

 

So if you're feeling overwhelmed trying to schedule everything all at once, maybe do a little at a time, try it out, and tweak from there.  Good luck!

[Miss Tick]

What if you pick one (or two) subjects to plan this week. If you did them next week, you could skip them the first official week of school. Then next week you could work on two other subjects and do the same. Then you just have a couple subjects left to plan and actually start the first real week.

 

In a nutshell I think I just recommended that you make it more complicated (or interesting?) LOL

[school17777]

I love the planning part of preparing for the new year. Maybe just start with reviewing one subject tonight after the kids are in bed - say science. Figure out what you want to accomplish for the year and break it down by month, then only do more detailed planning for the first month of the subject that you want to do.

 

The idea that I always had, but only did last year (and it was fabulous - would so encourage doing it again) was to go over the main topic for each unit. I wrote on an index card each topic - say weather. Then, I went through my bookshelves and gathered anything that I had related to that subject and put it in the pile. Same with any manipulatives. Then, I looked through the items needed for experiments and gathered all those that I could. I bought large ziplock bags, I think the 2 gallon size, and put all the books and stuff related to that topic in the bag and marked it. I went through pinterest and printed out games, etc. and put those in there too. Then, I put all the bags in a box - like the box that printer paper comes in. I also wrote down on an index card any library books that I wanted to check out, field trip ideas,etc. I did this for every subject. It was so beneficial and so much easier having done this ahead of time before school started. Each time we started a new unit, I'd pull the bag out related to that unit and we were good to go.

 

Wish I could come doing the planning part for you! Have fun with it.

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

I love the planning part of preparing for the new year. Maybe just start with reviewing one subject tonight after the kids are in bed - say science. Figure out what you want to accomplish for the year and break it down by month, then only do more detailed planning for the first month of the subject that you want to do.

 

The idea that I always had, but only did last year (and it was fabulous - would so encourage doing it again) was to go over the main topic for each unit. I wrote on an index card each topic - say weather. Then, I went through my bookshelves and gathered anything that I had related to that subject and put it in the pile. Same with any manipulatives. Then, I looked through the items needed for experiments and gathered all those that I could. I bought large ziplock bags, I think the 2 gallon size, and put all the books and stuff related to that topic in the bag and marked it. I went through pinterest and printed out games, etc. and put those in there too. Then, I put all the bags in a box - like the box that printer paper comes in. I also wrote down on an index card any library books that I wanted to check out, field trip ideas,etc. I did this for every subject. It was so beneficial and so much easier having done this ahead of time before school started. Each time we started a new unit, I'd pull the bag out related to that unit and we were good to go.

 

Wish I could come doing the planning part for you! Have fun with it.

I've already done most of the first part of this. Goals for the year are determined and they've been been divided into 4-week sessions. I just need to plan the details. I'm only looking to plan the first month right now but I would like to get the rest of the year planned out by January or so because that's when I start researching for the next year. I don't usually get too detailed with my planning but this year I have some very specific goals and we're trying to get things finished up in less time than normal. I think I'll need a more detailed plan to keep us on track.

 

I like the idea of gathering things for each unit in a bag. That sure would simplify things when the school year gets busy. Usually when we skip things it's due to not having the materials ready and available. This would solve that problem.