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"Classical in the fall, Charlotte Mason in the Winter, Unschooling in the Spring"


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Julie Bogart often jokes about how some families do "Classical homeschooling in the fall, Charlotte Mason homeschooling in the winter, and unschooling in the spring." Does anybody do this in real life? Or, put another way: does anybody change the style or overall approach of their schooling throughout the year? (Or, perhaps you do the "Tidal Schooling" Melissa Wiley talks about?)

 

Our past school year has been our strongest one yet; I planned for the whole year last summer and we have schooled very consistently all year. I'm really very happy with all the work we got through and all the boxes we checked. HOWEVER, I can't help feeling like there is wisdom in changing up your approach throughout the year. (As we are heading into summer, I definitely feel like we're kinda limping toward the finish line trying to finish up everything. We're all just kinda "over" doing the same old stuff, you know?) I know for us, math, Latin, and language arts will always be daily "must-dos" throughout the whole school year, but as I'm beginning to think about next year, I'm definitely thinking about approaching the rest of our subjects differently, so they feel fresher and not so monotonous by spring. I would love to hear what others might do to change things up over the course of the year. Thanks for any input! 

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I think trying to plan it ruins it. I always felt like Julie was mostly talking about how it worked out. Like that you end up moving from super organized and planned out, to organized but more loose and routinized, to unorganized but okay with it. And then over again.

 

We're definitely tidal homeschooling types. But... we don't tend to move on the same cycle as anyone else. Sigh.

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I don't plan it that way, but I would say our natural schooling rhythm does tend to fall like that. I used to feel bad about it, but eventually have come to accept that this works for us, the kids are doing well....

Same, though I've never thought about it that way before.

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LOL, I think that is how it ends up working out here too. Right now my dd12 is totally doing the last two weeks of school on her own with her Thinking Tree journal, and I am ok with that. She completed the majority of her math, English, and Latin textbooks. She read tons of history and science and did writing projects. We have a couple of weeks until summer camps and activities start. 

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That's an awesome quote. I'm sure it fits really well with a lot of family's journey through the school year! It provides a nice sense of solidarity and shared experience. It's a natural effect of enthusiastically biting off a bigger goals than the 'future self' actually wants to follow through with.

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I like plans, routines, and rhythm. My children thrive and do much better when I have a plan and they're following a rhythm. Sometimes the plan is just to do nothing for a day or two, cancel everything and stay home.

 

I'm fairly consistent in how our schooling goes, we school year around and take breaks throughout the year as we need them or as they come up because sometimes you just need a few days - but I don't change our philosophy based on the weather & season.

 

OP if you had a good year this year, there isn't reason to change to the way some one else did their schooling.

 

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I think trying to plan it ruins it. I always felt like Julie was mostly talking about how it worked out. Like that you end up moving from super organized and planned out, to organized but more loose and routinized, to unorganized but okay with it. And then over again.

 

We're definitely tidal homeschooling types. But... we don't tend to move on the same cycle as anyone else. Sigh.

Us too! So when we want to do field trips and relax they're all buckled down or super busy, and when they're ready to hang out we are locked in and super rigorous and have to say no more. My tired and lazy months are not February and November, for example!

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Us too! So when we want to do field trips and relax they're all buckled down or super busy, and when they're ready to hang out we are locked in and super rigorous and have to say no more. My tired and lazy months are not February and November, for example!

 

Yes! It makes me a little crazy sometimes. And there's an odd amount of shaming going on about it. Like, right now, we're nowhere near done with school, but I skipped the park day this week and people were clearly like, but obviously you can't be doing any more serious school now. Why, yes we can!

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Yeah, this is my best time of year honestly. We begin our new half of the school year and I go full bore, since a lot of our academic and extracurricular supplements stop for the summer I use that as an opportunity to really dig in hard on the core materials.

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Yeah, this is my best time of year honestly. We begin our new half of the school year and I go full bore, since a lot of our academic and extracurricular supplements stop for the summer I use that as an opportunity to really dig in hard on the core materials.

 

Ditto. Though this summer I'm being interrupted by camp. And not even overlapping camps! But I still have a whole month left and I'm using it!

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I find things shift through the year.  It isn't all downhill though - things loosen up around Christmas, and when the weather gets warmer.

 

I try and account for this without entirely planning it.  The exception is summer - I plan it to allow for lots of trips, outdoor time, nature study and sometimes unit studies.

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Yeah November is loosey goosey here too. Almost all our family birthdays, plus Thanksgiving and the last hurrah for hiking and such before winter.

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Before I had high schoolers, we did "calving school" in April and May. As in, "oh my goodness" there's ANOTHER calf or lamb or twins or triplets, and someone find some food in the fridge because I certainly don't have time to cook! I came home from town one day, to dd freaking out because we needed to leave for the college, "Mom, I roped Red Dot and put her in the head catch and pulled her calf. It was breech. It's up and sucking but I didn't have time to tag it or weigh it but we need to leave for orchestra!!!" And off we went, and later, she had to clean up the placenta smears off her cello. No, not much math or reading got done that day, but she learned a lot of other things. 

Suddenly I feel like our live is so uneventful.

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Before I had high schoolers, we did "calving school" in April and May. As in, "oh my goodness" there's ANOTHER calf or lamb or twins or triplets, and someone find some food in the fridge because I certainly don't have time to cook! I came home from town one day, to dd freaking out because we needed to leave for the college, "Mom, I roped Red Dot and put her in the head catch and pulled her calf. It was breech. It's up and sucking but I didn't have time to tag it or weigh it but we need to leave for orchestra!!!" And off we went, and later, she had to clean up the placenta smears off her cello. No, not much math or reading got done that day, but she learned a lot of other things.

We have a ranch and my kids like to say they wonder why they have to eat microwave chicken pot pie so the rest of the world can eat beef! Haha

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