Anyone else feel they never finish ANYTHING?????

[DawnM]

UGH!

 

We have lofty intentions, we really do.

 

Most of the time it is MY fault we don't finish anything. Now, I am not talking about moving ahead because we feel we have gotten enough practice doing it, etc....I am talking about finishing 50% of said curriculum due to a teacher who is at the end of her rope!

 

Thankfully, so far, my children haven't been too far behind in all that much. Every year I promise myself and my children that we will work more diligently and catch up and every year I get to late Spring and feel like a complete failure.

 

Am I the only one?

 

Dawn

[crl]

You're not the only one. I just can't seem to find a good fit yet.

[DianeJM]

I have trouble with that, too, and it's mostly my fault too.

You have lots of company there, I bet.

I have yet to find my niche, but I'm getting there little by little. Yes, I AM making progress.

Sometimes you have to look at it from WAY back to see that you've gotten somewhere.

[hsbaby]

I feel the same way...especially in the Spring when it feels like crunch time. But, I just remind myself that growing up in PS we never finished an entire text! So, it's not just me:)

[Carol in Cal.]

...if we are still being responsible teachers.

 

We teach our kids, not our curricula.

 

Are we being diligent? Are the children really learning? Are they at an appropriate knowledge level?

 

There are some curricula that must always be finished, like math. There are others that are really not all that important. Still others should be finished, but not necessarily during one school year--I generally regard pre-high school level history and science in that category. In those areas, it is reasonable progress that is sought, rather than mastery of a lot of specifics.

 

I think it's good and right for us to question ourselves and our progress, but I also think that we should not necessarily concluded that because we have not finished someone else's curriculum we have failed. We might have failed, we might need to do better, but then again, we might be doing just fine.

 

Also, one of the reasons that I more or less homeschool year round is to take this kind of concern off the table. It is so much easier to feel good about taking 6 weeks off of full out homeschooling (maintaining skills classes only, for instance) to learn and act in a Shakespeare play when you know that you're going to keep learning through the summer, for instance. We don't have to be stuck with a typical school calendar, and in fact, I would argue that we should not let that happen.

[Chloe]

I'm right there with you!

[melmichigan]

...if we are still being responsible teachers.

 

We teach our kids, not our curricula.

 

Are we being diligent? Are the children really learning? Are they at an appropriate knowledge level?

 

There are some curricula that must always be finished, like math. There are others that are really not all that important. Still others should be finished, but not necessarily during one school year--I generally regard pre-high school level history and science in that category. In those areas, it is reasonable progress that is sought, rather than mastery of a lot of specifics.

 

I think it's good and right for us to question ourselves and our progress, but I also think that we should not necessarily concluded that because we have not finished someone else's curriculum we have failed. We might have failed, we might need to do better, but then again, we might be doing just fine.

 

Also, one of the reasons that I more or less homeschool year round is to take this kind of concern off the table. It is so much easier to feel good about taking 6 weeks off of full out homeschooling (maintaining skills classes only, for instance) to learn and act in a Shakespeare play when you know that you're going to keep learning through the summer, for instance. We don't have to be stuck with a typical school calendar, and in fact, I would argue that we should not let that happen.

 

:iagree: And yes, I always remember that our PS doesn't finish the book, even the math book. :lol:

[Klothos]

What do you think is the source of the problem? Are you trying to tackle too many subjects at once? Is the type of curriculum you're using not working out for you for some reason?

 

I am a big procrastinator, so I've realized early on that taking a relaxed approach to education would be a death knell. I know that I'd never get anything done because I'd tell myself we'd double our efforts once things "slow down" (which they never do). I think the best way to counteract my indolence is to be more regimented in our approach. Each subject is broken down into quarters, as well as individual weeks for the year, so I can check off our progress as we go. I've planned our curriculum with the most crucial work at the beginning, while delaying some of the non-essentials for the last quarter of the year (superfluous experiments, supplementary books, etc.) so that if we need to catch up, we can push back or eliminate that last bit without missing much.

 

We try to combine lessons as much as we can -- so if I had kids that were your age, I'd be teaching them all about the same period of history or science subject each year. So they'd all be learning about, say, ancient history: the lesson would start with some reading-aloud from me about the ancient Greeks, a project everyone could participate in, and then they would do their individually assigned tasks for the era (coloring a picture of Greek gods for the youngest, writing a summary of a section from Ancient Greece for the middle child, and reviewing what the oldest has read in The Black Ships Before Troy). We plan on doing science and history only two times a week because they are more intensive than math and language arts.

 

Scheduling school time for the early morning might also keep you consistent. If you do school right after breakfast, it will help get you into a rhythm because you're not letting "everything else" that you have to do that day come between you and school. If you start at 8am, you should be done actively teaching by the time you have lunch at noon. The kids will probably still have independent work to do (reading, practicing an instrument, doing Rosetta Stone language work on the computer, etc.) for one to three additional hours, but aside from making sure that they're not goofing off in the time you know they should be doing independent study, it's not really demanding.

 

It also helps to not structure home education to the public eduction standard of having a summer break. Letting a kid go two or three months without school is just setting them up for failure -- they'll have to review everything they've forgotten from the previous year, which takes up precious time, and you have to work that much harder to cram the material in a year that's three months short. The public school system only implemented summer breaks because children needed to work at home during the summer; it wasn't out of the children's best education interests, it was just a pragmatic measure of the times. Doing school year-round has a lot of benefits:

 

+ Less time is wasted on re-learning what has already been taught after a long break.

+ More time is spent on the material for that year.

+ Having a longer period over which to teach can mean shorter school days.

+ Kids are less bored in the summer.

+ Vacation time can be scheduled so that you won't be traveling when all the public school children are on vacation.

 

We plan for a 46 week school year, knowing that we might actually do more or less depending on how things progress. :) Hope this helps!

[DawnM]

I know ps doesn't finish the books, I taught ps for many years.

 

I just feel that we don't even get to that level often! And I guess I put pressure on myself a lot to perform better than ps. :tongue_smilie:

 

But thankfully, in MOST areas, my boys are where they should be. My 5th grader did only half of his Singapore math, but is already ready for 6th grade math. We are starting now since he is ready, he likes it, and it will give us a long time to actually do it! :D :auto:

 

None of my boys can write though. That is MY fault completely. It is agony to work with them on writing. They can do simple writing, but ask them to write a paragraph, oy!

 

We school year round and I know we will be playing some catch up over the summer.

 

Dawn

[Abbeygurl4]

Lofty ideas -- yep!

 

Unfinished curriculum -- yep!

 

a boy who hates to write -- yep!

 

Maybe we should form a club? We probably wouldn't finish that either ... LOL

[DawnM]

If it is a social club I will finish it! :lol:

 

Dawn

 

Lofty ideas -- yep!

 

Unfinished curriculum -- yep!

 

a boy who hates to write -- yep!

 

Maybe we should form a club? We probably wouldn't finish that either ... LOL

[sweetbaby]

If it is a social club I will finish it! :lol:

 

Dawn

 

:lol:

[JennW in SoCal]

There was a thread on the high school board last spring about all the things we never got around to with our graduating seniors. None of us graduated kids who couldn't write, none of us were worried about work left undone back in 5th grade. The types of things we never got around to were driver's training, travel, and lists of books we thought important to read.

 

No one ever does as much as they plan, but I think it is important to keep in mind all the learning that still happens outside of formal school because it is equally important, especially in the younger years. The balance of formal and informal schooling will change as you move towards high school, but you still have lots of time ahead of you, so ease up on yourself!

 

My oldest ds couldn't write a paragraph at 11, either. I started in 6th or 7th grade to focus on narrations, using easy reading like Story of the World, and he typed all his work. Within a year he went from a few tortured sentences to easily writing a page. He started doing simple research papers and easily transitioned to essays by 9th grade. So much of his rapid improvement was a matter of his brain growing and maturing, and it helped to have him research and write about his interests. By high school he had plans for college and career which motivated him to do "real" school -- I think I lucked out on that one!!

 

Just keep plugging away and little by little they will learn. It's the water-torture approach to education -- drip by drip you wear them down!! And, cherish this time of read alouds and exploring their interests because you will never look back and regret a minute of that.

[laurad1125]

every d*mn day of my life

[Carol in Cal.]

 

None of my boys can write though. That is MY fault completely. It is agony to work with them on writing. They can do simple writing, but ask them to write a paragraph, oy!

 

 

 

Teaching writing is SO hard, because it has so many different components. Well, you know that!

 

Have you thought much about the scaffolding that builds a writer? I don't think that everyone needs to necessarily go through 4 years of intense grammar and spelling instruction, drilled to perfection, before they start to learn to compose well. Personally, I found that my DD benefitted a great deal from doing copywork far longer than TWTM suggested. I used aspects of Rod and Staff and Writing Strands and Writers' Jungle, and struggled a lot, but now DD is a really good writer with her own distinct writing 'voice' preserved. The scaffolding includes grammar and spelling, but also other skills specific to composition rather than mechanics.

 

I'm mentioning this for two reasons--first, some people have received the impression from TWTM that composing is something that can only happen after mastery of those prerequisites (and I don't think that SWB is as doctrinnaire (sp) on that point as some assume), and second, there are some online writing classes coming up shortly that might get your boys over the current writing hump. I encourage you to check out the spring classes at Bravewriter.com--they are taking registrations right now for these short-ish but intense blasts of coached writing instruction. Currently DD is taking the Expository Essay class, and benefitting greatly from it. A few years back we did the KidsWriteBasic class, which is actually taught toward the parent rather than the student--it resulted in a genuine breakdown of one of the main barriers to DD's writing improvement, in that it walked her through revision, which she had always resisted strenuously before. I really think that judicious, focussed use of one of those online classes is a great complement to what you do at home anyway. And in addition, they are quite convenient in that the instruction is all done via internet postings, so you don't have to reserve a specific time of the day for focussing on the classes. This might be just the rejuvenating thing for your family right now!

[Katiebug_1976]

Once the nice weather gets here we have a hard time focusing, and nobody wants to finish anything. We are getting better, but there are some things that usually slide (hopefully to be picked back up during the heat of summer).

[Kathie in VA]

Oh I can soooo relate to feeling ill because we are not progressing as I planned!.... and it being more my fault then them. Like Diogenes who struck the teacher when the student misbehaved.... ug.

 

speaking of which, I getting off the computer and back to the ruckus in the "school" room (where no school work is getting done because Mom isn't cracking the whip!)

 

--Kathie in VA

[EmeraldGirl]

Yes, while I love lit-based history and science, I definitely never get to all the read alouds I put on the list for the year.

[Hedgehogs4]

that feeling went away when i stopped worrying about what "grade" he's in. truth be told, he's a third grader who will be testing as a second grader, and i really don't know how on earth he'd survive in a ps setting, nor do i care.

 

i think that the "not finishing things" really stopped bothering me when i decided to slow down, do whatever we were going to do until i was satisfied, finish the math curriculum to mastery, forget about the grade level, the tests, the things i felt that i "should" do. i started doing what we "wanted" to do because then the learning can really kick in.

 

it's been a great year. the best we've had yet. i don't know why, exactly--we haven't done anything out of the ordinary, but we've just been in the moment, and have loved being there.

[Karen in CO]

I finish stuff all the time - jars of peanut butter mostly and lots of books. I think I sent my ds off to college without finishing a single thing I purchased except books.

[coffeefreak]

There was a thread on the high school board last spring about all the things we never got around to with our graduating seniors. None of us graduated kids who couldn't write, none of us were worried about work left undone back in 5th grade. The types of things we never got around to were driver's training, travel, and lists of books we thought important to read.

 

No one ever does as much as they plan, but I think it is important to keep in mind all the learning that still happens outside of formal school because it is equally important, especially in the younger years. The balance of formal and informal schooling will change as you move towards high school, but you still have lots of time ahead of you, so ease up on yourself!

 

My oldest ds couldn't write a paragraph at 11, either. I started in 6th or 7th grade to focus on narrations, using easy reading like Story of the World, and he typed all his work. Within a year he went from a few tortured sentences to easily writing a page. He started doing simple research papers and easily transitioned to essays by 9th grade. So much of his rapid improvement was a matter of his brain growing and maturing, and it helped to have him research and write about his interests. By high school he had plans for college and career which motivated him to do "real" school -- I think I lucked out on that one!!

 

Just keep plugging away and little by little they will learn. It's the water-torture approach to education -- drip by drip you wear them down!! And, cherish this time of read alouds and exploring their interests because you will never look back and regret a minute of that.

 

This is encouraging as well as hilarious!:lol:

 

We finish Math, Reading, Handwriting and Grammar. It's the Science and History we jump around in. I've decided even if I never get it right, at least they learned more than a PS kid!

[nd293]

You're not alone! Things are definitely going better this year, though, and I put it down to three things:

 

1) Finally having the right curricula for most subjects (still nothing that works for history)

2) Doing things I never get to on Monday - for us that's Science and Literature

3) Working year round on a 4 weeks on / 1 week off schedule - if we do occasionally get off track on one subject, that subject can easily be caught up during the off week without throwing the plan for the whole year off.

 

Nikki

[TracyR]

How about a club for girls who hate to write? I have to pull teeth to get my girls to write anything. Very frustrating and to boot I have yet to find a curriculum that will guide me to get them to write better.

 

Lofty ideas -- yep!

 

Unfinished curriculum -- yep!

 

a boy who hates to write -- yep!

 

Maybe we should form a club? We probably wouldn't finish that either ... LOL