How many of you experience guilt over unfinished school plans?

[Nestof3]

use the word guilt, but perhaps a better word would be regret. Or disappointment.

 

I purged my filing cabinet this weekend, and I found an entire folder of wonderful bird resources we were going to use last year. I ran out of time on our vertebrate study, so we never got to them -- you know, labeling, fun projects, etc.

 

We feed the birds (have for eight years), have bird houses, have bird baths, use a field guide a lot, recognize their calls, talk about their beaks and how you can tell what it eats by looking at it, etc. We all love birds! We had a towhee for this first time this year. We watched Carolina wrens growing up in one of the houses last year. We watch the hummingbirds in the summer.

 

But, we didn't do the stuff. We read the books, but we didn't do the STUFF!

 

My OCD has a hard time with that. I have to actually convince myself that all is not lost.

 

AHHHHHH :chillpill:

[dragons in the flower bed]

But, we didn't do the stuff. We read the books, but we didn't do the STUFF!

 

This happens to me every year.

 

For a while I thought there was some kind of magic going on. I'd write down in September, "read about physics and it's relationship to worldview," then we'd never get to that, but come May, my children somehow had a grip on physics and it's relationship to worldview. I began to ask my children, "how did you ... why did you... learn that without me?" Partly it's a subconscious thing; we subtly expose our goals in our actions. The kids see me fiddling with those books. They hear me talking to their dad about it. The concepts are more likely to come up in casual conversation. We gravitate towards experiences that will prep the kids for those lessons. And somehow between all this, the lessons get learned even without the plans.

 

Not that I'm advocating never making plans. But it's cool, isn't it? Homeschool magic.

 

And yes. I feel guilty, or regretful. It's a little like grief for what could have been an awesome unit.

[Chelle in MO]

But, we didn't do the stuff. We read the books, but we didn't do the STUFF!

 

My OCD has a hard time with that. I have to actually convince myself that all is not lost.

 

AHHHHHH :chillpill:

 

That is so me! But I refuse to admit to having OCD! ;)

 

Not that I'm advocating never making plans. But it's cool, isn't it? Homeschool magic.

 

.

 

Yes, it's that! Kind of like osmosis!

[Lovedtodeath]

I have had to just come to realize that we can't do it all and be okay with that.

[coffeefreak]

NOOOOOO!!!!! I. MUST. DO. STUFF!!!!!:willy_nilly:

 

Seriously, every year I clean out cabinets and think, "Can I get this done in the next 4 weeks before summer starts?":lol: Hence our Dinosaur study we're doing right now...

 

I'm ready for summer.:tongue_smilie:

 

Blessings!

Dorinda

[Peela]

Yes, I suffer from guilt and the least of my worries would be a bird curriculum! But I have plenty of uinfinished things like that also. I really wanted my kids to love nature study, and they never really took to it- except that they do love animals. They have their own way or relating to nature and didnt ever want it to be like "school". Everything I tried fell flat.

But I have many other unfinished plans and I just have had to accept that we couldn't do it all. But, I guess that whenever I have let go of one plan, another took its place, so we never stopped doing stuff.

The hardest part for me now is all the books we wont have time to read.

[Mommyfaithe]

use the word guilt, but perhaps a better word would be regret. Or disappointment.

 

I purged my filing cabinet this weekend, and I found an entire folder of wonderful bird resources we were going to use last year. I ran out of time on our vertebrate study, so we never got to them -- you know, labeling, fun projects, etc.

 

We feed the birds (have for eight years), have bird houses, have bird baths, use a field guide a lot, recognize their calls, talk about their beaks and how you can tell what it eats by looking at it, etc. We all love birds! We had a towhee for this first time this year. We watched Carolina wrens growing up in one of the houses last year. We watch the hummingbirds in the summer.

 

But, we didn't do the stuff. We read the books, but we didn't do the STUFF!

 

My OCD has a hard time with that. I have to actually convince myself that all is not lost.

 

AHHHHHH :chillpill:

 

ME!!! It absolutely makes me physically sick...and I can only concentrate on what we DIDN'T do...not what we DID do. This year, I put all of my kiddoes finished workbooks from CLE into a large file box when they finished. I also files all their other work in binders. Well, I still have an entire file box with workbooks left ...BUT ...I have a OVERFLOWING FULL file box (one of the really long milk crate sized ones with finished work. These guys accomplished like crazy and really learned. The only thing that kills me about CLE is that it is not in pretty notebooks that I would be inclined to keep.

 

Next year!

 

Faithe

[lauracolumbus]

I'm like Faithe--I still believe I can get to it next year. Even though I know in the back of my head I'll run out of next years.

 

Laura

[dirty ethel rackham]

<plugging fingers in ears> LA LA LA I can't hear you!

 

I have so much guilt that it can be paralyzing - we are not done with our school year and there is so much fun stuff that we didn't do. I have to be in a state of denial to survive. Good thing there is summer to catch up on a couple things:).

[....]

I am struggling with not finishing the last 15 lessons in Horizons Math 1. :001_smile:

 

I have Horizons Math 2 and it's the same darn stuff that's in Horizons 1. So, he's ready to move on, it's just busy work for him. But, it is bothering me...:glare: It's only 15 pages of math, why is it bugging me?? :D

[DarlaS]

You guys just helped me make a decision. I'm going to go toss lots and lots of STUFF today. It's outta here--so I can breathe.

 

I'm even going to delete folders full of free e-book & extra "fun" lapbook stuff. I may even delete some I paid for that ended up being way way way too much information about a topic that was interesting until mom decided they needed to do stuff.

 

:001_smile:

 

ETA: This was part of my plans for the next month. This thread has inspired me to start TODAY.

[Pippen]

I'm like Faithe--I still believe I can get to it next year. Even though I know in the back of my head I'll run out of next years.

 

 

My problem is that I don't have next year since this was a one year pullout from ps.

 

I'm still feeling guilty for not laying down my plans for science better ahead of my surgery right before the holidays. I can normally do well with just a general game plan for the week, but I should have known better.

 

With math I don't feel guilt, but I do feel regret. I went with the school curriculum since she would likely be returning to public school. I did a lot of supplementing but in hindsight I wish I would have gone with a different approach.

[Nestof3]

I'm like Faithe--I still believe I can get to it next year. Even though I know in the back of my head I'll run out of next years.

 

Laura

 

I did this with Aaron. Our science in the lower levels would drag on and on because there was so much great stuff to do, but there were so many topics we didn't get to prior to high school.

 

For Nathan and Ben, I made a science plan for their entire schooling so that we touched on things before high school (I don't follow the classical rotation for science). This aims to keep me on track. We have fallen a little behind more because of not getting to it rather than having too much, but next year we will move on to earth science and astronomy. We spent this year sort of 'catching' up, which has caused us to skip biomes, but they know a lot already by reading so many books.

 

We are doing some things over the summer, but that's better for all of us (well, for them anyway ;)).

 

From next year's material:

Daily Grams: 2 pages a week

Saxon (for Ben): 2 lessons a week

Life of Fred Fractions (for Nathan): 2-3 lessons a week

 

Science: old, out of print read alouds

 

Biography of an Ant (Alice Lightner Hopf)

 

Biography of a Bengal Tiger (Barbara Steiner)

 

Ringtail (Alice Crew Gall) [i love her books!]

 

At the Pond trilogy (Franklin Russell) [includes: Corvus the Crow, Lotor the Raccoon, and Datra the Muskrat]

 

Mattie: The Story of a Hedhehog (G. D. Griffiths)

 

Giraffes: The Sentinels of the Savannas (Helen ROney Sattler)

 

Wilderness Pet: The Story of a Boy and a Young Deer (N. S. Smock)

 

Story of the World -- Chapter 6

I have a lot of reading I want to do for this chapter, and we'll take the summer to do it.

[AHASRADA]

Yes, but less and less every year. I normally always finish our "main" curriculum, since I divide everything by 36 weeks at the beginning of the year, and then check in and re-vamp about once a qtr. to make sure we are on track to finishing by the end of the year. It's the "extra", "fun" stuff that often doesn't get finished (or even begun in the 1st place :sad:).

 

The amount of stuff purchased/planned and not finished, as well as the guilt, diminishes each year. It has been a slowly developing process.

 

After seeing how much stuff we didn't get to, I began to reduce my expectations and the amount of curriculum bought. If the extra stuff isn't there, staring at you, reminding you of the $$ you wasted, there's nothing to be guilty about.

 

I learned to purchase as many items as possible used; the more "supplementary" it is, the less I am willing to spend on it. That way, if we don't get to it, at least I don't have the financial guilt attached to it.

 

After several years of frustration over always completing the "essential" curriculum (ie: book work, boring), but never getting to "extras" (projects, experiments, games), I have slowly begun to shift gears and change my priorities of what is "essential'. Yes, there are sooo many options for fabulous curriculum, but if we try to combine and/or use too many, there is no room left for the "extras" that make homeschooling fun.

 

So, my prescription for reducing the guilt, is to plan the minimum formal curriculum necessary, and make sure we fit is as many "supplements" as possible, spending as little $$ as possible.

[Carol in Cal.]

Yes, there are great things I don't get to do.

Yes, that's a waste of money.

 

But no, I don't really feel bad, because I think about why we didn't do them, and usually it's because some great opportunity or some more important thing bumped them. Last year DD was in a robotics team, and as a result we didn't get to Science Explorer chemistry. The robotics team was much more valuable, and the Climate studies that accompanied it were great. We did some chemistry this year in a coop, and it will probably stick better than Science Explorer would have. I don't feel wistful about Science Explorer. I feel good about jumping on that opportunity last year, and about pulling together my own chemistry unit and teaching it in the coop.

[DarlaS]

So, my prescription for reducing the guilt, is to plan the minimum formal curriculum necessary, and make sure we fit is as many "supplements" as possible, spending as little $$ as possible.

 

Great thinking!

 

I have already begun purging my computer and my home of all the little supplemental e-book stuff that's been mentally weighing me down. Much of it I look at now and wonder what I was possibly thinking (Probably that it was free...). A very small minority are gems I'm saving for a later date.

 

I'm rethinking the necessary formal curriculum while I'm at it. Just because I have 3 awesome math programs next year that I can use for my dd, doesn't mean we need to somehow combine them. I'm going to pick ONE. It's going to be okay if all she does is Singapore OR Math Mammoth OR Saxon. I think... :001_unsure: (I guess I still need a little work there. :tongue_smilie:)

 

See what you've started Dawn? A rash of realistic expectations sweeps the hive. :D

[coffeefreak]

Great thinking!

 

I have already begun purging my computer and my home of all the little supplemental e-book stuff that's been mentally weighing me down. Much of it I look at now and wonder what I was possibly thinking (Probably that it was free...). A very small minority are gems I'm saving for a later date.

 

I'm rethinking the necessary formal curriculum while I'm at it. Just because I have 3 awesome math programs next year that I can use for my dd, doesn't mean we need to somehow combine them. I'm going to pick ONE. It's going to be okay if all she does is Singapore OR Math Mammoth OR Saxon. I think... :001_unsure: (I guess I still need a little work there. :tongue_smilie:)

 

See what you've started Dawn? A rash of realistic expectations sweeps the hive. :D

 

A year and a half ago, DH killed the computer. I mean it. Wiped the hard drive clean (by accident), realized what he had done, went to work, and waited for my phone call. He didn't leave me a note, he was too afraid :lol:. When the screaming stopped, he bought me this nice laptop, and I realized, I didn't miss half the junk that was on there!!!! I no longer download free stuff, it just weighs me down.

 

As for us, it's not math I supplement, it's Language Arts. Don't make me get rid of the 3 grammar and 3 writing programs I own for next year! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

[DarlaS]

As for us, it's not math I supplement, it's Language Arts. Don't make me get rid of the 3 grammar and 3 writing programs I own for next year! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I should probably streamline that too huh? :001_huh:

 

 

:leaving:

[Peela]

A year and a half ago, DH killed the computer. I mean it. Wiped the hard drive clean (by accident), realized what he had done, went to work, and waited for my phone call. He didn't leave me a note, he was too afraid :lol:. When the screaming stopped, he bought me this nice laptop, and I realized, I didn't miss half the junk that was on there!!!! I no longer download free stuff, it just weighs me down.

]

 

Thats hilarious. I have lost everything twice now (and yes it is VEY upsetting!), since starting to homeschool, including zillions of bookmarks and many, many ebooks- mostly bought rather than free.

I still hardly missed any of it! Every now and then I think of an ebook I used to have that I wouldn't mind using...but its always something I can easily live without and substitute with something else.

Now I have a back up hard drive with masses of space in it..I just have to remember to actually back up my documents regularly.

[coffeefreak]

Thats hilarious. I have lost everything twice now (and yes it is VEY upsetting!), since starting to homeschool, including zillions of bookmarks and many, many ebooks- mostly bought rather than free.

I still hardly missed any of it! Every now and then I think of an ebook I used to have that I wouldn't mind using...but its always something I can easily live without and substitute with something else.

Now I have a back up hard drive with masses of space in it..I just have to remember to actually back up my documents regularly.

 

DH bought a back up hard drive and uses it often:lol:

[cyndyinohio]

Everyone I know does at some time or another.