How do you keep yourself on track?

[cakemom]

When you have figured out what curriculum you will use for the year and what your objectives are for each subject, what ways have you found to keep yourself on track with these goals with out straying off the path or changing curriculum throughout the year?

[silliness7]

:lurk5:

I would love to hear a discussion on this too!!

[In The Great White North]

For the high schoolers, I write out a syllabus with weekly assignments and hand it to them. If I try to change anything, they object as if it were written in stone! And even if they get behind, their school year is not done til the entire syllabus is finished.

 

With the middle schooler, I am more flexible. Much more flexible. I have a "block" plan, but freely adapt and change whenever necessary.

[elizabeth]

Index cards for each course, listing texts used, pace of study and methodology. These are also given to dd so we both stay abreast of our structure of learning and commitments regarding how much time per chapter or book with the pace of study part of the subject. I love index cards and this also helps me avoid the ever present" what am I to do" syndrome.:lol: But then again I put the D in draconian hsing. :lol:

[Parrothead]

I spend my summers planning the year ahead. I am a do the next thing homeschooler using pretty much the same curriculum every year. Most homeschool curriculum is broken into 36 chapters, one for each week of school. Week one is chapter 1, week 2 is chapter 2, etc. If there are 5 pages to a chapter, page one is on Monday, page two is on Tuesday,etc. If there are 10 pages to a chapter, pages 1 and 2 are on Monday, 3 and 4 are on Tuesday...

 

When I've finished the planning the master schedule gets printed out. Each subject for each assignment for each day has a check box. Dd checks off each assignment when she is finished. School is done for the day when all the boxes are checked.

 

Of course life kicks in and the schedule gets fried sometimes. Either we double up where we can or we extend the school year by a couple weeks. The schedule lets me know how far ahead or behind we are.

[Karen in CO]

Index cards? I have seen all kinds of planning, but not index cards. How much detail do you do for pace of study? And can you give an example of the methodology you put on?

[Frontier Mom]

Great question. I want ideas as well but I have to say, my first response was don't go online! Seems everytime I go here or other yahoo groups, I always seem to get that wanderlust Heather talked about in an earlier thread. I think I would be happy if I would learn to not skip about so much. Over the years I have accumulated lots of math curriculum and others so I switch pretty often when the need arises. But, that is what I like about home education as well so I'm on the fence here.

 

Looking forward to hearing what others say.

[Peela]

When you have figured out what curriculum you will use for the year and what your objectives are for each subject, what ways have you found to keep yourself on track with these goals with out straying off the path or changing curriculum throughout the year?

 

Ever since I found TWTM, we have focused each year around a history theme- Ancients, Medieval, Rennaissance, Modern. For me, the theme provides enough cohesion- it determines what books we read for Literature, and our history erea which is fairly central to what we do. Withink that broad structure, I will pick and choose, and often change, curriculum and approaches throughout the year as feels appropriate at the time.

I am fairly free flowing. I don't mind changing curricula if it seems like a good idea and still fits within our general theme and overall goals. If it were jsut my dd I was homeschooling, we woulodnt have tried so many things, but dealign with a son with dyslexia and learning challenges, has led me to try many different approaches over the years and I dont regret it.

So for me, I dont have a goal not to change curricula- I have a goal just to meet our overall goals and to stay within our yearly historical era. That's about it. This year is the first year I dont think I have changed curricula at all.

[elizabeth]

Index cards? I have seen all kinds of planning, but not index cards. How much detail do you do for pace of study? And can you give an example of the methodology you put on?

 

Sure.

Course Title: Ancient Philosophy

Texts used: Sophies World, Plato's Republic, The Pre Socratics,Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and How to Read A book by Adler

Pace: 2 weeks per chapter of Sophies World with suggested outside readings as dictated by author.

Method: using binder with pockets for readings each class period read aloud from Sophies World , read approximately 10 pages of outside reading . Take notes in margins. Take 10-15 minutes to select topic of most interest or confusion discuss for 30 minutes. Bi weekly essay on topic of student's choice tying together contemporary topics to questions posed within supplemenatry readings.

Grading Scale: 50% oral socratic discussion per biweekly assesment and 50% essay. There are no exams but a research paper of 6-8 pages that brings together disparate elements of course to answer the question What is a good life?

 

That is all she wrote...I am willing to share others if you like. It is just a really great way to empower dd regarding her work as we negotiate the pace and grading together as a learning team. You cannot complain if you had a voice and agreed to something. I learned something useful from law school:lol:

[Chris in VA]

I think that should be your tagline, Elizabeth--"I put the D in Draconian."

LOL

[Chris in VA]

I use mostly do-the-next-thing curricula. Saxon Math, Rod and Staff Grammar, SWO, SOTW, McHenry's Elements--all have that "chapter a week" kind of approach, or a script (Saxon/R&S). For reading aloud, I just pick a book, usually tied to history, but not always. We read it during the day *sometime*. We read varying amounts, because I stop if dd's eyes are glazing over, or if I have to get dinner on; I continue even if we have read 3 chapters already if it's particularly exciting or we are deeply invested in the characters or dd begs for one more chapter!

 

In other words, ebb and flow--we try for a rhythm to our day. My expectation is that we will finish each textbook/subject (don't use texts for everything) by sometime around June 15 or so. (This year, we finished math early, so we are in the next book, and I'm continuing until the middle of July, because dd will go to school next year and I want her skills to diminish less over a long break.)

 

So, about once every 25 days or so, I take a piece of notebook paper and make a column for each subject. I write vertically what lesson I want to be on for each day. If we get behind, I adjust the next 25 days or so. Why 25 days? That's about how many lines are on a wide-ruled piece of notebook paper.:D

 

If I have to take a day off, or if a lesson is taking a little longer, no sweat.

Sometimes we double up on a grammar or a math lesson, or read a little extra SOTW. Sometimes we do a little less history or I don't have dd do a written narration.

 

I want education here to be rich and deep--but dd is in 4th grade, and I also want her to have time to play in her treehouse, experiment in the kitchen, read, breathe...so we go a little longer, or we don't get to every stinkin' activity--it's all good. Natural rhythms, a little discipline, step-by-step to the goal, all that sort of thing--

[Jane in NC]

I love index cards and this also helps me avoid the ever present" what am I to do" syndrome.:lol: But then again I put the D in draconian hsing. :lol:

 

Well I love graph paper! I use 8 1/2 X 11 for smaller projects, 11 X 14 to map out larger, more serious projects. Although I suppose that plain paper may do, graph paper denotes a certain level of seriousness for me.

 

For math, I have always created a general schedule of x number of lessons in the text, leaving days for catch up, review or side reading/projects. Same for Latin and French.

 

For history/literature ala TWTM, I have either aligned reading with Teaching Company courses or taken a month by month approach--not daily.

 

When my son was in 7th - 9th grades, I gave him a daily lesson plan. At some point in high school, this turned to weekly plans with caveats. Left to his own devices, he would watch Teaching Company lectures, read, maybe do some math. Friday would roll around with writing: essays, lab reports, summaries. It was too much for a reluctant writer to do in one day. Thus, I would give weekly assignments with certain daily goals. First draft of this on Tuesday, lab report on Wednesday. Life changed in 11th when he began taking dual enrollment courses at the CC. I moved my deadlines around his CC deadlines.

 

That said, plans were written in mechanical pencil and revamped as the year progressed.

[mcconnellboys]

I guess being obsessive/compulsive helps, LOL. Once I've done all that work to plan out what we will do for each subject each day of the school year, I'm not likely to throw it all out the window. Each day, I just look at the list of things to do and we work through them. That's not to say that I never tweak or make any changes at all, but I'm not likely to throw a program out the window and start from scratch mid-year, either.

 

Sure, there are always lots of side paths that would be tempting to stray off into, but you've got to stick with the plan in order to get a good, thorough overview by year's end and be ready to move on. We can never read all the good books, do all the great projects, etc.

 

Ability to focus on a narrow goal is, of course, going to vary from family to family. I think that's okay, too. Those who are studying worthwhile subjects all day long throughout the school year are still going to benefit from good, solid learning, even if it is more piecemeal.....

 

One common area I can think of regarding this is reading. Some folks just let their children read any books that are of interest to them. Others have their literature tied to their history studies. Some just talk about the books they read (or not), while others do literary study or analysis of varying degrees. Is any one method better than another? Do things like reading ability and interest level of individuals need to be taken into account? Ability to discuss orally (auditory processing problems for some students) may vary by student. Ability to write about topics will also vary. The best way to approach a reading program for one student may look very chaotic and disorganized to another family, whose needs are quite different..... But it may be the way that student learns best.

 

So I'm not sure that even as scheduled and organized as I am that I could say that I think my children learn more than/better than the children of someone who is "straying off the path" or "changing curriculum" throughout any given school year. I think each parent/teacher has the best handle on their students and their needs. If a rabbit trail is needed, or a new curriculum called for, then I think it's that individual family's call to make that change. I don't think that this necessarily hampers overall learning, either.

 

On the other hand, I have seen people who can not make a decision about anything and stick with it. They change their mind so much that they end up accomplishing very little during the school year. Their children are always in a "wait" mode as they try to decide what to do. Something like grammar or math may not get done for weeks/months on end as they try to decide on a new curriculum, for instance. If that sort of thing is ongoing, then I do think there's a problem that needs correcting.

 

One way I would attempt to provide for these times is to find good, solid workpages on my subjects and just make a notebook full of these (or buy workbooks, etc.). And I would have a large supply, covering various topics, too. Then if there's a time period where one program is not working and we are ditching that curriculum, kids can just work from these workpages each day to keep up their skills while teacher decides on another program. Similarly, I would keep a list of science and history websites so that if teacher cannot get to those subjects, students can still be plugged in to online study.

 

I also keep games on hand that cover various topics, such as math, geography, logic, etc. This might not be helpful unless you have time to play with your student or you have multiple students who can play with each other.

 

Likewise, we keep piles of books on hand that deal with whatever science/history/lit topics we're studying, so there's never a down time when no reading can get done because we're out of books.....

 

When my last son was younger, I kept a drawer full of things he could choose to do on his own while I worked with my older son. These included things like religiously themed puzzles, geography puzzles, word searches or crosswords on science or foreign language topics, Wee Sing tapes and musical instruments so he could play along (rhythm instruments), puppets so he could make up a play to show me when I got back to him, and lots of other things. I would check his work when I returned, so I knew that he was actually working on these things and not just lolly-gagging around.....

 

We also make a routine of starting about the same time each day, lunch at about the same time, and finish at about the same time. I know this won't work for some folks, but for lots of kids, I think, routine makes for an easier time of things. If they know what to expect each day, I think for many it makes it easier to stay on track, transition between different things, etc.

[Oney Jones]

 

I want education here to be rich and deep--but dd is in 4th grade, and I also want her to have time to play in her treehouse, experiment in the kitchen, read, breathe...so we go a little longer, or we don't get to every stinkin' activity--it's all good. Natural rhythms, a little discipline, step-by-step to the goal, all that sort of thing--

 

 

I like this.

[JoyfulMama]

How about an "accountability buddy"? Folks do this for dieting, for exercise, for all kinds of things - why not homeschooling???

A friend and I are going to meet once every other month while the kids play. Our approaches aren't necessarily exactly the same, but we are both open to others.

I will be her cheerleader, and she will be mine. We can bounce ideas off eachother, as well. Sometimes I just need to hear myself speak before the lightbulb goes on! And, we both like a good cup of tea!

This could be done via phone or email, too...