SorrelZG Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Please tell me workbook OCD is common! .. and how to let it go! My child is doing fine with SWO A but I've long been inclined towards WRTR for spelling due to it looking simple and sensible and efficient and the more time I spend with it the more I'm feeling like for us SWO is just making school take longer unnecessarily. HOWEVER .. we're only part way into SWO .. all those blank spaces unfilled .. too many filled to pass on to someone .. and I KNEW better than to buy B before being near to completing A but DH needed something added to his Amazon cart so he could get free shipping and I was drawing a blank at the time (what was THAT about when I have a hundred things on my wishlists?!). *deep breaths* Surely there are ladies here who have started things and not finished them - :D - how do you do it? How do you LET GO of the compulsive *need* to fill in blanks?! ... and that spankin' new workbook sitting on the shelf FULL of blank spaces, calling to be filled. Wah! Please never let me do this again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
island-mama Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Haha I have this anxiety too, due to my type A personality. I have found that it helps me to take a Sharpie and put a diagonal mark through any sections I think would be just pure busywork to my daughter (I did this with my Climbing to Good English 1 workbook last year). It feels and looks more deliberate to me so that I don't see the blanks glaring back at me :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbkaren Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 You mean...you mean...it's okay to skip ahead past the stuff they've got down-pat?? :001_huh: I'm not sure I can handle that. I just started doing this part-time (I guess you'll call us after-schoolers, soon-to-be-homeschoolers) but have been forcing DS to complete stuff he handled easily in kindergarten, just to complete the page. You mean we should leave those pages...blank? :ack2: Oy, this is stressful...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 It's very clear in my head that workbooks are a tool to be used and when they have done their job I let them go. The tools of homeschooling work FOR ME and my students, not the other way around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 It's very clear in my head that workbooks are a tool to be used and when they have done their job I let them go. The tools of homeschooling work FOR ME and my students, not the other way around. :iagree: And it has taken some time for me to get there. I've mostly had to learn it with math, as DS was ready to move on, and some topics get picked up very quickly without hardly any explanation or practice that there is no point in doing 3 pages on it - that would kill his love of math, and it is just unnecessary. One of the biggest reasons I homeschool is so my son can go at HIS pace. That means not filling out every single problem in Math Mammoth. :tongue_smilie: Today, across 2 sections (7 pages) of the current chapter in math, I think we did a total of 10 problems, if that. He understood the concepts before I had taught them. I've let go of my need to do every problem. He is learning plenty without doing all of them. :) I also have workbooks that sit unused. I think that's part of the hidden cost of homeschooling, at least if you do curriculum research. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorrelZG Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 I also have workbooks that sit unused. I think that's part of the hidden cost of homeschooling, at least if you do curriculum research. :glare: Gah! Researching expenses! Why can't I just get everything right the FIRST time!? I have trouble with this reality across the board. :glare: *sigh* okay .. will grab a sharpie and work on my new mantra .. *inhale* The workbooks serve me; *exhale* I am not enslaved to the workbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I was just talking to a friend who use to homeschool and was telling her how I struggle with things that do not get finished (namely worksheets.) She said that her son in ps brought home his unused workbooks at the end of the school year (since they were paid for) and over HALF the pages were not done! This is the best ps school in our county, so I felt alot better. :001_smile: We really don't have to do every single thing to give them a great education. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbkaren Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I guess we could hang on to the unused workbook pages for review work over the summer...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Embrace the Recycle Bin! Actually...I typically save it for a year, "just in case," and then embrace the Bin! It does get easier over time... Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I have this compulsion, too. I say we start a support group for this. :tongue_smilie: I honestly have started avoiding workbooks because I have several OCD issues with them. "We must do one page a day - no matter what! Even if the house is on fire, finish your workbook page!! Don't get us behind schedule!" :lol: This year, I have purposely looked for schoolbooks that were NOT workbooks. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I was just talking to a friend who use to homeschool and was telling her how I struggle with things that do not get finished (namely worksheets.) She said that her son in ps brought home his unused workbooks at the end of the school year (since they were paid for) and over HALF the pages were not done! This is the best ps school in our county, so I felt alot better. :001_smile: We really don't have to do every single thing to give them a great education. This is true! My friend's daughter brought home completely unused workbooks from public school, which is strange since the schools are lacking in funds, so they buy workbooks they won't use? :confused: My son would also come home from private school with worksheets that weren't completely used. They would do part of them, then leave a whole page or two undone. Also, 2 days a week, they put a big X on the back (homework) side of the Saxon math worksheets, since they didn't have homework on Wednesdays or Fridays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDmom Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I tear the pages out of some of my workbooks. It is much easier to recycle (or file away) an unused page than to skip it in a workbook. It seems like the workbooks I won't cut up are the ones that we skip the most work in, but maybe I just notice those ones more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Tear out the pages you did finish and give the rest away. Someone, somewhere will want it, no matter what.... Hole punch your pages and put them in a notebook to look at all the work you DID get accomplished. Move on.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellalarella Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I have this compulsion, too. I say we start a support group for this. :tongue_smilie: I honestly have started avoiding workbooks because I have several OCD issues with them. "We must do one page a day - no matter what! Even if the house is on fire, finish your workbook page!! Don't get us behind schedule!" :lol: This year, I have purposely looked for schoolbooks that were NOT workbooks. :D Thank you for sharing. Genuinely. I struggle with feeling the need to do every lesson and the "need" to do every workbook page. I appreciate what you said about "looking for schoolbooks that were NOT workbooks." Maybe that's why I feel so much calmer about SOTW and LOF. Maybe that also explains why I felt so much freedom after I decided not to allow the dc to write in our MUS workbooks. I just asked them to copy answers onto a piece of notebook paper. Then I progressed from just glancing at their workbook lesson and making 6-10 problems of my own. All of a sudden, bam!! we weren't tied to the workbook. I agree with the PP about the unused workbooks coming home from PS. We spent quite a bit of time in PS, and my dc came home with workbooks that were 90% unused. Then I went to my sister's house and discovered the unused Handwriting Without Tears books that her kids brought home from their school. OK--Now I did take those workbooks home with me and you better believe I'm using them. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorrelZG Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 I just wanted to share that I have shelved the SWO workbook and will be keeping an ear out around church and friends for anyone that wants it. In another workbook - I am skipping some pages! One on the back side of a page I am crossing out (didn't have a pen handy at the time) and then I tore out the next 2 full pages to use as worksheets for DD so DS can skip ahead to something that's not redundant. I feel so empowered. :D I think I will be trying to avoid as many workbooks as possible in future also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDmom Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I feel so empowered. :D Hooray! :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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