Help. my brain hurts!!

[hsmom]

All of this talk about scheduling and such, got me once again trying to schedule our year out. Well every time I think I have a good plan I soon realize I just set us up for failure.

 

What is my problem?

 

I sat down for weeks and wrote out everything we were going to do, what lessons for what days and weeks. Now guess what I am already messed up. Why is this so hard to do (well for me)?

 

I have to be doing something wrong. I just cannot figure out what. Am I just trying to have everything too scheduled?

 

This is one reason why we are going to sonlight for our history, reading, and possibly science. But that doesn't cover everything else.

 

Is there a step by step list, book, blog, magic wand, anything out there that I can use as a guide to get me started. I so need to be more organized! I am noticing my unorganized ways are really hurting our days.

 

Help please.

[Trivium Academy]

1. How long will your year be?

2. When will it start?

3. What are the non-negotiable times you will take off? (Christmas, etc.)

4. List your subjects and curricula.

5. Beside each curricula write how many lessons there are.

Example:

----Horizons Math, 160 lessons

----SOTW, 42 chapters

----Explorer's Bible Study, 30 lessons (5 daily mini lessons within 1 week's lesson)

 

6. Decide how many times a week you need to do each curricula to finish on your proposed end date.

7. Only do an overview plan of your weeks, not daily lessons.

Week 1:

Subject 1: Lessons 1-5

Subject 2: Lessons 1-5

etc.

 

Be as realistic as you can about your plans, if you tend to take a day off during the week then only schedule a 4 day week with the 5th day as your "extra" day.

 

I stop at the weekly overview and then just create a daily routine/schedule. I leave the more detailed (what books to read, projects to do) planning for in-between quarters.

 

http://www.donnayoung.org has excellent helps for planning

hth,

[keithfamily5]

Jessica put into words what I was thinking. I agree with not doing daily lesson plans too far in advance. I learned that one the hard way this year. When it comes to daily plans, I don't schedule more than two weeks at a time and always do it in pencil!:001_smile:

 

I also look to see how many lessons/chapters there are and how many we need to do to finish by our end date. (sometimes that date changes based on how we're progressing)

 

Be flexible! (This is hard for me because I'm very scheduled and organized and if I'm not careful, I'll make my kids crazy!)

 

Patty

[St. Theophan Academy]

Well, here is what I have learned. I like the idea of a schedule that says, week one, do these pages. But I find that rarely does it work that way. Instead of spending forever planning each weeks lessons, I like to do a page for each subject, broken down into lessons, chapters, units - whatever the resource lends itself to. Then I have a box to check off when we do that. I have a basic "skeleton" schedule for the school day, and love the weekend, I try to pencil in what I think we can get done each day, taking into account all the other things happening that week. This allows me to be far more realistic in my scheduling, and keeps me from getting depressed because we are "behind" on some idealistic schedule. This is especially important if you live the way I do (and many others on this board I am sure) - my husband has a very irregular work schedule, meaning he is off one weekday, but it is not consistent which day - and then he will work 10 days straight and hardly see us. So there are weeks when we only do 3 days of bookwork school - because when he is off, they spend time with him (though I really feel they get more education on those days than any others sometimes :) - gardening, hunting, fishing, etc.). Then other weeks we will school through Saturday. I think the important thing is to have benchmarks for where you need to be by a certain date, and then schedule weekly. Otherwise, it can be very frustrating to have to redo plans all the time, or watch yourself fall further behind.

[hsmom]

I like the idea of what needs to be done and gone over and a box to check. I think that might actually work for us. Thank you!!

[cin]

I have a generic weekly lesson plan that I fill in as we go. On it, I have what SUBJECTS we do each day, but nothing specific. Usually, sometime the week before, I write in chapters or page numbers. MOST of the time I know our schedule a week in an advance, but even then....Life happens ;).

[sweetbaby]

Well, here is what I have learned. I like the idea of a schedule that says, week one, do these pages. But I find that rarely does it work that way. Instead of spending forever planning each weeks lessons, I like to do a page for each subject, broken down into lessons, chapters, units - whatever the resource lends itself to. Then I have a box to check off when we do that. I have a basic "skeleton" schedule for the school day, and love the weekend, I try to pencil in what I think we can get done each day, taking into account all the other things happening that week. This allows me to be far more realistic in my scheduling, and keeps me from getting depressed because we are "behind" on some idealistic schedule. This is especially important if you live the way I do (and many others on this board I am sure) - my husband has a very irregular work schedule, meaning he is off one weekday, but it is not consistent which day - and then he will work 10 days straight and hardly see us. So there are weeks when we only do 3 days of bookwork school - because when he is off, they spend time with him (though I really feel they get more education on those days than any others sometimes :) - gardening, hunting, fishing, etc.). Then other weeks we will school through Saturday. I think the important thing is to have benchmarks for where you need to be by a certain date, and then schedule weekly. Otherwise, it can be very frustrating to have to redo plans all the time, or watch yourself fall further behind.

 

This sounds familiar. We do the same and my hubby is a paramedic/firefighter so he works 24hr shifts and works several days in a row. We also have a medical supply business. Every day that he has off is a "Daddy Vacation" day to spend with him. We schedule our days in the same manner.:)

[PeterPan]

Joanna, maybe what you're needing is not a detailed schedule, but rather a daily checklist? I finally started it with my dd this year, and it has been a GREAT thing. It moves them from everything mommy-driven to being more pro-active themselves. I keep it pretty generic, put the things generally in the order I'd like them done, and then put a blank after things that have lesson numbers. That way either I can fill them in when I print it out for the day or dd can write it in as she does it. Many things are sequential and don't need to be spelled out, just do the next thing.