mathnmusic Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Title says it all. Sorry for the dumb question :blush:, but I'm not sure what this means exactly (I'm still pretty new to homeschooling). My best guess is that this is a type of scheduling that applies to the child, where they have a list of things to do each day and after completing one subject, they just move independently to the next thing on their list to do? Or is it something entirely different? Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 It can mean that. Year round schoolers also use the phrase meaning when each textbook (or whatever) is finished, they start the next one instead of stopping that subject and restarting at the beginning of the next school year. Rosie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieF Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 :iagree: I "do the next thing" for example in math, we just go through the book. If ds can complete 10 pages and still be able to concentrate he does, sometimes it could only be 1. Stephanie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 "Do the next thing" means there isn't a hard and fast schedule but a general one. It's like reading a book for pleasure. Sometimes you can get several chapters read in a day, sometimes you need to read the same paragraph 5 times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolamum Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 :grouphug: I've been homeschooling for years & school in a year round manner. YET, I've always thought it simply meant the next lesson in said textbooks. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in MS Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 It can be applied in different ways. For me it means I don't have a M-F schedule. If we are unable to school on M I don't worry about catching up on Tu. We take up where we left off. Life happens. Because of this I find, that for my family, we do better schooling year round, and often on weekends (if they are less hectic than the week). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 To me, it means I don't have to do much lesson planning! One example is WWE. If we do this page today, we'll do the next page tomorrow. With MCT, if we stop here today, we'll pick up here on Monday. Math, lesson 12 today, 13 tomorrow. Other subjects, particularly with multiple resources, won't necessarily work that way. If I use SOTW with AG and supplemental reading and movies, plus field trips, I'm going to need a clear schedule to squeeze it all in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 To me, it means I don't have to do much lesson planning! One example is WWE. If we do this page today, we'll do the next page tomorrow. With MCT, if we stop here today, we'll pick up here on Monday. Math, lesson 12 today, 13 tomorrow. Other subjects, particularly with multiple resources, won't necessarily work that way. If I use SOTW with AG and supplemental reading and movies, plus field trips, I'm going to need a clear schedule to squeeze it all in! This is what I call "do the next thing" and what I set up for the kids every year. I hate planning....so, I come up with a subject schedule, and a list by subject....even those with multiple resources. Read SOTW chap 4 sec 2 Color map and locate places Read spine encyclopedia Outline spine or list facts Read library book Make context page Write summary. Read next section Repeat. Iow, I come up with a pattern of study...and sometimes we cover the pattern in a day....sometimes 3, sometimes 2weeks....but we keep doing the next thing. Faithe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 For me, it is curricula that need no real planning. In math, you just go to the next leason, same for grammar. For history, I have to plan time to get our activities in. I can just do the next chapter as far as reading, but I need to plan each week to include lapbook and map page time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 It refers to curriculum that has lessons laid out already, so you do one lesson, then you do the next one, then you do the next one. There is no planning involved. Just open the book and do the next lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josie6504 Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 For me, it just means I pick up where we left off the day before. I don't really plan ahead much in any of our subjects except for checking to see that we have the materials we will need. I may go through and get all of our supplies we will need for the year ahead of time this year, so I will have them on hand. There are times when we do not get to a project because I didn't get to the store. I just do as much as we can in a particular subject and pick up the next day where we left off. For AAR, that might mean that some days we will do an entire lesson and other days it can take us a week or so to do a lesson. For math, we might do 1 page Monday, 5 pages Tuesday, and none on Wednesday. We do as much as he can handle each day of a particular subject and then move on to the next. I tried planning out what day we were going to do such and such, but it doesn't work for us. Life happens. Before I would get frustrated, but now we just take a day off if needed. We don't skip days too often though. I like to keep them on a fairly consistent schedule as far as actually doing school each day. I know that it will get done eventually because we school year round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimm Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 To me, it means I don't have to do much lesson planning! One example is WWE. If we do this page today, we'll do the next page tomorrow. With MCT, if we stop here today, we'll pick up here on Monday. Math, lesson 12 today, 13 tomorrow. Other subjects, particularly with multiple resources, won't necessarily work that way. If I use SOTW with AG and supplemental reading and movies, plus field trips, I'm going to need a clear schedule to squeeze it all in! This is how I see it used the most. You don't have to plan it out because you just move through the book in order. Do the next thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelmama1209 Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 This is what I call "do the next thing" and what I set up for the kids every year. I hate planning....so, I come up with a subject schedule, and a list by subject....even those with multiple resources. Read SOTW chap 4 sec 2 Color map and locate places Read spine encyclopedia Outline spine or list facts Read library book Make context page Write summary. Read next section Repeat. Iow, I come up with a pattern of study...and sometimes we cover the pattern in a day....sometimes 3, sometimes 2weeks....but we keep doing the next thing. Faithe This sounds like what might work for me, but how do you implement it? Say, with math. We use MM. Would I just give her the book and say go until you feel like stopping? (THAT wouldn't work for my DD) Set a timer for a particular amount of time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Title says it all. Sorry for the dumb question :blush:, but I'm not sure what this means exactly (I'm still pretty new to homeschooling). My best guess is that this is a type of scheduling that applies to the child, where they have a list of things to do each day and after completing one subject, they just move independently to the next thing on their list to do? Or is it something entirely different? Thanks in advance! That only works if you make a list of assignments and hand them off to your children. Homeschooling wasn't like that for us. :-) "Do the next thing" meant two things for me: Our "school year" began January 1 and ended December 31. It didn't make sense to me for a school "year" to begin in the fall, and to end in May or June, because the real world doesn't work like that, and children learn 365 days a year. Whenever we finished something--Easy Grammar or a math text or whatever, we just moved on to the next thing, regardless of what month it was. Except for the two years we did KONOS, most of the instructional materials I used didn't require me to plan ahead; when we finished this page, we just did the next thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 It can mean that. Year round schoolers also use the phrase meaning when each textbook (or whatever) is finished, they start the next one instead of stopping that subject and restarting at the beginning of the next school year. Rosie "Do the next thing" means there isn't a hard and fast schedule but a general one. It's like reading a book for pleasure. Sometimes you can get several chapters read in a day, sometimes you need to read the same paragraph 5 times. Both of these is what it means to us. I'm not even sure what days of the week we're going to do school since it depends on so many things. I do plan out a week at a time (4 days or loops) but those 4 loops sometimes take 2 weeks to do (like our current one). This sounds like what might work for me, but how do you implement it? Say, with math. We use MM. Would I just give her the book and say go until you feel like stopping? (THAT wouldn't work for my DD) Set a timer for a particular amount of time? We use MM too but don't really do one topic until he's done, it's more the approach to the whole day. I put all his work into a binder with 4 tabs since we theoretically do school 4 days a week - this often ends up being more of a loop schedule thing where we pick up where we left off the next day. On really good productive days, he should finish one tab in one day. In reality this could take anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks to finish. In the beginning is his "independent work" that he can do with me being there but not having to sit with him and I work with his sister while he does this. (anything that is in a workbook I didn't separate - like HWT and Spectrum workbooks - he has a sheet that says "Do marked page in x book"). If he finishes early (never happens) he has a few things he can chose from to do until I'm ready. Then we do the stuff that he needs me to sit with him or I do the writing for him - MM is one of these. If we don't finish a tab, we pick it up the next day. If things are going really well, we can continue with the next tab. This makes sure he doesn't do an hour of math but nothing else or never get around to doing his least favorite - handwriting. My son is working from different chapters in MM since he does better with variety, so this does require some planning ahead. I put together a folder with about a months worth of printed out MM divided by chapter/topic. At the beginning of each week I plan out 4 days or loops worth of work. I usually give him 1-2 pages of the primary topic each day (right now its carrying), then each day would get 1 or 2 pages of the other topics we're doing - money, time, multiplication, place value, fractions, etc. Then it is put in the binder in the correct place. Science, History - everything except the 3R's is handled differently. We do them together, usually after lunch and those I do need to plan out ahead of time to make sure I have supplies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StartingOver Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 We school year round and follow the kids lead for the most part. My son is just now required to do some school work. If we are doing math and he isn't ready to stop and wants to do more, well more power to him. When his Miquon or Singapore math books are done, I already have the next level sitting on the shelf so we can just do the next thing. Mine don't fit into a box, they are individuals who work at their own pace and follow their own interests. I do require a minimum amount of work each day ( Reading aloud to me, writing ( LA ) and math ), but the word minimum would be a word for debate too. hehe I promote the kids on their birthdays to their next public school age appropriate grade level. We just keep moving on when the need arises. We follow a progression of texts that just lead to the next thing, like Sonlight, Miquon, Singapore, SOTW, FLL, GWG, WWW, WWE, Lively Latin, AAS..... & Etc. We add in other things sometimes just to check them out, if they fit well we add them to our list of curricula. I like curricula that is open and go for the most part, as we are mainly a literature based family. Reading and discussing books of any subject is the foundation of our home made education. ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 It refers to curriculum that has lessons laid out already, so you do one lesson, then you do the next one, then you do the next one. There is no planning involved. Just open the book and do the next lesson. :iagree: This is how I've always thought of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbridgeacademy Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 It can be applied in different ways. For me it means I don't have a M-F schedule. If we are unable to school on M I don't worry about catching up on Tu. We take up where we left off. Life happens. Because of this I find, that for my family, we do better schooling year round, and often on weekends (if they are less hectic than the week). :iagree:This is us, and also my understanding of "do the next thing". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 To me, it means I don't have to do much lesson planning!This. My personal homeschool motto is "I'm a piler, not a filer." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDmom Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 (edited) This sounds like what might work for me, but how do you implement it? Say, with math. We use MM. Would I just give her the book and say go until you feel like stopping? (THAT wouldn't work for my DD) Set a timer for a particular amount of time? When I used MM, I figured out that we had to do 2 pages a day in order to get done with a level in one school year. So we'd just move through the program that way, pulling out the next 2 pages each day. Some days a lesson was only one page, and some days it was 3, and I'd decide as I pulled the worksheets out if it made sense to vary from the normal routine. That's what "do the next thing" means to me. A timer might work very well, too. I usually use a timer for subjects where I don't have any particular goal for how much material is covered in a year, like Rosetta Stone, piano practice, or free-reading time. In contrast, if I were the type of person who thought ahead and made lesson plans, I might look at the MM pages ahead of time and plan to use games or websites that corresponded with the lesson material. But honestly MM is very much a "do the next thing" type curriculum. A better contrast would be something like history where a planner might want to pick which topics to cover, and then pull together resources like corresponding literature, hands-on activities, and additional non-fiction books, whereas I just tend to go through SOTW one chapter at a time, using the coloring pages and map work from the AG, without really planning ahead. Edited June 26, 2012 by bonniebeth4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Me too. Love your motto!!!!!! Major paper piler here too. I hate it.. Do the next thing is definitely for me. I tried Konos and so wanted my kids to do the Unit Studies and all these hands on projects to correlate...forget it. I can't seem to get the projects going and like things to be just a little scripted for my sanity. Otherwise I have to do all the reading first and learn the topic before presenting to the kids...ugh! Now I have this big book of history project and on some weekends when husband is home and one of us is watching preschooler then we go through pick and pick some fun craft stuff that may or may not be exactly what we are studying but at least it is in the same time period like in the ancients or Early american history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joani Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 It refers to curriculum that has lessons laid out already, so you do one lesson, then you do the next one, then you do the next one. There is no planning involved. Just open the book and do the next lesson. This is what it means to me. We've done a lot of it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnmusic Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 Thanks for all your replies, everyone! Looks like "do the next thing" can mean different things to different people. I love "open and go" so I guess we've been doing "do the next thing" without knowing it! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Durriyyah Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Wow, I didn't know there was a term for what we do! Makes me feel like we have more of a game plan than before! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicMom Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 It refers to curriculum that has lessons laid out already, so you do one lesson, then you do the next one, then you do the next one. There is no planning involved. Just open the book and do the next lesson. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momma_Bear Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 It refers to curriculum that has lessons laid out already, so you do one lesson, then you do the next one, then you do the next one. There is no planning involved. Just open the book and do the next lesson. :iagree: That's what I mean/think of too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 "Do the next thing" means there isn't a hard and fast schedule but a general one. It's like reading a book for pleasure. Sometimes you can get several chapters read in a day, sometimes you need to read the same paragraph 5 times. I don't set a schedule or a set of lesson plans. When I get home from work and kiddo is alert, and I am not fagged out, we sit down and start to work. I open up to where we were in math and put in 30 minutes and then do drill or games. Then I pick up a LA topic and go to where we are. If we still have time and energy, I pick up the next topic I feel is appropriate. In any given week I have a general plan of what subjects I want to cover, and at the end of the month, I tot up what we've done and see what I'm short on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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