lewelma Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 I also struggle with lists turning into box checking and ruining the love of learning. What if a student is really excited about his latin and wants to keep going, but then can't get to other subjects on the list? When I have had hard lists these enthusiastic efforts disappear because ds knows he still has all the other work to do, and then we just tick boxes. Also, if given too much freedom, my little boy will happen to get excited about everything except writing or spelling, and then they slip and slip and slip. I just find it very difficult to be strict and still allow for the passions that I want my homeschooling to be about. Can you tell this thread is making me :willy_nilly: I'm also at the end of term 3 of 4. School holidays are in 1.5 weeks and spring is around the corner. Perhaps, I am just not in the same all-is-new, beginning-of-the-year mindset as the rest of you. I'm just very contemplative! Hope I am not derailing this thread, and can start a new one if you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 I also struggle with lists turning into box checking and ruining the love of learning. What if a student is really excited about his latin and wants to keep going, but then can't get to other subjects on the list? When I have had hard lists these enthusiastic efforts disappear because ds knows he still has all the other work to do, and then we just tick boxes. Also, if given too much freedom, my little boy will happen to get excited about everything except writing or spelling, and then they slip and slip and slip. I just find it very difficult to be strict and still allow for the passions that I want my homeschooling to be about. We're box checkers but I think it's because of the ages of my kids. I really do feel we have to do the basics: spelling, handwriting, phonics, etc. everyday and if I don't have them on lists, they won't get done. I believe language and math have to be done everyday and we're still doing spelling. Other things, like McGuffey readers, also lend themselves to one lesson/day. It's easy to just get them done and check 'em off. I'm not checking boxes with content. So for science and history, we either get to something or we don't, but we try to stay on a general schedule. I'm much looser here. I'm planning to be less of a box checker later. When it's all content and not skill (except math) I'm hoping to switch away from detailed checklists and move to more general goals. Ten year olds seem to be trapped in the transition of this process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 This is exactly what I do with my younger! :001_smile: Ah, Rose, you are my long lost twin. But what I am worried about is that then he does not have any definite requirements. If he does not get it done today, oh well, just do it tomorrow. Where is the accountability? At what point should at least some of his assignments be strict, and if they happen to be difficult, then he has to rise to the occasion or put in more work? So how can you tell if he is just slacking/inefficient/not focused and should be, versus I have given him too much work or it just happens to be too hard and he needs more time? (gosh don't show SWB that sentence :o ) DS is only 10, so perhaps by the time he gets to Shannon's age, it will be clearer. Well, I'm not saying she doesn't have definite requirements, just that I'm flexible on a day-to-day basis. I guess I'm lucky, Shannon is pretty compliant, and she doesn't have many off days. When she does, it's pretty obvious, and I generally can tell that it's sincere - she's tired or has a headache or is in a hormonal fog. Then what I say is, "Honey, it seems like you are having a hard time focusing today. Would you like to put this aside now and finish it on Saturday?" So I think there is still accountability - it still has to get done within the planning period, but hey, we all have bad days, right? I know that I have to put things off till I'm fresh & focused sometimes. I think that giving the kid the option of finishing on "their" time - weekends, evenings, etc. isn't a lack of accountability. I think if you just always pushed everything back, and had no firm duedates or deadlines, then I might start to worry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 I also struggle with lists turning into box checking and ruining the love of learning. What if a student is really excited about his latin and wants to keep going, but then can't get to other subjects on the list? When I have had hard lists these enthusiastic efforts disappear because ds knows he still has all the other work to do, and then we just tick boxes. Also, if given too much freedom, my little boy will happen to get excited about everything except writing or spelling, and then they slip and slip and slip. I just find it very difficult to be strict and still allow for the passions that I want my homeschooling to be about. Can you tell this thread is making me :willy_nilly: I'm also at the end of term 3 of 4. School holidays are in 1.5 weeks and spring is around the corner. Perhaps, I am just not in the same all-is-new, beginning-of-the-year mindset as the rest of you. I'm just very contemplative! Hope I am not derailing this thread, and can start a new one if you want. Well, I think as long as things balance out in some period of time - a week, or two weeks, or whatever, I wouldn't worry too much about doing everything every day. I hate to stop a kid who is excited about something, and generally I'll let Shannon keep going with math if she wants to. OTOH, both my kids would read all day, so I do call a halt to that and make them move onto another task. With Morgan, she has her list, and she gets to choose what order we do things in. If we don't get to everything on the list, because we are spending extra time on something, then the next day I say, ok - you have to do those things first. So that way we don't have long stretches without writing, spelling, or whatever the un-fun subject is - even if we do skip it on a day here and there. I feel totally differently in April than I do in September!! You are looking back at your year and assessing what has gone well and what you want to improve- the rest of us are still looking forward with our rosy-hued glasses!!! We'll get there, before we know it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 We went to a meeting about the Odyssey of the Mind group ds9 is signed up for this morning, it looks like a good activity for him. They are trying to form a second team and I tried to get my dds interested but with no luck. Then we spent an hour driving around trying to find a gymnastics place to try out their homeschool class, finally arrived fifteen minutes late but the kids loved the class. Unfortunately a couple of minutes after leaving the gym I discovered my van had a flat tire; I had five hungry kids in a hot broken down van and had to work hard not to burst into tears. Fortunately we were near an optometrist's office and the people there very kindly let us all hang out in their air conditioned waiting room while I called roadside assistance and dh and sorted out the logistics of getting the van to Costco for a new tire and me and the kids home. Mystery of the day: the first thing I did after ascertaining that the tire was indeed flat was to check underneath the van for the spare; it wasn't there. I know it used to be there...all I can figure is that it must have been removed at the shop when the AC was being repaired and they forgot to put it back. Fortunately we have good roadside assistance through our insurance policy and they will foot the bill for the tow. Still no AC, the temperature in the house was 93 degrees last time I checked. Not a lot of school happening today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Critterfixer Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 :grouphug: Maize, as long as it doesn't make you too hot. What a rotten day! Hoping for your AC to be fixed, or better yet a massive cool down and a fixed van and the spare tire relocated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama25angels Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 We went to a meeting about the Odyssey of the Mind group ds9 is signed up for this morning, it looks like a good activity for him. They are trying to form a second team and I tried to get my dds interested but with no luck. Then we spent an hour driving around trying to find a gymnastics place to try out their homeschool class, finally arrived fifteen minutes late but the kids loved the class. Unfortunately a couple of minutes after leaving the gym I discovered my van had a flat tire; I had five hungry kids in a hot broken down van and had to work hard not to burst into tears. Fortunately we were near an optometrist's office and the people there very kindly let us all hang out in their air conditioned waiting room while I called roadside assistance and dh and sorted out the logistics of getting the van to Costco for a new tire and me and the kids home. Mystery of the day: the first thing I did after ascertaining that the tire was indeed flat was to check underneath the van for the spare; it wasn't there. I know it used to be there...all I can figure is that it must have been removed at the shop when the AC was being repaired and they forgot to put it back. Fortunately we have good roadside assistance through our insurance policy and they will foot the bill for the tow. Still no AC, the temperature in the house was 93 degrees last time I checked. Not a lot of school happening today. I am so sorry! A flat tire and no AC would make me run away from home and never come back! I hope the AC is fixed soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted September 18, 2014 Author Share Posted September 18, 2014 Maize, sounds like a no good, very bad day! Box checking or not, well I'm still trying to hit my stride on planning and scheduling enough so that I'm prepared and ready but not so much that I turn it into drudgery or lose sight of watching my child. While on break I'm working on our plans for the year and I'm sure hoping that I'm hitting it about right but I'm sure that I will need to make adjustments because life is like that. With multiple kids and multiple activities it is increasingly clear that I really need to pre-plan to get done what I want to get done. I spent the last few days really hitting the house hard as I like to do a deep clean while on break. We've mostly finished that, except a bit of wall washing so I've turned to finishing up my planning. Right now I'm working on our lit studies. I *think* I have a general plan. I'm just doing the next 6 weeks, which will be The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe, it works perfectly for my schedule as there are 6 books and we are doing 6- 6 week terms. (Edit---LOL brain lapse there are 7 books- in my defense I wrote this at a time when my brain should have been sleeping!) This last session I didn't do enough planning and our study was very basic. I'm hoping to bring it up a bit for LWW but not be too overly ambitious. Hopefully today I can finish those plans, although my own study will be continuing alongside. On one hand I feel I should have done more already on the other what I had planned in the spring is largely missing from my memory so perhaps it is better to just do the overview planning in the summer and finish details every six weeks so it stays fresh on my mind. We've also started a robotics team and it is taking up a lot of our time. I'm feeling rather torn as I think it is worthwhile but doing this is of course limiting what I can do in other areas. It is going to be about 2 months of intense work and I'm hoping at the end we still think it is worthwhile. It does make me feel better about the fact that our science is a bit lighter the next six weeks, I need to get a bit of time somewhere and considering how much science we are working on for this and the fact that we've always done a lot of science I feel better about cutting back a bit for this next session. I still want to plan out art but I'm using art lessons from arttango.com so mostly I need to go through and look at what supplies are needed, from what I've seen so far it looks like I have everything around the house already but I want to familiarize myself with the lessons more so I'm not flying blind. Lastly I'd like to do a bit of music appreciation. I'm thinking perhaps it would just be nice to set aside a day and listen to one of the music masters CDs. I've also downloaded a book Classical Composers: A Home in Your Head for the Musical Masters, which I'm hoping will provide something for our studies but I've not had a chance to read it yet. On the plus side it is short so I should be able to get through it rather quickly. Ack, too much to do. Thank goodness I'm feeling better. I have all of today, half of tomorrow and perhaps a bit of Sunday left for planning, speaking of which I need to get off and get to it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Critterfixer Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 Does it count as box checking if you never make boxes? I just sort of do the next thing. I guess it helps that about the only things my guys are passionate about, truly, are playing and more playing. But I do struggle with what I want to do about formal writing right now. We need to get on the stick--only they are really involved in creating stories right now. I'm compensating by really hammering writing skills with the grammar, and being sure to call it grammar. It does seem to be carrying over into their creative work, because they insist on regaling me with it multiple times a day. Descriptive detail is improving, dialogue is getting better and they sometimes stop in mid sentence, pull their pencils out and edit before reading, because they are getting the opportunity to see how a thought in their heads needs to be constructed as they read their own work. Sigh. I sort of feel like it's piano, and if they would do more work on their scales, they would play their pieces better. On the other hand, if I push the scales, they neglect their pieces, and could lose the love of playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Wrapping up the week here with math angst. Um - yes, that was me earlier this week who so foolishly said that math was under control. DS and I both very much wanted AoPS Algebra to work, but I don't think he can manage an adequate pace (I just finished reading this thread: AoPS Pace - not for the first time!). If he were in 7th grade instead of 8th, we could afford the time. Well, now that he has finished Chapter 1 of Foerster Algebra and Chapter 1 of AoPS Algebra, I think Foerster is going to be the one to move forward with. It is only mid-September. It will be OK. And I can pull out some of the AoPS problems to provide some AoPS problem-solving flavor. What bothers me now is that he feels like he should be able to use AoPS. I had to emphasize that there is no shame in switching to Foerster as the primary text. And assure him that Foerster's is not substandard . And will not destroy his plans to become a programmer (his career choice at the moment). Sigh. I promise not to discuss math in these accountability threads for a while. ETA: Considering that I brought home a 6th grader who was woefully behind in math, I am so proud of his progress in two years. And I want him to feel proud - not defeated. We are going to work on that, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Penguin, would spending some time on Alcumus or choosing a problem a day from AOPS help your son feel like he was benefitting from AOPS whole using another text as his core? Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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