Schedule too crammed -- need advice

[Lori D.]

:hurray: GREAT way of handling it -- laying it all out, discussing it, and making decisions all as a family. Thanks for updating!

 

 

… we axed archery and stop-motion animation club. With ds graduating from speech and letting archery go (at least for now; we may pick it up again after hockey season is over)

 

This is a great idea. This worked well for us, too -- getting to do several activities, but ones that are "off season" from each other, so the overall schedule does not get crunched. :)

 

Also, don't forget summers -- you may have more in the summer to do clubs when other organized activities are at a lull -- and other students typically have more time for doing clubs with you in the summer, which also is the added bonus of social friend time while doing an enjoyable activity. :)

[Ellie]

I ended up talking to my kids and talking to my husband about this issue. I was surprised by my husband's point of view. He feels that the kids "should" be spending less time on schoolwork than I do. I already felt that my guideline for how much time to spend was on the conservative (lighter) side ... we are not 8-5 schoolers here, and we would all expire if that were the expectation. Suffice to say, dh felt that the kids should spend fewer hours per day on schoolwork than I do simply because he feels that if we are going to homeschool, it should be so that the kids have more time to pursue their own interests. So that was a different perspective for me (I mean, I feel the same way, but I was under the impression ... don't know where I got it ... that dh felt the kids should be doing MORE, not LESS, schoolwork). I mean, I think he's wrong and all ;) and I don't plan to significantly cut back on the amount of schoolwork we do, but at least I know that dh isn't expecting me to crack the whip more.

 

Second, I made up a visual chart for the kids to see what was going on every day, and we talked about how they are spending their time and what was important to them. Dd12 said the most important things for her were "doing my schoolwork so I can get into a good college and get a good job, reading as many books as I can, and spending time with my friends." Ds said his priorities are "doing my schoolwork quickly, seeing my friends, and playing." So what I heard is that the kids want more unstructured social time. With that in mind, we made homeschool group a priority, because that's the prime place they see their friends. They also said that, next to homeschool group, their next prioritized activity was volunteering at the nature center. Neither wanted to cut that out or even reduce the time they are doing it. They really, really enjoy it and get a lot of positive feedback from the nature center for it.

 

We also decided that all our once-a-month activities are worthwhile and should stay. 

 

So with that in mind, we axed archery and stop-motion animation club. With ds graduating from speech and letting archery go (at least for now; we may pick it up again after hockey season is over), that frees up an entire morning every week for us. We agreed to get up earlier on the morning of homeschool group to give ourselves an extra hour of schoolwork, and dd agreed to recommit to getting some of her independent work done while ds and I are at tutoring and not getting distracted by drawing and reading and all the other things she gets distracted by.

 

So I do feel we have gotten our schedule more under control while still retaining the activities that are important to the kids. Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions. :)

 

:hurray:

 

And FTR, I big pink puffy heart Mr. TaraTheLiberator. He's a great homeschool dad.

 

[Haiku]

:hurray:

 

And FTR, I big pink puffy heart Mr. TaraTheLiberator. He's a great homeschool dad.

 

 

I agree. He was reluctant in the beginning and always stated that the kids would be going to high school, but as they get older and he sees how well they are doing, he has given that up because, as he says, "What would they get from school that they aren't already getting?" 

[wintermom]

Thanks for coming back and describing your family's decisions. I need to do something similar with my dc. Luckily we have a nice low-key winter season planned out, then we can pre-plan what we want our spring schedule to look like.

 

All the best with your upcoming year!

[lea_lpz]

We were in the same spot. We cut down to 2 activities a week- Tuesday afternoon ballet for dd and Thursday afternoon horse riding for both- leaving Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons completely free and all our weekdays blocked out until at least 3 pm. Sigh of relief. With a baby and my own school part time eliminating a morning a week was driving me batty!