Deja Vu, I don't know what to do next year. Anyone else?

[Runningmom80]

Pity party of one over here.

 

 

I want to be more child led and project-y.

 

I want him to be challenged.

 

I want some online classes to take some of the pressure off of me.

 

I want a manual with what exactly we should do layed out for me.  IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK? :lol:

 

 

I post some version of this every spring.  Just ignore me.  Or join in my pity party.  (We can add left over margaritas and make it a seis de mayo extravaganza. :hurray: )

[Halcyon]

Ha! Welcome to my life. DS12 will be doing three online courses next year along with 3 days of project-based school and let me tell you, juggling the multiple times and assignments and tests is going to comprise the majority of my homeschooling. Then there's DS9, gifted, but insists that anything above grade level is simply "too hard" for him--which basically means he likes to go on auto-pilot and not think. Of course, if I did interest-led with him he would spend his day playing Minecraft and playing Covet Fashion on his ipad  :huh:  That ain't happening. Right now, he is obsessed with Little Women, so I guess that's a good thing, right?

 

But that is the push-pull of my life--interest-led versus "rigorous" homeschool....

[Runningmom80]

Ha! Welcome to my life. DS12 will be doing three online courses next year along with 3 days of project-based school and let me tell you, juggling the multiple times and assignments and tests is going to comprise the majority of my homeschooling. Then there's DS9, gifted, but insists that anything above grade level is simply "too hard" for him--which basically means he likes to go on auto-pilot and not think. Of course, if I did interest-led with him he would spend his day playing Minecraft and playing Covet Fashion on his ipad  :huh:  That ain't happening. Right now, he is obsessed with Little Women, so I guess that's a good thing, right?

 

But that is the push-pull of my life--interest-led versus "rigorous" homeschool....

 

YES!  I want both!  Can't they just challenge themselves? :lol:

 

ETA:  We have Little Women on the list for next year, I'm really excited.  I maybe make our reading lists 50% for me.

[SeaConquest]

My sister got all of the right brain, so I could never pull off project-y, but I will join you in the margaritas. Make mine a mango.  :cheers2:

 

[quark]

Pity party of one over here.

 

 

I want to be more child led and project-y.

 

I want him to be challenged.

 

I want some online classes to take some of the pressure off of me.

 

I want a manual with what exactly we should do layed out for me.  IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK? :lol:

 

 

I post some version of this every spring.  Just ignore me.  Or join in my pity party.  (We can add left over margaritas and make it a seis de mayo extravaganza. :hurray: )

 

I blame wanting the manual on the boards. Seriously, this needing a weekly plan thing is embedded so deeply in my brain that I even find myself trying to 36-week plan my son's 16-week DE semesters. :huh:

 

If this is an annual spring thing then the powers that be are trying to tell you something. :D Abandon it all and unschool, yeah! :party:  :leaving:

ETA: teetotaler here. I'll bring my coffee/ chocolate milk.

[quark]

 I maybe make our reading lists 50% for me.

 

:eek: don't all of us do that? Are you guys saying I'm the only one?

 

[Halcyon]

  I maybe make our reading lists 50% for me.

 

 

Only 50%?? If I don't like a book, it ain't getting read over here. Johnny Tremain, anyone??

[Arcadia]

If this is an annual spring thing then the powers that be are trying to tell you something. :D Abandon it all and unschool, yeah! :party: :leaving:

Bay Area Maker Faire this month :)

[Runningmom80]

I blame wanting the manual on the boards. Seriously, this needing a weekly plan thing is embedded so deeply in my brain that I even find myself trying to 36-week plan my son's 16-week DE semesters. :huh:

 

If this is an annual spring thing then the powers that be are trying to tell you something. :D Abandon it all and unschool, yeah! :party: :leaving:

ETA: teetotaler here. I'll bring my coffee/ chocolate milk.

Yes, all the planning threads that I post in and then read again when they get bumped and realize I've changed 75% of what I posted.

[Dmmetler]

Well, I just got in the last order of books for next year-a few days after DD threw a wrench in my plans by saying she wants to focus on building an organization and educating kids this year. Sigh...so even when I KNOW what I plan to do, it doesn't mean that it doesn't change (and won't change four times between now and fall).

 

 

 

[Jackie]

So far, my plans are kinda sticking. Saying that will jinx myself.

 

Oh, except Spanish, that is constantly shifting.

 

And maybe math. We'll move from RightStart B to C in a couple weeks. But I finally pulled C off the shelf to look at it and nearly 1/3 of it is review we don't need and that DD won't tolerate. At the rate she is currently flying through, and if level D has the same amount of review when it is released this fall, we will outpace the release schedule. I've decided to willfully ignore this issue and keep on as is.

 

But I'll participate in the margaritas :)

[Runningmom80]

So far, my plans are kinda sticking. Saying that will jinx myself.

 

Oh, except Spanish, that is constantly shifting.

 

And maybe math. We'll move from RightStart B to C in a couple weeks. But I finally pulled C off the shelf to look at it and nearly 1/3 of it is review we don't need and that DD won't tolerate. At the rate she is currently flying through, and if level D has the same amount of review when it is released this fall, we will outpace the release schedule. I've decided to willfully ignore this issue and keep on as is.

 

But I'll participate in the margaritas :)

Math is throwing me too! I thought we'd do 5a&b next year, but I think we will get through it this summer.

[Gil]

My all purpose philosophy is to work hard at doing a few things well rather than many things poorly. Figure out 4 and only 4 "area" and do them to a rigorous extent. We do math, "knowledge" via reading and composition, sports and Spanish. We do each to a deep level at an intensive pace and *I* set the agenda in those areas.

Anything else that they want to study or do, they study or do to whatever level that they want.

 

Our list isn't nearly as impressive as most others, but we are aiming high and in this for the long haul--we do a few other things, but our primary focus is those 4 things until high level proficiency is achieved, as one is mastered it'll be swapped with one of our other topics of interest.

[Runningmom80]

My all purpose philosophy is to work hard at doing a few things well rather than many things poorly. Figure out 4 and only 4 "area" and do them to a rigorous extent. We do math, "knowledge" via reading and composition, sports and Spanish. We do each to a deep level at an intensive pace and *I* set the agenda in those areas.

Anything else that they want to study or do, they study or do to whatever level that they want.

 

Our list isn't nearly as impressive as most others, but we are aiming high and in this for the long haul--we do a few other things, but our primary focus is those 4 things until high level proficiency is achieved, as one is mastered it'll be swapped with one of our other topics of interest.

I think this has been my default, which I do believe makes for a solid education. I just start to wonder if we are doing enough, and then my confidence slips, and I'm on here trying to reinvent the wheel.

[quark]

It's normal to feel this way. It's more of the norm than otherwise and believe me I read a lot of forums. It just might have something to do with homeschooling the younger years and being exposed to the myriad curriculum choices and superb online resources etc out there.

 

At some point I just stopped feeling this way. Like Gil, we have focused on at most 3-4 key areas and let other things unschool or left them out altogether. For my kiddo key areas have usually been math and science as givens every year, reading (very rarely assigned) and good audiobooks for a variety of areas like history, natural science, and as extra curriculars one PE and piano. At one point we didn't touch writing for 2 years. We dropped grammar sometime around 3rd or 4th. I briefly tried to revive that in 6th-7th with Hake but that didn't work. There's something distinctly odd in my book about asking a kid who is excitedly learning math at a very deep level to stop and write a grammar worksheet.

 

I would say that all my doubting about what to study stopped once we dropped curriculum as written and started using outside classes (a very carefully chosen few) and whole books or books written to address specific interests for our at home studies. I started noticing so much more depth and maturity in kiddo's writing once I stopped plaguing him with curriculum and started strewing writing books for us to pick up and work on a little at a time after breakfast but without pre-planning everything. He was left with time to learn with his own motivation driving the learning and when he started writing creatively it was honestly so much better in quality than something I think he would have produced for me because he was using a curriculum.

 

I'm getting carried away and will stop. Sometimes, the nagging wondering does lead you down meaningful paths. Good luck.

[SanDiegoMom]

My all purpose philosophy is to work hard at doing a few things well rather than many things poorly. Figure out 4 and only 4 "area" and do them to a rigorous extent. We do math, "knowledge" via reading and composition, sports and Spanish. We do each to a deep level at an intensive pace and *I* set the agenda in those areas.

Anything else that they want to study or do, they study or do to whatever level that they want.

 

Our list isn't nearly as impressive as most others, but we are aiming high and in this for the long haul--we do a few other things, but our primary focus is those 4 things until high level proficiency is achieved, as one is mastered it'll be swapped with one of our other topics of interest.

 

This is very timely and helpful:-) Thank you! We regularly spend over an hour a day on math (my ds's strength), have begun to have deep and interesting discussions in literature (I became a librarian so that I could always spend my days around books!) but science, while interesting, seems to be extremely random (two weeks every day and then nothing for three weeks) and history is merely reading and narrating. As a new homeschooler I have felt like everything should be exciting and interesting EVERY SINGLE DAY, but in reality, if it was, how would they ever want to move on to the next subject? It's amazing what they have learned in the extremely random way we have approached science.

[Runningmom80]

It's normal to feel this way. It's more of the norm than otherwise and believe me I read a lot of forums. It just might have something to do with homeschooling the younger years and being exposed to the myriad curriculum choices and superb online resources etc out there.

 

At some point I just stopped feeling this way. Like Gil, we have focused on at most 3-4 key areas and let other things unschool or left them out altogether. For my kiddo key areas have usually been math and science as givens every year, reading (very rarely assigned) and good audiobooks for a variety of areas like history, natural science, and as extra curriculars one PE and piano. At one point we didn't touch writing for 2 years. We dropped grammar sometime around 3rd or 4th. I briefly tried to revive that in 6th-7th with Hake but that didn't work. There's something distinctly odd in my book about asking a kid who is excitedly learning math at a very deep level to stop and write a grammar worksheet.

 

I would say that all my doubting about what to study stopped once we dropped curriculum as written and started using outside classes (a very carefully chosen few) and whole books or books written to address specific interests for our at home studies. I started noticing so much more depth and maturity in kiddo's writing once I stopped plaguing him with curriculum and started strewing writing books for us to pick up and work on a little at a time after breakfast but without pre-planning everything. He was left with time to learn with his own motivation driving the learning and when he started writing creatively it was honestly so much better in quality than something I think he would have produced for me because he was using a curriculum.

 

I'm getting carried away and will stop. Sometimes, the nagging wondering does lead you down meaningful paths. Good luck.

Thank you! You didn't need to stop, I love your post!

[EndOfOrdinary]

You can do both the few subjects and the projecty-ish stuff too. We are currently looking at this for next year so trials have begun now. It is working well and gives a more balanced approach. The all or nothing, flip flop from subjects for a few weeks then shift to do environmental stuff hardcore, then back to subjects was making us both a bit stressed out!

 

Morning is for the four subjects: math, science, Latin/Japanese, history/literature. Each for one hour.

 

Noon to one thirty break

 

Afternoon is for environmental non profit work. That means three to four hours depending on when Dad gets home.

 

Skateboard, Piano, and reading in the evening.

 

We speak Spanish to one another through out the day and watch programming in Spanish so it sneaks in, but I think we ar going to drop it as formal curriculum next year.

 

Anyway, with the split day I know that subjects are being covered and there is a bit of the structure Ds knows he needs to stay sane. The open ended project time allows him to get the various stuff completed that seems to always be changing.

 

I don't know if this helps or makes the waters even more muddy and messy! We definitely had to pare down his subjects and really look at which ones get done consistently. The consistent ones we kept, the others we shelved for now.

[Runningmom80]

You can do both the few subjects and the projecty-ish stuff too. We are currently looking at this for next year so trials have begun now. It is working well and gives a more balanced approach. The all or nothing, flip flop from subjects for a few weeks then shift to do environmental stuff hardcore, then back to subjects was making us both a bit stressed out!

 

Morning is for the four subjects: math, science, Latin/Japanese, history/literature. Each for one hour.

 

Noon to one thirty break

 

Afternoon is for environmental non profit work. That means three to four hours depending on when Dad gets home.

 

Skateboard, Piano, and reading in the evening.

 

We speak Spanish to one another through out the day and watch programming in Spanish so it sneaks in, but I think we ar going to drop it as formal curriculum next year.

 

Anyway, with the split day I know that subjects are being covered and there is a bit of the structure Ds knows he needs to stay sane. The open ended project time allows him to get the various stuff completed that seems to always be changing.

 

I don't know if this helps or makes the waters even more muddy and messy! We definitely had to pare down his subjects and really look at which ones get done consistently. The consistent ones we kept, the others we shelved for now.

 

That does help!  We do seat work in the AM while my twins are at preschool.  Then the afternoons is free time, because my twins still demand a lot of attention.  I need to brainstorm on how to carve out some time for projects.  He's only 8 so I don't like the school day to last too long.  Maybe if he finds something he's passionate about he will be more willing to extend the "school" day.