Moving from Macro-planning to Micro-planning. Why do I suck at this?

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

This isn't quite a JAWM, and not quite a vent either... just looking for sympathy and commiseration.  LOL!

 

I love the macro-planning.  LOVE. IT.  

 

But when it comes to getting down to the weekly to-do nitty gritty...  I just put my fingers in my ears and go LALALALALALA!  And watch re-runs of The Big Bang Theory.  You know, like the responsible home educator that I am.  I mean, no one's future is on the line here or anything...  

 

But I've got to get my *stuff* together, as we're entering 4th grade, which I see as the beginning of the real-deal type of schooling.  

 

Feel free to tell me to shape up.  :-D

 

 

[mama25angels]

I so wish I had some advice but, since I don't, I will just commiserate with you.

[ScoutTN]

I so wish I had some advice but, since I don't, I will just commiserate with you.

 

Me too!

[silver]

When it comes time to do that, I tell my husband that I wish I could hire someone who could read my mind so that they could plan that out for me exactly how I want it, without having to do any work on my part.

[regentrude]

I have never micro-planned. I spend a lot of time and effort on macro planning, i.e. selecting resources and materials, making book lists, amassing a lot of great things I want to do in my homeschool.

Then I turn my kids lose with it, make sure we spend enough time on school,and give them fairly free reign which materials of the ones I have selected they want to use how often and for how long.

 

In high school, there were some more constraints - but through 8th grade, the macro planing was all that was needed.

4th grade? Should be fun. They can read and write, so that part of tedious grunt work is done. I'd make sure math gets done every day, and otherwise relax.

My micro plan would be: "Do four hours of any seat work with the materials I have macro-selected; must include 45 minutes of math". Done.

Edited July 11, 2016 by regentrude

[OneStepAtATime]

Well, maybe you are overthinking the micro planning and overwhelming yourself before you even really get started.  How much micro planning are we talking about?

 

Are you worried about individual lesson plans on a daily basis?  Or...?

 

I find when I am locking up that often I have overwhelmed myself needlessly (or have picked materials that really won't work for me or my student but I am stubbornly clinging to them).  

 

What are your goals for this year with the 4th grader?  Do you already know what you will be using?  Does it require a lot of teacher intense work and planning?  Or are you wanting to add in a lot to what you already have and are stressed about doing so?

[Ravin]

I have microplanning down to an absolute minimum. It consists of: "do the next thing" for everything but math.

 

Since the only thing we didn't outsource this year are self-paced STEPS study skills classes and The Creative Writer, that will work very well.

 

For math we're using Math on the Level, which will be planning-intensive, but also plan-as-you-go, so I'm not having to front-load the planning.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

When it comes time to do that, I tell my husband that I wish I could hire someone who could read my mind so that they could plan that out for me exactly how I want it, without having to do any work on my part.

 

 

No joke!  I want to make a copy of myself and then force it to slave away while I'm at the pool with the kids...  

 

 

I have never micro-planned. I spend a lot of time and effort on macro planning, i.e. selecting resources and materials, making book lists, amassing a lot of great things I want to do in my homeschool.

Then I turn my kids lose with it, make sure we spend enough time on school,and give them fairly free reign which materials of the ones I have selected they want to use how often and for how long.

 

In high school, there were some more constraints - but through 8th grade, the macro planing was all that was needed.

4th grade? Should be fun. They can read and write, so that part of tedious grunt work is done. I'd make sure math gets done every day, and otherwise relax.

My micro plan would be: "Do four hours of any seat work with the materials I have macro-selected; must include 45 minutes of math". Done.

 

Tell me more!  Do you give your kids the book lists and just say, "read 'em!" or what exactly?  How does this look?

 

 

 

Well, maybe you are overthinking the micro planning and overwhelming yourself before you even really get started.  How much micro planning are we talking about?

 

Are you worried about individual lesson plans on a daily basis?  Or...?

 

I find when I am locking up that often I have overwhelmed myself needlessly (or have picked materials that really won't work for me or my student but I am stubbornly clinging to them).  

 

What are your goals for this year with the 4th grader?  Do you already know what you will be using?  Does it require a lot of teacher intense work and planning?  Or are you wanting to add in a lot to what you already have and are stressed about doing so?

 

 

To be honest, I don't think what I want to get done is even that detailed.  Basically, here is what I want myself to do, and what I am struggling with actually doing:

 

- I want a list of topics with perhaps a very loose "lesson plan" (I'm good at teaching on my feet, I don't need to write out many bullet points, for example) for science, history, geography, and writing.  Because I am not using a curriculum per se for any of these topics, I find that if I wake up in the morning and don't have a list to work from, it doesn't get done.  If I had a list made, I could then simply do the next thing on my list when we have the time, mental space, inspiration, etc.  I don't need to fix things to particular dates or timeframes.  

 

So, for writing, where I want to implement some of the lessons from The Most Wonderful Writing Lessons Ever, it might look like this:

- Lesson on rich detail using prompt x on page y of MWWLE.  

- Another writing prompt on rich detail

- Lesson on suspense with practice using technique A

- Suspense cont'd, prompt B

- Next suspense method, prompt C

....  And so on.  So as you can see, I'm not asking for much from myself, I'm just being pathetic and whiny.  :-D  

 

Similar list for incorporating The Private Eye into our nature study.  

 

 

The thing is, if I don't have the do-the-next-thing list made, the next thing doesn't get done, even though in my big picture, I really want these things done.  

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Math, French language arts (spelling, conjugation, grammar, dictation), English language arts (spelling), and German (our foreign language) are all on auto-pilot.  But now that I have that streamlined and going well, it's time for me to really focus on CONTENT, which is what I want our focus to be this year.  We are recovering from "baby schooling" and ready to move back into a longer day and hopefully a more interesting one.  

[Carrie12345]

I feel ya.

 

Several subjects are giving me trouble, but Human Geography (for my 8th and 9th graders) and Physics (for my 4th and 8th graders) are killing me.  I started with plenty of resources and lab ideas, and every time I sat down to sort them, I found more.  So now I have material coming out of my ears and absolutely no organization in my brain!

[rutheart]

The thing that helps me the most is to write down in my planner what I will work on the next day. For example, yesterday I wrote that I would work on planning 6th grade skills (study and life skills). When I got up this morning, I knew I had to finish planning that course before I could do anything fun for the day. I want fun, so I spent 3 hours planning the course and now I can do whatever I feel like, guilt-free, for the rest of the day (which may or may not involve binge watching Gilmore Girls with my daughters). Before I go to bed tonight, I'll decide what to work on tomorrow and write that down in my planner. It sounds silly, but keeping the "planning of the planning" separate from the actual work of planning helps me get it done.

Also, I take weekends off from planning during the summer. It's nice to have time to relax and not think about academics.

Ruth

[Runningmom80]

I don't micro plan.  I am not detail oriented enough for that, and since my oldest is a pretty accelerated learner, any time I did micro plan was a lesson in futility. 

 

How much do you plan at once?  Maybe you can plan smaller chunks at a time?  Give yourself a coffee shop date once a month to plan?  (I have to reward myself to do these things, so I just assume others are that way. :))

[regentrude]

Tell me more!  Do you give your kids the book lists and just say, "read 'em!" or what exactly?  How does this look?

 

 

OK, let me think back to the middle grades (I started hsing in 5th/6th grade) and look at my records to refresh my memory.

 

We would talk a lot about what they found interesting. I would give them books to read. Most of our schooling was with real books - literature, non fiction books, not texts to work through. We never did a single worksheet in my home school. So, yes,  I would give them books for their different subjects.

And they loved documentaries. So I'd pick documentaries, but parcel them out, so they did not binge watch an entire day.

I'd insist on daily math and would be close by to be available for help.

My kids also had independent projects. The first day when my DS was home, I had to go to work for a few hours and left the kids on their own. he asked whether it was OK that his sister showed him how to use Powerpoint, to which I said yes - when I came home, he had made  a slide show about the Battle of Thermopylae and gave us an oral presentation.

 

A typical day in 5th grade with DS could have for example:

an hour of math with mom

an hour or more of reading fiction

watch a history documentary or take notes from the history encyclopedia

independent working on a report about the solar system, using library books and websites preselected by me

a few German spelling exercises, or read ina  German children's book

practicing capitals and countries with an online learning program

some creative writing

 

They were mostly free to pick how long they wanted to work on which subject (besides mandatory math), with whatever materials I had picked. When a subject got neglected for a while, I would remind and ask them to work on that specifically.It always averaged out.

 

That's just the seat work. We did a lot of hikes, field trip, watched live performances.

Edited July 11, 2016 by regentrude

[Alte Veste Academy]

I feel ya.

 

Several subjects are giving me trouble, but Human Geography (for my 8th and 9th graders) and Physics (for my 4th and 8th graders) are killing me. I started with plenty of resources and lab ideas, and every time I sat down to sort them, I found more. So now I have material coming out of my ears and absolutely no organization in my brain!

This is my problem right now! With Human Geography and Environmental Science/Ecology. So many interesting resources, not enough time! Plus, I have to allow for what we study to yield at times to the current events of next year. Current Events bunny trails are the best.

 

I had the time of my life macro planning this spring. Micro planning. Blech. My DD11 doesn't need it, so that's easy. Just pick tons of fun resources and they will magically get used. But my boys need their work scheduled out in a more detailed way.

 

And we are moving! So every day now I wake up and vacillate between culling the house of dead weight and planning school. I'm doing a poor job of both right now. :tongue_smilie:

[OneStepAtATime]

No joke!  I want to make a copy of myself and then force it to slave away while I'm at the pool with the kids...  

 

 

 

Tell me more!  Do you give your kids the book lists and just say, "read 'em!" or what exactly?  How does this look?

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest, I don't think what I want to get done is even that detailed.  Basically, here is what I want myself to do, and what I am struggling with actually doing:

 

- I want a list of topics with perhaps a very loose "lesson plan" (I'm good at teaching on my feet, I don't need to write out many bullet points, for example) for science, history, geography, and writing.  Because I am not using a curriculum per se for any of these topics, I find that if I wake up in the morning and don't have a list to work from, it doesn't get done.  If I had a list made, I could then simply do the next thing on my list when we have the time, mental space, inspiration, etc.  I don't need to fix things to particular dates or timeframes.  

 

So, for writing, where I want to implement some of the lessons from The Most Wonderful Writing Lessons Ever, it might look like this:

- Lesson on rich detail using prompt x on page y of MWWLE.  

- Another writing prompt on rich detail

- Lesson on suspense with practice using technique A

- Suspense cont'd, prompt B

- Next suspense method, prompt C

....  And so on.  So as you can see, I'm not asking for much from myself, I'm just being pathetic and whiny.  :-D  

 

Similar list for incorporating The Private Eye into our nature study.  

 

 

The thing is, if I don't have the do-the-next-thing list made, the next thing doesn't get done, even though in my big picture, I really want these things done.  

Pick just one thing.  Just that one thing.  Create a short, quick list of goals you hope to accomplish for that one thing.  Don't over think it.   Commit to getting a plan together for that one subject.  If you can just focus on one thing at a time, it may be easier to get it don.

 

Commit tomorrow to spending 45 minutes on that one thing, just creating a rough idea of what you want and breaking it down into plans for each month, goals that you hope to achieve.  Set a timer.  When the timer goes off, unless you are on a roll, walk away for the day.  The next day grab up what you planned for that ONE THING and commit to planning it out in a bit more detail, maybe make a list for each month.  The next day fill in a bit more detail, including resources, by week.  Review those lists each Saturday to make sure you have what you will need for the following week and have time to get them if you don't.

 

When that ONE THING is done pick one more thing to work on and repeat the process.  Once you get into a routine, it may get easier.

 

And you might do better if you had one subject that was already planned out for you, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel for all four areas.  You can add to it, but at least you wouldn't be trying to come up with what to do for everything.

 

Good luck!  :)

[LEK]

I do not micro plan.
I macro plan each subject individually working out the required number of days per week we have to work on that subject to finish the program at the time we want to finish (usually the end of the year or the end of the semester). Once I have a list of subjects and number of days a week my plan is done. On a weekly basis I just have to roughly stick to the weekly targets and we are done, easy :)

[Rebel Yell]

I do not micro plan.

I macro plan each subject individually working out the required number of days per week we have to work on that subject to finish the program at the time we want to finish (usually the end of the year or the end of the semester). Once I have a list of subjects and number of days a week my plan is done. On a weekly basis I just have to roughly stick to the weekly targets and we are done, easy :)

This.

This is pretty much exactly what I have done for all of my girls. (One grad, and a Senior and Sophomore this coming year)

 

Especially for high school, we did switch over to mostly textbooks or other year-long planned programs. All I had to do was figure out how many lessons per month/week, and they went at their own pace. Working ahead was allowed, falling more than one week behind required a catch-up plan.

 

If it tried to make detailed plans for each day or hour that was a recipe for a dismal failure.

Except for History: both girls used the same book so they did have to be ready for quizzes and projects on a certain day, so they could work ahead, but not behind. And textbook use was decided by time of day: SweetChild had to use the book first on days she had outside classes or rehearsals, so BabyBaby had to wait until she was finished or get up before her. 🙄

[Targhee]

Laughing at myself because I read the title as micro-PLANING (eg sharp slicing/grating kitchen tool) :O)

 

But I too am a macro-planner. Micro is too, well, annoying. We kind of do it weekly when we meet and plan put the week, based on their goals and my macro plans. But it isn't the way I function.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Think how good it'll feel when it's all done, though. Like deep cleaning the bathroom, and afterwards you just want to gloat over your toilet in all its sparkly glory. when I finished my lesson planner last summer, It felt just like that, but a hundred times better. I may have even given it a little snuggle. ;)

Looking forward to that feeling...

 

 

Pick just one thing.  Just that one thing.  Create a short, quick list of goals you hope to accomplish for that one thing.  Don't over think it.   Commit to getting a plan together for that one subject.  If you can just focus on one thing at a time, it may be easier to get it don.

 

Commit tomorrow to spending 45 minutes on that one thing, just creating a rough idea of what you want and breaking it down into plans for each month, goals that you hope to achieve.  Set a timer.  When the timer goes off, unless you are on a roll, walk away for the day.  The next day grab up what you planned for that ONE THING and commit to planning it out in a bit more detail, maybe make a list for each month.  The next day fill in a bit more detail, including resources, by week.  Review those lists each Saturday to make sure you have what you will need for the following week and have time to get them if you don't.

 

When that ONE THING is done pick one more thing to work on and repeat the process.  Once you get into a routine, it may get easier.

 

And you might do better if you had one subject that was already planned out for you, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel for all four areas.  You can add to it, but at least you wouldn't be trying to come up with what to do for everything.

 

Good luck!   :)

 

 

 

Ok, ok.  I'm going to take one subject and plan six weeks.  Baby steps...  

 

Ready, set, go!

 

:party: Planning out my school year

[OneStepAtATime]

Good luck! I have faith in you! 😃

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Wanna see my progress?  Got my S and S done for geography mapping!

 

Geography Map Drawing Sequence

 

 

Blob Mapping Sequence

 

Equator, prime meridian, compass rose, hemispheres

Great circles: tropics, polar circles, tropical/temperate/polar regions

Africa

Europe

Asia

South America

North America

Antarctica and Australia

Oceans

Oceans and seas

Homemade globes project

Homemade globes project

 

Freehand Maps Sequence

 

World

World with Great Circles

Europe

Africa

Middle East

Asia

Eurasia combo

North and Central America

South America

Australia

 

 

Detailed Maps Sequence

 

Switzerland Cantons

US States (freehandmaps.com)

 

[ondreeuh]

I feel ya.

 

Several subjects are giving me trouble, but Human Geography (for my 8th and 9th graders) and Physics (for my 4th and 8th graders) are killing me. I started with plenty of resources and lab ideas, and every time I sat down to sort them, I found more. So now I have material coming out of my ears and absolutely no organization in my brain!

[ondreeuh]

I feel ya. I bought a world geography text, TM, and resource cd with mapping, recipes, quizzes, tests, etc. it was way too much so I ended up buying the Oak Meadow syllabus that happens to coordinate with the textbook.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I feel ya. I bought a world geography text, TM, and resource cd with mapping, recipes, quizzes, tests, etc. it was way too much so I ended up buying the Oak Meadow syllabus that happens to coordinate with the textbook.

 

Ooooh, geography-related recipes!  Great idea!

 

Thank you for just ruining my life.  

[kbutton]

Pick just one thing.  Just that one thing.  Create a short, quick list of goals you hope to accomplish for that one thing.  Don't over think it.   Commit to getting a plan together for that one subject.  If you can just focus on one thing at a time, it may be easier to get it don.

 

Commit tomorrow to spending 45 minutes on that one thing, just creating a rough idea of what you want and breaking it down into plans for each month, goals that you hope to achieve.  Set a timer.  When the timer goes off, unless you are on a roll, walk away for the day.  The next day grab up what you planned for that ONE THING and commit to planning it out in a bit more detail, maybe make a list for each month.  The next day fill in a bit more detail, including resources, by week.  Review those lists each Saturday to make sure you have what you will need for the following week and have time to get them if you don't.

 

When that ONE THING is done pick one more thing to work on and repeat the process.  Once you get into a routine, it may get easier.

 

And you might do better if you had one subject that was already planned out for you, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel for all four areas.  You can add to it, but at least you wouldn't be trying to come up with what to do for everything.

 

Good luck!   :)

 

I don't do a lot of micro-planning, but my kids need a bit of guidance if I use a more free-form resource for anything. I think OneStep's suggestions here are very good. I am doing something kind of like it for the few things I must plan, but my aren't so much by time. It's more like by chapter of x resource, and then figure out about how many lessonsI want to take for each part and what I want to emphasize from the material. I might chunk lessons bigger if I do use the resource infrequently and smaller if I use it frequently.

 

Then I just cross my fingers.

 

It looks pretty in OneNote. I also bribe myself with outings or whatnot when I do it, or I set aside certain time for just that planning (during piano lessons is one time).

[HS Mom in NC]

When I'm micro planning I do a lot of counting and dividing because I plan by the week.  So out comes SOTW at that grade level and I count the readings (not chapters) and divide by 36. I select and buy the literature and put a sticker on the spine with the number of the week(s) it's assigned.  Lit. is tied to history. We're using Greenleaf Guides for the Famous Men of ____________ series for middle school history so I divide up which ones I want to be through by the end of the year and schedule those in and do the sticker thing with the lit.  It works out to 3 per week for some guides and 4 per week for the other guides, (I skip the sections in mythology because we cover that with assigned lit.) so my now middle schooler (6th grader) will be allowed to pick out which 2 of the 3-4 writing assignments per week she'd like to do.  She has to do all the assigned reading, but the maps and 2 of the written assignments are not optional.

 

Our science, The Story of Science by Hakim with the lesson plans and workbooks, is divided up the same way; count up lessons, divide by 36, adjust for the leftovers.  Same with logic;count the lessons divide by 36 adjust for the leftovers. LA is easy because Learning English Through Literature books each have 108 lessons all planned out at it's an even 3 per week except for the week after Thanksgiving where we'll do for because we're only doing 2 the week of Thanksgiving.

 

We follow the ps school year's nearly year round schedule to maximize play time with ps friends, so I make a note of those shorter weeks and adjust as needed.  There are only a couple of them, so it's not a big deal.

I also add in a floating week.  At some point we'll probably end up needing a week off that can't realistically be scheduled beforehand, so I keep the weeks numbered, not listed by date, and take that week of when I feel like it.

Youngest, whose birthday is 1 week before the school year starts, wants to finish early and attend cc like her sisters did at 15 and 17, so we're doing a history rotation on a compressed schedule which fit our science series of 3 texts fairly well:
 

Middle School

 

Ancients for 3 quarters (27 weeks) + Middle Ages for 1 quarter (9 weeks) = 36 week school year (6th grade, 11 years old.)

Middle Ages for 2 quarters  (18 weeks) + Early Modern for 2 quarters (18 weeks) =36 weeks school year (7th grade, 12 years old.)
Early Modern for 1 quarter (9 weeks) + Late Modern for 3 quarters  (27 weeks) =36 weeks school year (8th grade, 13 years old.)

 

High School

 

Ancients for 3 quarters (27 weeks) + Middle Ages for 1 quarter (9 weeks) = 36 week school year (9th grade, 14 years old.)

Middle Ages for 2 quarters  (18 weeks) + Early Modern for 2 quarters (18 weeks) =36 week school year (10th grade, 15 years old.)
Early Modern for 1 quarter (9 weeks) + Late Modern for 3 quarters  (27 weeks) =36 week school year (11th grade, 16 years old.)

Plan A:  Community College

 

(17-19 years old assuming her academics, particularly math and writing, are ready. )

 

Plan B:  High School continued
(17 years old, focus on math and writing.)
              Community College
(18 years old.)

 

[theelfqueen]

I am doing some serious micro-planning and I have to keep reining myself back and adding breathing days to the schedule and adding "project" days so I have some space for not making myself crazy. If my plan is too specific I freak whenever we fall behind (unexpected appointment or visit from out of town family or illness)... so I need to work in buffer for that stuff.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

OP here again.   :lurk5:   I've really been enjoying reading how different people plan and how different people define "micro planning"!  Hahaha!  I'm definitely in the minimalist category compared to some.  

 

I'm basically attempting to make lists of things I want to cover, more-or-less in the order I want them covered, but I have no real timeframe for anything to get done.  I just want to put them on a loop schedule and cross them off as we go along.  I'm feeling good now with geography, and I've got enough writing ideas for at least the first two months.  Now I need to figure out my plan for science and history and I'll be done!  So some progress is being made!!!

[Soror]

I prefer not to micro-plan but it seems my kids thrive w/ the specifics. I macroplanned back in the early spring but didn't micro-plan until right before we started but I'm glad I did b/c it has been smooth sailing so far. Perhaps next year they'll be able to handle more independence and work well w/ less specific plans but that is hard for those w/ EF deficits like my son. My daughter is not EF deficient at all, she just likes to know exactly what she is doing and hasn't been ready (yet) to make that determination on her own without stressing out, maybe by 5th she'll be there but I don't know.

Edited July 14, 2016 by soror

[Guest]

I'm lucky to just know what curriculum we will use. Planning? Bwahahaha...

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I'm still making incremental progress... slow, not so steady, but at least no longer stalled!  

 

I need to get to the root of WHY I'm being so lame about this.  I'm truly not asking for much from myself, so... what's my deal?  

 

I know I'm a little intimidated because I feel like 4th grade is REAL school and I need to not screw it up.  It will also be an exam year for us (both kids will be up for the mandatory in-classroom local standardized exams).  Is that what I'm worried about?