Is anyone else just not even close to finished with their "school year"?

[melissel]

We are so far behind. I had great plans for this year (see my sig line--ha!), and I feel awful that we are where we are. In September, work exploded in my face (we were acquired and had a TON of work to finish to fulfill contracts by 12/31). In January I was thrown into the deep end of the training process for my new job, which was much more intense than my colleagues and I anticipated. I'm finally coming out of training and working on my own, but now there are SO MANY MEETINGS. Every week. Pointless, pointless meetings and phone calls and check-ins. (Gah! OK, vent over.)

 

Anyway, here we are, something like 1/4 of the way into our "school year," and I'm still flapping around like a fish out of water. I know it's "just" first grade, but I still wanted to do so much better than I did this year. And now I feel like we're already behind on second grade! I wanted to start Latin, Primary Language Lessons, yada yada yada.

 

Yeesh. Am I alone in this? There's a part of me that's screaming, "If you can't do this well, you shouldn't be doing it at all!" And then there's the other part that's holding desperately to the hope that I'll be able to quit my job at the end of the year like we've discussed, and then I can go wholeheartedly into HSing the way I want to and the way kids deserve. I just don't know. WWYD? Have I destroyed my DD's educational foundation?

 

TIA!

[TXMomof4]

We are behind.

 

We were rocking and rolling til November. We started early so we could take off all of December because we went to Germany. We got home in Jan. and I had herniated a disc in my neck. So January was hit or miss because I was in excruciating pain and completely drugged most of the time. Then I had surgery and the recovery was MUCH harder than I anticipated. So - hello March! We're doubling up on things and really pounding it, but we will definately be going into June instead of finishing up early May. I finally sat down yesterday and 'replanned' the rest of the year. If things would just stay calm for a few weeks, I would feel better, but we're getting into the crazy part of the year with activities and it's making me more than a little "antsy".

 

ETA: Just when I feel like it's hopeless, the kids blow my mind with what they've picked up in spite of me. Today we were working on measuring liters, milliliters and adding and subtracting the two. DD didn't even need my help and whizzed through 3 lessons in about 30 minutes. DD2 did the same thing with counting, adding and subtracting money. They are learning. They are thriving. They will survive even their mother and yours will too!

[Tree House Academy]

Day wise, no...finishing curriculum wise, yes. I just sped things up, did a bit more, and figured out how to finish when we need to. Our problem was that we started with Calvert and switched after 8 weeks. That put us behind on almost everything we are doing! :(

[joannqn]

This is the first year where I've actually done well with getting stuff done with school for my 4th grader. The years before we did practically no history or science and didn't finish the rest. You'll get there; sometimes it just takes a couple of years to find your groove.

 

This year, we're behind in science but I'm speeding through it by taking out the extras so that we'll get done.

[mamaof2andtwins]

I hope that I can encourage you some. In the early years of homeschooling I truly felt that more was left undone than done. I didn't have a job outside my home, but I had toddler twins which were a job unto themselves.

 

I took two years to complete one volume of SOTW. We didn't always finish a math book. I sometimes started the next year in the same book.

 

Just figure out what must get done and what can wait. Focus on what is most important. Even if it all seems important it really isn't.

 

Read aloud and do math. Your kids are learning much more than you think they are. Enjoy your kiddos. Serious study will come in time, and you will be ready for it when it comes.

 

Take care...:)

Jennie

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

I'm not much of a planner, we just do the next thing. I still have lots of history and science to cover. We are approaching the civil war and I just want to linger there (we are in Va) and enjoy it. I don't feel that behind - I've got some wiggle room in my very loose schedule.

 

I can't worry about it, or I'd go nuts.

 

K

[Jumping In Puddles]

We are so far behind. I had great plans for this year (see my sig line--ha!), and I feel awful that we are where we are.

 

TIA!

 

When is your dd going to be 7?

[Obi-Mom Kenobi]

We've got a few things we're going to catch up over Spring Break week, one more week left, but I always plan to slow down a bit through May & June and then stop when July rolls around.

[Sharon H in IL]

No where near done. We ran out of money for the next level of RightStart math books until we could buy them in December, so after finishing up the previous year (!!!) the boys just did online worksheets and games.

 

My older son fights against doing anything slowly and carefully -- he's all about speed. So it's like trying to nail down jello to get him to re-write some incorrect Latin translations much less a report.

 

My younger son tries, but his memorization skills are . . . moderate at best. ;) We spent a month going over the same Latin flashcards (and he loves flashcards)! before I felt confident he had actually learned the words. Fortunately he spells well. :D

 

I am alternately energized and discouraged. But I also know the great value of plodding. Indeed, plodding along is how great things are done. Can't scale Mt. Parnassus in great leaps.

[mom4him]

We are so far behind. I had great plans for this year (see my sig line--ha!), and I feel awful that we are where we are. In September, work exploded in my face (we were acquired and had a TON of work to finish to fulfill contracts by 12/31). In January I was thrown into the deep end of the training process for my new job, which was much more intense than my colleagues and I anticipated. I'm finally coming out of training and working on my own, but now there are SO MANY MEETINGS. Every week. Pointless, pointless meetings and phone calls and check-ins. (Gah! OK, vent over.)

 

Anyway, here we are, something like 1/4 of the way into our "school year," and I'm still flapping around like a fish out of water. I know it's "just" first grade, but I still wanted to do so much better than I did this year. And now I feel like we're already behind on second grade! I wanted to start Latin, Primary Language Lessons, yada yada yada.

 

Yeesh. Am I alone in this? There's a part of me that's screaming, "If you can't do this well, you shouldn't be doing it at all!" And then there's the other part that's holding desperately to the hope that I'll be able to quit my job at the end of the year like we've discussed, and then I can go wholeheartedly into HSing the way I want to and the way kids deserve. I just don't know. WWYD? Have I destroyed my DD's educational foundation?

 

TIA!

Take a deep breath, it is ok. I have a dear hs friend that so many times has encouraged me to just keep going. It is much more important that the child learn the principle than for us moms to be able to say we have finished#%&^. When I started this journey I was so hung up on keeping my two at their grade level that I made school misserable for all of us. I soon leaned that one of the things that helps us is to school pretty much year around. For one thing there are several lessons at the beginning of math and sometimes LA that are review of the previous year. When you don't have that long time off those can either be skipped or quickly gone over because the child hasn't forgotten what he learned last year. If we don't finishe a book I just pick up from where we left off.

I am planning on taking 1 wk off in June and about 3 wks off in July and Aug. I start up normally the second full week of Aug. and it depends on how much preserving of garden and fruits purchased that I have to do as to whether we do school 1 day or 4 days in a week. We just keep plugging through. I involve my kids with the canning and freezing so it isn't totally non educational.

We will be doing some at the start of next year that didn't get finished this year but my kids are learning and flurishing. That is what counts.

[Elaine]

We are not where I wanted to be, but we aren't too far behind. We moved twice in six months and had some major life upheaval. We will go into the summer and take August off completely.

[SherryTX]

I hope that I can encourage you some. In the early years of homeschooling I truly felt that more was left undone than done. I didn't have a job outside my home, but I had toddler twins which were a job unto themselves.

 

I took two years to complete one volume of SOTW. We didn't always finish a math book. I sometimes started the next year in the same book.

 

Just figure out what must get done and what can wait. Focus on what is most important. Even if it all seems important it really isn't.

 

Read aloud and do math. Your kids are learning much more than you think they are. Enjoy your kiddos. Serious study will come in time, and you will be ready for it when it comes.

 

Take care...:)

Jennie

 

This is great advice! Especially the enjoy your kiddos part. There are some things I don't want to get too behind (math and reading) and we focus a lot more on those than other things. Everything else, the great books, even science and history is much easier (I think in the long run) for kids to get caught up on.

 

Why do we focus so much on getting things done by a certain point? I understand to a certain point - however, I think that unless you are prepping your kid to go back to ps you can have lots of room to take some things slow and just go at your own pace. Not just your kids, but yours.

 

I have worried about this too, and as I said, really appreciate Jennie's comments, since she has been hs for a while. Thanks!

[JudoMom]

I am alternately energized and discouraged. But I also know the great value of plodding. Indeed, plodding along is how great things are done. Can't scale Mt. Parnassus in great leaps.

 

This pretty sums up how I feel.

 

We've got in plenty of days, but we've also got a lot of curriculum left. I think we've finally found a groove, and we'll keep plodding along. I would like to take some time off in July, if not the whole month, but it might not work out. We'll see. Slow and steady wins the race.

[sleepy]

Not even close. We'll probably keep going through July, maybe even into August. :svengo: We start our new year in September. :ack2:

[Cricket]

This is the first year where I've actually done well with getting stuff done with school for my 4th grader. The years before we did practically no history or science and didn't finish the rest. You'll get there; sometimes it just takes a couple of years to find your groove.

 

This year, we're behind in science but I'm speeding through it by taking out the extras so that we'll get done.

 

Same here! This is the first year I feel like we are actually getting through the material with my 10 yo ds. He's almost through his math book. We've usually had to finish that up during the summer. We have 12 weeks still scheduled for other subjects but if we needed to we could make that shorter by doing more during the week. I already planned on schooling through the summer anyway but I hope to spend time on different topics the kids are interested in.

[Lostinabook]

We won't finish until the last week of June. Sigh. We'll take one week off & begin again in July. My plan is 6 weeks on, 1 week off, with larger amounts of time off for vacation, Christmas, etc. I would like to get half the school year in before the end of Dec. We always take a bunch of time off in the fall & then end up not being able to take time off in the spring and having to go until late May or June. Hence the plan to be more balanced wrt taking time off.

[3lilreds in NC]

We're nowhere close to being done. We've kept on trucking with math, grammar, and spelling, but history has just taken a back seat. The baby's changing schedule has thrown a loop in all my school plans. We just keep going, though, because I will not let it stop us (like it has before). The kids are learning and doing fine.

 

Remember, first grade is not the end of the world. I'm sure you're doing better than you credit yourself! Sometimes life happens and you just do the best you can.

 

:grouphug:

[Stacie]

I felt like we were far, far behind because of countless illnesses, trips, etc. I figured out when I wanted to end our year and figured out how many lessons were left. When I figured out how many lessons to complete in each subject per week, I realized we really are not far behind afterall. At least it doesn't appear so on paper. :D

 

I shared this new schedule with the kids. I told them if we can't complete it by this date, they start the new year having not finished the old. They may be okay or they may have missed something important. It's theirs to own if they don't work with me to get it done. It's my job to teach them diligently, and it's their job to do it willingly, without complaint, and enjoy every ever-loving minute of it! :glare: Or just hush up and do it, whatever. ;)

 

Like I've seen on this board many times, your children are young and you're running a marathon, not a sprint.

[melissel]

When is your dd going to be 7?

 

Not until September, though she would have made the cutoff for 1st grade here. She's also somewhat advanced, which is why I feel even worse. She's easily ready for 1st grade work, and she has such a nice big cup to fill--I should be filling it!!! :ack2:

 

Our plan has always been to school year-round, since it gives me more flexibility through the year and we don't do too much, travel-wise, over the summer anyway. So I was already expecting to go through August, but even for that plan, I'm behind :001_rolleyes:

 

Thank you for the reassurance, everyone. (Feel free to keep it coming:tongue_smilie: I'm storing all your wise words up in my "get some perspective" file.) I'm trying not to beat myself up over it. I keep telling myself we'll all catch up eventually. I know DH is eyeing the local PS though *sigh* Of course I'm hardest on myself, but there's nothing like a little outside pressure!

[melissel]

It's my job to teach them diligently, and it's their job to do it willingly, without complaint, and enjoy every ever-loving minute of it! :glare: Or just hush up and do it, whatever. ;)

 

:lol: No kidding! DD has reached the push-back stage. I keep telling her that it's this or getting up at 7 a.m. for the bus. That usually gets her rear in gear.

[Stacie]

:lol: No kidding! DD has reached the push-back stage. I keep telling her that it's this or getting up at 7 a.m. for the bus. That usually gets her rear in gear.

 

 

Tell her she can come live with me. The bus passes by my house at 6:40 or 6:45 every morning. At one time it worked as motivation for mine too. Now they just roll their eyes because they know I don't function well enough before 7am to get them properly clothed, fed, and on it!! ;)

[sweetfeet]

We're pretty far behind. Last fall I was in school full time and thought that I could be a super woman I guess because it was purely survival mode until I could complete the quarter. I learned my mistake but we haven't really caught up, nor do I think we will catch up unless we hunker down and plow through until the end of summer without any breaks. Though she's 6 and I really don't mind if she's still in the same math for part of next year. The planner in me wants to start all of second grade at the same time.

 

Glad that I'm not alone. I feel a bit guilty about over estimating my capabilities last fall. This thread has helped absolve some of that guilt.

[chiguirre]

The important question is how well is she reading? IMHO, that's the most important goal in 1st grade. It would be great if she learned to add and subtract through at least 10, 18 would be fabulous. Other than that, the rest is gravy. Don't get me wrong, it's a great age to explore the world, but you don't need to finish SOTW 1 and a formal science curriculum to have a successful 1st grade. You can do quite well using Magic School Bus videos and Liberty's Kids in a pinch. If she's reading well enough to handle levelled readers, there are quite a few with science and history topics so that you can kill two birds with one stone. As long as she's interested in learning new things and you're giving her the tools to learn them, you're doing fine.

[KristineinKS]

I feel like we're pretty behind too, however, my kids were in public school through December so maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself to get through a "full year" when they'd already had roughly half a year of school. Like a previous poster, I had three herniated discs in my neck & found out I needed surgery right *after* I withdrew them from public school, so that put an immediate kink in my homeschooling plans! The recovery has been long & rough & it seems like one thing after another has come up to interfere with school, which frustrates me to no end. My plans for this year were rather ambitious though, so I think I need to re-visit them this weekend & see what we really need to accomplish and what can wait. We do plan on schooling through the summer also.

[swellmomma]

We are way behind too. In most of our work we are at about the 1/2 way point, grammar and history are even further behind. Grammar because I didn't start it until around xmas time, and history because we have hardly done it this year due to scheduling conflicts. However we are still chugging along. We will school through the cummer and eventually we will finish everything. It will mess up some of my plans for next year but not too much. That said I have my portfolio assessment on the 28th of this month and even though we are only about 1/2 way through the assessment will go fine I am sure.

[skaterbabs]

We're pretty far behind as well, but our goal was to actually do 1 1/2 yrs this yr (for my middle schooler.) He's spent two years as a 6th grader, but actually was doing 4th and 5th grade work. :glare:

 

Because we school year-round, and do portfolios instead of testing, all we have to do is show "adequate progress". :tongue_smilie: We don't have to meet anyone's idea of what a ____-grader should be doing, just show that the child has progressed from the beginning of the school year.

 

That said, with a first grader you really just want them reading comfortably, and doing basic addition and subtraction. I like to see a end-of-year first grader also knowing basic money (identifying and knowing the value of the four commonly used coins, and understanding the value of the $1, $5, $10 and $20 bills and how to make basic change) and knowing how to tell time to the quarter-hour, but that's gravy.

[Nestof3]

We are somewhat behind. We have been doing two math and grammar lessons a day to catch up (and we will be caught up). These are my top priority. The boys also each read every day, Nathan does Spelling daily, and we have been somewhat consistent about history. They also get a lot of science, history, and even some math via videos each day. They also listen to audio books. Nathan read a book about the Roanoke Colony the other day on his own. So, I know learning is taking place, just not all of my goals this year.

 

I plan to do some over the summer along with my planning.

[newbie]

We are not going to be done til Sept, than on to next yr. w/no breaks.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

We moved last fall, spent a couple months in the US visiting family, then finally got to Japan in Jan. With unpacking and a few other administrative issues, we really didn't get a start until Feb.

 

But I'm ok with that. I no longer need to measure my days and years by the school calendar or by which book we get done when. I try to keep out days packed when they can be packed and easier when they need to be. If this year ends up going Jan - Sep and then the next one starts right up, then I'm ok with that too.

 

I'm not doing high school, where credit units and completion of specific topics matters. Days that have a two hour economics discussion or a long conversation about piracy (bad, not dress up) are valuable to me. A field trip to see real Japanese cities is something that I sieze with both hands. I will wish I had those chances later.

[tricia]

Not even close. But we homeschool through the summer so no worries. I have to think of something to keep all these kiddos occupied!!:001_smile:

[Cindyg]

Not even close. We're on about lesson 110 out of 165. That makes us about 67% done. This is not due to any failing on our part. We do school 4 days a week, and ds goes to an enrichment program one day a week. So, we just keep slowly plodding on. In September, we'll move on to the next grade, even if we haven't made it to the end of the curriculum.

[klmama]

I wasn't as consistent as I'd like to have been. I'd hoped to be done by the beginning of June, but it's looking like end of June now.

[HFClassicalAcademy]

My ds7 (also first grade) wasn't where I wanted him to be with reading. So I dropped everything except phonics and math. We stopped SOTW at chapter 19, along with everything else. Then in Jan/Feb, I had horrible morning sickness and we fell behind in math.

 

Now we are doing double math lessons, and are finally picking back up with history, spelling, and everything else. I'm thankful and blessed that we attend a wonderful co-op where he has been doing science, geography, Latin, arts & crafts, and having a good time with friends on a weekly basis!!! If it wasn't for that, I would feel that he was completely behind.

 

We plan on schooling through summer with a few breaks here and there and keep going straight into second grade.

 

Liz in NC

[hsmom27]

Well, we just pulled DS out of PS in the middle of his 1st grade year. He'd had ~30 different substitutes and wasn't learning a thing. Not only that but he was starting to lose some of the math/phonics skills he'd gained in kindy. So we restarted 1st in Jan. We'll be working all through the summer, but I'm not going to stress about it. He still needs some time off to play and be a little boy and the learning will just work it's way into his life.:)

[ChemMommy]

We school year-round, so we aren't planning on finishing until the end of July, but so far, we've had MAJOR flooding in Fargo ND and have spent many hours emptying the basement, being evacuated, and making sandbags. We are on week 23 of 36 and won't be finishing TOG Year 1 by the end of July. We are doing better in language arts and Math because we've done half-days of school during some of the flooding. What can I say: LIFE HAPPENS!!

[LaMere Academy]

I think we're in week 14 or 15 in Sonlight.

Yeah...not even halfway through. It's bad. Baaaaaad.

[motherdear]

but as long as things are moving FORWARD and not backwards!

[Impish]

I'm honestly not sure where we are, hows that for bad?:lol: Now, in my defence, I didn't stumble upon SOTW until a few weeks ago, and of course I *had* to buy it and start Diva on it right-this-very-now...so she'll be doing that over the course of the summer too. We're using it for the history, geography, and art as she's already completed her LA for the year. She'll finish her Horizons math by mid May, and we have a butterfly kit coming the end of May. I'm planning for the last 6 wks of the 'school year' to be spent doing just science and SOTW.

 

Then, starting in July, she'll be starting the next level of Horizons math, and doing 3 units a week.

 

So, we're not going to be 'done' at the end of June, not by any stretch of the imagination.

[Kay in Cal]

We are terribly far behind...

 

We began the school year by moving (THAT set us back a month), the holidays hit, we had houseguests--several different sets--for close to 6 weeks, then my brother died, and now we have another move to complete by June.

 

I've given up on having everything neatly "done" before next fall. We'll do what we can, and move on. I'm pretty sure my kids will survive... but I'd love a year of boring stability. :glare:

[dirty ethel rackham]

We are behind - we are always behind. It is life. But, I am working on not being ruled by the curriculum and being more concerned about learning. We made a choice that we will NOT be doing summer school this year to make up. I am so burned out that we just need to have a fun summer. I am working on lots of field trips, plus - ssshh - it's a secret - we are getting a dog in about a month.

 

DD should be finishing up Singapore 3B, but she is working on 2B. I am not worried. She is very smart, but she believes that she is not good at math. So, we are just plugging along at a relaxed pace. She was a struggling reader a year ago and is now an AVID and accomplished reader (can frequently be found with that glazed-eye daze we call "book coma.") So, I am letting her read and read and read (those classic children's novels, Smithsonian, National Geographic, whatever.) So what if she didn't finish her history curriculum. She has heard much of it before sitting with us for the older kids. She has a science club so we keep going there. She is writing a short story with a friend so she is getting spelling and grammar in her own way. So, I guess we are sort of un-schooling her:).

 

DS12 is the only one who will be close to "done" this summer. We decided to drop grammar because we are doing Latin and grammar was getting to be overkill. I know, very "un-classical" of me, but I listened to Drew (Plaid Dad) on this and it made sense. He is doing great in Math and Science. He will not finish his history "curriculum", but I don't care. We are using that for much of his writing right now.

 

DS15 is behind. He will finish Latin on time, but is woefully behind in Chemistry and Math (he had to start over in Math because he was caught cheating.) His history and lit co-op (only 3 families) will finish up the material, but I am not confident he will have as many papers done as I was hoping for. He is in therapy for depression and I just cannot push anymore. We need to have a somewhat peaceful home, rather than tons of conflict.

 

Sometimes I don't feel like I belong on this board, because we are reallly not classical homeschoolers. What appeals to me about TWTM is the emphasis on literature and the science and history rotation. Part of me would love to go back to those unschooling days of their younger years - when we could learn for the delight in learning, and be excited about the process. Our family nearly cracked under the pressure of trying to have a rigorous high school curriculum for my sweet, absent-minded professor, "Peter Pan" 15 year old. It nearly killed both of us in the process, and it definitely seriously injured our love of learning in this house.

Edited April 11, 2009 by dirty ethel rackham

[melissel]

Whew. Thanks again, everyone. I'm sorry so many of you are struggling along with me, but it does help to know that I'm not alone. After I posted yesterday and read many of your responses, I started to feel renewed. We were up bright and early this morning (well, for us :lol:) and did a chapter in SOTW and a math lesson very successfully. Thank goodness she's retaining the math in spite of the gaps between lessons! And though I dread overcoming the complaining and whining when I announce that it's time for math, she's SO proud of herself when we successfully work our way through a lesson, it makes it all worth it.

 

So we'll keep plugging away, and I'll try to give myself a bit more of a break.

 

Thank you!