We've barely done anything all week. I read Jane's account of her kids keeping happily busy and wish this bunch would do that! The 12yo always turns towards play and pulls everybody else in with him. Dd and ds were total, happily busy, unschoolers this summer. It all changed when the two oldest came back for school.
Anyhow, because we've barely done anything and the two oldest are getting severely behind--especially the 15yo, although I think we could scrap a lot of the social studies assignments and go through everything very quickly--we need to do SOMETHING today. Tomorrow is scrapped--Halloween party preparation in the morning and then the party in the afternoon. I know that we are 'restarting' school on Monday with the 10yo coming back--yay!--but I just have to get rid of my guilt. hehe
So, today, they each need to do at least 10 minutes worth for each year they've been in school. So, dd in grade 4 has to do at least 40 minutes. The 12yo, in grade 7, needs to do 70 minutes. The thing with that is that 70 minutes of work will undoubtedly stretch out the full 3 hours of the morning. Ds only needs to do 10, but he's got back into his subtraction workbook and will undoubtedly be spending at least 30 minutes. So, expectations for work, but nothing unmanageable.
As for my work: I need to work tonight on getting presentation plans ready for next week. I wasn't sufficiently ready for this week and while I used some on Monday, I think I would have flopped later in the week. So, I want to get going on this tonight and through the weekend so I'm well prepared for next week.
Must eat breakfast now!
5 comments:
We've gotten really behind as well. It all started with Thanksgiving Monday. It seemed that more and more days gotten eaten up with other things, and then I was sick for (what seemed like) so long.
My biggest problem is my own organization. If I know what I want them to do ahead of time, then it's usually no problem. Yesterday as they were journalling I was looking through our homeschool stuff trying to find a fun activity to do. Not good.
Do you take one day and plan for the whole week? For awhile, I was doing it every evening, but I started to feel burnt out.
BTW, I admire Jane (hi! if you're reading) and her kids, too. I'm just not there...yet. I have the need to know that we're covering everything. And ds would totally just goof off and play. That's what he did the first six months that we started homeschooling.
(sorry this was so long!)
"Do you take one day and plan for the whole week? "
When I'm 'on', I make a weekly plan and adjust as needed as we go through the week.
Daisy...I think the main difference is that I see their play as their work!!!!
Every few weeks I look ahead to events/ dates/ occasions etc and then I hit the web and print off all kinds of things and stick them in their folders.....then during the day they will get their folders out and get ideas of things to do...and that will often lead to other activities.....
I also think that it helps that I have 5 children Debbie...its much easier for them to do things when there are more children...they entertain each other and if one is busy doing something the others want to copy and be busy too.....
I see this week as a flop for us as we have all felt flat and ill and I didn't feel we did anything constructive...but they have done things from their folders and read and made crafts and baked......no 'work' but lots of learning goes on anyway...
I like the folder idea. I love making games, but again I have to be organized for that!
Jane, I'm not sure that's true. The 12yo will play whatever does not involve reading, writing, serious planning, etc. So, that means, Lego, physical games (wrestling, other), rolling a ball around, sitting under a blanket being used as a tent (but not actually doing anything under the blanket other than talking), just chatting and cracking jokes...
My dd and ds's play often involves 'work'. They'll make signs or maps or charts or draw pictures. They'll take notes or involve math in some way. They'll come up with some new idea to do something. The 12yo, however, stays with what makes him comfortable. Reading, writing, calculating make him uncomfortable. And to explore interest areas like science, computer programming, etc., he has to be able to read and know how to spell what he's looking for, or at least initiate so that someone will help him. But he doesn't. So, he will play with a ball on the floor, which will distract ds or dd from whatever they had chosen and were happily engaged in and they go off and do that.
I hope to change that lack of initiative and exploration. I've been reintroduced to the lapbook idea, and a different way of going about it, and I think this is something that could catch his interest and get him more willing to explore his own personal interests. It doesn't have to be a lot of writing and it's all contained within the structure set up for the lapbook. And you keep posting about it so much, I've GOT to try it. :D
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