Posts
I have been testing a new school schedule for this first month (or so) of school and I am ready to reveal my processes and why I have chosen them. First, I have not got it all covered I'm sure, but I am trying to do that. Second, This is what works right now for my family and certainly may not for your family, but I arranged my schedule by reading many sources and you probably will too.
Now for the schedule, oopps, sorry I haven't one! Well, I mean we don't start at a certain time. I have a weekly schedule for what I want to accomplish. I have a spreadsheet that my dad help me make (because I am MS Office illiterate) that has the subject, lessons, appoximate time needed, and how many days it should take. After the week is over I go back and place a D for done in the spots. If we didn't get to something (like history) I will know that I need to catch that up at a later time (unit study for us). The big thing with this set up is that tis is not my record keeping, well it suppliments my record keeping, but it is for my dds (darling daughters). I have one for each girl. She knows what she needs to do for the week and she is allowed to do it in the order she chooses. So if she chooses to do 3 days of math at one time, she is credited for the days in math. Ok a better explaination is ... when she gets all the lessons done, no matter the order she does them in, she gets 5 days of school credit. Since there are some guidelines to what is to be done and for how long, this helps me make sure all is well with school! This also gives the girls freedom to do the yucky stuff (handwriting) first or save the hard stuff for last. I think it is along the workboxes vein but a little more freedom. Here is an example...
Now the main reason for my giving so much freedom, is do to learning/personality styles. My oldest, who actually has the freedom, is a mama hen (literally but that is another post), she likes to be in charge. I am so often trying to cull this in her, so that she may see the rewards of obedience, that I thought I would let her have an area in which she really is in control ... or at least thinks she is. I do guide on a daily basis. My youngest dd is very much in need of my attention so we do school together, usually her in my lap, so that we can be close and snuggle. She doesn't use the "do it when you want" thing quite as much, but she thinks she does. :)
Now as for me, this is what I REALLY use. I have to accomplish 180 days with each child for a school year. So I made (again with my dad's help) my idea of a lesson planner. It is a spread sheet with 1-180 and a listing for each subject. I used this only last year. I would simply write in the days we had school, and what we did. Simple, simple and no pressure to get anything done. Now the draw back was no pressure to get things done... Now this year I keep up with the days on this planner. I will fill in 5 days after they are done with the week, but it also leaves me room to add in those field trip days, and co-ops that are not part of the five days of work. That means if they get their week's worth of work done in 4 days and we have co-op that week, they get 6 days worth of school days credit.
This also works greatly for unit study times. I can fill in what we have learned that day and be able to keep up with the days it takes to go through a certain unit. I had thought of just using the girls planners, but it just wasn't working for me so I went back to ole faithful...
So I hope you have learned a little and maybe thought of some fine tuning you could do... Have fun and happy homeschooling!
