or something like that!
I've spent today getting the nitty-gritty plans started for lessons that are supposed to begin next Monday. Of course that's when I pick up the books and see most of them for the very first time. So, while it would be nice to have a full day of lessons on Monday, I don't see how that will happen.
I'm finding myself in the "danger zone" of homeschooling though. I searched for some notebook pages and an easy plan for handwriting and found how one family is doing their Shakespeare studies. Well, that looks like fun. I can do that. And that led me to some nature study challenges, which led me to a neat geography program, which led me to a partridge in a pear tree.
See the problem with homeschooling, in my opinion, isn't that it's hard to teach your kids math or reading. It's more along the lines of knowing when to stop and call it enough. If you think about it, the world is full of fascinating things, most of which are interesting to study, and as a homeschooler, I get to pick which ones we study.
So while the list of subjects we are planning to study looked like this last week:
math
reading
handwriting
writing
science
history
Latin
grammar
spelling
art
music,
now it looks like this:
math
reading
handwriting
writing
science
history
Latin
grammar
spelling
art
music
Shakespeare
nature and outdoors
American geography
world geography and
Chinese (don't ask).
I need to drop a few subjects or try to fold them in with another. Or, better yet, buy The Latin-Centered Curriculum. I've heard that it streamlines language arts.
That way I could add all of the other fun stuff back in.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Getting Ready
It seems as though everyone is getting ready to go back to school in the next couple of weeks. While the kids aren't actually 'going' anywhere, I am finishing up my plans for teaching them the things they'll need to know so they aren't laughed at when they go to important dinner parties. Yes, I plan my childrens' educations so that they can fit in well at parties.
To that end, I've created a notebook for each of the boys. Harry's is green and Sam's blue so they are easy to find. Plus I'm reasonably sure that by this point they do know their colors. Annika is jealous, so I'll have to make her one too. In pink. Anyway, inside the super-cool, color-coded binders are tabs labeled with their major subject. Except Math. We are skipping Math this year so they can spend more time battling their Pokemon. (Kidding, we're skipping reading.)
Actually Math is self-contained in it's own little workbook and since I only got five of those little tab things, I left it out. The tabs are: History, Geography, Language Arts, Science, and Latin. In the front of the notebook, the boys find this:
Kids Daily
Each day I will write what they need to do--list the subject and the assignment. I'm hoping that they can work somewhat independently and they will see that the day will end at some point. Obviously I'll be right there if/when they need me, but this way they can see what they've already finished and what they still have to do. Interestingly, we have more subjects than will fit into the boxes, but I don't want to overwhelm them first thing in the morning. Life won't end if we have more to do or if we don't get everything finished, but on the whole I'll say that when the list is done, so are we.
Harry is going into third grade, so he'll be way more independent, and probably bouncier, than Sam, who is going into first. I'm anticipating that we'll spend more time in the first few weeks of school getting adjusted to things than doing serious school work. That of course, assumes that I set an actual start date. We'll see.
Oh, there's more coming. An awesome (if I do say so myself) organizer for doing Story of the World. And how I'm organizing language arts. I know, you can't wait.
To that end, I've created a notebook for each of the boys. Harry's is green and Sam's blue so they are easy to find. Plus I'm reasonably sure that by this point they do know their colors. Annika is jealous, so I'll have to make her one too. In pink. Anyway, inside the super-cool, color-coded binders are tabs labeled with their major subject. Except Math. We are skipping Math this year so they can spend more time battling their Pokemon. (Kidding, we're skipping reading.)
Actually Math is self-contained in it's own little workbook and since I only got five of those little tab things, I left it out. The tabs are: History, Geography, Language Arts, Science, and Latin. In the front of the notebook, the boys find this:
Kids Daily
Each day I will write what they need to do--list the subject and the assignment. I'm hoping that they can work somewhat independently and they will see that the day will end at some point. Obviously I'll be right there if/when they need me, but this way they can see what they've already finished and what they still have to do. Interestingly, we have more subjects than will fit into the boxes, but I don't want to overwhelm them first thing in the morning. Life won't end if we have more to do or if we don't get everything finished, but on the whole I'll say that when the list is done, so are we.
Harry is going into third grade, so he'll be way more independent, and probably bouncier, than Sam, who is going into first. I'm anticipating that we'll spend more time in the first few weeks of school getting adjusted to things than doing serious school work. That of course, assumes that I set an actual start date. We'll see.
Oh, there's more coming. An awesome (if I do say so myself) organizer for doing Story of the World. And how I'm organizing language arts. I know, you can't wait.
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