How do you all prepare for your day?? I mean, How do you get your lessons ready?? What is the best way?? I was just going to play it by ear for a few weeks and then fine tune. Today we did a practice run and it went smoothly but I felt disorganized. I need some advice. Angela
This year I am trying to plan a week at a time. I don't think I can plan any more than that yet. Maybe after a few more days and I see if we are getting everything done. I don't write anything in pen. I told myself we were going to pencil in our work and change it as needed to meet our needs. We don't want school to take over our lives. I told one of mine today that if she really didn't like her history and it was overwhelming after only two days that maybe we needed to take another look and re-vamp how we do history. She looked so relived. I love knowing I have the power to lighten her load when she feels like it is too much and I can add on when she feels like she can handle it. We have done so much work in two days and I am so proud. We are working so much better than last year. I think they are used to it now and you guys who told me to take the first year to de-school and let the girls adjust were SOOOO right! Thanks again for all the help last year. I felt ill prepared last year sometimes but this year we are on a pretty good but flexible schedule and loving it. Beth
Last week I was up late every night making lesson plans and trust me I'm not a late night person. I started to hs a 2nd child too, so as usual in the beginning I always over do things. This week I planned the lessons out Sunday evening for both girls for the WHOLE week. Gee, life is easier now and I am much rested. Kellie
I also plan out the whole week on Sunday. But it's subject to change, of course. At least I know I have a guide.
Right now I am planning a week at a time and trying to have it done on Thursday nights. I am only planning for one 3 year old, so it doesn't take too much prep, but I am trying to get into the habit. When I was in the classroom I started by planning things as I went (Does that count as planning??), but by my last few years I got to where I would do a week or two at a time and when I left Friday I would have all of the next week run-off and in folders. It was such a help to have things ready. Of course, I would change my mind and end up not using some stuff, but it was nice to be covered just in case.
Do you all read over their lessons before you plan them out. Like say math and LA. We are using math u see and lifepacs. Today was an "unofficial" first day for us. I didn't do anything to get ready. Just got the books out and said go at it. I wanted to see what they knew and what they had problems with. My 9 year old ended up starting in the #3 book in the LA lifepacs. He was doing great until we got to the dictionary/alphabetical order section. I think he got it though. We stopped after I explained how to do it and helped him a bit. My 7 year old wizzed through all of her stuff with only needing reading help from me.11 year old, UGH!! He's a toughie. He HATES school work and we had to FIGHT to get him to do his school work last year. The teacher didn't send homework home. Unless they didn't finish their work in class and there were days that he had 4 pages/subjects of homework to do. We were fighting with him until almost bedtime. I don't know how to deal with him. My other 2 I thought I would give them pages or give them a time limit on things. Him, He's definatly getting pages assigned.If I did time limits he would just sit there and do nothing. His excuse is, IT takes too long. But he has a problem reading so that is most likely the problem. How do I work with that and not make him feel like I'm singling him out and belittling him. I want to build up his confidence and make learning fun for him again.Sorry this was so long winded. Thanks for the advice Angela
I spend anywhere from 3 to 5 hours on weekends writing lesson plans, reading through material, making sure we have everything we need. I'm up every morning long before dd and I read through the days lesson plans, set up what I need to, ect.
I plan a week ahead, have everything ready all the books and things I need by Sunday for that week.. then I am up every morning by 5 and read over everything and everything set up and ready to go when dd's wake up and get moving..
I do weekly planning. It worked last year and it is less overwhelming than trying to plan too much at once.
I can't plan too much at once. I had tried lesson plans for the WHOLE year back when dd was in 5th grade. I also had a 5 yo, 3 yo, and new baby. OMG that fell apart within a few days...what a complete waste of time!! Last year I just went by the seat of my pants. It was too disorganized for me. I would sit each morning and plan what we were going to do that day. It took too much of my morning (about an hour or so). so now what I do is spend Friday evening writing out my lesson plan for the next week. I type it up by subject (Bible, Language Arts, Math, Science, History, Independent Reading, and Jack's Stuff!) and by DAY NUMBER not week day. I go through each boy's workbook(s), write out the books we're reading, what they're reading, their science book, etc. It takes about 2-3 hours to go through and type it all out in table format. I can just zip right along. Now I can just look at the weekly log and we're ready to go! Makes everything go MUCH easier!!
LOL Wow ladies you all are in a league way about me. Plan a whole week or more? My 2yo twins plan my days for me still! :lol:
Ok. Thanks. I'm waiting until we are settled a little more and I know where they are in their subjects and then we'll get the lesson plans going. We weren't going to start until Tuesday but the kids are BEGGING to do it. Especially after todays test run. We'll use this week as a testing/transition week and then sometime this weekend I'll get things mapped out better. Thanks guys. Ya'll are awesome. I'm so glad I stumbled onto this group. Angela
I hs our 8 year old last year and pulled the 11 year out of school this year to hs. With the kids (the younger really struggles to read) I have sticker charts for different things and they have to accumulate so many to get prizes from the box. I keep cool pens/pencils, candy, gum, lipgloss and the bigger prizes are those fuzzy poster boards, hot wheels. Everything I get is at the dollar store, $1.00 and under. I do this because it gives the younger one goals to work towards, if I didn't school would be a fight except math (whiz). I also can take stickers away for multiple warnings and not doing work. Last year I used the play money instead of stickers, she would earn 5-10 cents per page of work done correctly and even if she got some wrong, if she really tried hard she would earn something. It taught her to count money and then I would deduct for behavior issues. As far as the reading goes, both children, if they are reading really good, then I give them a break and read for a bit. The younger has realized this and pushes herself to read farther. This is the child last year at the beginning of school was on a 1st gr reading level (easy easy books;I would get her preschool books so she could feel like she could read) now she is in 3rd grade and I'm not saying she doesn't struggle because she does but she has made a huge improvements. To be honest the first week of homeschooling last year we had a honeymoon period then that next week she refused to work. So I sent her to her room and told her not to come out until she was ready to learn. That backfired because she stayed in there for the longest time, I had to call her out. I'm sorry if I'm overwhelming you* I hope this helps some and the other mothers here are wonderful with advice. I'm still kinda new to hs. As other mothers mention they rise early to get ready to hs, I find this useful for things to run smoothly. Plus I have the mommy time with my coffee.
Oh I need the mommy time with the coffeepot!!! I didn't get it this morning, with the boys waking up at 630!! AWK!!
I have a 3yo and a 19month old. I know what you mean. I plan out 4 days a week. That way I allow for interruptions and Friday is "catch up" day. Not that we have to catch up, but you know what I mean. If I don't have a plan my days are lousy. When I at least know what order I'm going to do things, then the priorities get done first and the other things can wait until Friday.
I do a week at a time I have master schedules in Word that get updated on Sunday nights. It's not very time consuming but it makes our week run more smoothly. Our schedules do not have time slots, just days of the week and subjects. My kids are not as in sync with topics being studies this year, so our days are really hopping. The schedule is a good tool for the kid to look at if I'm tied up with one of their siblings. Michelle
I also don't do time frames just a list of things to be done. That way they can work at own pace. If they do get overwhelmed, we do half and save the other half for night when the 2yr is in bed and things calm down.
This is what I started doing after the first week, too. I realized I needed to plan some down time and make sure I had time to clean, etc. I normally do that on Fridays, so anything we don't get finished I put in the Friday folder and we do that or he draws or colors or something like that.
Last year, I planned a week in advance. It was good, but I always felt a little off kilter. This year - I'm going to plan a month in advance, that way I'm sure not to be caught off guard without materials and such. My daughter's a little more cut and dry because I have a full curriculum for her, it's just being prepared for experiments and the like. I'm using this year as a trial run b/c it's my last year before reporting. I'm going to record keep like I AM reporting, so that when I do it next year I'm a pro. Even paying to have her evaluated! She's also taking Standardized tests this year. I'm nervous about that one and trying to figure out fitting in "test" practice in for her. My son, however, I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants. I have the "What my 1st Grader Needs to Know" book and got an activity book based on that book at the Becker Teacher store the other day - looks really neat and very hands on, very little "seat" work which will be good for him. I think I have it worked out that he'll do "official" schooling 3 days a week and on the off days will be extra subjects like bible and stuff. Anyway...we're not starting until the 17th (we're on vacation the 2nd week in sept. I don't want to start, then break, then start again...just doesn't seem right).
