thats all great advice Tina, And in the past 13years I have also tried many different ways of scheduling things, I did find having a stricter guidline in the begining helped me feel like I was 'doing it right' which lead to confidence in my teaching them all. I found that setting up a month ahead was a short term of sorts and I had a goal. Of course in my begings of all three we had Alpha Omega because we could reuse the teacher books, and it came with a time schedule in the Teacher books. So we actually followed it closely in the first few years. I really stuck to scheduled times some years but mostly the begining of the year we set up a half year or semester of classes and then followed the plan untill Christmas Play practice got in the way. Then we got back on track in January. It varies as you go through the year let alone thruogh the many years we home school. I think it is good to start with a plan of action then change it as you go to make it suit your family. btw I really love your site Tina!
Yes yes I hear you...I think we all go through similar times in our journey don't you think so? I really enjoy your informative posts, it is so refreshing to hear from other veterans. We all worried about "doing it right" ...LOL trying to stay on track, trying different schedules over the years. STicking to what was sent to us when we started these laid out programs. Getting back on the horse so to speak. Yep, yep everybody changes, it truly is like a journey.. It seems like when I teach these workshops I CONSTANTLY reassure the newbies that it will be okay, try this or that, but they always want "parameters" they feel better starting off with "boundaries" LOL When they start my classes, they "think" they have gotten off the ps treadmill, they are interested in two things: 1. curriculum 2. testing. So that is how I know, they are not "completely off" LOL But that is our cultural and it dictates how "learning" is supposedly to take place.. So glad you like the site, I have several more pages "hiding' that I am working on like a household planner, highschool and other units we have done. <sigh> only if I could just upload to it and not have to teach my kids:lol:
Just a suggestion: When you do this you are "punishing" them with schoolwork! The idea is to help them love learning, not dread it! If you noticed on Tina's post, schooling takes on many forms, it doesn't have to be book work! Over the summer I would do the museums and beach trips, see how many shells you can find, look at the differences between them, library trips (or Barnes & Noble), etc. But PLEASE don't "threaten" bad behaviour with schoolwork, it's going to backfire on you! Hope you have a good rest of the summer! Okay, thread hijack over!!!
