I need to sit down and do my scheduling for this next week but I can't seem to get into gear and get it done. I usually grade the previous papers on Friday evening and schedule the next week accordingly. I KNOW if I don't get this done our days are going to be chaos but I still can't make myself.. My mind is on a million other things. I shouldn't even be on this computer right now.. Anyone else have these issues or am I the weirdo of the group? Someone push me out of this desk chair and MAKE me do my work! :roll:
I just finished for next week, but I've had those times. Busy weekends make it very difficult (weekend long swim meets). I'm trying to stay a little ahead, so that I have an IDEA of what's coming for the next 3 weeks. That way, I don't feel quite as overwhelmed.
I've felt the same way. I really don't have a solution just that the feeling eventually passes. When we were going through alot financially with losing my husband's job, losing the cars and house, having to move away, etc, I totally was unmotivated for about 8 months. What I tried to do was keep school very simple. Keep up with the necessities-math and reading, and allow other activities (such as independent reading of history or science type books, DVD's, educational games, visiting with friends, hiking at the local nature trail) to take over. It got us through until I was emotionally "there" enough to get through specific curriculum. I don't know if that helps you any....
I've had those times as well. What has worked for me is to JUST try to get the next day's work together, and take it one day at a time for a few days.
mommix3, I have a feeling that you don't check your pm ofetn. I sent you a pm over a week ago I would like you to please read it thanks
I am so right there with you. I just finished up mine after your post guilted me into it. :roll: :lol: I do my assignment books/planning on Sunday evening because procrastinating is what I do best. I used to do a day or so at a time, but we just cannot function that way anymore. My kids are 12 and 15....and I aged right along with them. I can't keep all my thoughts together to do anyone any good. However, I only plan a week at a time so I am not having to go back and redo weeks worth of plans to accommodate extra practice one day prior to a math test.
Well, I got most of it done. At least I know what my girls are going to do for the next few days. My son with the broken hand is a whole other ball game.. I guess tomorrow we will improvise then hopefully, I get my act together. I'm stressed beyond belief and just want to go to bed.. My poor family ate ham sandwiches for supper tonight. This is how unmotivated I am..
Egads! Not...duh, duh, DUHHHHHHH....HAM SANDWICHES???!!! (shrieking commences in the background) :lol: I'm sure a good night's sleep will help immensely. It always feels so good to know you have the task of planning taken care of for a bit. I'll expect you to report on the 7 course meal you are planning for tomorrow night, just like the rest of us.
LOL! Hubby likes me to COOK for supper.. No cooking sandwiches. He even had to go to the store to buy the stuff for the sandwiches. :roll:
I don't do planning. We just have a routine. One page of reading, two of grammar, one set of exercises in math, etc. For looser stuff like history I just look through it the night before to see what I think we should do in a day and journal about it after. Most of what we do can be covered in this way with no planning.
I do not make out a weekly schedule either. We also have a basic routine. However, I do log everthing we cover on a daily basis. While CA isn't specific as to whether or not we are to keep daily recordings, other than attendance, it is suggested that we do keep a daily log.
I get so behind sometimes, then other times I have the urge to plan for the whole year. So I go in spurts. Usually I am planning the best when i should be doing something else, but when I am suppose to be planning I can't get motivated to do it.
This is our first year with a schedule. It's been "fly by the seat of your pants" until now. And it just was too chaotic for me and seemed to take up way too much of the school day. The stress of having the kids aske me what they should be doing next and so on and me not knowing exactly what it was that they were going to do was NOT a good fit for us. Hopefully this "scheduling" approach will work out better. So far it has eliminated a lot of the chaos. I feel like I'm on top of what they are doing in school as well. I'll sit down in a while and get ds13 schedule done.
I started out as a scheduler, then backed off. Last year felt really chaotic for me, so I went back to scheduling this year. It's been good. It holds me accountable, and the kids like seeing what they have accomplished or what is left to do. I'm still flexibale though. The schedule just helps me stay on track.
This will keep me accountable too. My kids have their own planners that they write their weeks work in to keep track of it as well. I'm still flexible, I just know that when we need to take a day off I can figure out where I was and move on easier from there instead of fumbling through books and trying to figure out what we did when. It's so much more organized this way. Last year I looked over their papers EVERY SINGLE DAY.. It was TORTURE and I was mentally drained. This year I give them a weeks worth of work and look over it on Friday and schedule the next week according to how well they mastered what they tackled the previous week. Last week we had several doctors appointments. It was nice for the girls to be able to grab the books they needed and know exactly what they were going to do for the day. They took them up to their dad's shop and worked in the break room while I took my son to the doctor. Hopefully he gets his cast off next week and I can start making the regular schedules for him again..
Might not be great for everyone but I bought some of those thin, 32 page exercise books (we always called them 'scribblers'). One the first page I wrote out their routine for the week. Catherine's would be something like this: Day A - Latin, punctuation, grammar, writing, French, math, violin, history. Day B - Latin, punctuation, grammar, writing, French, math, violin, science. Day C - Art, poetry, music appreciation. The week would go A,B,A,B,A, off, C. She can reference it whenever she needs to know what to do next. On the next page I do a table at the top for grade-able subjects. Dates in columns and subjects in rows. She keeps track of her grades for each day and converts them to percentages (sneaky extra math on my part) and records them there. Under that is the 'Homework, Projects and Extra Work' section and I divide the page into 6 sections for the days we do work. There I can record which exercises she needs to do for math, writing assignments, history work, etc. She can also write in extra stuff she'd like to do or things she needs to finish up. She IS a responsible 13 though. For Harry I do the exact same thing and just use it as my journal for him until he's older. I've spent years looking for the perfect planner and wasting printer toner and paper on systems that never worked. This is perfect. For me at least.
Dawn, I like your system. And I''m so glad to hear that I'm not the only parent that doesn't do detailed plans. Sometimes everyone else seems so organized that I have to chant, "Whatever works best for my family, whatever works best for my family."
Whenever I do detailed plans they fall apart within a few weeks. I know some people can be more flexible about them but I just can't.
