seven years ago when I started homeschooling it was easy to teach everything all day everyday. it was just one. year two it still went well because i had two tots in the house. year 3 was easy to because i was at my parents while hubs was in the desert. year 4 and 5 started to get difficult but doable and year 6 i just had one to teach while two were in school and now with three at home and travel every other day (thankfully ends in 10 weeks), this mama just cannot get all subjects done each day and still clean the house and get supper going. i know i don't have to do it all everyday but i want all those boxes checked off each day. i can only imagine what it's going to be like when future children enter the picture thankfully that won't happend for another three-five years.
I'm a bit of a control freak sometimes. I like checkboxes and spreadsheets, too. We don't do all subjects everyday, but I do assign most of them daily. Sometimes, I find, it's easier to have a day for ME to get things done, so I'll schedule a lot of independent stuff on one day... things like reading a chapter to be discussed another day, doing a video lesson, doing an online drill game, etc. I have peace of mind, kids learn something, and things actually get done outside of school work. Besides, the older your kids get, the more they should be able to do alone in preparation for leaving the nest, right? Sometimes, if I haven't had time to write lesson plans yet (meaning... copy from spreadsheet to child's check list), I'll say, "It's Monday. Do what you always do on Mondays. Read the next chapter of ____, do ____ on the computer, and then I'll give you the rest of the assignments when I'm finished with _____."
You are just going to have to let the idea go that every subject needs to be done every day....because it just doesn't. And, why burn yourself, and the kids out? When I first started homeschooling I thought we had to do everything everyday. When I heard that we didn't (don't know if the revelation just came to me, if I read it somewhere, or heard somebody say it...but it was like a brilliant idea :lol: ). Make a list of what curriculum you are using and decide what needs to be done daily...generally math, reading, grammar, and maybe spelling. Pick 2 days for science and pick 2 different days for history. Add art to one day. If you do geography, do it 1 day. It really does help to scale down to say....5 things a day instead of 8. HTH!
how old are your kids? Generally, up till Middle School we do "basics" (Grammar, Math, Spelling, Bible, Handwriting) daily, adding in Art, Science and History a couple times a week. I've also found that "doubling up" is easier to do this way because I don't have the down time of dragging out books, finding the pages, and refocusing my kids. We can get 2 lessons done in probably 1.5 hours rather than the 2 that it would take from day to day.
I used to do every subject everyday and realized that was why my kids and I fought so much. They felt like there was too much and I was always nagging (sometimes yelling) at them to get the stuff done. Now we have switched so we don't do everything every day. Our schedule now is: M-F: Math and LA Tue: Art or Music or Computer theory (we rotate through these so they don't all get done in the same week) Wed: Science and Health Thurs: History and PE Fri: Catch up on any of the subjects we didn't finish It has worked so much better this way! We are a bit flexible though so if I need to switch science and history around because of a field trip or something we do that. We have also bumped subjects to Saturdays as well if they felt overwhelmed.
I know sometimes for me I do struggle a bit with letting go of things that I have 'issues' with. But I have to step back & see that they are their own people & different seasons of life require different things as well. Sometimes I have to also remind myself my 2 boys are different people who need different things sometimes. Currently I'm having to adjust to doing more for my parents now & I'm struggling to balance everything because just as I find my groove something changes. I had adjusted to having to clean my parents house & now I'm having to add in cooking dinner for them 2-3 days a week & they eat very different from us so I'm struggling to get school done keep two houses clean feed 2 families.... Life changes. We have to change with it. It really is okay to focus on 2 subjects a day or only do some subjects 2 or 4 days a week. Especially if itlowers your stress level.
