This week we:
- Read about Grandma Moses and looked at some of her work. (Tuesday was her birthday). While this attempt at an artist study didn't seem to grab my boys in and of itself (am I doing something wrong?), it did inspire them to make art of their own. Dale built a bridge with his blocks, sketched it, and then painted his sketch, adding lots of color and a good bit of detail. So, whether he fell in love with Grandma Moses or not, it was time well spent. And we kept the books about her to do some more next week, so stay tuned.
- Went around looking academic:
- Learned about synonyms. And how to pronounce the word 'synonym'.
- Put up a 13 ft model of the solar system.
- Listened to Dvorák. His birthday was Wednesday.
- Read about the sun and stars and constellations.
- Did NOT go outside to do any nifty sun / shadow experiments or observe constellations due to days and days of rain courtesy of a tropical storm / hurricane. Where will that thing be when we're studying weather in a month or so? That's what I want to know.
- Did some baby-wearing:
- Made soap bubble paintings.
- Read many, many books, including the story of William Tell and the first few chapters of book 1 from the Sugar Creek Gang.
- Totally slacked on planned preschool activities. Alan stayed plenty busy doing cool stuff, but I left his column of my planning sheet blank and filled it in as we went. In other words, I didn't plan. I just wrote down what we did and then checked it off. Not sure I want to keep this up long term, but I also know he wasn't enthusiastic enough about some of the sit-down stuff I was giving him to make it worth all my planning and prep time. We'll find our groove, I'm sure. It's just going to take a few weeks.
- Abandoned our detailed schedule I spent weeks planning. Yep. After 3 weeks of living by the clock I had enough of being the grumpy drill-sergeant and only posted a list of what needed to be done.
Two main results from that:
#1 - Mama Buffalo was much more relaxed.
#2 - We didn't finish up our list of things to do until a couple of hours later in the afternoon. I am ok with that because, well, see #1.
I am torn about what to do next week. I like the structure of a schedule, but I don't like the pressure of following it. I think the only reason we got away with tossing the schedule this week was that after following it for 3 weeks and one day (Tuesday) we were able to coast the remaining 3 days. I imagine that if we leave the schedule completely we'll end up in a downward slide into unproductiveness. Of course, the worse that could happen is that we start scheduling again for a while, right?
Do you schedule your days by the clock, or follow a checklist? How do you make sure everything needed gets done, and in a timely fashion?
11 comments:
If a to-do list works better than a schedule for you, I'd stick with it. We've never gone by the clock at our house.
Janet W
I could not go by the clock. We go by list of subjects that need to be done and I allow for flexibility as to what HAS to be done that day and what CAN (if necessary) be bumped p for another day or another week. You seem to have had a good week overall though.
I have my assignments planned for the day by subject, and I have "times for doing them" in the back of my mind ... like having Bible, all Language Arts done by 10:00 a.m., then having Social studies and Science done by lunch, then doing Algebra, typing, Spanish and personal reading done by 3:00 p.m. at the latest. That works for us pretty well. It keeps us on track but then allows us to spend some extra time on something if we needs to. And, if we are running behind we can ditch typing and Spanish and he can get in his personal reading before he goes to bed. So far, so good.
Looks like a busy, fun week.
Unplanned preschool is good too! I agree with the others who say not to worry about the clock!
I have no wise words.. I crave a schedule but struggle when i have one! It is always two sides to the coin with me! BUt we cant really have it two ways can we. I wish I could find the perfect "in between" schedule and freedom.
Let me know if you find it!
I plan out our days but don't put a time schedule on it. We homeschool at different times during the day and keep going until it's done!
Have a wonderful weekend,
Sherry
I love a schedule, but it never works. It's no fun for anyone. This year we are doing workboxes again. Each child has a certain number of workboxes to finish during the day ( one box might have a science book to read, one might have a math workbook, ect.) We aim to finish as early in the day as we can, but like today my 5 yo realized that she hadn't finished your boxes, so we were doing phonics at 8:00 pm! :)
Love the babywearing picture :)
I put our planned activities in my planner...then check things off as they get done. Whatever doesn't get done gets moved to the next day.
We do have a basic schedule for our day, I think I have seen it referred to as a "time box" schedule, you schedule what you want to get done before lunch, but not the exact times when things begin and end.
I love the pencil behind the ear picture!!
We break our day in to "chunks". Chore time, school time, free time,... but it is a rather loose schedule. We have done it both ways- very strict and very loose. This is somewhere in the middle and it works for us.
I feel you on the scheduling! We're working from a checklist this year, and it's been so much more relaxed and pleasant!
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