For a while, I made detailed lesson plans for each week (customized for each kid), printed them out, gave them to each kid, and tried to be sure we got every single thing on them done. The idea was good and it did help. When I actually did it. The reality for me was this: I suck at doing this. If my printer runs out of ink, we don't have school for three weeks because I can't print the lesson plans. (Ok, so maybe this is a bit of an exaggeration...or maybe not.) It seemed like we were using a lot of paper to print out a schedule that we were never quite able to live up to and I hated that. So I quit.
I've tried following the teacher's guides in Sonlight's core curriculum. Didn't work. I felt like I had to do everything they suggested, even the stuff I felt like was a waste of time. If we missed a day, I was totally thrown off. So I quit.
Over the past five years, my go-to lesson plan strategy has all too often been to simply wing it. I'd just do whatever we felt like that day and call it good. In my head I had a rough idea but I didn't let the kids in on it. Because we didn't follow a schedule or even a routine, they had no idea how long school would last. We might be done at noon and spend the rest of the day at the park or we might be working from breakfast to bedtime. Although I love the flexibility or being able to set aside what we're doing for the sake of more important things, like building relationships or serving others, not knowing what was expected made things rough on my kids.
Over Christmas break I decided I need a new approach. I love check-lists. The satisfaction that comes when I look down at a row of checked off tasks is one of life's simple pleasures. My problem was that I didn't have the time or energy to create new check-lists for each kid each day. (Especially so now that I have three kids in school!) So...I figured out a way to let the kids know what is expected without going crazy.
We started out by having a min-confernce with each kid. We talked about what they thought each day should look like. I had some requirements in mind but let the kids take the lead. They all agreed that they needed to do one math lesson or test each day. One kid wants to read one chapter in the Bible and another wants to read it for 30 minutes a day. Some have slightly longer activities than others and my youngest doesn't have nearly as much to do as the big kids. We included typing, Kindle apps, and computer time as well as regular pencil-paper activities in math, reading, Bible, writing, science and social sciences.
After the conferences I made up lists for each child. I used clip art to add stars under each task. If they are expected to do it every day, there are five stars. If it's a once a week activity, one star. Three times a week, three stars and so on. Because I loathe the idea of making new charts each week, I got out my handy-dandy laminator and slicked them up! Now the kids just use dry erase markers to check off what they have finished and everyone knows what is expected of them for the day.
The kids are in charge of what they do and when. They know that they have to be finished with school before they can do anything else, like go to Scouts, visit friends, or watch TV. I let them know in the morning if we have plans and they need to work accordingly. For my daughter, this means she starts school before the rest of us are up. This gives her more free time later in the day. My oldest loves sleeping in. He may need to tweak his sleeping habits if he's going to get done with school before all of his activities. But for me, that's a learning lesson as well. Time management, baby.
To be fair, we're only on day four of this. But for the past four days, we've had success. The older kids take about four hours to get done and the younger one is busy for about half of that time. Ask me next week and we may have scrapped the whole thing. Or maybe we'll still be using a slightly different version of this when they're in high school. That's the beauty of homeschooling. We can do what works and kick the rest to the curb.
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What works for your schedule? Do you let your kids lead the school day or are you a more in-charge kind of teacher?
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