Further School Organization

My previous rantings on organizing school, schedule, and chores.

Making the decision as to our 'method' of homeschooling this year was a big step towards organizing school time, as were the particular decisions regarding what subjects to cover and each textbook we ordered (wow, did you see that? I still have issues...).

Once the subjects were decided upon, I had to determine the time required and assign them each a time slot in the schedule. This was challenging, because for the first time I have two "official" students, studying at very different levels and abilities. Not just someone I could play flashcards with during a lull in instructing.

I took the advice of the Managers book and set out a couple goals. And since I was using those one things, I figured a 'calendar' wouldn't be a bad idea either. This might seem small to you, but I've thoroughly enjoyed my children's naivete in this area. Christmas break? They don't know it exists. Holidays? Summer vacation? Weekends? No, they do their schoolwork when I tell them to (well, you know what I mean). We could start the next project or book (for math) whenever the previous one was done without it being "an issue" for it's flying in the face of tradition. No one "expects" a break, just because the clock or calendar calls for it. Yet, we still take time off when we like (including Christmas and Thanksgiving).

Do you see the link in my sidebar for Donna Young? I use that sometimes. And let me tell you, there's a lot on there that either wasn't there before, or just not that I saw. I found and printed off a school year calendar, found Memorial Day next year, scratched out some weeks during Thanksgiving, Christmas, Springtime, and counted backwards 36 weeks. Which caused me another episode of hyperventilation, because that put me at August 24, a mere 16 days after my due date (which is nothing, I remind myself. Just a random date that will be meaningless in the end). THAT should be fun, huh?

I marked it on the calendar anyway, and put little "Q"s at 9 week (quarter) intervals. Donna Young also offered me assignment sheets and lesson planning pages and "courses of study" sheets and reading logs and more. And heck; if I can print off a lesson planner, as opposed to, you know, actually leaving my house, you know I'll do it. So I did.

I still need to await the delivery of nearly everything, and I can't start planning out math until I have a better idea of where she'll be by then (I have grand hopes of covering more ground yet), but I'm looking forward to having every day laid out ahead of time.

There is some risk, I see, of my expectations being unreasonably high. That now, because I have "a plan," that things will therefore flow without a hitch. I DO know better than that. I'm trying to remind myself that the plan, the schedule, the organizing is our safety net, to get us back on track when the inevitable happens, and not some guarantee of success.

I might be so bold as to ask you to pray that it helps, though. Especially in August...?