Homeschool Planning

I wrote this a couple of months ago but never got around to posting it....

We were blessed to have a week without the kiddos.  It was nice to be able to have uninterrupted conversation and get so much stuff around the house done.  One of our conversations was about school and planning.  I love planning.  It makes me happy but it also makes me very unhappy when things don't go as I had planned.  When I read what I had planned out for last year, it's a little frustrating to me because we missed the mark in so many ways.  A friend of mine told me that as long as they get through 1st grade without eating paste, we're really doing well.  I can check that box!  Yay! 

In all seriousness, we had a great discussion about how projects are planned at work and how to apply that to homeschooling.  "Manager" Ken had some great insight to planning our year.  He said that they start out planning which features they need in a product.  That's the macro version, big picture.  Then, they set up the smaller steps to accomplish that.  There's a monthly plan but also quick weekly status meetings so the monthly plan can change as needed when the inevitable problem or difficulty arises.  So, as I think through our school year, I'm trying to plan what we want to accomplish for the year but instead of trying to work out the entire year on a day to day basis, I'm going to plan the details in smaller chunks and try not to be frustrated when I don't get a checkmark for each subject each day.  As a classroom teacher, that didn't happen so I don't know why I expect it to be different in schooling my kids at home.

I love that our CC practicum is at the beginning of the summer.  I've had a little time without doing school work and I'm ready to think about the next school year.  One of the subjects addressed was a Classical Christian Education Made Approachable.  The speaker talked about how CC is meant to be simple.  The Foundations program needs a reading & math curriculum added and that's all.  As a homeschool Momma, I feel like I have to prove to everyone that we're doing "enough".  I think about all the things kids do in a regular classroom and I'm scared there are areas where we lack.  Then I have my kids recite the presidents and I feel better. ;-)  The thing is that a Classical Christian education is a different animal from the way I was educated and the way I was taught to teach.  So, this year I'm going to try to relax some and be confident in the choices we've made.  I'm going to try to add more fun things (thank you Pinterest) so we can all enjoy it more!  This Spring, Andrew Pudewa also came to speak and what he said about reading & writing really clicked.  Good writers are well read was the basic idea.  I wish I could say I've done everything he suggested but it gave us some good direction and confidence about keeping our reading curriculum simple.