I have been asked...
How do I translate monthly and weekly goals into Daily Lessons? I will now enter the "opinion zone"...well, really, this whole post is just that, my opinion. I have personally tried unschooling, boxed curriculum, public virtual school at home, and rigid daily planning of the entire year. What works best for my family is considered, in the homeschooling world, "eclectic". I discover books that I like on Freecycle.org, at thrift stores, at garage sales, or on online stores. I research book lists from homeschoolers, boxed curriculum, and public schools. I then pick and choose what I feel will work best for us. When I follow along the Sequences, I find websites that freely teach the subject we are studying and use books from my public library on the subject. This method is considered the "eclectic" approach among those in the "homeschooling world". This means that I may keep books over several years or change them at any time. Universally though, all "educational" books are set up typically the same with subjects and chapters. Once I establish my yearly goals, I set up my daily "routine" with the subjects we will cover. This allows me to visualize what I need to schedule on a daily basis. For example, our inside schoolwork routine today consisted of: Spelling - Three children used WordlyWise3000 and the youngest covered reading with Mommy Math - Three children used textbooks - Singapore Math, and Progress in Mathematics Textbooks are usually set up with a lesson and practice problems. That is exactly what we do on a daily basis. Singapore, organized broadly with Chapters and Sections, is best completed from the "completion determined upon ability" standpoint. My youngest completed work from a workbook, as the attention span allowed, and then completed adding problems with blocks. English - This year, my third child is the only one with an actual English Language Arts textbook which is already organized into lessons. The older two work from various Grammar Books and Composition Books. Since they completed their Grammar and Composition Books a year ahead last year, I determined that we needed to focus on composition this year with Writing Strands. The National Writing Institute has organized this curriculum into days and lessons. My youngest practiced writing letters and words today on dry erase boards. Science and Social Studies - These two subjects trade receiving two full hour blocks on our schedule every other day. I have discovered that one hour is not long enough because the children get very excited and do not want to stop. I use a variety of homeschooling books, textbooks, library books and websites for these two subjects. Rather than focusing on daily lessons and assignments, I focus on Monthly or Weekly goals. I choose to tackle these subjects with the homeschooling method of "unit studies". Since my monthly goals do not technically start until October, we completed a "unit study" based on sequences for Science today. The older two children read the first chapter in their Core Knowledge Series. I read to the younger two children from the Core Knowledge Series. We then found books in our home library to expound on the topic. After one hour of reading and researching, we joined together as a class for continued research, review, and a class project on the subjects they had read. Electives - Our elective yesterday was ASL from which the class completed Lesson 9 on Lifeprint.com. Today, our Art day, they completed a lesson on DrawSpace.com. These websites are nicely organized into lessons for you. Two approaches work just fine for my "eclectic" school. For me, once I have determined the lessons and filled them out in my planner, if life happens, I always feel behind. Filling out the planner with daily lessons for the year, therefore, did not contribute to morale when "behind" or "ahead". Rather, I look ahead and only complete up to two weeks of daily lessons in my planner. Yes, I have my yearly, monthly and even weekly goals. But, I would rather not write them down in my daily planner and set them in stone until I am fully ready. If I do not write down lessons, we know to move on because the books are already nice and organized for us and I write down the tasks for the day in the planner then. If I choose to throw the planner out the door (in Texas I can) and decide to follow the childrens' interests for the day, I have the ability to get back on the train tomorrow without feeling "behind". Yet, I do have the "crutch" of my plan without feeling "lost". Why do I choose this path for our family? It works best for us. Do not let boxed curriculum fool you, they use this same method of breaking down goals into yearly, monthly, and daily routines based on preselected textbooks and sequences. They do not know some mysterious secret. They just do the work for you. Most teachers have little say in the curriculum forced upon them by the school system. As a home educator, at least in Texas, you have the privilege to choose. That doesn't mean that someone who decides to try this "eclectic" method is any less, or more, organized than the next method. This method, just one means to the same common goal, fits our family. Never though do I want our need for organization to crowd out discovery, imagination, and excitement in education. My children love schedules and planners. They also love tossing it all aside and following their interests. Just remember...balance. There you have it. Just a simple method to fill out your daily planner if you so feel. Comments are closed.
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