[JustAKrazymom]

I sit here cleaning the office of all my studio stuff.. I have hundreds of pieces of paper and stuff from work..lol..ANYWAY I decided to put all the school items we will be using "next year" on the 2 empty shelves in my pantry closet ( I hoe'd it out).. This way I can really see what I have for all 3 kids and then I want to take a page from a few ladies here and slowly plan out my WHOLE year. I want to not feel so scattered this next school year. I am terrible about planning and sticking to it so I really want to work on that..esp with Declan really needing mommy to not be a scatter brain.. afterall this isn't simply preschool now..it's Kindergarten with 1st grade mixed in.. I need to set a plan and goals and make it happen right? Noah will be a lot easier overall this year as much of what we are using is Alpha Omega Lifepacs or Switched on Schoolhouse..so most of the prep work is done for me. The prep work is always my downfall.. that and putting it into place..lol

I know we did a lot this past school year..and I know it was only our first year so the scattered feeling is normal..but my main goal this next school year is to be way more focused .. this teaching from day one is kind of bigger than life sometimes..lol.. at least when I took Noah out he could read, do math etc...lol

So what do you all do to prep for the next year..or what will you do?

[joandsarah77]

Hard to say for me yet as we are not quite half way through the year. I am not much of a planner because plans always seem to go out the window! LOl you are so much more organized then me though so you might stick with yours.
I would like to start our history lessons next year. I am planning on having art appreciation, science, craft and copy work in that. Starting at creation and going to ancient Egypt. But it depends on Sarah and if she is ready. We will still probably be plodding away at reading and basic maths.

[JustAKrazymom]

I'd really like to have a basic outline and run from there maybe..it's actually forcing myself to do something everday with Declan that will be the hardest..we have to et ourselves in mode..kwim?

[JustAKrazymom]

Ok what exactly is "copy work"..???

[joandsarah77]

Lol I know what you mean. My basic outline for the year is just to have those letters and numbers down well. Sarah probably does have some kind of rote memery problem because this is just taking soo long. I get really tired of going over things kids a year or two younger have already got, I want to move on! So some days I really don't feel like playing one more ABC board game or going over 0-9 on a sheet again! So I tend to put on study dog or something like that.

[JustAKrazymom]

LOL... Oh jo..lol.. I hear ya though.. I mean Declan "has" those concepts but there are other things I just say in my head"oh man come on kid"...lol

[joandsarah77]

Just saw your next post.

Ok what exactly is "copy work"..???[/b]

This is what CM (Charlotte Mason) does for LA. You start with letters, then gradually move on till your child can do sentences then a paragraph. They must use there best writing and copy down everything very carefully. This is why you don't rush into sentences, not till they are ready. Then you use a piece of good literature, the Bible, poetry, classic literature. Copy work teaches spelling, grammar, good penmanship and vocab. Cm does not do anymore on those subject areas till at least 4th grade.

[-Tisha-]

I wish I could lay out a "plan" too. Eathan being young helps, so maybe when he is older and I'm teaching more than one child I will want "lessons" laid out. I really think I'm leaning towards an unschooling approach. I love that, but then I get that What?!? are you crazy and start schooling. I think I'm going to be an eclectic homeschooler and do a bunch of different methods.

I think I get really overwhelmed when I have it all laid out to, b/c I'm like holy cow I'm the one that has to make sure he can read and I'm the one that has to make sure he can do math. Maybe I should just let the year plan itself.

[JustAKrazymom]

Oh we are VERY eclectic.. and I unschool to a degree.. but i am not comfy not teaching reading and writing and math..lol

[-Tisha-]

Oh, I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[joandsarah77]

Now see now she has just done her math sheet really, really well!

[JustAKrazymom]

LOL..man jo.. I have a feeling Taejan will be my biggest challenge to HS by far..

[joandsarah77]

They are all so diffrent, even in the same family. Sarah is playing with her MUS blocks now and is just so happy. Other days she comes to the table with this attitude. I wish I could figure out how to get this sunny little girl every time!

[JustAKrazymom]

Girl if you figure that out you've solved one of life's mysteries..lol. I can't get that from ANY of my kids all the time!

[Retrocutie]

To plan out the year I have printed off basically everything on donnayoung.org! Bwahaha!
I wrote down the subjects we are doing, wrote down my curriculum plan for those subjects, and once I get everything together (I still have to buy some stuff) I am going to roughly divide the work for the year. This part of course will change as we go- depending on how good we are at keeping our schedule. I really really want to follow his lead and do some units throughout the year though. I know the next unit we will do will be on dinosaurs. He's been begging me to learn more about them but I've been draggin my butt since the penguin unit! That really wore me out! I'm trying to throw some things out there to see how he's interested but he's not responding! haha!! I'll probably be putting those things together as his interest arises.

For now I've been planning actual lessons about a week to two weeks in advance. But...right now we are a week behind because of summer things that are coming up! Sooo...

All that to say that I sound WAY more organized than I am. I have a general plan for the year but I will still do lesson plans as they come. I could never plan that far in advance. That would just be too insane for me.

[Butter]

I don't do much in the way of organizing and planning. The Sonlight stuff came with plans and then I added in Latin, art, music, and PE and a couple other things. Math I don't schedule at all and they go at their own paces. Some days that means 1/2 a page, sometimes 2 lessons depending on mood. This weekend I laminated everything that needed to be laminated and inserted things into my notebook for when they'll be needed. I'm actually extremely organized for being very relaxed lol The biggest thing is I don't plan for something to be done a certain day. We go in order, but not necessarily on specific days.

[JustAKrazymom]

Yeah I don't need specific days//Ijust need a plan in general.

[wolfpack]

Okay, I like that Donna Young website!!

I haven't yet started planning for the fall/spring. We will get curriculum in July and Jamie will have his 4th year schedule by then as well. After that I guess I will sit down and make a general plan. October should be interesting to plan though.....lol I hope that we can be a little organized! I am nervous about doing this with a new little one coming in! Eek!

[MissyPrincessEha]

I am just now really looking into what we will be doing. I have an idea...but I need to look into it some more.

Eli is excited that we will not have anymore copy work this coming year. But I want to focus on him just writing down what he wants to write. He hates writing....

I have history as we are still in the start of SOTW.

Unless abeka has a meatier science for 3rd grade....we will be moving on to something better.

I know we are doing abeka LA and math.

Eli enjoys the spelling and poetry through them as well. It is one of his favs...so we will keep that as well I think.

Phonics is also out the window for this year. He is just a super reader and he is tired of doing that as well.

So, I guess Science is my big one. Don't know what to do. *sigh*

I am very excited about this year...we are letting go of review on things we KNOW and moving on to make time for things that he wants to learn. I might try my hand at a few unit studies that I will write. EEEEKKKKK!