Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Here We Go Again: Homeschool Planning

Can you anticipate and dread something at the same time?  I can. :)  I definitely have a love-hate relationship with homeschool planning.  I do actually enjoy the process.  It’s exciting and enlightening to plan out what your child will be learning, it’s fun to shop for books and supplies, it’s satisfying to see a finished detailed plan.  And then…it’s terrifying thinking you aren’t covering enough, it’s overwhelming seeing all the different curricula out there, it’s frustrating when you can’t find just what you are looking for, and it’s exhausting, mentally and physically, to pull it all together.

So, here we go again.  Planning yet another homeschool year.  Year 11 for us.  It’s going to be a bittersweet year.  I will be schooling only 2 this time around, ds3 for 3rd grade and ds4 for Kindergarten.  Ds2 will be moving on to public high school.  I will miss that boy more than he knows.  Probably more than I know right now.  He is the first of my boys that I have homeschooled from the beginning.  He is my talker, my helper, my willing to give most anything a try guy!  Well, at least I get the privilege of getting up earlier, hauling 3 children out of bed and driving him to school every morning.  Yeah.  Hmmm.

I’ll let you in on a secret.  I am burned out.  Yep, just plain old used up.  I have no motivation or desire to plan out a year of subjects for 2 children.  I want to let someone else do it this year.  I want to click on a box, pay an outrageous amount of money and have everything shipped to my door.  I want to open the box, hand out the stuff and be told exactly what to do and when to do it.  I want to supervise school with my children and then walk away from it.  No monthly/weekly/daily lesson planning.  No spending hours on the computer tracking down books and planning out themes and unit studies.  No grading or tracking of lessons completed, books read, resources used.  No waking up and realizing I don’t have everything I need for our school day and basically winging it or just giving up.  Do you think this will happen for me?  Stay tuned.  I sure am. :)

3 comments:

  1. Wow! 11 years is awesome! By the time I'll have been at this 11 years my first two (if they are still together) will be in nineth grade and my youngest will be in sixth! I can't imagine being 11 years into it, and only halfway through! I will be praying for you.

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  2. 11 years ~ that's awesome! Have you checked out the Robinsons Curriculum? We just purchased it and will be trying it out over the summer. Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

    http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/

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  3. I understand. It was hard when B. when back to school this year. I didn't have the motivation to plan for one like I did when they were both home. Plus, the schedules conflicted and messed up traveling and field trips.
    I am trying to be more motivated for the coming school year though.

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