This is my online journal/commonplace book. I use to post things that interest me or things that I want to keep track of and go back read at another time. I am an "Infojunkie" (as my mother loving dubbed me), and this blog allows me to have an outlet for my infojunkie ways. :o)
Okay so maybe I went into a tail spin a little too soon, or a little hastily. I looked over my work on a weekly schedule and perhaps it is not as bad as I thought. I showed it to the kids and we discussed it and I think in the end it will be do-able for us. The thing to keep in the forefront of my mind is that it is okay to not follow it... I am not a slave to the written schedule.
So here it is. It is a daily set of "appointments" to help motivate us in our day, to be pursuing a task and not wandering aimlessly. I am a time freak (one of my many wonderful personality traits.. LOL!), so I am thinking appointments could be a good thing to guide us. I can see a weight lifted from Jordan today as he needs a track to run on (rules).
Our Daily Appointments
9:00am Coffee and computer time
10:00am Bible
11:00am Math
12:00pm Lunch and chores
1:00pm Writing
2:00pm Home Management
3:00pm Tea Time
4:00pm Assigned Reading
5:00pm Dinner Prep.
6:00pm Supper / End of the day clean up
7 - 9pm 1. Finish appointments missed during the day,
2. Free time
10:00pm Power down / Bedtime routine
We will give it a trial run for the rest of the week (and maybe next week) and see how it fits. :o)
We are a home educating family. And I really like the philosophy of having a lifestyle of learning. So then why do I always try to complicate things? Why is it so easy to make things complicated? My goal is for the kids to always like to learn, to make it a continual habit in their life. I don’t want to follow a school curriculum or checklist. I don’t even want to follow the regular learning boxes called science, social studies, language arts and math. So why, oh why, do I continually plan our learning into these boxes and checklists? Will I ever learn? STOP THE INSANITY!
The reason for this rant is because it is the back to school season and with that comes the planning for the education year. My life has never been regular or one that follows a simple routine. My life has always included the possibility that at any moment the plan can change, something will come to surface as more important or more pressing than what I am doing right now. And I am okay with that. I have learned to be flexible with my time over the years (being married to a farmer/rancher has had a big part in that).
So last week we started “school” and I made it a priority to make up a school plan, a schedule. And I think I did a fine job. Well I did, except it has been eating away at me because I know that it will be impossible for us to follow it. We are day one of week two and already last week and now this week, things have popped up that will throw me off track if I use this schedule I have made up which of course will then cause me stress because we will be “behind”, whatever that is. What is behind in a world of being in control of your own education? Who says you are behind? Is it them... the infamous “they” who control our thoughts and lives? I say “off with their heads!”, they have no right telling me where I, nor my children, should be. I no longer give “them” power over my life. I do not follow them nor am I bound to what “they” demand. I am free to do my own choosing. What will I choose?
Today I have been working overtime mentally on this dilemma of mine. My written schedule does not fit, so what will I do? And my thoughts brought me here to this blog rant. But I think I have stumbled on something that may work for us, that fits more with what were striving for. Instead of preplanning, let life take us on its journey for us and keep record of our adventures. We will read and discuss and do projects and live life. And as we write about where we have been and what we have done we can see that our learning has taken us to places that fill those learning boxes to be checked called science, social studies, math and language arts.
Now I know the reason I made up this schedule for us is so that we would have an anchor to our day, a path to follow. I am a person who needs a plan or I will wander aimlessly. I did try to keep the schedule open for interruptions but still have markers along the day to keep us on track. But I think what I did wrong was give the markers designations, such as science, math and so on. I did not leave room for the pursuits my children said they wanted to follow because I was too busy trying to please the monkey on my back telling me we had to have subjects that followed typical school education. So how do I tweak this and make it work? How do I have freedom but not wander aimlessly? Because if we aim at nothing we will surely hit it.
I think we will start out by picking a few books and working through them a bit each day. I have projects that need to be done too and we will throw those in as needed. I will encourage the kids to pursue those things they told me they are interested in this year. My job is to encourage the kids to learn and not make demands of what to learn. I am a control freak, this will be an interesting year. ;oP KISS philosophy - Keep It Simple Stupid!
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Lori D. shared this website the other day. http://www.iseecards.com/pyramath/ I have enjoyed quite a few games myself and I am going to introduce it to the kids today. You can buy their deck of cards for this or play it for free on line (which is what I have been doing). A great way to keep the mind and basic arithmetic sharp. :o)
WOW! This is the first article I read this morning with my coffee - ( http://raamdev.com/homesick-in-a-strange-and-privileged-land ). What a reality check. We live such empty lives here in the land of privileged North America. How do we encourage the people of North America to live more real and authentic lives? Lives built on relationships and being community together, helping each other with our needs. We need to encourage each other that it is okay to not be perfect... that the truth is there is no such thing as perfect, it is just a mask and underneath that mask of perfect that we see in people's lives there is such terrible things happening physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally. Come on people, let's be real with each other. Let's be authentic. Let's not focus one what does not matter, what can be taken away and will rot or be destroyed.
