Wednesday, August 24, 2011

And we ride the waves!

Today? A good day.
We all seem about on the same page as far as lessons go. Persephone is one day ahead of the boys. Her curriculum seems to flow the most smoothly. Also, she finds the "sharing mom" aspect of this whole experience much easier. Her Calvert curriculum requires a lot more writing than the boys' Lincoln curricula, so I know we will see everyone waxing and waning in the schedule.

I've got the week laid out in pencil, so I can adjust as we go along.

Today's success came from being ready to go on time. In fact, Havoc decided to start a little early. He's got a brand new video game and this is lighting a fire under his bottom.
I also gave up on the idea of keeping everyone on the same subject at the same time. Just letting things flow naturally seems to be the best. Why I didn't decide to do it that way in the first place, I can't tell you. Actually, I can. I'm just scared of getting behind. Working at our own pace in the past has really meant not paying any attention to completing the material over the course of a year. It's been nothing but bad. But, maintaining a good track of everyone's lessons with this nicely portioned out curriculum is really easy. I might be able to relax about trying to run science and math at the same time and not lose my place.

The other nice aspect is there's a checklist at the beginning of each lesson in the planning manual. I can just check stuff off as it's completed or read. I've lost my place a few times and been saved by this.

I'm really glad we're working with the self-paced materials. I think the virtual classroom might have had some fun aspects, but my moody little people would have either gotten way too excited or zoned out or both. This way the teacher-me-is right there to notice when the wheels are turning and when they've spun off in another direction.

Let's just hope for more good days.


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