The girls finished up the math I had planned for the year on Friday. We also finished reading our latest book together on Friday, and listened to the last lecture from our latest Modern Scholar series, and ran out of videos in the Crash Course series we've been watching. Which had me back at a planning crossroads this morning.
Happily the advent of daylight savings time meant everyone was naturally sleeping in an extra hour this morning, and I had more time to try to pull it together. Of course, that also meant I had more time to go into full chaos mode.
The nice thing about homeschooling middle and high school is that there's always something more to learn. The terrifying thing about homeschooling middle and high school is that there's always something more to learn.
What's really important?
What will flow nicely into whatever is next?
What works together well?
What uses resources we already have on hand?
What will fit into our schedule - around plays and work and trips and into deadlines?
What will interest everybody the most (because we still are very much unschoolers at heart)?
How does all of that fit into one single schedule?
Does it have to fit into one schedule?
Can we juggle multiple schedules?
How could I possibly have let the coffee run out?
By that last question, with a growing sense of panic, and an increasingly cluttered bubble chart before me, I realized I had forgotten to pray.
I know it sounds trite, but it's so important and so easy to overlook.
If you are a Christian homeschooler, pray before you plan. Pray while you're planning. Pray after you plan. If you're not a Christian homeschooler, then my suggestion is that you become one, and then pray.
The teen years are pivotal in way that earlier schooling years were not. Our children are making decisions (and we are making decisions for them) that have the potential to have long term and possibly permanent implications. That's a lot of responsibility - except it's not ours. Praying helps to bring that all into focus.
My job isn't to direct my children's paths or orchestrate their futures. I just have to teach them some math, and history, maybe a little science and hopefully some table manners, and maybe remember to pick up some more coffee while I'm at it (amen).
It's great to be a homeschooler.
Happily the advent of daylight savings time meant everyone was naturally sleeping in an extra hour this morning, and I had more time to try to pull it together. Of course, that also meant I had more time to go into full chaos mode.
The nice thing about homeschooling middle and high school is that there's always something more to learn. The terrifying thing about homeschooling middle and high school is that there's always something more to learn.
What's really important?
What will flow nicely into whatever is next?
What works together well?
What uses resources we already have on hand?
What will fit into our schedule - around plays and work and trips and into deadlines?
What will interest everybody the most (because we still are very much unschoolers at heart)?
How does all of that fit into one single schedule?
Does it have to fit into one schedule?
Can we juggle multiple schedules?
How could I possibly have let the coffee run out?
I know it sounds trite, but it's so important and so easy to overlook.
If you are a Christian homeschooler, pray before you plan. Pray while you're planning. Pray after you plan. If you're not a Christian homeschooler, then my suggestion is that you become one, and then pray.
The teen years are pivotal in way that earlier schooling years were not. Our children are making decisions (and we are making decisions for them) that have the potential to have long term and possibly permanent implications. That's a lot of responsibility - except it's not ours. Praying helps to bring that all into focus.
My job isn't to direct my children's paths or orchestrate their futures. I just have to teach them some math, and history, maybe a little science and hopefully some table manners, and maybe remember to pick up some more coffee while I'm at it (amen).
It's great to be a homeschooler.
I'm in the midst of planning for April and starting to think about next year, and this was a good reminder for me. I so agree with all you said.
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