I have written about our memory box on the Preschoolers and Peace site, but I am often asked what exactly is in it.
I just reorganized it so that it will work a little better for us, as well. I am keeping track of our memory work by assigning different items to different days and it seems to be working well for us. Here's what we have right now:
Monday
Ten Verses Cards
Ephesians 5:1-2
Two poems: Duck Weather and To Remember
Tuesday
Ten Verses Cards
National Geographic Presidents cards (found at Target)
Psalm 127
Wednesday
Ten Verses Cards
The Ten Commandments
The Ten Plagues in Egypt
Thirteen Rules for Gentlemen
Thursday
Ten Verses Cards
Walk Thru the Bible Books of the Bible Cards
The Seven Continents, 4 Oceans, and 9 Planets
The Greek Alphabet
Friday
Ten Verses Cards
National Geographic Landmarks Cards (out of print)
Once these items are committed to memory, we'll substitute with other things we want to memorize.
When our oldest son was four, I set out to teach him as many Bible verses as we could muster. He was a quick study (aren't they amazing?) and soon had put 35 verses to memory.
Recently I realized I hadn't worked nearly as hard with the other children on memorizing Scripture. And as I was reorganizing our memory-work box, I came across the little homemade cards we'd used with our firstborn. Really, nothing special or fancy but they worked. And so I made everyone else their own "Ten Verses" cards and we set to work. Upon completion of each verse, they get a sticker next to the reference. Even the 11-year-old still loves this.
The added benefit, of course, is that I get all of those verses written on my heart as well.
Dear Kendra,
I'll try to explain my organizational school dilemma here without rambling. I am having a hard time pin-pointing my problem. I just know that I am frustrated with my planning at the beginning of each week.
I needed a feeling for how the school year runs. So now with a year of schooling K, 1st, and 3rd, I am trying to ask myself some questions.
I think I need to do more of a goals list for each child. I bought the checklist from Cindy Downs and the Tanglewood Corebook. I am hoping they could work for me.
What is the best way to list goals for the kids? Keep them in a binder? One for each child? Same binder? Keep a section of read alouds I read and want to read?
How detailed should I be when I map out our school year? Math book page numbers? Should I put a time limit on our unit studies for science and history? How do I manage farming interruptions and illnesses? I can see our school year calendar with big red X's. Is this just part of the nuttiness of homeschooling? Do I relax and just go with the flow? But I like a plan!
How much prep do you put in at the beginning of the week? In planning your year?
If I can get my vision/plan mapped out, I hope then my summer schooling would be more clear to me, i.e. how much math, reading I will do. Plan my read alouds...
I hope that gives you a peek into my head.
Thank you for caring!
Dana
♥
Dear Dana-
BREATHE! Phew. I felt my blood pressure rising as I was reading what you wrote :) I'll tell you what I've done/what I'm doing, what has worked when and why, and then maybe you can pull out some things that will be helpful to you.
First, I do have a binder I simply call "School Records". It contains:
1. A copy of our current schedule which, as you well know, changes fairly often
2. A section for each school-aged child. Their sections contain:
A. A goal sheet for the year based on the Trivium- grammar/knowledge stage, logic/understanding stage, and rhetoric/wisdom stage.
B. Their "omnibus list" for the year. These are simply personalized reading lists we create for each child based upon what we want them to read now and/or have read by the time they leave our home.
3. A section called "Books" in which I keep a list of read-alouds and a list of books we want to look into or check out from the library
4. A section for recording the year's field trips. I only list them here by month and I scrapbook about them in our family scrapbook. That has worked well for me.
In regards to lesson plans, I have done it many ways:
1. In the beginning, I sat down every Sunday night and planned out the week, page numbers and all. I quickly learned that was for the birds. There were just too many variables, and yes, that is the nuttiness of homeschooling.
2. My philosophy has morphed over the years. While still highly academic, we tend to want to be more relational amongst every member of the family and so I strive to structure our day so that we are all together as much as possible. This also allows me to correct attitudes and stop silliness before it gets out of hand (boys! humph)
3. While that means my kids are still doing the challenging stuff like Veritas Press Omnibus, Latin for Children, Greek and Introductory Logic, it also means that we don't really delve into the super-creative options or the unit study kind of homeschooling. While I love Konos, it is completely impractical for my family. Once you recognize what your overall goals are, how to achieve them, and what your limitations are (a baby every other year, for instance, or harvesting walnuts) you can decide what are the non-negotiables and what to toss. Mummifying a chicken didn't make the cut the last time we studied ancients, but this year we've been able to do a few more creative things because the older boys choose to do them on their free time.
So, here's where I am right now. We are going into summer with quite a few unfinished tasks. So what? If we plod away at them casually throughout the summer in the cool mornings, they'll get done. As for next year, I began planning in about January. I started writing down what I wanted them to do next year (actual curriculum names and other goals such as "improve handwriting"). Then I began to purchase slowly in about March. At the end of June my girlfriend who homeschools much the same way as we do and I will get together for a planning weekend where we will photocopy and assemble as much of the kids' stuff as possible. Mine each get binders for almost every subject they have, and for subjects like history, I make all the necessary photocopies for the ENTIRE year. Yep. It is torture for the weekend but then it's DONE.
One last thing- I LOVE history. So I have made a spreadsheet for history each year based on the curriculum we're using. Mystery of History is our favorite, but she's only written the first two years. You could certainly do something like this for any subject; just be sure you use it and it doesn't use you. In other words, feel free to toss a read-aloud you don't like a few pages into it, etc.
Does that help?
Kendra
Read More
13-year-old
Math
Free Choice Reading
Logic (his choice- gotta love these homeschoolers!)
Drafting (also his choice)
Piano
11-year-old
Math Drill
Free Choice Reading
Theory (his choice- he plays the guitar)
Guitar
8-year-old
Math
Free Choice Reading
Greek (his choice- again, gotta love these homeschoolers! You should have seen him the day this arrived in the mail. It was as if the mail lady had delivered a giant vat of ice cream- he was THAT excited!)
Piano
6-year-old
Math
Continue Pathway Readers
Young Lady of Valor
Cursive (her choice)
5-year-old
Preschool Workbook
Learn to jump rope
Learn to swim
2-year-old
Be cute
Make us laugh
We can finish breakfast, Circle Time, chores, and school all before lunch. Then after lunch we swim, I read aloud for an hour or more while they play Legos, draw, or otherwise keep their hands busy. Swim some more, swing on the hammock, swim again, then make dinner.
Aaaaaah. I love summer!
I fret I am not preparing him well to meet the demands of life.
-Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of President Abraham Lincoln
OK, so she didn't really say that. I made it up. But what if? What if in that little one-room cabin Mrs. Lincoln had her doubts? It was she who bore the burden of young Abraham's education. It was she who taught him to read.
Do you ever fret? I know I do. And as a beginning home educator, I felt I needed to prove myself to my parents, my husband's parents, our friends and colleagues, and, well, the world. It was a happy day when my firstborn read his first small sentence on his own. I called my mother and had him read it to her over the phone. And although the accomplishment was his, I shared in the work that it took to get him there.
The burden we homeschooling parents carry as we realize that WE are the ones who bear the responsibility can be mighty overwhelming. I can't blame the teacher down at the local government school. I can't blame the lack of funds or the poor curriculum choices our school board has made (alhough our own personal school board- my husband and myself, of course- has made our share of mistakes). No, I am the one who shoulders this whole kit and kaboodle.
I admit I lie awake some nights and think, "What if?" And it's a tricky thing because I have spent the last 13 years instructing my children not to say, "What if?" When I allow myself to dwell on the possibilities rather than the reality of what we are accomplishing, I can easily work myself into a monster of a dither. And there are so many things to teach, to train, to input into each life. Even if I only had one child, the work is immense. I look at one and think, "Will his work ever be anything but sloppy?". I look at another and think, "When will maturity kick in?" I also wonder if parents who send their kids to school fret over this stuff. If the kids are out of sight, are their struggles out of mind?But there is a verse I keep coming back to when I tend toward overwhelmed:
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord,
"Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you
a hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11
So there it is. God's plan is to see this homeschooling through to the end. I may have to do the work, but if it is His work, then the yoke is easy and the burden is light. His plans will prosper us and not harm us.