A lot has been happening here at Maple Hill Academy. Of course, they were all unexpected, and included things such as sickness. Besides not having time to Blog (which I'm sure you all noticed) - it has put us behind our homeschool plan.
It would be easy to panic at this point - especially as I expect to be very busy around the end of June, meaning that further delay may stop us from completing the entire year.
So - what do you do when things don't go as planned?
As "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" would say "DON'T PANIC!"
Especially in Year 1, there are really only a few things that I feel need to be completed to keep us over-all on track. Those are the good old-fashioned 3R's.... Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic. Is your student learning their math? Is he learning to read? Is he learning to write? Even if you don't finish the whole program, if those are well on track by the end of the year, you have succeeded. And the chances are, your student will have learned a LOT more then that. "Gaps" won't be a huge deal -- remember that even at public school, if a student is sick - he just misses anything learned that day. At least in subjects like math that are sequential, we can make sure our student doesn't miss some important concept!
Even in the later years, if you end up having to skip a reading book, or miss a chapter or two of the history book, I think your student will still be far ahead.
So, what is my revised plan? We will just keep working with the schedule - who cares that we are not on the week that I wanted to be? At the end of the year, I can see where we are at. For stuff like Math, I have the choice of starting Year 2 wherever we have stopped in Year 1 - or we could spend a little bit of summer time finishing it up. For other subjects, that are not so sequential, I can decide to either skip some items - or for some of the reading books we could always read them together during the summer. Again, our choice.
I think the main thing is not to panic - not to get frustrated - not to let the student know that he is behind - and not to throw out the program!
Hear, hear!
ReplyDeleteI have been completely overwhelmed this fall between being pregnant and taking classes for a masters degree and have let school for my children slide a lot. But as my oldest is 6, and is reading well, I'm not too concerned. We'll make a new start in January--hopefully with nausea gone and no school for me.
Hope you're all feeling better now. I've missed your happy comments on my blog, as well as keeping up-to-date with your happenings.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what you're doing. When you homeschool you work to your students' requirements, not to the academic requirements of an institution. Hurrah! Edulation is 12 years not just 1 isolated year at a time...
I am feeling a LOT better, although not 100% yet. I still have a cough, and I am tired a lot. My husband is doing a bit better too - and the kids seem to all be good for now. We will finish up this term this week and start Term 2 in the new year.
ReplyDeleteSorry you missed me, hopefully I will be back in full force soon!
You're so right. I try not to plan too much detail more than a week or so ahead so that it can just be postponed if something like illness interupts our schedule. Last year my eldest had viral flu for 3 months - we just pottered along, doing a little bit of this and that as she felt able but it was so brilliant she wasn't at school - imagine how much she would have missed! At least, like you say, we can just pick up where we left off.
ReplyDeleteI hope you manage to shake off the cough soon. Merry Christmas!
Thanks Helen.
ReplyDeleteI do like having things scheduled to the end of the year, I feel I'm more likely to get it done then. My plans do tend to have a bit less in the later couple of months though, to allow for catch-up, or to do other things. I also planned a break between each term - again to allow for catch-up, or a rest.
oh, I so agree! I try not to stress when I'm not where I think I should be. I'm doing what you're doing, revamping. It'll all be great in the end!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments Jill!
ReplyDeleteEveryone is probably wondering why I'm not posting. We had the stomach flu go through the family last week - and it is Thursday, and we did one day of homeschooling this week. Sigh.