This Week

It has been a good week around here. We are finally hitting our stride - getting most of our planned subjects and activities done each day. I think next week we will likely be at full speed! :)

I am discovering what is working and what isn’t.... always the way of the first few weeks of school. Today I was able to hammer out a schedule of sorts and think that it may be a workable one. I wish I could find a good system for planning, though. I have always just kept a record of what we have done and have never had much of a written plan for our lessons. Basically, we just always did “the next thing”. All the curriculum we have used in the past has worked well with this method (or lack of method!). But, Tapestry of Grace is really requiring me to have a PLAN. I have been playing around with a variety of planning forms (some from the TOG site, some from other places) and can’t quite get one like I want.

I realized today that part of my problem is that some things have a daily plan/schedule and others have a weekly schedule. Meaning, there are certain subjects/activities that truly have a consistent schedule that is daily.... Chemistry on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; Spanish on Tuesday/Thursday; MUS and Grammar daily, etc. But, other things like history and literature readings, read alouds, arts and activities, and other TOG subjects are more flexible... meaning we do them until we are done with them. But, they still need to be included in the overall “plan” - mainly because I need to see them in the weekly plan in order to keep on track, but I don’t always know if a book will be completed “today” or

“tomorrow”. Know what I mean?

I have heard such good things about Homeschool Tracker, but I am a Mac girl and Homeschool Tracker won’t work on a Mac. I would love to find a computer program that would allow me to plug in the assigned work on a daily schedule but also include the things that “just need to get done” during the week in the same program. I would also love to have it include some sort of tracking of grades/scores. I would even be thrilled to have a written system (if a computer system isn’t available). Anything would be great! Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Jonathan decided that he was ready for Vikings already.... that he wasn’t as interested in learning about Islam or mosques. So, while I was reading aloud this week he created a Viking boat from paper and paper clips. That Jonathan, always a step ahead. :) But, both boys did build a mosque today. They were pretty happy with them, but they wouldn’t let me take photos yet because they aren’t quite complete. So, that will be in a future post. :)

One of my favorites from this week.
I just love seeing this...

Of course, after I take a picture of it I see this...  :) 

2 Comments

De'Etta

Finding our stride - that what Sept is all about in our home too! I understand completely your search for a "plan" that will work.

Enjoyed the photos!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 06:58 AM

Donna

What's with those happy faces in the top picture?? The only time I see boys that happy during schooltime is when I say "I can't find that book..let's play a game instead."

We're slacking up on some of our subjects this week to focus on TOG. There hasn't been time to get all the reading aloud done that I've wanted to....

Sunday, September 28, 2008 - 03:05 PM