My motto this year is THINK SIMPLE. If it’s not simple, it won’t work with our family. So I’m going to try try try to KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! LOL!
I’ve already determined that prefab curriculum just does not excite my kids (even the really fabulous ones that exist out there!) They are BOOOOOOOORED when I stick with any sort of a program like that. So we’re going to “wing it with style” this year and create our own as we go! Let’s see how it goes.
My goal is to involve my kids in the planning as much as possible…so far they are not excited by this idea (of them having to help plan…they are suspicious of Mom giving them more work….) but I REALLY want them to have experience with this sort of thing…not just because I firmly believe kids who have a hand in their education are much more invested in it and get much more out of it….but because planning skills are excellent things to have! I already know my 13.5yr old is prone to some sort of organization because she is forever plotting out things in Minecraft, tracking things in Spore, and cataloging breeding patterns in her iPod games. She should take to this naturally, once I can convince her that it will be fun! THAT’s the trick! Can I make it fun?
No, I don’t believe everything needs to be fun….but I DO believe most of their learning experiences should be enjoyable. Most. The vast majority of them. So we’ll see if I can swing it. I’ve been trying to do this for 8yrs already….so far I’ve not stumbled upon the perfect combination of activities and materials….but I’m NOT GIVING UP!! I am DETERMINED to find it or die trying!!!!!
Because, as I keep reminding myself….the biggest reason that I decided to homeschool my kids is for them to ENJOY learning. I have lost sight of that in all the pretty curricula and programs that I keep seeing and thinking they SHOULD love this! (And they don’t)…so I’m going back to basics….time to follow their lead, but with some guidance built in from me. A perfect blend of the things we all love….I’ll find it, I tell ya!!!
By the way, I’m drawing inspiration from Julie at Homeschooling-Ideas.com. Go check her out! She has a ton of great stuff over there! The website is a bit overwhelming at first, but stick with it and you’ll see…there’s so much great content in there!
3 Comments
I love the idea of keeping it simple but somehow I ALWAYS manage to overcomplicate it.
This is a year that I could definitely benefit from simplicity as I will adding my 5 year old to the mix and am due with a new one in November.
Anyhoo, I thought that I would buy preplanned lessons plans this year and that would help. Then, I get them in the mail last week and realize that to make them work for us they are going to take a good amount of tweaking- LOL. So much for that idea.
I probably should have started from scratch!
What lesson plans did you buy?
I tried a bunch of different curriculum the last couple years and I’ve discovered that, aside from math (we use Math Mammoth, and LOVE it!), my kids and I just don’t dig curriculum. Haven’t found any yet that make them feel inspired to learn….so I’m ditching it all and saving us the hassle and sticking with just lots of great books and videos and such. There’s plenty out there just to explore on your own with no plan.
I bought Memoria Press lesson plans. They are actually VERY good and are so complete. However, my daughter is a Mathy/Sciency kid and so we will have to replace those with what we are already using.
Also, because we are jumping into Classical education sort of late in the game some other things are need tweaked. Overall, I think it’s going to work pretty well but it certainly isn’t as simple as I would have liked.