School is a Learning Process!

As we very slowly, very painfully and very LATEly wrap up the school year, I have a few things on my mind for planning the coming school year.

#1:

Start before the last week of October.

Last year, I was making my new school room, and as I had to travel out of state to get to Ikea, it just held up the process... and we started abysmally late!  And then took our share of vacation, too.  Yes, we can count our extra curricular activities as this or that subject, but we still have the actual school materials to finish.  And finish them we shall!

#2:

Take one week off each month.

Yay! Such a great idea in my head.  I'll let you know if it goes all wrong.  But the math is so friendly! 52 weeks in a year, 36 weeks of school, 16 weeks of no school.

That's 12 weeks for the months and 4 more to beef up the summer fun.

The truth is that we don't have to take 36 weeks, either.  This year, almost all the schoolwork will be done by week 33.  Most subjects are not "five days a week" type things.  More like 3 or 4.  Especially with subjects that are 3 x per week, we can throw in an extra lesson every other week and really whittle down the time spent, without harm to learning.  I refuse to do multiple lessons per day for the core subjects, though, just defeats the purpose.

#3:

Change the History/Science Schedule.

We do History MWF, Science TTh.  Instead, I want to do whole weeks with each.  A week with one, a week with the other.  Maybe a few more weeks with History than Science, since the workload is heavier.  But both subjects have a lot of FUN activities that go along with them.  And if I take a week, we can do the reading, questions and narrative thread at the beginning (least fav. part) and then spend the rest of the 2 or three days reinforcing with the games, experiments, activities, etc. and finish with the chapter test. =)  Sounds great to me!  I'm tired of trying to rush through the chapters, let the kids read the activities and then not have time to do them.

#4:

Time management.

I always need to work on this one.  The particulars aren't set in stone yet, but I've been thinking about what time we get going in the morning (way too late), streamlining chores, and juggling my 2nd and 3rd graders (soon to be 3rd and 4th!) with their subjects.  They have both independent work and instructional time with me.  I have two great tools that have worked well this year; a dry erase board with their daily work to be crossed off (which is then deposited in my correcting bin) and allotting 2 hours to Lucas, then 2 hours to Julia and Aidan for instructional time, while they complete independent work in the other time frame.  Group work of Science and History are done after that.  So I've got part of the battle won, just needs a little more fine tuning.