Road Maps are helpful!

This week was good. I was without a computer for a few days, but sometimes that's a good thing ;-)

I'd been pretty frustrated with the curriculum I'd been using since I thought it too 'young' for my grade 3 child. But this week, since I was going to be without a computer, I decided to 'plan' my week manually. I got out some paper, looked at the rest of my week and did a brief outline of what I'd like to accomplish for the rest of the week. Then presumably, when my computer was back up and running again, I would have a record of what we'd done in order to write up my weekly report.

But I found another benefit to this- I had a road map for my week. I knew where I wanted to go and had a way to measure how close I was to getting there. It also helped me to see which subjects were being neglected and what we were spending too much time on.

Did I get to check off everything on my list? Nope! Did I have to add things that came up 'spur of the moment'? Yep! Did I at least come close? Kind of.

Yet what was most important was that I've realized that I need something concrete to measure my week by. I thought that the 'step-by-step' curriculum I'd chosen would be that (and more?) for me- but it hasn't. So, I thought that maybe I needed to change course (which I might still do for other reasons). But the reality is, is that I actually need to put some planning into this whole home school thing. I need my road map to have an idea of where I'm heading and as a way to track where I've actually been. Hoping that by the end of the year, we'll have been everywhere that we needed to be and learned all that we needed to learn.

I think maybe where people get defeated is they plan out each day way in advance and then get frustrated when they 'get behind' in their schedule. It would be very easy to fall into that trap and give up. However, creating a 'wish list' for the week and then revising it each night to reflect what's gone on during the day seems to have suddenly made things clearer and more productive for me this past week.

It's been a good week. I'm amazed at how a small thing like not having a computer to track my weekly report has given me a road map- which has boosted my confidence with this whole home school thing. Maybe that's why my grade 1 child commented that he was enjoying home school and could we do this next year again! As I picked myself up off the floor after that one, I realized that I was enjoying learning too. Maybe between my additional planning and boosted confidence they're 'catching the vision/passion' for learning as well!?!?!?

It feels like I'm rambling- which I probably am (very little sleep last night, up early this morning & no nap today). But I'm excited for the future. Oh don't worry, there were those moments that I just wanted to throttle them for their behaviour. But it's like the whole having kids thing- the good more than made up for (and even makes you sometimes forget) the bad things.

Night all!