Being a homeschooler, you may feel the weight of the world on your shoulders as you prepare your kid(s) for life outside the home. Will they go to college? Will they find good jobs with good benefits? Will they end up on the news and not in a good way? Will I miss anything that is vital to their success in life?
I know parents who look at what the public school is teaching to compare where their kids are at and I do not know that this is necessarily a bad thing. It is good to know where your kid is at...make sure they are where they should be. But, can you over do it??
I think I am a classic overachiever. Oh, I am pretty normal for a homeschool mom in many ways. I spend hours looking at curriculum and reading what other people say about curriculum and downloading samples of curriculum and talking ad naseum to anyone I can about curriculum until I finally make my choices. I have fallen into a trap, though, of OVER planning. I caught myself duplicating work-sheets for my son's upcoming Language Arts program...why?? I have them all.....printed nicely in a book already. There is no writing in the book. I do not have a younger kid I will need to keep the pages pristine for. And, if I really want to duplicate them, there is such a thing as a copy machine. So, why put so much pressure on myself??
Ok, in my defense, I am not too happy how the practice sheets are laid out in his practice books. There are a few sections per page....one section per lesson. I like order. I am creating binders for my son for each subject and I would like to gather his work into each lesson area and not just have sheets with several lesson practices per page. How do I put these into neatly organized binders? I had the bright idea of just getting on my handy dandy laptop and reproducing each practice. Sounded good....at first. Than I started. There are 28 chapters. There are 5 lessons per chapter. There are, at least, 2-3 practice exercises per chapter. That means me reproducing at least 56 exercises. Part of his Language Arts program is already a State Activity each week and I decided to create a page for each state for him to do...so that is 50 sheets there. This is an easy production for me to do, but add it to the other.
Do you see what I am getting at?? My son is going to be in 2nd grade! I wonder if any energy I may have might be better spent in other areas?? Being an overachiever is not necessarily a bad thing, but I think perspective is good. I can provide an excellent teaching/learning environment without working myself and my fingers to the bone. If the work has been done for me, than I need to let it go...even if it is not how I would do it.
Let yourself have the flexibility to teach without burning yourself out.
I know parents who look at what the public school is teaching to compare where their kids are at and I do not know that this is necessarily a bad thing. It is good to know where your kid is at...make sure they are where they should be. But, can you over do it??
I think I am a classic overachiever. Oh, I am pretty normal for a homeschool mom in many ways. I spend hours looking at curriculum and reading what other people say about curriculum and downloading samples of curriculum and talking ad naseum to anyone I can about curriculum until I finally make my choices. I have fallen into a trap, though, of OVER planning. I caught myself duplicating work-sheets for my son's upcoming Language Arts program...why?? I have them all.....printed nicely in a book already. There is no writing in the book. I do not have a younger kid I will need to keep the pages pristine for. And, if I really want to duplicate them, there is such a thing as a copy machine. So, why put so much pressure on myself??
Ok, in my defense, I am not too happy how the practice sheets are laid out in his practice books. There are a few sections per page....one section per lesson. I like order. I am creating binders for my son for each subject and I would like to gather his work into each lesson area and not just have sheets with several lesson practices per page. How do I put these into neatly organized binders? I had the bright idea of just getting on my handy dandy laptop and reproducing each practice. Sounded good....at first. Than I started. There are 28 chapters. There are 5 lessons per chapter. There are, at least, 2-3 practice exercises per chapter. That means me reproducing at least 56 exercises. Part of his Language Arts program is already a State Activity each week and I decided to create a page for each state for him to do...so that is 50 sheets there. This is an easy production for me to do, but add it to the other.
Do you see what I am getting at?? My son is going to be in 2nd grade! I wonder if any energy I may have might be better spent in other areas?? Being an overachiever is not necessarily a bad thing, but I think perspective is good. I can provide an excellent teaching/learning environment without working myself and my fingers to the bone. If the work has been done for me, than I need to let it go...even if it is not how I would do it.
Let yourself have the flexibility to teach without burning yourself out.
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