Scheduling for the Chronically Overscheduled (or: Why This Year Nearly Drove Me Crazy)

We've often been highly scheduled. The Kid likes having a lot of things to do, and she is interested in nearly everything I can think of. When we moved this summer, I told her that we were going to be careful not to overschedule so that we could enjoy our time in our new city, with all the opportunities the city afforded us.

And then it seemed we were constantly not getting to anything on our list. We were skipping field trips, she was always trying to catch up in her online class, we weren't even getting the basics done, we were always running late. It didn't make any sense to me. I finally laid out everything we were doing on a schedule grid, and found out that the reason it wasn't working is that it literally did not work. Even though the total number of hours technically could fit in a week, it didn't fit in the spaces of time that we had. And no amount of organization was going to make it work.

Here's the thing: each year, we ease the number of hours spent on school up. Just a bit at a time. And the same extracurriculars that The Kid has previously enjoyed take at least as many hours as before, if not more due to increasing levels. This was simply the year that we hit the breaking point. It doesn't all fit anymore. Something had to give, and there was nothing that we really wanted to give up.

Decisions are hard.

Second Grade Curriculum and Resources

For kindergarten and first grade, I did massive posts about our planned curriculum and resources. I've been more hesitant this year. Our current setup is six-week sessions with five subjects at a time - Spanish, Math, Language Arts, and two of The Kid's choosing. This means that our plans are even more up in the air than usual because all of the "other stuff" is decided on bit by bit.Anyway, here is the list, with a lot more uncertainty than usual.

Language Arts

• Michael Clay Thompson Town level
• Brave Writer - probably some bits and pieces of different products, and lots of referring to The Writer's Jungle
• Online literature class from Athena's Advanced Academy - this is one of The Kid's choices for fall
• Poetry Teas
• NaNoWriMo - only if The Kid chooses it for one of her class picks. It's a BIG commitment!
• Rummy Roots - we never got to this in first grade, but it might help in the jump between MCT's Building Language and Caesar's English
• Second Grade Literature List

Math

• Beast Academy - our core
• Zaccaro's Primary Grade Challenge Math
• Highlights MathMania magazines
• Hands On Equations
• Various math apps - Dragonbox, Slice Fractions, Math Balloons, Prodigy 
• Various math books - Sir Cumference, Penrose, Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School, maybe The Number Devil

Spanish

• Homeschool Spanish Academy, currently 3x weekly
• Spanish picture books
• Coleccion Nacho workbooks that I picked up in Honduras

Science, History, Art, Music...
These will be unschooled unless The Kid chooses a specific topic as one of her class choices. I will decide on resources at that time. BFSU will still be my go-to for science, Art Tango will be my go-to for general art.

Extracurriculars
Who knows? The Kid wants to take gymnastics, dance, circus arts, nature classes, soccer, choir, ice skating, roller skating, art classes, science classes, tennis, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. It's not all going to fit, so there will be some choices to be made this fall. For the summer, she's doing a couple of weeks of gymnastics camp and a week of science camp.

First Grade Wrap Up

It's about that time to review what went well and not over the last year.

First, the good:

• Science. Wow, the level and amount of science! We finished the first volume of Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding. As we moved into more child-led studies, there hasn't been a session go by without The Kid choosing a science topic. While we haven't left BFSU behind, we've added a lot of other resources - Ellen McHenry has especially been a hit.
• Handwriting. Finally, after much struggle, The Kid has legible handwriting. Not awesome, but legible. I'm calling it good for now. At the end of last year, I wrote, "But we're still nowhere near being able to do copywork and dictation to start first grade." It took us the whole #@%& year, but she can now do copywork. And I might even attempt dictation in the near future.
• Changes to our school subjects. I wrote in this post about our six-week blocks of four subjects at a time. The Kid feels that she has real power in her school choices now. I have gained clarity about my educational priorities for her. It's been good.

The not so good:

• Math. This is really coming back around, but we went into full math meltdown last winter. Over the last five months, we have done no formal/required math. Slowly, slowly, the love of math has been creeping back and our math break is looking a lot mathier.  But I suspect we'll have a balancing act on our hands as we incorporate more math into our days again.
• Executive Functioning. This wasn't even a term I knew until the last couple years, but oh boy, do I know it now. It includes a pile of abilities that The Kid struggles mightily with and make me want to pull my hair out. We've been focused on the basics of emotional regulation for months now, and are just barely starting to edge into more focus on time management and focus. This category is going to be a major part of goals for second grade.

I hope the next year has some great things in store for us!

New Goals: A Side Effect of Child-Chosen Classes

As I talked about a few posts ago, The Kid gets to choose two classes per six-week session of school. We brainstormed a big list of things she might want to choose for classes based on current interests and things she has randomly mentioned.

She really, really wants classes with other kids. There are no academic co-ops available to us. She knows about online classes, so she asked to be able to take one of those - online kids are definitely better than no kids! After some exploring, The Kid decided she would like to try a class through Athena's Advanced Academy next fall. So, yay, I won't even have to teach all her classes next fall!

Most of Athena's classes have similar prerequisites - a minimum reading level, being comfortable speaking in an online classroom, the ability to give 4-5 sentence responses to forum questions. She's got the reading levels and the ability to talk (boy, does she ever!). But she's a hunt-and-peck typist and when I told her she would have to write her answers in paragraph form she asked me what a paragraph was.

Per our new scheduling, she gets to choose two classes for spring and two for summer, so she has already chosen that spring includes typing and summer includes paragraph composing. Yay for being able to set goals!

Creating Unit Studies

When I went in search of curricula for some subjects, sometimes I couldn't find what I was looking for. I started pulling together a mishmash of resources, and only later started thinking of some of these as unit studies. I thought I'd share the steps I go through in creating these.

1. Choose a topic. This includes not only the general topic, but any areas we want to focus on. We consider how deep we want to go and a general idea of how much time we want to spend.

Example: My daughter requested a unit on chemistry. She wanted quite a lot of information on it, definitely wants to cover the periodic table/elements, and wants lots of hands-on. We had a big trip scheduled, which presents a natural ending point for us, so we had about 6-8 weeks to spend on this.

2. Start gathering resources. Ask on homeschooling groups, do internet searches, see what the library has, take a critical look at anything we already have in the house we can use, check out online MOOCs, field trip opportunities. The idea here is to see what is available to you, not to do any choosing yet.

Example: "Chemistry" is rather a huge topic, so I decided to start by asking on one of the homeschooling groups to get ideas for materials others have found especially good. I needed to narrow the field. I knew we had a couple things in the house, including a molecular modeling kit, so I wanted to incorporate that. I got recommendations for a huge amount of books, curricula, websites, apps, and kits.

3. Evaluate the resources. Some just won't fit with your goals, your ages/abilities, your interests, your time frame, your budget. You might want to keep a record of these for the future, but take them out of your options for now. Some will hopefully be standouts and have you and your child really excited about jumping in - these are the essential pieces you can most build your unit around. Some are very good, but not spectacular - if they are affordable, then these are great to have on hand for open exploration even if you don't formally incorporate them into the unit. Some may not make you excited, but are the best choice for fulfilling some aspect of your goals.

Example: So much stuff! I find this the most overwhelming part of planning a unit because I want to include ALL THE GREAT STUFF! I had been wanting to try the Ellen McHenry units for a while, and she has one called The Elements, so I looked at a sample with my daughter, who agreed it appeared to be a good fit, so that became one of our main pieces. There are games in that, but not much in the way of experiments, so I needed something to fulfill that piece. I was planning on a traditional chemistry set, and Thames and Kosmos has some decently well rated ones at a fair price, so I looked there. While looking there, I came across Candy Chemistry - light on the chemistry but heavy on the fun and the candy! My daughter is young, and we'll definitely do more serious takes on chemistry later, so I went with Candy Chemistry. The kit is a bit ridiculously priced, so I downloaded the manual for free and gathered the supplies. There are some great books that were available at the library, and some recommended apps that were priced ok, so I added those to the stack, though I don't intend to formally include them. Add in a periodic table placemat, and videos from subscription sites we already have and we can easily fill our time!

4. What else can I incorporate? What can I let go of in the rest of our schooling?

Example: We were ready for a break from formal math, and there's a fair bit of math in chemistry anyway, so we shelved our math program for a bit. She kept some notes and did some written activities, so handwriting was covered. We were just about to do a bit on crystals in science anyway, so we did that and also included the crystal growing kit I had for that - fits in perfectly alongside the chemistry unit!

Blending Structure and Freedom

We recently switched around the organization in our homeschooling again. We are trying out something new - breaking our studies into six week "sessions", with four subjects each session, each subject being given 30 minutes per school day. The Kid and I agree that Spanish will always be one of her subjects. I choose one subject each session. The Kid chooses two subjects per session. (If she is feeling less schooly, she can choose less than two. The joy of being five years old!)

We've found before that no structure ends with The Kid frustrated, and too much structure ends with The Kid frustrated. A few years ago, I assumed that I would unschool until she was 7 or 8, but that doesn't quite fit her. We were doing daily core subjects and switching between science, history, art, music, grammar, poetry, and maybe some other stuff - it was exhausting to keep track of and plan! I wanted an option that blended heavily child-led with enough structure to keep us both happy. So far, so good!

We recently wrapped our first session, and it went great. We are now in the midst of a five week trip, so this session is all Spanish, all the time. But we've already chosen our subjects for the next session, and are excited to get underway again!

Moving, Chaos, and Still Here

We moved - a while three blocks from where we used to live! I seriously underestimated and thought we'd take about a week to get settled in because it was such a little move. Of course, we still had to pack everything we owned into boxes and then unpack it all, figure out where it went, and organize it. A month later and the house is finally looking "lived in" instead of "pure chaos".

Though I haven't been blogging, we have been schooling. There should be another history unit posted in the next couple weeks, our first religion unit will be completed and posted, and we're 2 weeks in to a 6 weeks Living Things science unit.

Meanwhile, here's the new homeschool space:

Looks rather like our old homeschool space. That's the fun of modular furniture. Actually, there's a big difference. Before, homeschool and play space were all together in one room. This house has a big enough bedroom for The Kid to hold all of her toys and her art desk! The homeschool desk is tucked in a corner of the dining room, still central to our daily living. It was a bit interesting to sort out what went into her room and what went into the homeschool space. Which space does the Lego Education kit go in? How about the Snap Circuits? Do we put all the books in her room or in the living room or dining room? A few weeks in, everything finally has a place and I can even mostly remember what went where!

RightStart Math Manipulatives

I remember being so excited when the big box came from RightStart, but then came the challenge of organizing all of it. I thought I had it all down and then I switched from Version 1's Level A to Version 2's Level B and acquired a whole new crop of stuff. Ack!

This shelf contains all of RightStart's manipulatives and the books for level B. It is about 13" deep and 24" long. I have two pieces of "equipment" holding everything - nine 4.5 cup Snapwares (you can find these at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and use coupons) and one fairly unique bookend.

This section has the books, fraction chart, geometry panels (which we haven't used yet - those may need to be stored differently later), abacus, and a couple odds and ends a little too big for the Snapwares. I know it looks a bit messy, but it stays put!

The Snapware section is all the small manipulatives, with labels so I can quickly grab what I want. The Snapwares aren't quite as deep as the shelf, so the math balance tucks in neatly behind them.

Scheduling Without Actually Scheduling Part 2 - Daily To Do List

Last post was about how we schedule the outings in a week. Today is about how we do a daily to-do list. Here is a picture of a day's list (with The Kid's name removed):

This list is typically the more "academic" stuff I want to get done in a day - reading, math, spelling, science, fine motor skills. It does not include lots of other playing, but rest assured that plenty of off-list stuff happens every day! Some of the things are in a code of sorts - "number games" means RightStart Math and "Activity sheets" is a selection of Kumon fine motor skill sheets, Mad Libs, and Can You Find Me? sheets.

The list is in no particular order. If something needs to happen at a particular time, such as gymnastics, that is written on the board. Otherwise, The Kid can pick things in any order and we erase them as we finish. There is no requirement that everything be done and often the list is altered during the day. Sometimes she wakes up and declares she wants something added to or deleted from the board, which is fine. Sometimes we just get to the end of the day and didn't get to things, which is also fine. But the list manages to put a lot of control into the The Kid's hands regarding what she does when and keeps me on track for remembering to do something.

Scheduling Without Actually Scheduling Part 1 - Weekly Schedule

I like schedules and lists, but they don't really fit in with preschooling very well. I've had to adapt and meet somewhere in the middle. I use two large magnetic white boards, 2' x 3' each, to keep our schedules and lists in a child-friendly format.

Here's our weekly schedule:

I made this before my child could read, so it is done with picture magnets. I made the magnets by finding pictures online for all the places we normally go together - I preferred pictures rather than logos but used recognizable logos when needed. I then printed out the pictures and fed it all through my Xyron 900 to make them into laminated magnets. If you don't have a Xyron 900, I believe there is magnet paper that can be fed through a printer, you could take your pictures to an office store to have magnets made, or you could print the pictures out on stock paper and add self-stick magnets to the back.

This calendar is for outings and non-negotiable stuff like doctor's appointments. We also include bathtime on here because we were a little too prone to forget about it! When she was younger, it also included naptime so she could see whether events were planned for before or after nap. While I keep this simple and most of our day is free-flowing, you could include as much of your day as you wanted to.

We started this calendar around the time she turned two. At that time, everything was put on with no input from her. Now that she is older and there are more places to go than there is time, we talk every Sunday about what things she and I want to do for the coming week and choose what goes on the schedule together.

Homeschool Room (aka Playroom)

So many people posted their homeschool room about a month ago and I was envious of all the neatly organized spaces. Ours usually looks like it has been ransacked, possibly because our homeschool room is better know as "The Kid's Playroom". But I took advantage of a day without her in the house to organize, clean, and photograph!

This is the bookshelf for the current library books, the dress up bin, the ball bin, and the fabric bin. We use the couch seen in the background for a comfy reading space.

Next up is a map of the U.S., a dollhouse, a small whiteboard, a cash register, and the big wooden chest that currently is full of Duplo.

Last on that side of the room is the art station.Still probably the least "organized" section of the room because I know that it will never stay organized.

The shelves above hold "school supplies" and the cabinets below hold "toys", though there is admittedly a lot of overlap between these two categories. The first picture above is a shot of all of it. The large white board usually contains our to-do list for the day and there are letter magnets on the back of it.

The shelves in the second picture contains more art supplies (I keep the paints out of reach) and science experiment supplies. The last picture is the shelves with the reading books, sandpaper letters, and math manipulatives.