Since it is very quiet this morning with both children at day camps I have devoted myself to getting a better portion of the year planned out. I bit the bullet and ordered The Old Schoolhouse Planner, which I am finding to be an excellent investment! It is worth it for me just to have the forms (which I can print and fill out, or do on the computer and then print) to plan every speck of their curriculum for the 180 days of school the Georgia law requires of us.
We are starting a relaxed schedule next Monday, moving to more structure the second week of August, and should complete our school year by the week of May 10, 2011! We also will have almost the entire month of December off. I'm sure our days may change a little here and there, but it feels good to have our calendar mapped out in my head and now on paper!
I've printed the calendars from the planner and have numbered our days, and now I am working on schedules for each child that are for ME. The next step will be to use a daily schedule form for each child, so they can see at the beginning of the day what needs to be accomplished before we are finished for the day. This is a lot of planning for me to do this week, but I know it will be invaluable to have this done (at least for the first semester) so I can concentrate on teaching!
In many ways this is almost more difficult than when I taught in public schools. At least then I had a prescribed curriculum and not a lot of wiggle room. As a homeschool teacher I have had to make the curriculum decisions, purchase the curriculum, and now implement. Before I began this journey I read from many homeschool moms that it was indeed a full time job. They were (and are) CORRECT!
I should get back to my planning - don't like to get too distracted by the computer!
