InHisTiming - 3 days of English and math and dropping the extensions sound like good ideas. As for doubling up on spelling/dictation (whichever - or both - that you are doing) - Spelling/dictation is scheduled on Days 1, 2, and 4 of each week's daily plans, so the easiest way to double-time that would be just to do it once each day instead (rather than doing 2 spelling lists/dictation passages at a time). As for doubling up on the rest, I did that one year when our baby Emmett had health concerns. It shaved a lot of time off for me to do 2 days' worth of readings in a row (i.e. Day 1 and 2 of Reading about History readings), and then do the 2 bottom left rotating boxes after that. Same with poetry - read the poem only once, do Day 1 and 2 poetry assignments after that. Same with Bible study - just recite the Bible verse with actions once, then choose just one of the "exercises", and then do Day 1 and Day 2's discussions all in a row (Day 5 of Bible Study has to be done on its own though.) Same with music - just do the hymn once.inHistiming wrote:This is what I think I'm going to do:
First, I will reduce the amount of time spent on English and Math since we're a bit ahead...maybe just doing these 3 days per week instead of 5. I am also going to drop the extension readings. I've been reading these out loud and we love them, but it will reduce the amount of time spent on school if I drop them for now. That leaves us with Bible, Science, History, Story time, Poetry, Music, and the rotating box on the left-hand side to do each day. We will continue to do handwriting daily, along with spelling 3 days per week as scheduled. My next report to the school district is due April 11, so I think I will try to double up on units until then, just so we have a decent amount of work to report on. That should allow us to complete 6 weeks in Bigger within that time frame..and after that I may go back to just 1 unit per week and add in the English and Math daily again. Also, with spelling, we will double up on that for the 3 weeks until the next report. This plan will allow us to at least get through the 28 units that I reported we would do...and we can always double up more if I find it's not too difficult.
I am thinking of going through the manual and preparing a notebook for my dc to use for assignments...listing weekly work like spelling words, vocabulary, science, etc...anything that could be done independently. This would be very helpful to me, as we spend a good deal of time with me giving instructions and then one child waiting on the other to finish so he/she can use the book needed to complete the assignment. Then, once the work is completed they can just move on to the next thing without having to waste time waiting for me or their sibling.
I still have to get this 'plan' down in my head to see if it's gonna work, but it's what I'm thinking for now.
Thanks again for all the help!
As for the rest - LA Cursive, easy to do 2 pages. Grammar - easiest to do 2 lessons in a row. DITHOR, just doing it 3 days a week is fine still. Storytime - pick short books if you can - and then doubling up on 2 day's of Storytime shouldn't be too time consuming. You could even just do 1 of the Storytime readings with 2 boxes of plans, and then just read the extra pages at night before bed or during lunch. For science and math, it's easiest just to do the day's plans separately (i.e. read the pages, do the activity for one day's worth of plans, then read the pages and do the activities for the next day's plans).
I don't know if this is clear at all - hope so! You probably had a lot of this figured out anyway, but I just thought I'd share what worked for us.
You'll get back on track - we all have this at some points in our lives. Next year will be a great - new, fresh start. I remember feeling that way and being so glad for that then. It always made me feel better to think back to the time I taught in ps and had a substitute teacher filling in while I was on maternity leave - I came back and less than a third of the plans had gotten done. That happens ALL of the time in ps teaching, and ps teachers are doing the same thing we're having to do with unforeseen life surprises too - pinch hit, double up, do the best possible with the time left. Your plans will get you through the end of this year and next year's a brand new beginning. 
In Christ,
Julie
