Day 5 Of Preparing...What do you do?

[mrsrandolph]

Do you go on to the next unit on day 5, or do you usually need to play catch up?

[blessed2five]

That is a great question. We are nearly finished with Preparing and for us we only used Preparing 4 days a week because our co-op met on Fridays. However, I will say that rarely did we complete 1 unit each week but would just keep plugging away with whatever day came next. The units flow together so well that starting a new unit on Friday wouldn't be a problem, but every week after that you would be ending in between units if you know what I mean. Ideally, you would only have to school 4 days and have Fridays off but that never was the case for us. In the end I think you will be happy with whatever you decide and it doesn't make that big of a difference in the long run! My older dd who did not attend co-op the first part of the year loved having a light school day on Fridays with just math and Spanish.

[4Hispraise]

We joined a co-op one day a week during our years in Preparing & CTC. We rarely fell behind in the guide, so we did not need it as a make-up day. If we hadn't been in the co-op, the units flow together, as pp stated. Continuing the guide on the 5th day would really work well. This year, we aren't in the Co-op anymore, so we are going to be doing all our "others" on the fifth day each week: cleaning & house catch-up, chore training, volunteering, art lessons, guitar lessons, etc. As I write this, I am thinking...whoa...I have way too much planned on that fifth day.

Anyway, I am no expert...that is just what worked for our family. Trusting you will find what works best for your family!! If I had had youngers that I was homeschooling five days at the time, I would have pressed my oldest to continue the units on Fridays or made it a day of exploration of things he is interested in (i.e. juggling, guitar, piano, drawing, Spanish, sign language). HTH!!

[Larissa]

My plan was to do co-op on the 5th day each week ... but our co-op fell through. So, I used the 5th day as a field trip and catch up day. We did about 2 field trips per month and it was usually centered around a particular subject like Science or History. 4 days of Preparing as written was enough school each week for my son. I feel pretty certain that adding a 5th whole day of Preparing would have been too much. As much as we have loved Preparing, it is a very full and thorough curriculum. When you do each day exactly as written it takes 4 hours to complete it if you have a non-dawdling child. If you have a dawdler like I do, it takes about 7 hours. (not always ... but he's been known to drag out his school day!

[MomtoJGJE]

I depends on what we are doing that week... We do school every day we are home. But some days we have things that are going on... some weeks we only have two days of school But that's the joy of schooling year round. I don't have to have a set schedule for field trips. Some days the weather is just too nice to stay here and not go do something.