So I'm Skipping Stuff

[mrsrandolph]

I have 3 kiddos I'm HSing. I have already lamented the fact that it is hard to get it all in. So, I am guilty of *skipping* GREAT parts of the left handed page for the sake of time.

Like...in Bigger...skipping Hymn (which I WANT to do), poetry (which I believe is important), and vocabulary and timeline!

HELP?

[John'smom]

First off, saying a prayer for you. (((HUGS))) I know that when I'm overwhelmed something that doesn't take a lot of time, seems like it takes a loooooooong time. For example, sometimes I feel overwhelmed about unloading the dishwasher ( I know, lame, huh? ) It just feels like it takes me longer than what it really does. Here is where the timer comes in. I set it for 15 minutes and say I'm going to accomplish what I can. Well, you know what I'm usually almost always done before that timer goes off and plus I can start reloading. 15 minutes is long at all. The things you typed you're not doing really don't take that long, honest. I don't say that to discourage you, but to encourage you.

As far as the hymn goes, could you have the cd in the player, with a sticky note on top with what track the song is, and one of your older children can be in charge of working the cd player? If they don't know how to do it, take a little time, say on Sat or Sun (when there's no school) and teach them how to use it. I taught my oldest how to do it, so if I'm still trying to brush my teeth before school, they can get started on their song or review older songs. They love it!!! It looks like with Bigger, you'd have to read the pgs. aloud to them on Mon., but IMHO there's no reason you have to be there for them to do it any other time. Unless the format changes on other weeks, as we've not done Bigger yet. Just an idea.

The poetry part, could you do at at the lunch table, the discussion aspect. When we do the poetry, I honestly think it's much less than 10 minutes, but there's not much discussing in Beyond like there looks like with Bigger.

Continuing in another post because the screen is jumping.

[John'smom]

With the vocabulary, I would train your children (one at a time) so they could do it independently except for the discussion part. Start with only doing 1 vocab word at first. That's more than you're doing now, right? Cut yourself some slack and don't worry about having to do 3 words or whatever.

The timeline my dc do on their own. Do you just need to prep it or something? Maybe it's harder in Bigger, right now, my dc just draw a picture and write a caption in the appropriate box. I make sure they know the proper box to use, they do their thing, then I check their spelling.

Hopefully something was helpful. Maybe don't try and do all these things in the first week. Train somebody to do the CD player and start with the hymn this week. If you timeline is prepped, maybe do that, then next week, add something else.

[HollyS]

We often don't finish the day due to interruptions. If we have a few things left undone, I start the next day with them, before moving onto the next lesson...it usually only takes a few minutes. If we miss a storytime, I read the usual amount, but break it up in the middle to cover one lesson, then focus on the next lesson for the remaining reading. That way we still cover the lessons without making the reading too long. I also shorten English lessons by doing most (or even all) of the lesson orally.

If I know we are going to have a short day, I may have a catch-up day. We've been sick all week, so today we only worked on math, phonics/reading, and handwriting since we'd gotten behind on those. It gave them an easier day without having to skip anything. We've also caught up in the evenings and weekends.

I think having them cover the music on their own is a great idea. We keep the CD player in the kitchen, so we can listen while I'm making lunch. You could probably cover a few other subjects as well while multitasking. I often fold laundry or knit while I listen to them read.

I will admit we don't get everything accomplished either. I've been known to skip handwriting, music, or spelling since it will be covered multiple times. We're also off with math lessons, but some of that is due to them needing more time on a topic. I'm sure you're DC will do just fine with missing an occasional lesson.

[daybreaking]

I don't want to belabor the point, but for me, having a schedule is what allows me to get everything done. If I don't have a planned time to accomplish things, it's easy to skip them when things get hectic. I've done that in the past and didn't like how things were going. More times than I wished, I wouldn't get to spend the time with my dd that I wanted and I skipped things I wanted to do with my ds. Many times, we'd still be finishing homeschooling at dinnertime. Since I started using a schedule, it's actually been easy to do all the things I feel are important and to maintain a peace and calmness in our home. I don't mean to be pushy about scheduling; I've just been so thrilled with the enormous difference scheduling has made in our home, that it's hard not to extol its benefits! Carrie and Julie have both posted their schedules and since they have 3 or 4 children in their family, similar to yours, perhaps you could peruse their schedules to glean some ideas on how they are able to accomplish all of their schooling by lunch or early afternoon. I hope this helps!

[MomtoJGJE]

What if you do everything you are needed for on the left page, and then leave them for the independent stuff while you are doing something else? Like they could do the vocab word (I'd agree to start with one) by themselves once you figure out the word and they find it. With the hymn, we just sing it while I'm getting their stuff out each day. We listen to the cd in the car. Timeline takes 5 minutes once a week so you aren't saving much time there nor would you be gaining a lot of time adding it in.

We occasionally do not copy the poetry, and other than that it really only takes about as long as it takes to read the poem. Maybe 10 minutes if they are really into it. Then you could just let them copy it at their own pace. Just assign it for being due on Friday or whatever day.

Do you use the recommended stuff for English and math? We do the English mostly or all orally at the moment, and that saves a ton of time. The one time I did have her write some of it, she was already tired out from the other written work and those few sentences took her 15 minutes alone to write.

I agree that figuring out your schedule is the best way to shave time off without leaving anything out. For us RIGHT NOW it works best for me to devote individual time for the duration of each individual school. BUT during their independent time (like once I've explained vocabulary and helped her find the word in the dictionary in Bigger) I set her up to do the vocab and give her the dictation passage to study, then I go in the next room and do dishes or sweep or switch laundry or whatever. As I add more to her day (right now she's about 3/4 speed, she'll start full speed in the next week or two) I'll do some school work with one of the others during that time instead of chores.

[mrsrandolph]

These are great suggestions. I don't know what I'd do without you guys!

[birchbark]

Some other ideas:

Put the music CD in the car and listen to the current hymn while you're driving someplace.

Start your day with the poetry. I've found when I consistently am not getting to something, it helps to start with that thing, at least for awhile. For instance, we had a hard time getting piano practice done. I began having DS practice first thing in the morning while I was cleaning up breakfast. Voila! It gets done!

When I did vocab in Bigger, I would first quiz DS to see if he already knew what the words meant. If he did, we often (tho not always) would skip the ones he knew.

Timeline: Could you write in the names for your DC, and have them just do the dates and the picture to speed it up a little? Again, at least for awhile, until you're into the "groove."

[my3sons]

The ladies came up with many ideas I was going to share too, not sure if someone said this, but the hymn could be done with headphones or upstairs in their room if the noise interferes with other teaching you are doing. The poetry, I just remind myself to do only what's in the guide and not draw it out. Perhaps I'm the only person who can tend to be a "draw-er-out-er", but I have to watch myself for this all the time, or I find I wish I hadn't been so long-winded later. I have to celebrate having all but given up this habit of mine now (and my dc are celebrating it too ). So, poetry is meant to take like 5 minutes. If it's taking more than that, I'd try to scale back and just do what's in the guide.

One thing that has helped my BHFHG ds is to set up a small markerboard with what he has left to do independently. Today's looked like this...
1. finish history art project
2. cursive
3. copywork of poem
4. math (it was an independent day)
5. mark Phil. 1:9 in Bible with a sticky note (This was to get ready for Storytime)

I make sure he has all his things ready to go in a pile next to him, and he's able to continue happily working on without waiting for me, while I am working with one of our other dc. This has helped him learn more independency, and helped me walk away and work with someone else.

For vocabulary cards, we started with one and have now worked up to two. After we read the history book, I have him choose his word(s) right there beside me on the couch. He finds them in the history book, reads the sentence each word is in, and makes a guess from the contextual clues what each word means. Then, we go to the kitchen table, look up each word together, find the right meaning, and I mark it with a sticky note on the top and the bottom to section it off so it can be easily copied. Then, he knows what to do from there independently, and at that point it becomes the first thing on the marker board (finish vocabulary cards). I know that was a lot of detail, but it has worked well, so I thought I'd share it! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[mrsrandolph]

Well,
I am a drawer-outer too, and this is the main crux of my problem.

Another issue is that if I feel it can't be done to my "standards", I don't want to do it at all.

For hymn study, I type each verse on a separate piece of paper for them, so the verse they are learning for that day is all they are looking at. They I "teach" them how to sing it. I also feel we need to learn then meaning of the words. My husband is a part-time music minister, and he has a masters in church music. Hymnody and the study there-of is very important to us, so I probably do it to death!

As far as poetry goes, I feel like my 7 year old son with the language issues is never going to understand it, while my daughter that is 8 probably could, so I skip it. Stupid, I know. I know how important it is to introduce them to good poetry!

I'm weird.

[John'smom]

Shannon,
After reading your lost post it sounds like you're a little like me not wanting to do something unless it's done to your "standards". I always tell dh that if I can't do something well, then well, I don't want to do it at all. The bad thing is that sometimes things just don't get done then, and it's things that could be done and I'm making them bigger than they have to be. So even though your hymn study may not be everything you want it to be, it's still atleast getting done to some extent, whereas right now it may not be getting done at all. KWIM? Maybe I'm off in my thoughts here. So if I am just ignore me. IF not, then know it was said in love and not judgment and hope it helps you think about it in a different way.

[birchbark]

John'smom, this is exactly how I tend to be! Good words. It reminds me of a quote I once saw in a quilting shop that has really helped me: "Finished is better than perfect."

[mrsrandolph]

Good words!