What do you do when you miss a couple of days in the week?

[babybryte]

What do you do when you have to miss a couple of days of school during the week? Like this week, we missed one day due to a field trip to a play, and another due to driving out of town to visit my grandmother. So now I've only gotten 3 days out of 5 done. I really want to stay on track, to make it less complicated.
I could do school on Saturday and Sunday, I guess.

What do you do when this happens?

Thanks!!

[MomtoJGJE]

I do one of three things.

1.) don't worry about it and just plan on our school year being a little long... pick back up Monday morning.
2.) school on Saturday/Sunday
3.) do more than one day of school in a day... this is especially something I do if I know beforehand that I'll be missing a day, but we missed a day this week and instead of doing school tomorrow (Sat) we just did two days worth today.

[water2wine]

I have learned to just call it life and move forward. With a four day week it is easier to get back on track when we were doing a five day week I just let the day fall when it did and did not connect day one with Monday or day five with Friday. It all worked out in the the end the program still flows well. This year we have already hit quite a few bumps due to illness. I am already off the days and I am just going with the flow. We have Friday as a flex day for extras. We might do less extras and more school because we have missed quite a few days or we may just move on and call it life again. The main thing is I have found HOD still flows no matter how you stomp on it or mess it up. It is pretty much life proof.

[dhonae]

Jacquelyn,
Like you, I really prefer to stay on track with the days. However, I have had to embrace flexibility of homeschooling. Typically, if we miss a day unplanned at the beginning of the week, I will try to spread out the lessons throughout the week. This also works for us if we know we will miss and we are able to plan. For example, we will squeeze two days worth of history and math into one day. Then we will squeeze two days worth of Bible and language arts into another. We do this until everything is spread out so as not to overwhelm my ds by making him do two entire days worth of work in one. This works for us in Beyond, but I'm not sure how it would work in Bigger.

If we miss a day unplanned at the end of the week, I typically just let it go and just start on a day 4 or 5 on Monday. This was very hard, but I'm embracing it since my husband would not stand for us doing school on the weekend.

Another thing I have found is that my ds does not always need to do certain things every day. We don't need to do a poetry activity everyday, so we may just skip it. Same thing for our spelling since my ds does a pretty good job with his spelling words. This frees up some time when having to combine days.

[Kathleen]

We do a day's worth of school in a day...and pick back up on the next day when we get there. We also never worried about the which day of the unit landed on Monday and it has worked beautifully for us!! (Now it would seriously bother me if it said "Monday" and I wasn't there on Monday...but the way HOD is scheduled it just flows! )

I have been able to stay with and unit per week this year in Preparing because it's a 4-day week, so just like w2w we do fewer extras on Fri and more school if we missed for some reason. But I had just as great of a year doing 4-5 days per week with Bigger and not having day one on Mon.

With my younger 2, we actually stretch most of it so that we're only getting 2 "days" of school done in the week. I'm wanting that guide to last 2 years for them. My 5 yo does 4 days of phonics, math, and fine motor skills...my 3 yo joins in on anything active here.

All that to say that HOD is REALLY flexible and it can truly be used to work with your family! I LOVE IT!!

Kathleen

[my3sons]

We just pick up where we left off, but I will say we try not to miss too many days because we enjoy our summers off. This weekend, my oldest ds is deer hunting with my dh Friday through Monday, so we'll have missed 2 days too. We are just picking up where we left off on Tuesday. This year, even though we are doing CTC which is a 4 day plan, we are schooling 5 days a week when our schedule allows. I've enjoyed this because it gives us wiggle room on weekends such as this. For the younger guides (LHTH, LHFHG, Beyond), we've taken longer than a year to go through them, getting as far as we do, and then picking back up from that point after summer when we begin schooling again. It's worked fine because my ds is on the young end of the age ranges anyway. By BHFHG, he'll be on the plan my oldest is on though, to finish a guide each school year. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[funkmomma71]

I would have to echo what many of the other ladies have posted, let it go. It took me almost the entire year last year to learn that lesson, but once you do, life and school are so much easier and simpler. We missed two days this week, and I am most definitely not sweating it. I used to, and I would work hard to make up the lessons and finish a unit in a week, but not anymore.

[babybryte]

Thanks, ladies, for your suggestions!! I guess the problem is that I want to be able to pick up the Guide and know that on Wednesdays, we are always on Day 3, for example. I don't want it to be Wednesday, and I'm at Day 5 or Day 1 or something. I know that sounds so SILLY! LOL!! I can't even believe I wrote it, but there you go.

But in reality, I know that things will happen where we miss days, so I need to get over it.

Thanks again for your ideas!!!

[Daisy]

We just pick up where ever we left off. We are almost never on Day 1 on Monday.

We just do the next thing. I'd give myself a nervous breakdown if I tried to keep it perfect. This 2 or 3 day week will eventually meet another 2 or 3 day week and then you'll be back on track....for a little while anyway. LOL.

[Carrie]

We just pick our guide back up after the missed day and start where we left off. We're almost never on Day 1 on Monday either. In fact, this year we got a later start than usual and are doing CTC 5 days a week (and its a 4 day plan)! This works fine too.

I will admit that it took me quite some time to adjust my mind to this type of thinking though! But there is freedom in it and a sense of relief. You'll be surprised at how much you'll actually cover, with less stress on you!

On the other hand, with my older kiddos, we have gotten to the point where we almost never miss a day of work. This is because we deeply love to have the summers off when the weather is lovely here in SD, so we're highly motivated to finish our guide on time.

Blessings,
Carrie

[mariaw]

I guess the problem is that I want to be able to pick up the Guide and know that on Wednesdays, we are always on Day 3, for example. I don't want it to be Wednesday, and I'm at Day 5 or Day 1 or something. I know that sounds so SILLY! LOL!! I can't even believe I wrote it, but there you go.

I TOTALLY understand!!! Just take some white out to the numbers and you'll never know. ha ha ha

[crlacey]

But how does having Day 5 on Tuesday work withe the spelling words? I would think that you wouldn't want to stretch the words out over the weekend and then give a new list on a Wednesday. So how do you avoid that? Or am I the only one that has a problem with this?

[Carrie]

Crystal,

At first, I too had a problem with this, so I know what you mean! However, when I realized that the goal of correct spelling is actually retention (for more than the end of the week test), I realized that it didn't matter whether we took a weekend break in the middle of the unit's spelling words. In truth, we were looking for long-term retention that comes from seeing the word spelled correctly and learning to visualize it within the mind. So, switching to a new list mid-week didn't affect this goal. The method for memorization was still in place.

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Carrie

[3musketeers]

We just pick our guide back up after the missed day and start where we left off. We're almost never on Day 1 on Monday either. In fact, this year we got a later start than usual and are doing CTC 5 days a week (and its a 4 day plan)! This works fine too.

I will admit that it took me quite some time to adjust my mind to this type of thinking though! But there is freedom in it and a sense of relief. You'll be surprised at how much you'll actually cover, with less stress on you!

I knew I liked you, Carrie Austin . Girls it took me a loooong while to get this too, but pheww the freedom!!! I also try very hard not to miss days. But for some reason we always finish at the end of June/first of July instead of in May. I keep reaching for that goal of a full summer break. One day...

[babybryte]

Thank you, everyone, for your thoughtful replies! I know this is something that I will get used to. I don't even know why I am worrying about it. I mean, it's not like I stayed right on schedule with any of the other curriculums that I've used. LOL!

Thanks, again!!!