Homeschooling can be a little chaotic in the best of times, and when I'm also working a full-time job and managing a little hobby farm and being an active citizen, etc. .... Well sometimes the question is "how much of the schoolwork can we get done in this waiting room right now?"
Starting off the new year I put together a new Life Management Binder for myself, and one of my tabs is definitely "School". I took time during the break to make collage pages for each area of my life, envisioning what I want out of them. I'm envisioning a homeschool that runs smoothly enough to be the very best of what I hope for in education:
inspiring, socially responsible, life changing, sustainable, and
resilient.
And, perhaps most of all, I just need to feel a sense of CONTROL. For some that is a bad word ... that might be exactly why some folks homeschool in the first place, to get away from all the Control and Authority. But the opposite ... total chaos .... I find to be very bad for my mental health. And I think it's important for my children that they have two parents who are taking good care of themselves!
The binder is working out well for keeping this balance, so far. I use homeschoolmanager.com to track assignments and to create weekly check lists, and I print two copies (one for the kid, one for me to keep in my binder). I also have all the quarterly syllabi and other organizational documents in my binder. Then, when I want to check on what the kids need to do still in any given day, we sit down together and go through the checklist marking things off. Since we are working at home, in the car, at the office, and all sorts of other places, a portable system was a must.
It's only a tiny glimmer of control, but it's enough to keep me sane. ;)
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