Tried something new...and I think it worked!

I don't know about you, but I sometimes really doubt my abilities as a mom.   Throw in homeschooling, and I spend a good chunk of my time wondering if I'm really the best person to do this job.

Don't get me wrong, I *love* my job.

But sometimes, I'm 100% sure that I'm not the best person for it.

Flashback to last fall.   I was sitting, staring at Mr J's 6th grade course list and lesson plans  and I started to have that moment of panic.   How the heck was I going to do this, while also schooling a 4th grader and a 1st grader, and juggling Mr T's therapy and Miss R's toddlerness and staring the idea of a new baby in the face?   There's this huge jump of coursework between 3rd and 4th grade, so I was looking at the idea of TWO boys with heavy loads, in addition to teaching basic reading and writing.

I came to the realization that the best fit for us this year, with all of the changes that I knew were coming, would be to "outsource" for a few subjects with the older two boys.   Bring in Teaching Textbooks and Homeschool Connections.

We'd used Teaching Textbooks in the past, and had liked it.   I decided we were definitely going to be outsourcing math, using their programs, for all three boys.   (Side note:  I've found that they tend to "run" a year behind - so my third grader was doing Math 4, my sixth grader doing Math 7, etc).

Okay, one subject taken care of.

Using the Homeschool Connections unlimited recorded classes option, I was able to have Mr J do both his foreign language (Spanish) and history without deviating too much from the original syllabus provided by Mother of Divine Grace (it was the same subject matter).   Problem solved!   5 of the classes that I needed to teach were now off of my plate.  It wasn't much, but it was enough to make me feel a bit less stressed and be able to handle the amount of schooling we had in front of us over this past year.

It brought in one interesting question, though - with prerecorded classes, we had the flexibility to decide just WHEN Mr J was going to watch the lecture itself.   In the past, I'd assigned lessons for each day of the week and just given the boys each a daily assignment sheet.  I wondered what would happen if I gave Mr J the freedom to set his *own* schedule?

I decided to try it - instead of spelling out, each day, what work they were expected to do, I started giving him an entire week's worth of lessons/assignments and stood back and watched what happened.

There were a couple of weeks where he was trying to catch up on schoolwork on Sunday night before a new week started, but overall?  He did great.   He started to be more aware of what was going on in our daily lives and started to show initiative to plan his day accordingly.   For this child in particular, who usually stresses HARD when feeling overwhelmed, the sense of "being in charge" seemed to help him thrive.

We're definitely going to continue this method for Mr J next year (and in the future), and I'm debating starting the same kind of thing for the up-and-coming 5th grader.    We'll see.....he's not the same temperament/personality, so it might not work....but I might try.   I'll let you know how it goes.  ;)

Of course, you all want to see how it works, right?  Of course you do!  Here's what Mr J's desk looks like every week...

.

The planning stage.......Completed work is put back into these folders, and I grade it on Sunday, file it away for their portfolios, and replace it with new assignments for the upcoming week

I made each of the boys these binders for a road trip about 5 years ago....they've come in incredibly handy throughout the years!

A typical weekly assignment sheet - each subject has the week's worth of assignments written on it, along with a box for him to check off once completed.   This is probably the hardest part for me - I have to take the daily lesson plans provided by Mother of Divine Grace and convert them into a weekly assignment sheet.   Mr J tends to assign each item to a particular day of the week, and he writes that to the right of the check box.   It helps him stay on top of things, he says.

The completed box.   I think I spent a total of $5 on this whole set up, and it keeps things so nice and organized on his desk (when he actually puts the papers in the file folders....he is a young boy, after all!).   It's easy to grab and take with us if Mr T has therapy sessions or we have appointments of any sort.

Alright, not a super exciting blog post, but I'm hoping it might help out someone out there who is also coming to the end of their school year and evaluating what worked and didn't work for them.....and it gets me back into the blogging routine.  ;)

Have a great Sunday, y'all!