My long-awaited planning week has finally arrived. The boys are both attending Kids' College for five days. Theoretically that should mean I have a large pocket of free time each day. When I wrote that on the calendar several months ago, I assumed I would use this week to get the classroom, and myself, ready for our next school year.So far this week I:
- Looked over math books on Monday.
- Did a huge pile of laundry.
- Ordered books from three separate websites, despite my previous promise to do no such thing. (In my defense, I did order Singapore Math and Key Curriculum materials from one site.)
- Went to see the Harry Potter movie with my mom and daughter.
- Had lunch after the Harry Potter movie and went to another book store to buy more books. (Buy 4, get 1 free! You would have done it too!)
- Briefly stepped into the classroom to consider whether I should be doing more planning.
- Went to a HUGE library book sale and came home with a large bag of books for only $20.
- Went swimming because it was still 96º at 6pm!
- Figured I'll do a little planning tomorrow since it will be the last day the boys are out of the house.
My bag looks like this. Not quite as impressive, but I'm happy with what I found. Among the haul I have a handful of science books, three books I hope to use for music instruction and a cool book called Fantasy Cartooning, that I really think the boys will like for art.
Next week I plan to blog about the boys' week at Kids' College. I will also explain why after reading an interesting study about learning, I decided planning wasn't as essential as I originally thought. It was very convenient that I read this during the week I should have been planning. It certainly cut down on the guilt I probably should feel right now. Tomorrow we are expecting temps near 100º so I might just end up in the pool again. Or not. I don't want to make too many plans...
2 comments:
*lol* re: not making too many plans.
It looks like this might be a good year for you and I to compare notes as we go along. I seem to be going the opposite direction. Last year, I threw parts of my curriculum together after a last minute change of heart about a boxed curriculum. This year, with time to think and plan, I've tried to map out more. I've also spent time trying to taylor to each boys' strengths and weaknesses.
I have absolutely no doubt things will change as we go along, and I would be thrilled to stop everything for genuine interest on the boys' part. Still, I want to know that I've got some detailed ideas to draw on for the major portions of their curriculum. So, I've got more details and ideas than usual.
I'm looking forward to seeing how both of our year's progress!
The wonderful thing about the internet is that I can keep an eye on what everyone else is trying and see how it's working for them. Of course, that's also the bad thing about the internet...the grass is always greener!
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