Monday, October 4, 2010

I'm supposed to be ORGANIZED???

Oh, my.  I was going to ignore this week's Blog Cruise question.  I ignored it last week.  Last week had to do with how you do nature studies where you live.

I don't.

But I couldn't bring myself to bother anybody with that short of a blog post, so, well, I didn't.

This week isn't much better:  How do you organize your homeschool?

Yeah.  Uh-huh.  That's funny.  I'd prefer to just pretend I forgot there was a Blog Cruise this week.  But unlike last week, I guess maybe what I have to say could benefit some other slobs out there.

So -- here it goes.  I'm totally unorganized.  I do way too much flying by the seat of my pants.  And that is whether we are talking about the physical aspects (we are FOREVER misplacing school books!) or whether we are talking about some pretty little schedule that governs our day.

We just don't operate that way.  We don't.  But you know what?  I think we are still successful homeschoolers.  You don't have to be even remotely organized to homeschool.  Really.

I'm sure it helps.  I'm sure the people who know that they will do math from 8:30 to 9:27 accomplish more than we do.  I'm sure the people who don't have to schedule in time to search for missing science supplies do better than we do too.

But... that's not me.

I want to be able to take the time to watch the roofing materials get delivered to the top of our house.  I had a great conversation with my kids as to how they thought they would get the stuff up there.  We discussed physics, even though none of my kids are "studying" physics this year.  It didn't interrupt a lesson, because we don't have things all nicely laid out anyway.

We can follow bunny trails.  We can go off on a tangent.  We can spend time examining the rattle snake, or the spider, that we find by the house.  (I guess that would be "nature study" huh?  Maybe I could have written a post last week!)  We can take time to go build picnic tables for an Eagle project. 

Now, don't get me wrong.  I do plan out our basic framework.  Connor & I sat down last year (he was a 7th grader) and mapped out a basic high school plan.  So we know (roughly) the courses he plans to take to get to graduation.  And within that, we have deadlines, tests, specific programs and texts.  I have a general plan for what the younger kids are going to accomplish in a year too.  And we do get a lot done.

But we just aren't all that organized.  This will be the first year my kids will have planners -- thanks to the TOS Student Planners, which I talked about the other day.  Maybe that will help us to become more together and on top of things.

Or not.

Either way, I think it is going to be a great year.  Even if we don't know that at 9:27 we are done with math for the day.

7 comments:

Catherine (Alecat Music) said...

You got me into this post. I love your relaxed way of writing, and am very glad to hear that you took time to watch the roofing materials get delivered. If there's an opportunity presenting itself like that, you should take it!

I like to try and be sort of organised, but my way isn't with a timetable. We just move from one block of activity/study to another. Yes, we also have books go and take a vacation somewhere, but when they're back, we'll give them a workout.

Hmmm - should I write for this blog cruise? I missed the last one too. I'll think on it and see what I come up with. :)

Michelle Smith said...

Debra, as usual, a great blog post. You had me hooked from the start and somehow I didn't think you would head quite this direction with it since you were on the team which developed the TOS Student Planners. I really related to your post.

But, now, since our home is much like yours . . . what will I ever say today? ;)

Jodi said...

I love it! Great post Debra! I appreciate your honesty and I think it's just fine to be UNorganized too!

Michelle Smith said...

I have tagged YOU!

http://homeschoolblogger.com/alifebetterthanidese/783679/

Dawn said...

All I can say is...I can TOTALLY relate! Thank you for posting...so I know we're not the only ones! :-) Have a wonderful day!

SisterTipster said...

Well, I've been cracking up~but if you wanna FEEL BETTER~head on over to my post LOL...thanks for the chuckle!

Unknown said...

I love how you are honest about being organizationally challenged. Great encouragement for us homeschool moms.