Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where I Flew by the Seat of My Pants

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It’s entirely possible that I start too many Weekly Wrap-Up posts with “I’m so glad it’s Friday.”  So, to change things up this week I’d like to say: I am exceedingly grateful to have arrived at evening of the sixth day of the week.  I don’t care that I’m a stay-at-home mom; I still love the weekends.

This week has been interesting.  I’m very much a planner.  I like to have everything laid out in front of me.  However, after the blessing of spending most of last weekend on an extended date with my husband and not getting any lesson plans (or laundry or housework but that part isn’t entirely unusual) done, I have had to fly by the seat of my pants this week.

That hasn’t been so difficult with Josh and Megan since we have a pretty basic routine.  To be perfectly honest, it hasn’t really been horrible with Brianna either thanks, in part, to the fact that her math is done online and to the lesson plans for her Apologia Biology that I felt were totally and completely worth the $6 that I paid for them at my local curriculum fair.  I’ve done a lot of saying, “Do your math, your Daily Grams, the next day in your biology…”

This weekend, I hope to get lesson plans done for the rest of February so I can be organized again.  What do you use for your lesson planning?  I love the “one page weekly lesson planner” pages from Donna Young’s site.  (She also has free lesson plans for most Apologia science courses, I just liked the ones I bought better.)

Since I was working without a plan this week, there weren’t really any big exciting things going on.  I’m not sure if that – being kind of in a rut – is what starts causing a bit of burnout this time of year or if it’s more the fact that we’re all so tired of winter, but I do feel it trying to creep into the edges of my subconscious.  That probably means that it’s time for us to shake things up, either with some really fun projects, a field trip, or a fun unit study that is totally and completely different from anything we’ve been studying – or maybe all of the above.  How do you combat burnout?

(Maybe, if I don’t mention it, you won’t notice the fact that there are no pictures.  Maybe you won’t even wonder if I’m totally and completely behind on my Project 365-ish.  Lucky for me there’s an “ish” in there.)

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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19 Comments

  1. "I am exceedingly grateful to have arrived at evening of the sixth day of the week." LOL!!

    I am a planner too! I plan every Sunday. Well, actually, I have a master plan in Excel that devotes one cell to each subject for each week, so I have a general idea of what we need to cover each week. Then every Sunday afternoon (or sooner if I can get my butt in gear) I sit down with all of their books and enter for the week in another Excel spreadsheet (modified from DY) what they need to do daily. They use these sheets to do their work and check it off.

    I also have daily spreadsheets for myself that tells what I need to do during one-on-one time with each and for electives like History and Science that they all do together.

    Sounds like it takes a long time, but it usually only takes an hour at most. (btw, I made all copies, etc. for each subject at the beginning of the year so I only need to pull them out of files.)

  2. I love those Donna Young one page planners too!

    Boy, I'm out of practice with weekly wrap but we're back 🙂

  3. I like one page planners too ! I have one for housekeeping and another one pager for homeschool. I know exactly what you mean about feeling burnout come this time of year, what I like to do is start something new in January instead of in August/September. This has worked really well for us to fight the burnout. I usually start some sort of new together studies. This year it's Trisms, last year I remember starting a new together book study on Miracle of Maple Hill. Thank you for hosting this weekly wrap up, I so enjoy reading everyone's posts.
    Susan

  4. I'm a Homeschool Tracker devotee and wouldn't have made it through high school without it. Record keeping is not my favorite thing so I sit down and make a term at a time with a generic and then go back weekly and plug things in. I admire people who can fly by the seat of their pants. 🙂

    I didn't get my wrap-up written since my mind was headed elsewhere this week. I will do a two weeker next week.

    Glad you had a chance to spend time with your hubby. 🙂

  5. With just a 2-year-old and doing "pre" homeschool, we fly by the seat of our pants most weeks! Love that you had such a wonderful date night time with your husband. That's so important.
    Thanks again for hosting.

  6. I'm a planner, too, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. That's life! I have my own little form I made up for the girls, and I try to have 3 – 6 weeks planned ahead. (But right now, I only have one week planned!)

  7. I'm a planner…not so much a following through kind of person though. I think that's why God called me to homeschool…to work out my weaknesses in self-discipline!!

  8. We had a fly by the seat of our pants week too. It may have been more of a crash and burn. We'll get back on it next week. My big "plan" this weekend is also to lesson plan.

  9. In response to your planner question…I make my own personalized planner each week. I do this so I can simplify my lesson planner so if my spelling book goes by Units and each unit has 5 lessons I leave blanks that I can quickly fill in for example:
    Unit ____ Lesson ______ I leave a little space underneath in case I need to write a note. In a subject like history or language I leave a lot of space to write notes. I customize each subject to match the way the Author wrote it. It works for me…BTW I really enjoy Weekly Wrap up I love to see what others are doing and to glean ideas from them and I feel accountable! Kyle @ Roosterhill

  10. I'm ready for summer too. Not even so much for the warmer weather, just for a long break from school. I can't help it – I just love a long break. 😉

  11. LOL! I know exactly what you mean with the 'glad it's Friday' deal! I just joined the weekly wrap up a few weeks ago, and let me tell you, it was bad timing!! I'm right in the middle of my winter slump and I'm vowing this week's post won't be so negative! LOL

    As far as planning, I tried something new this year which I'm LOVING! I set weekly goals and (with different colored index cards for each subject) wrote the plans/goals for each week on individual index cards. We have a rolling "homeschool bookshelf" containing our current supplies and we affix the index cards on the side of it with sticky tack. My 8th and 9th grade children then know what is expected from the week in each subject.

    I like this method b/c in the past I've put multiple subjects on one week's lesson plan and then if we didn't get as far in one subject, it messed up the next several sheets (which drove me crazy!!!!). This way I can be flexible and if "life happens" to a subject, we just leave that colored card up for the next week and don't feel behind. I should blog a post about this system. . .hmmmm. . . 😀

    We also started a couple new things to try to shake things up, which helped. . .

    Thanks for sharing your week!

  12. I use Homeschool Tracker Plus. I have lots of stuff already set in the schedule for the week and I just add in whatever chapter or pages the kids need to do that day. It's not a perfect system, though. I try to print out their lists on Sunday night, but a couple of weeks ago, I didn't have them done till Tuesday! Thankfully my daughter is pretty independent.

  13. LOL – I love the interesting wording there 😉 I'm not a planner, I wish I were so we could do more exciting projects, I'm getting better, but not where I want to be. I email the big kids their assignments each morning. So all I do is copy the lesson from the day before then adjust the page numbers(blush).

  14. Kris, I am a BIG planner. In fact, I'm in the midst of planning right now while the rest of the fam is out bowling. But I enjoy the planning. And the break-and-bake snickerdoodles I just pulled out of the oven aren't hurting, either.

  15. I forgot to mention (cookies must have addled my brain) that I made my own planner: a Word table, which I use to create an overall weekly plan for me, and then a schedule/assignment sheet for each child.

  16. Glad you got some time with your hubby! I need to do some lesson planning for the next few weeks I think. THe last few months have had a lot of last minute trips and plans that kind of threw a wrench in any kind of schedule. . . but I kind of lean towards relaxed/unschooling with a guide and my kids are little so it doesn't bother me too much!

  17. That is awesome that you can plan out the rest of February! I plan get together what we are doing for the week and lay it out each night. I've found that if I plan out any further, we don't get to it all and I feel behind.

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