Finishing the Homeschool Year

I tend to get a fair amount of emails this time of year that sound a little frantic.

"We got off track and there is no way I will finish!"

"I am stuck!  We all just want to play and we are not finished."

Sound familiar at all? Or maybe you just didn't intend to have as many sick bugs as you were struck with...or maybe you have a little one that gave you more fits than you expected? So many reasons that we get off track.  The important thing isn't to sit and dwell on the WHY. Now is the time to take stock and think about how you can spend the next 6-8 weeks getting finished up.

Something I always do is look at my original plan, exactly how far off am I?

a week?

a month?

WHAT? You didn't make a plan?

ok, that means you need to email me and set up a consult! I can't fix that in a blog post. I can help you fix a week or a month though. GET SUPPORT HERE

Grade 1: What are you behind on? Letter introduction  How is the process of learning going?  Remember that it is a process and it takes some children longer to unlock that code than it does others, do not stress. Often moms get hung up when their children aren't retaining the letters they have learned, DON'T! It makes for a very unpleasant homeschooling experience. If your child is already reading then you can shorten up and omit some of the fairy tales, for these children the letter introduction is often just a review. Don't shorten the other parts though, i.e., continue to write/summarize together, draw, paint and model together. Don't skip the form drawings. If your child isn't reading, again, don't stress, just look at your schedule and adjust. Perhaps you go two weeks into the summer? Don't forget to review, but do not DRILL. There is a difference.

Grade 2: Do not worry about omitting some of the stories of grade 2, you can always shift these to evening stories or read aloud through the summer. Focus on math and don't depart from painting, drawing or form drawing, keep going.

Grade 3 & 4: I think you have a good amount of wiggle room here, so much that what you miss,  could be covered as read aloud material in the summer. If given the choice, I would finish up the math and then save some of the story content for the summer. My children all knew that by about age 9, they are expected to do a good deal of reading. We do a lot to keep it fun in the summer months, but they are often reading something we just didn't get to. It spices up our summers a bit.

I also had my bigger kids do a research project of their choice over the summer. I had one do a paper on Unimogs and another wanted to write endless D&D levels... things I am not keen on them spending school time on, but I am happy for them to spend summer hours on.

The upper grades: I generally don't allow skimping, I will however do some editing, make myself notes on what I want to make sure I pick up later, etc.

I think the curriculum is super important, but so are families. You can always shift things around, adjust your expectations, take a firmer hold of your rhythm, extend your school year - many options.

Learn more about Waldorf by grade here.

If you are still stuck, message me right now. I am happy to help.

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