My new system -- Praying it works well!!

I don't know where to start, so I'll just rattle on and then you can ask questions as we go along. I thought about writing a book on this system and thought that it could make some money seeing that our society is into this sort of thing. Anyway, the inspiration for these ideas came first from Rebecca Kochenderfer's book: Homeschooling and Loving It! and from the websearches I've done on Sue Patrick's workbox system . In the first book (which I still haven't read very much of -- I'm still digesting the little bit that's gone in so far), Rebecca encourages the homeschool teacher to consider using the "benchmarks" of the grade levels to teach from. I've been so turned off by "benchmarks" and comparing children's abilities when outsiders don't even know us, that I personally was not interested at first. Then, my curiosity got the best of me and I looked them up by doing a google search on benchmarks ___ grade and voila! It was like having a blueprint. I don't know why all of the other resources I have about what every ___ grader should know haven't hit the spot, but this did. I knew within a few minutes all of the cool things that I've been missing by skipping here and there in my crazy way of teaching. It was mostly in the Science and Language Arts areas that I could see more clearly what my plan could be. I wrote out a list of benchmarks that I was interested in teaching and glanced at other grade levels to include some key components in my list that had been missed in the past.

Then, plunging into the Science curriculum head first, I sorted through most of the books and curriculum we have and put all of the Science stuff on a couple of shelves. If the book came out of a set, or boxed curriculum, a piece of painter's tape labeling the front of the book was slapped on so I wouldn't have to wonder where that book was supposed to go when we are done with it.

This picture is supposed to go last, because the top shelf now contains the resources I will be referring to (each labeled with the week or weeks that they will be used) throughout the year. The next shelf will hold the Science notebooks (scrapbooks of sorts) that we will add to whenever we complete a project, or paper. This shelf will also hold the colored papers that we will use for the pages, a three-ring hole punch, and books and magazines that we can cut pictures out of for our notebooks. I enjoy thrift store shopping for old textbooks and children's books with pictures that can be used in this way!

After my list of benchmarks were written out for each child (yes, tedious, but so very beneficial), I realized that they could be grouped into smaller chunks by basic topics. After getting catchy titles for the topics and figuring out which numbered weeks should correspond to which topic, I had a framework for the year. I grabbed piles of books and curriculum and when I had a specific topic that I was looking for, found the best explanations, illustrations, and experiments for each topic and wrote them down. This was when the motivation factor came in for me! I have a classic habit of starting a project or a new "habit" and then only sticking with it for a couple weeks or so. That was when the workbox idea came to mind. The workbox system (as I understand it) is a new system that has exploded throughout the homeschooling circles. I'm not interested in purchasing the book because the whole system seems exhausting to do with 4 children and 48 plastic boxes, etc.... But the concept is great! The idea is that the child can see his/her assignments and activities mapped out for the day and can get a visual of what there is that needs to be done and how far they are to being finished with the day. My idea was to motivate myself to stick to the basic outline by working hard for 6 weeks and then taking a 7th week to rest (that 7th week rest thing is a twist on the institution of the Sabbath in Genesis). So, Week 1 for Science is going to be "It's Alive!"-a basic study on living/nonliving things, taxonomy, and cells and their structure. Garratt's studies will include making up an acrostic for the taxonomy system (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species) and the girls and Weston will just work on being able to tell a mammal from an amphibian.

The idea of a week makes me strive for 5 days and go on to Week 2's topic on August 31st (which is "Eating and Being Eaten"-a study on the food chain and energy transfer). I have to keep telling myself that I don't need to teach everything there is to know about the topic before moving on to the next one. This is a big hang up I've had for a long time....if the job cannot be done well, then it shouldn't be done at all ---very destructive thinking!! Anyway.....the next posting will be about the reward at the end of the 6 week working time....