Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Ending, Beginning and In Between

Our "school year" is over. Although we tend to be unschoolish in some ways, we still have beginnings and endings, though not entirely (as noted in this post, in which I mention that learning never ends and is always beginning.) But, because we live with a public school teacher, we tend to live more "by the school year calendar" than some homeschooling families.

I arbitrarily declare "We're done!" at some point, then the kids run a victory lap around the house and proclaim that summer has begun.

But, it isn't really over for me. Because I haven't even begun to start planning next year yet.

What about you? Do you plan in the spring, before the school year ends (and then get to proclaim, "I'm done!")?

Or do you plan over the summer?

Or do you school year-round, and thus have various planning times interspersed throughout the year?

I'm known to plan and then discard the plan, so even if I plan over the summer, I end up planning at other times, too.

I'm suddenly quite tired of the word "plan" so I can only imagine how you feel. Must be time to sign off and dive in to what promises to be a busy day.

8 comments:

Suzanne Temple said...

I plan all summer! It is a treat for me.

Barbara said...

We use Seton (no throwing tomatoes please) and so we do have an end. I like knowing that there is an end, because I have a somewhat compulsive personality which would probably not allow me to end. Someone has to tell me to. I also don't have to do too much planning, just supplementing, which keeps me from going completely overboard! We're on the almost last week -- unlike institutional school, we're not done until the book is complete! A week or so of math to finish. Have a great summer!

Anonymous said...

I usually thoroughly enjoy planning, but this year I keep putting it off. Maybe because I planned so much last year and we ended up winging it most of the time. I am breaking for a solid two weeks from everything, but then I guess I need to face the music. I am very curious as to how unschoolers plan - when you get a second wind, could you post about that?

Cheryl said...

We'll be "done" on June 15th. I'll do general plans this summer. I actually like to plan the specifics for one season at a time: fall, advent, winter, spring.

Amber said...

We finished school about a week and a half ago (it was quite anti-climatic, really) and I finished the major planning stuff for next year last week. I still have to review materials and think about pacing, but I will probably not do that until the fall. I like to plan, can you tell? :-)

Leticia said...

I discovered myself planning while we were re-organizing the classroom last week, so I just went with it, and find that Isabella, who is going into 5th grade is done.
Gabbi, who is entering high school is another matter, however, but the Immaculate Heart of Mary Conference next week should help with that.
My special Christina will be continuing multiple therapies, and Montessori pre-school when she's ready.
We also have several co-ops blooming on Long Island, which add some variables so, I suppose I'm still in the midst of it.

Sweetness and Light said...

We are tending to school year round with different *seasons* of learning interspersed with the different liturgical seasons and so I feel like every couple of months I'm adding to my general plan that I do this time of year (or actually earlier this Spring)! We have had such a tumultuous past year with all the relocating and resettling that it's been a good way for us to keep on top of things. I am a planner by nature, so I truly enjoy it and much as doing the actual plans!

Rebecca said...

I keep hoping some year I will adopt the six weeks on, two weeks off all throughout the year, including summer but it hasn't worked out yet.

I think this year we will be done on Thursday, except for science (which we do every summer), nature study and lots of read alouds. I don't know why we are officially "done" since we are in the middle of quite a bit but the warm weather has come and no one really wants to spend much time at table lessons.

I think I am using Mater Amabilis next year, pretty much the way it is written so I am wondering what in the world I am going to do when I used to be planning all summer! I guess I can still enjoy ordering the books but there is something strange about not having to plan much.