praisefor3 wrote:I'm not looking for advice on what we should do...just "polling" on what you do and wondering what works best for you.
Well.... I hate to shock anyone, but I don't have a Friday deadline or a Sunday deadline. We don't do the manual "day one" on Monday anyways -- our school year starts on Tuesday, for instance.
I would say my method is eclectic, for several reasons. First of all, I'm schooling a youngest child, a way youngest, so I may be a bit lenient on my "last one in the nest." And not only that, but he's a student who doesn't really want to homeschool, so I don't like to make homeschool take over his whole life as if he's in solitary confinement forever. Instead, I want him to see that homeschool gives him way more flexibility and options. And also, I knew my son could check off that he'd read everything and still learn nothing, so I wanted to reduce the focus on check-off and increase the focus on learning - this is probably my biggest concern. Another big influence on my outlook comes from homeschooling my middle child who completely quit working, and I know that there is no amount of outside pressure or punishment that can make someone do something they don't choose to do. So I guess my main focus is to get my son to "choose" to do his schoolwork, from within himself.
Therefore, I take more of the role of mentor. I advise that my youngest ought to finish a certain amount of classwork, I ask questions and mark down exactly what he's done so far. I listen to his reasons why he should go to the gym or to a birthday party or whatever, even though he's not done with his schoolwork.
It's not to say that I have no rules. I make sure my son is up & starting by 8:30. I keep my own checklist so I can evaluate what he's accomplished. Often I may require a certain task be completed before he heads out, or even take a Saturday or holiday and make him do schoolwork all day. I may also do a task *with* him in order to plow through it more quickly. And I spend far more time reading and discussing with my son than most MFW families, because I just don't feel the more complex info goes in his brain at all if he just reads on his own - he's a boy, he's active, and he just doesn't care to delve into most books, so I choose things I feel are important, and he doesn't mind delving into those together.
So how's that for a vague answer? I should also add that he seems to be keeping up with all his college PSEO assignments so far. He's doing precalculus and Latin for college credit in 11th grade. When he was doing French at home, I can't tell you how much I tried to convince him that he needed to be more of a passionate learner in order to ever learn a language, so I was like a deer in headlights when he chose Latin

, but he is doing it.
HTH,
Julie