Schedule - Way behind, squish or stretch into next year?

[Erin]

What will I do next year if I'm way behind?

Hello everyone! My name is Amy, this is our first year using MFW and we are really enjoying ECC, I feel like I have finally found what works for us! I am teaching three kids ages 8, 11, and 12.

We started ECC the end of September, but here it is January and we are week 7! Iif we continue on at this rate without taking any breaks we wont be done until August! So in other words we wont be able to have a summer break.

Anyone else behind like me, and if so what do you do, just continue on or end everything in summer and resume in the fall, or just wrap it all up in june and start the next study (CTG) in the fall. Any ideas?
Thanks
Amy

Hi,

We're pretty "behind" as far as the lesson plans are concerned, too, and this is not a first for me. We've moved twice and had a baby in the last twenty-four months, which has made keeping a consistent schedule very hard.

As long as you're reading good books with the kids and engaging them in in learning activities during your "down" times, I wouldn't worry too much. I'm sure a month with the family at a cabin this fall gave them wonderful opportunities to experience God's creation in ways seatwork never could.

I would get as much done through the summer as you can. We've done school two summers in a row now, although we back off the pace a little.

I wouldn't skip the end of ECC, though. It's such a good program, and there is so much fun stuff to do. We're in the year 4 pilot now, and I'm looking forward to going back to do ECC again with my younger ones in a couple of years. If you don't get done with ECC even until the end of September, there's really no harm. Homeschooling never really stops anyway.

Hope that helps!
God bless,
Erin

[SandKsmama]

Well, we didn't even start with ECC until the very tail end of September.
I'm not real sure what my plan is as yet.

I don't want to skip any of ECC - for one b/c it's so wonderful and I think the geography base is going to be so important for the history stuff. But, I'm not really thrilled with the idea of starting another program "late" again either.

But really? The truth is, we're NOT following anyone else's schedule but our own families. Life happens, and I think that's one of the most beautiful parts of homeschooling, that the children are a part of that family life all the time. If we aren't done by Memorial Day or even Labor Day, does it really matter in the grand scheme of things?

(but that doesn't stop the mommy anxiety, does it? I guess I"m going to have to keep telling myself what I just wrote up there, until I believe it!)

Right there with ya!
Amanda

[kellybell]

When we did ECC, we fell behind too, but I had no excuse of a baby, a move, an illness, or a month in a cabin (now THAT'S an excuse I'd love to have). What happened to us was that several times we took more than our two weeks per country. And in November, we studied the history and science of aviation because it was one month before the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brother's Kitty Hawk flight (12/17/1903).

Anyway, I just stopped at the end of May and resumed in late August. I like following the local school's schedules so that my kids can play with the neighbor kids without saying, "sorry, gotta do school today."

We finished ECC in mid-October (so we got two months behind during that year) and then started CTG immediately. And, that year (2004), the fall festivals came early, so we skipped those until Fall 2005. We finished CtG late October (taking the summer off).

Anyway, there's no problem in taking a summer break. There's also no problem in schooling through the summer. If you do keep the kids on track, you might want to only school the "ECC stuff" (Bible, geography, art, cooking) and not the 3Rs. In fact, it would be pretty cool if you wanted to invite the neighbor kids over for a weekly craft or cooking club where you do the ECC stuff!

Don't worry too much about schedules and those week numbers. I'm glad you got your breaks for the holidays and for the cabin trip. Life is good and you don't want to miss it!

[MJ in IL]

I just wanted to let you know you are not alone! I have no good excuses but I am also "behind." I keep reminding myself that I don't have anyone else's timeline but my own to worry about.

We always school some through the summer and my children don't seem to mind as they think a short school day is as good as a free with no school!

It seems that there often are some subjects or topics that are a focus for us time wise. Earlier this calendar year, we did a lot with drilling our math facts (+,-,X,/) and working on fractions.

I wanted to ditto someone's comment about having neighborhood children over for "school." We have had children for science experiments and travel videos (I get these from the library to wrap up a country) I think THEY think I am a fun Mom. My kids might not always agree...they also seem to get through their assignments more quickly when there is someone waiting to play outside :)

Enjoy the rest of ECC! Molly

[LauraMarie]

Oh, what a relief, to see that I am not the only one behind! This is our first year...and I don't really know what has happened. We moved this fall to a new community and then we switched from a different curr. to MFW. We are enjoying it, but I am just having a hard time staying "on track".

What do you do when you as the teacher lose focus? Any suggestions on helping me get focused, so I can, in turn, get my girls refocused???

All of that to say...you are not alone! I am thinking that once we finish their math, writing, spelling lessons, we may just start doubling up on our geography lessons.

[kellybell]

LauraMarie,

As long as you are learning, you are not "behind." When I am feeling disorganized, I try to find some way of having about a three hour block of non-school time alone. This isn't always easy. The last time I had this kind of time, my hubby took three kids skiing and I turned on two long videos for the littlest one (I'm not a big TV/movie fan but it really helped that day). If you can find a block of time, you can review where you are at and plot out where you want to be.

If you are having a truly rough school day, nothing is wrong with skipping your normal stuff and having an all-reading day, an art day, a game day, an outdoor day, a zoo trip. It "counts as school" although it's not a balanced day. But maybe you can do this now and then and you can get the kids busy and you sit at your desk and figure out what you need to do next.

Oh the first year or two are indeed the hardest. Sigh.

[Tina]

Hi: I am also doing ECC this year. If I compare myself to anyone, I may or may not be behind. I try not to say "I'm behind". I would not recommend skipping any ECC before moving on, it is all so great!

We are in Kenya right now (week 18). We tarried in Germany because we took a detour to the Netherlands while reading Hans Brinker. Also, we didn't "study" Switzerland but we talked alot about it and read Heidi (come to think of it, I wish I did get the Switzerland flag and at least color it, oh well...) I'm thinking that we may end up studying Mozambique also, as my husband did a work and witness trip there a few years back, or maybe we will piggy-back it with Kenya.

I plan to keep right on going, and if I do, I should finish sometime in June. That's okay with me. During the warmer season (I live in MA) I will probably lighten up on the academics for more outside time.

Also, to the person asking about getting ourselves as the teacher moms back on track, I would probably get A LOT of book basket books for the country I am in, and let them have a "book day" so that I can catch myself up. Or, I would take a Saturday to gather my thoughts (I do that a lot--I use Saturdays to file papers, look ahead for the next weeks' lessons, get crafts together, clean the house, etc)

Best of luck in ECC.

[LSH in MS]

We got behind in ECC too because we studied about Jesus in December and the Pilgrims around Thanksgiving. I would recommend doing just ECC in the summer, no 3Rs. That's what we did until we finished it. I found I was able to do each country in 1-1\2 weeks. We didn't rush, read a lot of read a louds that were suggested, but didn't do every activity. I wanted them to get an overview of each country, do some fun stuff, and memorize the locations.

The funny thing was my boys felt like they had the summer off! They didn't consider ECC school! To them school is the 3 RS, ECC is just fun!

We went swimming in the afternoons, it was different than the school year and they enjoyed it.

[Julie in MN]

Our family, due to life, is behind in ECC. I am not paranoid about "finishing" but I love the curriculum & think the benefits are GREAT. Thats one reason wea re so far behind- we've really learned & savored the countries we have visited so far. On the other hand, we want to finish this year so that we can move on because we have other things planned.

Have any of you had to shorten ECC considerably & if so would you:
smoosh days together & try to cover as much as possible?
choose some countries to skip?

Other ideas or suggestions?
Thank you.

I think it depends on how much you need to shorten it. Lots of folks condense the last continent or two. But if you have a lot more than that, I might start cutting out countries so that you can really experience the ones you do have time for. When we did ECC for the second semester of 8th grade (and then ds started high school), we just focused on our "hardest" or "least known" areas, such as Africa and Asia, and our "neighbors" in Canada and Mexico. But that was our second time through ECC.

Julie

[HSmommi2mine]

It's pretty easy to do. I took the 2-week segments and just mashed them together. I choose the activities and reading that I thought was going to get me the most bang for my buck (and could be easily accomplished) and just did what I could in one week. If I knew something wasn't going to be especially interesting to my kids I dropped it. At the end of the week I moved on, even if we had missed a thing or two that I had planned to get to.

[schoolmom2]

Maybe thinking about world events would help you to smoosh or leave some out? For instance, I feel that my kids need to know as much about China as possible, given how things are progressing in that country toward becoming an economic world power. When they are older, I think that knowledge will serve them well. Antarctica, on the other hand, could probably be covered in one day. =)

[lisaha]

We r going to squish weeks by doing the most important things!