Scheduling Joy

If you've read this blog very much, you know that I'm always making new schedules, vainly trying to fit everything in. I found a really cool site for free printable schedules, planners and calendars. Here it is. I've printed my favorite already and now I'm going to check out the rest of her site.

Someone has been paying attention.

My youngest son and I were watching TV the other day (I think it was HGTV, my favorite!). They were showing beautiful scenes of green forests and fields and the narrator made a kind of, um, weird philosophical statement about the elements of the earth coming together and blending to make the the colors of the earth, the green, the blue ... etc. My son said to the TV "It the cholorophyll that makes them green!"

Still no planning ...

I just haven't done it. Not even in pencil. I really can't decide what to do with my oldest son, curriculum-wise, and until I decide that, I don't want to decide what to do with the younger two kids. I would kind of like to coordinate their units somewhat, but that seems like it would take so much energy ... so anyway, its not done. This time last year, I felt so good about homeschooling. We were reading Swiss Family Robinson and getting a bunch of the reading for the next unit done and feeling really energized ... but this year, no such thing. We're reading (as usual) Hank the Cowdog and making no plans. Sigh. Maybe this week.

Planning.

This is the time of the year when homeschool parents traditionally do a lot of planning and map out the coming year. I haven't done any yet. Not surprising, I know, with my track record of planning as I go, but this year, I'd really like to have a master plan all laid out, at least a rough schedule of the units we are going to do and what days we will do school and what days we will take off. I may work on it a bit and pencil in a few things. I'll let you know how it goes.

27th Carnival of Homeschooling.

The 27th Carnival of Homeschooling blogs is up now. I'm enjoying reading these things. Here's the link.

More on Eyes.

Yesterday, my Dad called me and told me that he had gotten his contact lens stuck in his eye. I am a long time contact lens wearer and pretty good about putting them in and getting them out so he wanted to see if I could help him get this out. I got a flashlight and looked in his eye but didn't see anything, so he ended up going to a walk in clinic. The nurse practitioner at the clinic got it out easily, then she said, "You know, of all the people who've come in here over the years, thinking that they have a contact lens stuck in the eye, you are the only one who actually had one in there." I thought it was funny.

Sticks and eyes, revisited.

My youngest son came walking into the house with a stick again today. I reminded him that sticks were off limits until we could get some protective eyewear. He walked back out with the stick and I thought he was getting rid of it. He came back a few minutes later and said that his older brother was making the stick into a musical instrument. Thinking he might be annoyed that his older brother took his stick away, I asked him if he thought that was good or bad. He gave me that look that says "duh" (although thankfully he didn't say it) and spoke to me slowly, as if I might not understand and said "It's good. I don't poke myself in the eye with musical instruments."

Revised Summertime List.

This list is working for me, so I'm proud of it. The kids have to do some things from the list before any electronic media comes on. They still officially get the same amount of screen time as always, but with the list, sometimes they get interested in something and forget to turn on the game cube or TV. Yesterday, the game cube did not come on at all. Instead, they started drawing pictures and making notebooks to keep their pictures in. Here's the revised list for the next week or so, depending on how it is going and depending on when we start school.

Go on a bike ride.
Catch a bug.
Give Lucy a treat. (Lucy, our outside dog, is loving this.)
Brush the cats and dogs.
Board Game.
Card Game.
Dice game.
Hide and Seek.
Whammy ball. (This is our own made-up game and the rules constantly change, so I can't exactly explain it.)
Frisbee.
Trampoline.
Jump rope.
Science experiment. (We have a book and a kit for this.)
Read a book.
Reading treasure hunts.
Draw a picture.
Paint a picture.
Make something out of playdough or modeling clay.
Make something out of Zomes, atollos, legos or tinkertoys.
Set up marble run.
Dress 2 Barbies.
Set up the Barbie doll house.
Coloring book, 2 pages.
Make a maze.
Make an obstacle course.

There's also a chore section to the list but it hasn't gone as well, since they are pretending that the chore section does not exist, but we are working on it.