As a homeschooling mom of an active preschool age boy (as well as an active 9 1/2 month old boy), I thought it would be best to approach his education in an unschooling manner. I quickly learned, however, that our whole day cannot be as laid back. No matter what style your family has adopted for homeschooling, I've found a daily schedule helps the day flow. Unfortunatley, my type A personality makes it difficult to be flexible about any schedule we adopt. For example, I decided to have some structured time where we could sit down and do a project, play a game, read the library books, etc. This, I believed, would help me feel like we were getting "school" done each day. In the schedule I devised, I included time for free play and time to play with mom/dad (this to help my husband see he really does spend enough time playing with our three year old). I also fit our "life" into this schedule (around playdates and co-ops, etc.) by listing a time to do chores and our regular daily routines. I was pretty pleased with myself once I got it all down on paper...except we haven't followed the schedule yet (after one week). I think writing down goals and lesson plans is valuable. I think stressing about not following them is a curse of the type A personality. My advice is to chart your daily life and routines. Assign general times of the day when things will happen (chores, play, school) and realize that it is written on paper but it is not written in stone. My husband travels so I play "single mom" 5-6 days at a time. When he's home, I sometimes get to sleep in. If, for example, I try to catch up on two weeks' worth of sleep and don't get out of bed until 9 am (like this morning), I can't beat myself up because my new routine has not been followed (i.e. beds are unmade, we missed the morning pledge on the local Christian radio station and we didn't have our morning lessons). I am glad I'm starting this journey early because it may take me until he's 5 or 6 to "get it together". Of course, just about the time I figure it all out, everything will change. It always does.......
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