Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Smith:
Vicki Bentley, HSLDA’s Early Years coordinator, joins me again today to talk about lesson planning. Vicki, in your experience, why is “down time” an important concept for moms as they plan their year out?

Vicki Bentley:
Well Mike, we have to plan to succeed by recognizing that there will be tough days, sick days, good weather days, catch-up laundry days, and so on. So if you have a weekly co-op day or recurring medical appointments, plan a lighter academic load that day. Consider adding an educational games day every few weeks, which can be used for educational play if they’re on track, or catching up if you feel you need that. And if you need an occasional catch-up-the-house day, remember that organization and sorting and classification are math and science and language arts skills.

We don’t want to be slaves to our schedules or our plans, but we do want to be diligent and do our best to meet our reasonable goals. Do we have realistic expectations, or have we over-planned? Have we expected too much in too short a time? Have we underestimated the time to master a skill or complete an assignment?

For moms who are feeling overwhelmed, we have a helpful article at our site, in the encouragement section of the resources list. It’s called “When life broadsides your homeschool.” And that’s at www.hslda.org/earlyyears.

Mike:
Vicki, it’s so important for moms to plan their homeschool year with realistic expectations. Thank you for that good encouragement! And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.