Random Planning Notes

This will be one of those posts where I ramble on about planning because I really have trouble knowing what I'm thinking until I write it down : ).
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In the first place, here is a list of verbs I wrote down when I was thinking about Kieron's Year 6 work -- nothing especially new, just to clarify my own thinking:

• Read
• Make
• Draw
• Write
• Copy
• Memorize
• Demonstrate
• Discuss
• Study
• Research
• Work at

There are probably more, but those are the ones that come to mind right now. I think I will check out Evaluating For Excellence which has more specific ideas and possibly more action verbs.
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Aidan needs regular time during the day to work on both academics and therapy goals. In order to be more successful at having this happen, I need to ponder his therapeutic "big picture". I hope to do that this weekend.
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Since Latin has slowed down, I am thinking of moving word and sentence analysis and Logic into a higher place again with the two boys. There is this Daily Grammar resource, for instance. They are simple enough even for Kieron to use.

I am going to start both the boys on simple research paragraphs and then go from there.
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I talked with Kieron yesterday -- he is the first child of mine that I could actually discuss goals with -- the others much preferred either to work solo or to have me hand them something that they could then flex according to their own circumstances. Kieron liked the idea of more read-alouds as part of school so I think we will move that way, particularly since Paddy is now listening at a higher level. I think a literature-based unit approach would be fun for him and the slow winter months are a good time to experiment with this.
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I have been having some success recently with my housekeeping efforts by having a sequential list of basics per day, and then a sidebar list of tasks to get to as I find time. I am wondering if something like that would work with homeschooling. My "problem" is that I am fairly OK about getting to the concrete simple things like daily math, but as soon as I try to add any kind of complexity or do something that isn't "daily", it slips off my radar. When I have the housekeeping things laid out on a sheet it gives my subconscious something to ponder.

So that's another thing to work on this weekend.
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Finally, I wanted to consolidate my Spacious Place priorities into a more active form so I can look at them occasionally:

• Faith
• Literature
• Nature
• Conversation
• Enculturation
• Experiences
  
• Work
• Play

I think I will try to write out my weeks in review using this as a guide.
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So there are my half-formed plans.

The action list will then be:

• Look at Evaluating for Excellence
• Choose some books to read and study with Kieron.
• Ponder the therapy big picture for Aidan and put his specific therapy homework into that picture so I have a list of things to do.
• Plan simple research paragraph procedure for the two boys.
• Find the earlier version of my school priority checklist and figure out how to revise it.
• Try writing next weekly review using the categories listed above.
• Dig through this blog for my old plans and decide what to keep and what to change.
  

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