Guest Author - Meg Grooms
Lenient Schedules
A lenient schedule provides the benefit of allowing for unscheduled activities, sick days, grumpy days, etc. The downside is that people who tend to put things off could make the schedule backfire, they could keep pushing assignments aside in favor of other activities. I’m not saying this is bad, but if you find yourself doing this you may need to re-evaluate your need for a schedule, it could be that the unscheduled unschooling lifestyle could be for you.
An example of a lenient schedule is the one my family follows. We assign subjects to a day, but we don’t assign an amount of work to be completed until the actual day we do the work. If a child is grumpy perhaps 3 pages of math will be completed, which is made up for the next day when they are feeling better than usual and complete 15 pages. We schedule the hefty subjects on the same day as lighter ones, spreading the work throughout the week. We allow weekends for make-up work. This type of schedule allows us the freedom of participating in weekly co-ops with our homeschool group and unexpected illnesses or activities.
Another example is a goals checklist. With a goals checklist the parent sets a goal, such as the number of pages in the math book to be completed, and a deadline for later in the week. This allows the parent and child to work on the subject at their leisure, but know that they have to pace themselves to finish all their work by week-end. This is a good method for children who are of the age of self-accountability.
Regardless of the method you chose for scheduling, there are tools out there to help you.
Homeschool Tracker (http://www.tghomesoft.com/) is free software that can help you manage assignments and record keeping.
Donna Young’s website (http://www.donnayoung.org) offers several free templates to assist you in your homeschool and household.
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