If you have been wondering why there haven’t been any new posts lately, it’s because I have been planning and planning lesson plans for our 5 school-aged children. And why has it taken so long? Coz I can only do focused planning when the baby is sleeping, which well, she doesn’t do a lot of.
Anyhow, it’s done. Completed. Finished. Whew! For a moment I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish it by this week. So to be able to finish mid-week is a real bonus. And so I rewarded myself with some chocolate
We re-start school on 31st August 2009 and will end in July 2010. If you are wondering why we have such a weird time frame, you might want to check out my School’s Out post.
Prior to this, I had gone online to Popular Bookstore to order up a bunch of textbooks and assessment books. This saves me a lot of time unless I make a trip down to their Bras Basah branch. Ordering online ensures that all the books I want are available and can be collected at the branch most convenient to me!
So this is our grand plan for the 2009/2010 year.
Besides Bibe and English, which we will be using Student of the Word Year 5, I am using all of MOE’s recommended textbooks for Maths, Science and Chinese. That makes life much less complicated for me. Yes, boring to the rest of you but when you have 7 children to raise, you look for the most efficient way to do things. And yes, we school the textbook, traditional way.
(Note : I was once most swayed by the other more interesting methods out there but could never pull it off the way I wanted to due to our family dynamics. And felt most guilty that I have failed my children. Then I got myself the Maxwells‘ Managers of Their School (available at The Home Library locally) and was reassured to find out that teaching the children with the traditional method wasn’t that bad afterall! Thank God for the different methods out there to suit different family needs & dynamics,)
I know friends who use other curricula but in the final year have to do a crash course for the child to get used to the local way of testing. I know that would drive me nuts! Getting the children used to the local system from Day 1 means less stress for us when we hit the PSLE* year.
Once I decide what to use, I divide up the books (text & assessment) to fit into our school year in my Master Lesson Plan for each child. I like this form from DonnaYoung because it allows me to type in my lesson plan. You can choose to write it out of course. I just like the way it looks when it is all typed out and printed
Each child then gets his/her own Planner based on this Master Plan, every 4 weeks (since we school 4 weeks & take a one week break). Printing out their individual planner once every 4 weeks instead of the whole school year allows me to make adjustments as and when we need to. Eg. throw out books that are not working out, increase practice in weak areas, etc. which we cannot forsee in the beginning of the year.
Each child is then given their planner and all their books for the year to be placed into their individual school box (plain Toyogo box I bought from NTUC). To create some excitement for school, I also buy each child a new set of stationery.
(BTW do you know how difficult it is to find nice and non-garish pencil cases???)
One last thing before I am done, I condense all the children’s planners into 2 A4-sized paper and insert them into my own DIY Planner. This way, I can tick off what needs to be done by which child daily and it also keeps me accountable where grading their work is concerned.
And then we are set to go. If only DOING school is as easy as school planning!
You might want to check out a more detailed Homeschool Planning post at Building Up Moms.
* PSLE is a compulsory nation-wide exams all Singaporeans are required to sit for, unless special exemption has been granted by MOE.