Treading on foreign ground

I am planning out our day to day school progress this year.  This is a huge change for us, one I hope I will be able to live with as it is not my style by any means.  Our norm is usually to get up and see what we feel like doing that day, or should I say, what I felt like.  It didn't work so well this last year.  I think with the kids not knowing what kind of day we would have, a laid back one or one where we had our noses to the grindstone, they didn't always do as well as they could have.  The morning would sometimes feel like they were unsure if this would be a day where they would be able to slough or did they really have to work hard.  Once they resigned themselves to the fact it was a work day and I really meant we were getting some work done, we had already lost part of the productive part of the day and my frustration level would be rising.

This year I got them both a student date book and I will write in them what needs to be done everyday.  If it isn't done by time we should be leaving for one of the extra activities, like dance or the YMCA, there is a very good possibility, unless there is a good reason they don't have something done, that we won't be going.

Spark has already lost his date book.  Since he is doing the boxed curriculum program this year the only thing I would have been putting in his is his math and Latin assignments.  We can wing them until he finds it.  It's bright red so it can't be that hard to lay our hands on.  The rest of his school stuff is determined by the schedule in his program.

Dancer has been using her date book for the last month for her math lessons and it has been working really, really well.  Last week I a put a few more of her assignments in for the next six weeks and today did the rest of them.  I only planned out that far because I want to see if the pace is right and if something comes up it won't be hard to rework a few days but a couple of months would make the whole plan messy.  She highlights each assignment after she has completed it, I didn't want her crossing them off because I want to be able to keep the book and if anyone should ask we have a record of her work.  She is finding highlighting things to be a good incentive.  She spent a good part of the weekend and today getting a head start on all of her work.  I thought "good, if she can work that hard and get that far ahead I can speed thing up with her math book etc."  Then I stopped myself and thought, what is the point of working ahead if you are just going to get more work.  So if she wants to work ahead, she already has some subjects done through Thursday, and do nothing for a few days, or even a week or however long, I am going to have to be okay with that.  I guess I have to think of her as a salaried student, not an hourly student.

So, tomorrow we start, ready or not!