Build A Cushion

In light of my recent posting about losing hours quickly due to illness and interruptions, it has come to my mind for the first time since I’ve been homeschooling to add a few extra hours of school work when I can.  This way if you do get ill then you won’t feel rushed to play catch up. Before last week I was an entire week behind on school (and its only the end of September!), since we were only doing a four day school week I just decided to pick up on the extra two days so I could be on schedule again. I know I’m behind and it is just so easy to stress but thankfully I am now only 15 hours behind and quite sure that I can repeat what I did last week to completely catch up. Wisdom, however, now suggests that in the future I start adding an hour or two extra here or there on smooth days to build a cushion into my school week. That way when illness or schedule disruptions strike I don’t have to be stressed over what is not getting done because I will know that I already have time built up to offset those bad weeks.

Don’t Panic – just grab an hour!

Certainly, if you have scheduled your hours with a certain amount to perform every week you will have found how easy it is to fall behind when illness or schedule disruptions attack. Currently, because of the wild September I’ve had I am actually one week of hours behind.  At this point, it is easy to panic and get tense about it but refrain from panicking!  When you have school days that flow well just add an hour or two here or there or maybe you’ll have a day to pick up the hours you’ved missed like on a Saturday.   Add a fun hour of art, nature study, acting out historical figures; your hours will fly back to you in a hurry.

Free Homeschool Forms

One of the most valuable websites that I have run across as a homeschooling parent regarding forms of all types is at www.donnayoung.org  Drop by her website and plan on spending some time browsing as her website is pretty vast and includes many different types of planners, grading sheets, calenders, etc.