At first we panic when we begin trying to come up with enough homeschool activities to fill our lesson plan. We research, we seek, we find, we accumulate... and finally we overload our calendar. Do you sometimes look at your homeschool calendar and long for date that is not completely filled? Many of us do. And you know that you can only have one top priority at a time. You can't have 5 top priorities..... can you? If so, which one do you do first? Which one of your top priorities do you complete first for your lesson plan? And as you progress further into homeschooling you will no doubt soon be reaping the rewards of all your researching and contacting by constantly receiving all kinds of helpful materials on homeschool and preschool activities in your mailbox. As a result, you can literally over-schedule your day with activities. And really, it can happen without warning and before you know it! So early on in the hunt for homeschool activities, take it easy. Try to curb your enthusiasm for signing up for all these very interesting classes and field trips. As I said earlier, in the beginning it may seem as though you have no contacts or resources, but very soon you will have more than enough. In a word, keeping your homeschool activity schedule simple is the best advice. Don't try to 'make up' for all the activities that you may think your child is missing because they are being homeschooled. Please don't take the aforementioned thoughts as being against activities. Not at all. Activities, field trips and such are one of the very important advantages that we as homeschooling parents have over the public school system. Just give yourself and your child room to breath. Keep all of your great ideas and homeschool resources handy and readily accessible, you don't have to do them all within the bound of one homeschool year. Keep your fingers on your (and your child's) activity pulse. Fine tune your homeschool activities calendar, and don't let it get too crowded. Give and take with your activities, if you add one, then drop another. You'll soon find what works best for your situation. |
