As the holidays (and the new year!) approach, we homeschoolers are starting to feel a bit of a strain with regards to our learning schedules and really, we’re just all so ready for a break.
Many of us take the holidays completely off, depart from our “regularly scheduled programming” to do something fun (like these ideas I shared last year), or take a detour to do something totally holiday-focused, like our family’s Shepherd’s Journey Around the World or Celebrate the Season activities.
But even if we don’t deviate from our typical daily school schedules, this time of year is the perfect chance to hit the reset button on our days…to evaluate what’s been working (& not!) and ensure that the joy of this season trickles into the rest of our school year, even if lately we’ve been clawing our way through the Christmas countdown.
Luckily, Pam’s site and store are full of oodles of ideas to help you plan your school year, wipe the slate clean, and start fresh.
And this year, one item, in particular, caught my eye.
Pam’s Order & Wonder mini-training series totally makes my inner organizer happy, and as we find ourselves already neck-deep in yet another busy, chaotic year, I am turning to this product for refreshment.
This 3-part video training series includes loads of helpful worksheets, colorful notes from the videos, and the mega-useful Living Learning lists.
Interest-based learning for a mom who likes to plan
The whole concept is centered around making a plan for our kids’ interests without sucking the fun out of it all.
In the videos, Pam leads you through three ways to bring interest-based, relaxed homeschooling into your plan, including setting goals for different topics (utilizing a bit of her great advice from her Plan Your Year Program), making lists, and putting it all together using buckets and loops.
And just what are buckets and loops? Think a bunch of bucket lists for learning themes that are then run through a loop schedule, with the flexibility to run through them on a daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly basis.
What I love about this concept is that it can help hit anything – anything – that your kids are interested in and it’s so easy to change and adapt these lists as interests morph throughout the year(s).
Putting this notion into play allows for the chance to explore the fun things you never have time for and then safeguards them all – since you just loop on through the list constantly, nothing ever falls through the cracks!
Seriously, even if you get behind on things (which you know is going to happen, right?), it’s all still there, just next in line on the list!
Making interest-based learning a priority
It was really heartening to go through this course myself recently. In my typical, offbeat style, I’d been doing something similar with our learning plan for a while, but somehow kept most of our bucket-list items set apart onto somewhat of a “wish list” to turn to whenever we had extra time.
Gv and I constantly felt frustrated because it seemed that all too often, something came up to keep us from these things we really cared about.
But now I plan to revamp our method and make our buckets more of a priority in our day.
How are we doing this? Click on over to my Buckets & Loops to Save the Day! post to see how we’re integrating Order & Wonder into our Latticed Learning time.
The buckets will probably look different in your house, but it’s always fun to see how other people put ideas like these to use!
Have you been looking forward to a break so that you can hit the reset button on your days, too? I’d love to hear! Leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.
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