Overwhelmed!

by Kelly
(Eagle River, WI)

I need some help....I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed!

I have a 1st grader and an 8th grader that we will be homeschooling for the first time. We purchased the student kits and teacher kits for both children. I don't even know where to start. How do you figure out how much and what to teach each day? I know in the public schools you don't do every page of every text book....but how do I pick what we should do?

I guess I thought there would be more of a lesson plan telling me what to do on what days. Trying to figure out a daily schedule.....any suggestions or examples of your schedules would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Kelly

Reply from Jamie:

I know exactly what you're going through. My first year, I too, felt overwhelmed not knowing how to even get started. However, when I got my DVDs they came with teacher lesson plans. It sounds like you did not receive them in your student kits. So, I suggest you call Abeka and ask if they have a schedule or guide for you to use. All you basically need is a plan to know how much the children should be reading on a given day or what they'll need for an art supply that day, etc.

If the school cannot help you or if you have further questions, please let Diane know. Use the contact form on the site and leave your phone number with her. I would be happy to talk with you if you'd like!

Hang in there, it's easier than you think right now!

Comments for Overwhelmed!

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Daily Schedule
by: Anonymous

One of the things I did when starting homeschool was figure how many days we were required per grade and how many hours for the year were required. Then I would take a subject, like math and figure how many pages were in the book and divide the number of work pages by the number of days. This will give an estimate of how many pages in each subject you will have to do to complete the book within your time. Although, you can go more days than required by your state, I would think, as long as you have the hours met for core subject and hours for electives. You may not do every page and we did odd or even problems through the math books.

Testing will help you know if you need to spend more time in a specific area. We also made copies of test/quizzes, so if we need to do a re-take we have that option.

We consider all sport activities, reading, cooking,educational movies, field trips into our elective hours. For science and history we would do a chapter a day and answer chapter questions, then do the quizzes and tests as we worked through it book.

I also started the day with a chapter reading out of the Bible and put that towards reading time.

I am going to homeschool my 8th grader and 2nd grader this year. It will be a first for me with 2 students, plus a toddler and working from home! I am terrified too, but it will be one day at a time.

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