Managing Tutoring Foundations and Essentials

By

I am tutoring both Foundations and Essentials this year, and honestly, it takes quite a lot of planning and organizing. 

It's the second week of our CC year, and I already find that the various tasks involved with tutoring can constantly loom over me and distract me from giving my kids the focused attention they need. 

And that's going to keep happening unless I'm careful.  

So I'm trying an experiment. 

I just finished all my plans for the week, and it's more than twenty four hours ahead of the time we have to leave for our community day. 

I even made a list, checked it twice, and packed the car with all the little stuff I have to take. 

The only thing I'll need to do to prepare for our CC day is help the girls pack lunches the day before.  

My daughters still have a full day of homeschool tomorrow before community the next day.

So I'm really looking forward to being totally free to focus on them. 

We'll see how this goes. 

But having it all done this far ahead feels so lovely right now as I sip tea and type this, this may be the way I strive to manage tutoring Foundations and Essentials in addition to homeschooling my own girls. 

Don't misunderstand me. 

Tutoring at my CC community is a gift and reward, and I've done it for years and years and years, but the workload is real. 

And this post is about managing the workload for Foundations and Essentials so that I can still give your kids the best portion of my attention.   

If you tutor, too, and the workload threatens to loom, distract, and overwhelm your homeschool day, especially the day right before community, it might help if you, too, just dive in days ahead and plan and settle all the details (and even pack your car) long before it's actually necessary. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

By
Image
"...the child should have a set time everyday to read for fun. Begin with half an hour for first graders, and build up to an hour of reading time daily... This is an important part of the child's education: it improves his reading skills, teaches him the habit of sitting still with a book, and reminds him that reading is fun... free reading ought to be spent on literature at or slightly below the child's present reading level so that he can simply enjoy himself. The easier reading will help him increase his speed." The Well Trained Mind: The Guide to Classical Education at Home by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer
Read more

Andrew Peterson's Songs That Celebrate Marriage and Family

By
Recently, I got to go to an Andrew Peterson concert at the Community Coffehouse in Danbury, CT. My dear friend and I didn't realize the show was sold out when we arrived.  But luckily, the lady at the door showed us pity, let us pay for tickets that didn't exist, and go in. We were willing to stand at the back, but we were able to find space on a bench at the back of the hall. I knew a few of the songs he sang that evening, but many of them were new to me because I have a hard time with new music.  I'd rather sing a song I already know by heart a hundred more times than hear a new song through even once. I know it is a problem that I need to work on if for no other reason than for the sake of my poor husband and daughters who have to hear the same albums everyday for a year. No, really. A year. At least. I have been giving myself permission to buy new music for this reason. So I came home that evening or maybe it was the next day and I purchased three of hi
Read more

Astronomer Shoe Boxes for Challenge B

By
Image
  Avril finished her astronomer shoeboxes for Challenge B.   The Challenge B students have all done research and projects on astronomers throughout this first semester.  Now, students choose two (or more) astronomers in secret and provide clues to the astronomers' identities in their shoeboxes.   For instance, if an astronomer made telescopes, sang opera, played piano, discovered binary stars or Uranus, studied eclipses, lived in a simple, log cabin, or made a map of Washington D.C., you might include some of those items to your shoe boxes as hints.  Student bring in their shoeboxes, and classmates get a chance to guess who the astronomers are based on what's inside the boxes.  Can you guess who Avril's astronomers are based on the pictures above?  Hint: Her two boxes actually represent three astronomers total.  
Read more