Karen is talking about plans. Karen and I, we like to plan. I enjoy planning so much I could easily spend all my time making the plans and never get around to carrying them out. Actually, that was a little battle I had to fight with myself in the early days of this home education adventure, and the "do-er" just barely managed to squeak out a victory—but the "planner" makes a vicious sally now and then and has to be thrust firmly back in her place.
I like planning so much I could give it up for Lent. That'd be a sacrifice with a real sting, let me tell you.
The perpetual joke on me, of course, is that the surefirest way to bring about a major family upheaval is for me to make some nice, neat, printed-out-on-grids plans. I am still laughing over the September I made a bee-yoo-tiful color-coded schedule for our days, a gorgeously detailed plan including everything from piano practice to nature walks, and so proud of this masterpiece was I that I brought it to our mothers' meeting to show off—and the very next day I sprained my ankle quite badly at the park, and I spent the next six weeks mostly on the couch with my leg propped up. Ha. I believe my pretty schedule made a very fine coaster for my iced tea.
Undeterred, I am still writing out plans. This summer, I plan to:
• figure out how to navigate the beach with five fair-skinned children, one of whom won't be able to hear me since his hearing aids aren't going within five miles of the water, and another of whom thinks sand is for eating.
• finish our read-aloud of Swallows and Amazons, finally—this has been one of Jane's favorite books for years, and I don't know why it is taking me so long to read it to the other girls. It's so deliciously good, but we've been reading it for months.
• have the girls continue to practice their burgeoning cookie-making skills
• learn the names of the trees in our neighborhood
• try to catch up to Jane in Latin
• see a bit of California
• make more plans for fall.
Your plans sound wonderful!! I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only with a little person who likes to eat sand ;o
Posted by: Meredith | June 01, 2007 at 08:10 AM
I'm actually a little relieved to hear that we're not the only ones for whom planning inevitably means that something will happen to render all plans useless. LOL
Posted by: Angela Boord | June 01, 2007 at 08:22 AM
I love the last one on your list best: Make more plans for Fall. :)
Posted by: Margaret Mary Myers | June 01, 2007 at 08:42 AM
sounds like a really good plan!
Posted by: Jenny in Ca | June 01, 2007 at 09:10 AM
I too am a devout plan-maker, and one for whom plans not only don't work, but usually ensure a complete breakdown in everything that was working up until the point of the plan also.
Even indicators don't work well for me. If I say, "I must do map-drawing this week," I can pretty much guarantee it won't get done. Hmm, maybe instead I should say "avoid map-making this week."
I know what you mean about Swallows and Amazons. I also found it an inexplicably slow read-aloud. In the end I gave it to my dd to read herself, and she became enthralled. We are also having trouble getting through A Little Princess. Perhaps I should just stick to reading stories aloud, to set myself up for success!
Posted by: patience | June 01, 2007 at 03:34 PM
Oh, thank you thank you for this (very funny) post---from another crazy-planner. I am in those early stages of homeschooling that you mentioned and am scared everyday that my plans will be the end of me and all things homeschool. So I sit down to plan how to NOT LET THIS HAPPEN. Hmmm.
Posted by: sarah | June 01, 2007 at 04:15 PM
Oooooh I just LOVE to plan!!! It just feels soooo good (can you hear me gushing?). But... then the doing- there's the rub.
We have summer plans that involve science (mealworms-yuck! and weather), A Child's Story of the World, Swallows and Amazons, 100 ez Lessons for one child, and exactly ONE math worksheet a day!!! OH I love summer
Posted by: Al | June 02, 2007 at 07:02 AM
You are BRAVE to consider taking 5 to the beach alone. We just to moved to a splendid Maine coast resort town- walking distance from the sand- but I resolved not to take my 4 alone. Keeping an eye on them is a nightmare- we'll only be going when Daddy can come, too.
Posted by: Mary Beth P | June 02, 2007 at 10:38 AM
Yes, we do love our planning, don't we? I plan to start more planning soon, but I'm afraid that planning to plan will bring about the inevitable obstacle to carrying out the plans, so I plan to delay my planning for a week or so. ;-)
Posted by: Karen E. | June 02, 2007 at 11:37 AM
I'm a bit of a compulsive planner myself. The first day of summer when my children uttered the word "bored" I sprinted to my computer and printed up a list for each child of things to be done before computer or television privileges. So far, the boys are finally working on typing skills and my oldest taught the youngest to tie her shoes.
Posted by: truevyne | June 02, 2007 at 03:25 PM
This will be my first year planning, but I can already tell that I need to make sure that I am not all about the plan and less about the implementing of the plan ;)
Enjoy the beach ... that is my most favorite spot in the world. Somehow the chaos of 5 children never seems as great when I am there.
Posted by: Elaine | June 02, 2007 at 05:39 PM