Ack.

I was conflicted over how much work we’d do for school this week. On the one hand, no matter how many days we do, we wouldn’t get a full five days completed, so we’d be uneven (I like my number of days at the end of each week to be divisible by five). On the other hand, I was planning to complete five days between this week & the week of December 20, so the more days we finish now, the fewer we do that week.

While I was dithering over this issue, I also realized that we’re going to finish 105 days by the end of 2010! That’s well over halfway, and we’ll hit the two-thirds mark before the end of January. This in turn inspired a moment of panic about planning for next year.

I started planning this year very early last year. Most of this was because I thought we’d be moving in the late spring or early summer, and I wanted to have things planned and purchased before that time. Well, we didn’t move yet, so in theory I should be concerned about the same scenario. Add to that attending the Southeast Homeschool Convention in March, where in theory I could purchase a good amount of next year’s materials, and I realized that at the very least, I should have some things decided, if not planned.

Eeek.

I don’t. Not really. I can rattle off a list of things that are decided, but they’re decided because they are the next book(s) or item(s) in a series or curriculum that is already working for us. There’s no actual decision to be made. Don’t get me wrong, I’m extraordinarily thankful that I know those, at least, and that the majority of those require no advance planning (the best, shining example? Writing With Ease. “Oh look, it’s the first week and the third day. Here, the paper is labeled for us!”). However, that means that while on paper it may look like I’m a good way towards complete, almost all of the real work is still ahead of me.

Sigh.

I have mid-year course corrections to puzzle out, as well – I’m reworking EG’s history, and plan to add a course or two from Duke’s TIP Independent Learning offerings. We’ve shelved Latin for now, have added some computer skills, and may be adding a modern foreign language as early as January.

Help.

It’s time, then, for this year’s iteration of the by 1 July list. Call it v2.0. Subject to editing as I remember more things.

By 1 July 2011
01. Decide on supplemental titles for Story of the World Volume Two. (FB)
02. Plan out life science/biology with spines, supplemental books, and projects and activities. (FB)
03. Work through the next sections of Art in Story for art appreciation. (FB)
04. Make a better plan for grammar stage art projects. (FB)
05. Make a tentative literature list. (FB)
06. Decide whether or not to enroll the kids in a Saturday language school. (FB & EG)
07. Decide what to do about literature for EG for next year. (EG)
08. Work on Hogwarts-ian plans. (EG)
09. Decide on online classes. (EG)
10. Figure out social sciences/history. (EG)
11. Plan social sciences/history once decided. (EG)
12. Make a final decision on science and plan out if necessary. (EG)
13. Decide on what technology/computer skills to emphasize. (EG)
14. Plan art history for the year. (EG)
15. Plan music history/appreciation for the year. (EG)
16. Make a list of various math resources, since she’ll probably tear through them. (EG)
17. Make a shopping list of everything, to take to Greenville.