Oh, wait, that’s a mixture problem

I was beginning to organize the kids’ next year’s homeschool last week.  The list I make for the superintendent helped my by bringing all the annual goals into one place, even with my wiggle language (hey, I might just change curriculum in the middle of the year, it could happen.)

But what next?

This summer when Matthew had history, biology and algebra to finish up, I stuck sticky notes with deadlines (yes, Mom deadlines, not real ones, I am that Mom) in the books.  He found it motivating, and it not motivating, then at least clear.  So I wondered if I could divide the whole year up into sticky notes, and if saving roughly half of the books for summer of the classes that are done at home instead of in co-ops or tutoring classes was the way to go.

When it hit me that it was a mixture problem.  If 5 classes take 9 months to finish, and 3 classes take 11.5 months to finish, what proportion of the book should be done in the 3 classes during the summer, and what proportion during the rest of  the year?  3 pieces of scrap paper, one lost calculator found, and it turns out that %47 of a book is about what I want to have left over for summer, very close to what we’d done by default, only now I’m not throwing guilt on anyone about it.

Feeling inspired, I made a spreadsheet to further divide the year.  I didn’t exactly shift the percentages around for final exams in tutorial classes, but Christmas, which months we co-op, when the play Matt will be working backstage has it’s heavy rehearsal week (you know it’s real name, but I’m a bit squeamish today) those times got a smaller percentage.  Also February, we always catch cold then.  My spreadsheet even spit out the page numbers to put sticky notes on.

So am I done?

No way.

I did make some weekly blank sheets to write on in my notebook, and I’m about to sit down with the books and arrange September.

Part of me wants to write it in pen, so I emphasize deadlines, time tables and discipline.

Part of me wants to write it in pencil, because this is my 16th year of homeschooling, and no plan of mine has ever survived the first week of school.

Yeah, pencil.