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When School Plans Don’t Go as Planned

Do you ever go back through your notes, calendars, blogs and have an aha moment?  Something that follows the lines of-oh yes, I did figures this out once before.  I had a moment today.

Our “school” year this year has not been one of our top years.  Now, I realize that every year does not have to be stellar and filled with amazing memories and moments.  However, this year just feels off.

I did something different this year.  I made all of the work plans for the kids in advance.  The plan and idea was wonderful.   The experience was wonderful horrible. It required very little prep during the week and it was done.  No extra work during the school year.

The problem?  The kids had very little ownership of their work and it showed.  They did many of the items half way unless for some reason they found an interest in it.   We did our end of year testing yesterday which prompted a lot of discussions on the year.

I realized that something was very off.  Then I read through my old blog posts and found this one titled, “‘Montessori is an education for independence not for school, but for life.’Maria Montessori.”  This year, I missed all of these things.  I used external motivators.  I made up the plans and the work.  I taught.  They “learned.”  The work was meaningful to me, but not necessarily for the kids.

I guess I should make myself some notes before I plan for next year!

5 thoughts on “When School Plans Don’t Go as Planned”

  1. This really struck me as my eldest is training to be a school teacher and is doing a lot of essays on ‘child driven learning’. Most of them, at some point carry the quote, Benjamin Franklin said, “Tell me and I forget, Teach me and I remember, Involve me and I’ll learn.”
    It’s often from our mistakes we learn most. I hope next year is a whole lot more enjoyable and rewarding for you. I’m sure you’re probably being a little harsh on yourself too.

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  2. I’m glad there’s research on child driven learning–mine are driving big rigs about to run me over. Hope it’s a successful approach… I’m glad you posted this. I’ve been struggling with homeschooling with the toddler. I keep trying so many different things and ways, and one is a strict school schedule. It seemed to help, but it takes so long for me to prepare the schedule and the girls never seem to do more than their schedule (if they even do that) or don’t seem to do their scheduled work well, like you suggest. But this reminded me to not get too attached to the scheduling or beat myself up for not scheduling!

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