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Plan Now to Finish Well

Now that it is February, the dreaded Winter Doldrums have fully set in for most homeschool families. It happens to the best of us, and there's no shame in admitting it. But a little thoughtful planning now can ensure an excellent end to the school year in spite of the winter blahs. Here's what you do to make May/June a time of blessed relief instead of dreaded bookwork.

Look over your children's remaining work in each subject. How many math lessons are left in the book? And when, ideally, would you like to be finished with the school year? Say you have 4 months until your family vacation ~ that's about 16 weeks of study time. Divide 16 weeks by the number of lessons remaining the the math curriculum and you'll know exactly how much you need to do each and every week in order to reach your goal. Simply do the same for every subject, write down what you discover (or this entire exercise will be pointless because you won't remember how much to do each week in each subject!) and get cracking!

The interesting thing I have discovered is that we're almost always much closer to our end-of-year goals than I thought. It's refreshing and gives me a renewed sense of energy as I decide to finish the homeschool year well.

Not to mention the fact that it provides a concrete way to "get it all done" in a timely manner, in manageable chunks - and as an added bonus, if illness strikes the family, I can easily make an adjustment to the lesson plans to still finish on time.

Keep on keeping on, fellow homeschooling mothers! The Lord will bless your efforts, the snow will melt, and spring will be here soon!

Day 304 done :)

Jan L. Burt
author of The Homeschooling Mothers Bible Study (& head baker for Dessert to Your Door)

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