Frozen in Inaction due to Fear

The fear of failure is bringing the past into the future 

while doing nothing today.  

This isn't a great quote from anywhere (unless I am remembering something I read somewhere and I don't know where) but just from my pondering this morning as I think about the planning I need to do for groceries this week and this next interval of school work. 

I am over sitting down to do either of these jobs and having my gut recoil in fear.  And so often to avoid that pain I won't do anything, just making it worse next time it becomes critical to do these jobs.  I am also doing more research into my migraine symptoms as they occur and too often Google tells me that my symptoms are anxiety headaches yet I don't think I feel anxious.  Maybe my gut reaction is saying something different.

Off to eat my frogs,
Jen

Agile and Adaptive Planning for Homeschoolers

I was looking around one day on planning ideas from the corporate world that may fit the homeschool world.   Most of this post is about my thoughts when reading a Wikipedia entry on Agile Software Development.  (accessed 25 October 2017)

Agile software development describes a set of values and principles for software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing cross-functional teams.[1] It advocates adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, and continuous improvement, and it encourages rapid and flexible response to change.

Adaptive planning is definitely what we need in our home schools.  Children change just as often and often more drastically than the needs of a client would change for a software developer.  We certainly can not hold too tightly to any plan and we need to be flexibly responsive to our "client's" needs.

Most agile development methods break product development work into small increments that minimize the amount of up-front planning and design. Iterations, or sprints, are short time frames (timeboxes) that typically last from one to four weeks.

I find myself planning in small bursts but in 5-6 weeks bursts.  I find that I can in the most part successfully complete my goals in science, history and geography but I do find there is a need to be flexible with maths and language arts as these require understanding before moving on.

Also in looking further into timeboxes I found that the most important factor is the time constraint for the most important part of the project.  It can mean loss of some of the ideal parts but the biggest emphasis is on completing the most important parts within the time frame set.  This is certainly how science, history and geography can be treated.  I may not get every activity done, every map completed or every experiment done in real life but we do keep the most important parts.

Compared to traditional software engineering, agile software development mainly targets complex systems and product development with dynamic, non-deterministic and non-linear characteristics. Accurate estimates, stable plans, and predictions are often hard to get in early stages, and confidence in them is likely to be low.

In looking up the definition of non-deterministic I learned that a deterministic system always produces the same output from a given starting condition or state.  Non-deterministic is definitely how I would describe children.  There is definitely no way they all develop the same way.  So in our homeschool planning we need to take this into account.  In my early days of homeschooling I definitely thought I had found the One and Only curriculum for certain subjects.  Needless to say more money and bookshelf space later I have learned that there isn't any one solution for my whole school.  I have had to flex and not hold too tightly to any plan because my children are "dynamic, non-deterministic and non-linear".    That is sort of what makes it fun.

Scott Ambler states that documentation should be "Just Barely Good Enough" (JBGE),[35] that too much or comprehensive documentation would usually cause waste, and developers rarely trust detailed documentation because it's usually out of sync with code,[34] while too little documentation may also cause problems for maintenance, communication, learning and knowledge sharing.

This part really resonated with me.  I don't know how many times I have planned out a whole year in full detail, printed it and bound it, to only find that it is out of sync with how our school year goes.  I love a plan, don't get me wrong, but I have learned that it is better to have goals for both skills and topics to be covered and then I only put in definite details as we approach each block when I am more aware of our health, our other commitments, our interruptions and our resources.  

It is always useful seeing that the corporate world's ideas on planning can be helpful.  It just takes being reflective and considering how the ideas can help us in our homes.

Best wishes
Jen

Week in Review Week 18 2018

I really thought this week would be a write off as I had all the signs of having a virus on the weekend but despite horrible headaches and a major amount of mucus I was able to get a barely minimum school week happening. 

We started a new maths curriculum and it is working out well, especially as I am using my Yogabook to chromecast to our lounge TV.  It is almost like having a smart board.  I can teach a lesson with ease and then assign the boys their work to do at their desks.

And my youngest, now almost ten, has been having a good attitude towards his assignments so that has been good too.

The bad part of my week was having my favourite guinea pig get sick and having a roller coaster ride as I tried to find out if she could be saved.  Sadly she couldn't. 😢

And I didn't get to do the extras but some is a lot better than none and considering my health physically and then emotionally then it wasn't too bad.  And next week is a fresh start.

Thank goodness!

Camping in April

My life can get really busy at times.  This last week was a little unusual but not that different to a more usual week.

My husband works in IT and had to deal with a major issue on Monday night leaving me to drop and pick up 3 boys from 2 activities.  Then I worked 4 full nights 4.30 to midnight.  By Saturday morning we were wondering about the wisdom of having booked a camp site for 2 nights this weekend, especially as I was working a six hour shift in the afternoon.  We ummed and aahhed but decided that camping wasn't for the weak anyway and we decided to not cancel.

It ended up being a great two nights away.  We had friends visit (their camper is in for repairs) and the boys had fun.  We explored a creek, played in a waterhole and had a camp fire each night.  (Everything stinks of smoke, isn't that a sign of good times?!)

We have learned that we need a better checklist for camping so that if we don't see each other before it we can still make time to be together as a family but we had all the essentials and the weather was lovely.

Now to book the next one and to remember it was good.  No wimping unless it is cyclonic or bushfires.  lol  The time out in nature is worth it.

Best wishes
Jen

Suitcase insights

I was just reading this article and these are my thoughts for my later consideration.

We carry everything with us just in case.  Simplify, lighten the load.  Those things that we prepare for so diligently won't likely happen and in the meantime the weight of them causes us stress.  Deal with them when they happen and not before.  Sometimes they turn out to be simpler to deal with than we thought.


Applies to life and to homeschooling.

Jen

Bullet Journal My Way

While I don't like lots of structure that might limit me (good bye to all those preformatted diaries and homeschool planners) and I don't like wasting resources (goodbye to dated planners which I miss chunks in) I have realised that I would much prefer to write down my days than to rely on electronic resources that usually are more flexible and less wasteful than paper planners.

There are some lovely bullet journals out there. I am not that artistic but I am learning that a little colour really helps me to smile.

As I have said I don't like being held to one style of layout or size of space so I don't draw up my days, weeks or months in advance.  My bullet journal is definitely a mood thing, whatever space I need is the space I use. :)

I usually add the colour later.  And I only create the headings that suit my day.  A very personalised way to journal.

Some days are more list based and others are more journal like.  The blank pages are so freeing.  I can do whatever suits me.

I used to cross off the completed items but then I decided I wanted to be able to read them so I started ticking them or putting a smiley face and then I cross off the incomplete ones as I move them on.

Because I dread losing all these entries (I have lost a paper journal before and I fear coffee spills) I scan them into OneNote then put tags beside the page when there is something written there that I may want to reference later.  I scan them as images as they are easier to crop and my books are 3/4 A4 pages.

Anyway, that is my way to bullet journal.

Best wishes
Jen

Loop schedule for Morning Time

It isn't called Morning Time or Basket Time here.  It is called Lounge Learning.  :)

There are so many things I want to fit into our LL time but I can't sit down for more than forty minutes before I want to fall asleep.  I have been learning about looping instead of block scheduling and think that I should give it a go for both our big subjects and our lounge time.

Here is the cycle for Lounge Learning.

Geography will cover things like our states, capital cities and major landmarks.  Then we will move onto continents, main countries and well known landmarks around the world.  The others are fairly self-explanatory.

The core things I do every time only take about 20 minutes leaving 20 minutes for one or more of these in rotation.  Good time length for me and my sleepy brain.

Best wishes
Jen