Success in Imperfection - Part 4 of 6

This is Part 4 of 6.  Find the other parts here.

The map should not rule us.  Plan, but hold plans loosely.  AmblesideOnline’s booklists, schedules, and other plans are such a help!  They give us a place to start.  Sometimes we can work with those plans with very few changes, and other times we’ll find we have to make big adjustments.  When you’re ready to plan, plan for what you think you can realistically accomplish plus a little more.  Give yourself room to grow into the plans.  Looking at the schedule for a new term can seem overwhelming--all those books!  All those new types of work!  And we weren’t getting everything done *last* term! 

Don’t panic!  Take that work, and organize it into whatever template works for you so you can see how it might actually play out in your home with your unique situation. Adjust your expectations down if you need to, but don’t adjust them all the way down to a level that feels completely safe.  Leave some challenge, some room to grow.  That book that seems *way* too hard before the term starts may become a favorite a month into the term.  Even the book that continues to challenge us may prompt us to learn new ways of working through difficult material or to persevere with something that’s uncomfortable.  If we always plan for what we know we can do and do well, we won’t reach as far.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” No homeschool plan really works out in practice exactly as it looked in pristine form.  You can’t account for the colicky baby, the washing machine leak, the sudden case of strep throat, someone’s bad mood. 

Your plans are a map, helping you see the path to forward progress, but they can’t be adhered to rigidly when the terrain is different than expected.  Sometimes we have to stop and figure out where *we* are and where we need to be and what the best route is to get there, rather than just following the plan, or we’ll end up in a hole we can’t get out of.

When Charlotte Mason’s teachers told her the timetables were impossible to keep to because of all the challenges that come with having actual children with their unique needs, she told them to “mix it with brains.”  In other words, adjust the plan to meet the real needs and circumstances you face--don’t try to force those needs and circumstances into the plans. 

Reevaluate regularly so you can *try again in a new way, *drop what isn’t currently needed, *add what has been neglected.   In the upper years of AO, you’ll really find this is necessary, because the schedules start to contain more work than you *should* undertake--you have to decide what to keep and what to leave out, because only you know what’s best for your situation. 

AO could pare down the plans for you, but that wouldn’t allow you to decide which route is best.  One family may need the slow, scenic route, while another family may need one that’s more direct or includes more challenges.  Being unable to complete every good and worthwhile task isn’t failure.  It’s life.  As homeschoolers, we have way more that we would *like* to do than what we can possibly do.  We have to decide what’s most important so we can focus there, while still watching for opportunities to add in some of what we’ve had to skip.

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