Well, that didn't work

I blogged about my plans to change how we did school, giving my kids a chance to study on their own and test out of work before the due date so as to free up my time (to spend with the littles or my chores) and free up their time to do independent study.  Well, they ended up not doing some of their work at all.  Rather than study up and get things out of the way, they didn't study at all and did poorly on a couple of tests.  They spent time on more interesting projects but did them in such a way as to not produce good projects, nor did they learn the material.  It was not what I had in mind.

So, we're back onto Mommy-assigned work this week.  This time, I gave them an assignment list for each subject detailing what they were responsible for in each subject.  I even included things like "prepare for the test" to remind them to do that.  Some things require my participation, and that is noted; it is up to them to come ask me for that when they are ready.  They can do the work in any order they wish, but they must finish each thing on the list by Friday, or they have homework over the weekend.  If they finish everything early, they are free to spend their school time on independent learning.  Computers may only be used for approved learning/projects.

It will require me being more organized than I usually am, but if my time is freed up a bit, I'll have more time to do that organizing.  We'll see how it works.