Homeschool Planning: What Am I Planning For Again?

by - 9:37 AM

(This is the second post in a series of planning post, and the first post on planning for our homeschool.)



So, let's say that you are new to homeschooling, and everything feels overwhelming.  For whatever reason, you've decided that the best thing for your family at this point is homeschooling.  Everyone comes to it for different reasons.  I've heard everything from better academics, to decreased bullying, to strengthening family relationships, to religious training.  Whatever the reason you come to homeschooling, but especially if it is a suddenly made decision, it can be overwhelming.  Parents are always the ones ultimately responsible for their child's education, but when you are hiring it out to the local school it doesn't feel quite as weighty.  So now you are sitting here trying to decide what to teach, when to teach it, how to teach it.  You have a million choices of curriculum, decisions to make on what co-ops or extracurriculars to pursue, all while there is the lurking doubt in the back of your mind that you are really ruining your children.  So for me, the first step is to get a planner, and perhaps a notebook, so that you have something to figure out this out in.


Our first year homeschooling 2013-2014, I pulled out a spiral notebook from a cabinet somewhere, and started making list.  I wrote down anything anyone suggested, so that I could look into it.  I started out with Cathy Duffy's book, and while her website is a great resource for reviewing curriculum, her book has the added benefit of exploring different methods of homeschooling.  I found that knowing my own learning style and my own tendencies where just as important as figuring out the kids learning styles.  After narrowing down what all we wanted to try out, I got a basic planner, where I mostly record what we did in a given day.  I didn't really plan ahead at that point.  Britt was four at the beginning of that school year and so it was really good to be able to go with the flow.


However, keeping a notebook and a small planner wasn't giving me enough room and it didn't help me keep everything in one place.  Plus the following year, 2014-2015 I wanted to do more planning ahead.  So I bought the Hey Momma Homeschool Planner.  It gave me note pages that I used in looking for new curriculum, a price page for budgeting for our homeschool year, and lesson planning pages, in addition to the calendar that the old planner gave me.  However, this didn't give me enough pages to track everything I wanted to track to use as our portfolio.  (For more about how I planned those first two years, you can visit this old post.)


The following year 2015-2016, I finally decided to spend the money on an Erin Condren Teacher Planner.  This year I really got into a planning grove.  I sat down before the year began and determined what all I needed in a homeschool planner.  I set a few goals for the year, set up pages for our reading log, for field trips, and a section for the kids chore charts.  The only problem with planning that year was the loss of our fourth child, and as a result a rather disorganized school year.  The set up was "planner peace" however, and I used an ECTP the following year in 2016-2017 as well.



This year, for 2017-2016, I tried using just an Erin Condren vertical life planner in conjunction with a command center.  I thought it might be nice to have something smaller, and like I've always wanted to have the lesson plans by the month, and not separate.  It's worked well, but I really feel like I need the extra space with three different sets of lesson plans, so I'm returning back to the ECTP for next year.


All this to say.  The first step in planning, is to figure out what you are planning for.  And to realize that this may change over time.  Currently I set some yearly goals, so I need a page for goal setting.  I I then break those down, and figure out what is the best way to accomplish those goals, I do this by doing some monthly forecasting.  This is also largely influenced by how many school days we are going to have in a given month, so I also take the time to tentatively plan our school days.  I make note of any field trips I know we are taking, or time that I know we will be traveling and taking off.  I plan out then what curriculum I need to buy, or anything new I need to invest in.  I set up pages to record our reading list, our field trips, anything I test or grade the children on.  Finally I come up with a rough schedule for our day.  This is something that I haven't done every year, there are times and seasons when it works better to have one, and times where it doesn't work well.


After I have done all of this I can start making detailed lesson plans.  In the past I have planned a month at a time, or a week at a time, this can be rather variable, since there are times where your child will move through material faster than you anticipated, or where they just aren't getting something and you have to stay with it much longer than planned, or even shelve it for a time.  The key is to remember that one of the greatest benefits to homeschooling is flexibility, and not become a slave to your schedule.


I will talk about all of these areas in greater depth, but the first step is to really evaluate what you are planning for.  Is this just for your benefit, or will your child be reading their own assignments out from this, or will this also serve as part of your legal requirements?  Do you want daily lesson plans, or just some note pages to record your thoughts on how your child is doing?  Do you have a need to track hours or days, and need a calendar or log for that?  Do you need a reading list?  If so do you want space to mark what is a library book and when it is due back?  Do you want to color code subjects for a single child, or maybe color code for multiple children?  Do you prefer a simple streamlined look of only black pen.  Do you want to be able to erase and move things around.  If you are planning ahead how might you mark what is accomplished or what you didn't get to?  Expect to have some trial and error, and be willing to change directions if necessary.  But spending some time thinking about these things will help you set up a system that works for you.  I have found watching youtube videos or reading post about how other plan to be a great source of inspiration.  There are always some great ideas that I end up implementing, and then there are also some things, that just don't work for our family.


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