Write about a goal you have set for yourself.

I have set a goal to get lots and lots of moola.  That's money.  I want lots and lots of money to buy things for vacation.  That's a true story.  I'm going to get it by doing school early, and doing jobs.  And I will not lie or whine anymore, or I will lose my moola.  I have already done some jobs this week, I cleaned Momma's bathroom, washed dishes, and helped clean out the car. I swept out  the garage too.  After I get lots of moola, I'll be able to play with lots of cool new things that I bought with my moola, moola, moola.

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


It was an interesting experiment.  At first it was a work out just trying to change trains at the times, I had set aside.  The first week, we only got about half of the things done to completion.  And I will say that our school schedule and afternoon schedule for the most part happened.  The evenings were fairly close, but the mornings were never truly realized.  After that initial period though, what I found was that Britt and Ruth had better attention, by limiting the time we spent on a given subject.  I also found that after a few times of finishing our day, only to have Britt have to pull back out the math he hadn't finished while everyone else was free to go play, I didn't have near the resistance to working that he did before.  Now, this didn't solve our focus problems entirely.  In the past I was in the habit of teaching a lesson, and getting them started then leaving them to do it while I cleaned house, or paid bills, or prepped meals, or whatever.  This year, at another suggestion from the neuropsychologist, I just told Gary that 10-3:30, I was teaching, and that I really just couldn't do anything else during that time. Britt isn't ready for that level of independent work yet, and I need to sit next to him to constantly redirect him.


This left me with a need to not only schedule our school day, but to work in time set aside to chores.  I've long divided up a list of chores with the kids and expected them to do some in the morning and some in the afternoon.  But in order to actually get things done around the house, if I was going to have to devote that much of the day to sitting with the kids while they worked, I needed to really map out things.  After running pretty close to schedule before Christmas during our first term, and comparing it to not running on a schedule second and third term, I am again sitting down to work out a schedule.  It's a tool that I foresee us using for the foreseeable future, at least until they can truly embrace working independently.


If you too are interested in giving a daily schedule a try, I'll share my process with you.  The first key is to look at your goals you made and to really prioritize them.  For me, reading is a goal that is right there at the top, and with Britt's dyslexia it's going to take a significant investment of time and effort.  However, with the ADHD we want to break it up in to manageable chunks and work the skill, every single solitary day.  So it ranks pretty high on my priority list.  In contrast there is Nature Walks.  I really admire the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling, and I have thought for a while now, that even if no one else does that I would benefit from us getting out and walking a little each morning.  I've felt guilty that we didn't do more of that kind of thing in our homeschool day.  We tried it some this year.  I'm going to be honest.  It was about as enjoyable as a trip to the dentist office.  We can't move at any speed, due to the littles, so really it's no benefit to me in that regard.  If I use the stroller going off road is more work.  One kid is yelling wondering what kind of animals we might see.  (Answer, none, because you are yelling.)  Another kid is complaining because she has sand in her sandals, but she refuses to wear tennis shoes.  And they spend plenty of their free time exploring outside anyway.  So, the priority is so low on my list that it's not even on the schedule for this year.  Let me provide one last example on this topic.  Read alouds, this has been high on my priority list even before I began homeschooling.  But we were always so sporadic with it.  We'd read before bedtime for a while, then I would just be exhausted and still have a list of things to do.  Or we'd read in the car, and that works when the hubby is along to drive, but not if I'm the one making the long car drives.  I felt like it was really important to continue with, but I was having trouble setting aside time when other other necessary things were pressing. I had to get creative, but it dawned on me one day, that I eat  lunch in about 15 minutes while they easily take 45 minutes.  The answer had been staring me in the face for a while.  I could read aloud at the table, after I finished eating, while they were still eating.  You need a priority list, and you shouldn't feel guilty for what is on it, or not, and where you rank things.  And your priorities will change at different seasons in your life.

Last Year's Schedule (side 1)

Next, you need to make note of what things can be done mostly independently and what things you will need to walk them through.  This is important.  I will use the example of reading aloud.  Each child needs to spend about 30 minutes a day reading aloud.  I obviously cannot listen to all three of them at the same time, and be able to follow a story, correct mistakes, remind them of phonics rules when they are having trouble with a word, or ask questions to gauge their reading comprehension.  This proved the most challenging in looking at this year's schedule.  If you have a baby in the house, or several that aren't doing any kind of schooling, you may need to work to figure out how to entertain them.  I've lucked out in that Kate is pretty happy to entertain herself in the living room, or crawl around the dining room table trailing me as I teach.

Last Year's Schedule (side 2)

One of the often cited benefits of a schedule, is that the kids learn it, and eventually stop asking what is next because they learn to anticipate and expect things.  Last year every day of the week varied so widely that I worked up 6 separate schedules, that was really difficult.  Even when the mornings for all of them are the same (get up, make up your bed, pick up your room, get dressed, go and eat, brush teeth), there is the attempt every day to do none of those things, and instead get on the wii or play with Barbies.  I don't know if they will ever get to the point where they will check the schedule for themselves and continue on to the next thing, instead of attempting to sneak off to play.  We are going to try a different tact to manage that this year, but I'll talk about it in a later post.

This coming school year's schedule.

This year in an attempt to streamline things, I have 3 schedules: our typical school day, this is a day where we don't go anywhere and we cover everything; a modified schedule, this is a day where we cover just the essentials and expect to be in town all afternoon; then a schedule for a Saturday where Daddy is home.  When I try to do a typical schedule I'm planning to cover everything.  Now, I know in a given week, that we are going to do math every day, but our science curriculum doesn't have 5 days worth of material.  So even though it's on the schedule, there will be days that we don't do science.  We might stretch our read aloud time out longer, or do something fun like bake.  But I want that on the schedule to be sure we allow time for it.  However, I know there are going to be days that we are going to leave the house.  We will have Ruth's speech some afternoons, there will be our homeschool book club other afternoons, and our afternoon PE classes.  We will have a day every couple of weeks that we go to the library, and I'll try to schedule doctors appointments after lunch.  On those days, I want to still do some of our school.  So, I further prioritize our list.  Everyday I want to be sure we do a page of math and have them read aloud to me.  I also want to be sure that we work on our memory verse each day.  So for our modified schedule I have all of that down to do before we eat lunch and head to town.  There may be days that we have morning field trips, but that's less common and in that case I can always reverse my morning and afternoon schedule, or just pick up the schedule in the afternoon when I get home.  I have several options.  The final schedule is labelled Saturday, but it's really in mind that Gary is home.  In the summer he's home on Fridays as well as Saturdays.  In the fall when he is in his busy season, he's at work on Saturday so we will treat it like another school day.  The truth is that the schedule completely falls apart when he's home.  He wants to relax, and I want to lay around and do nothing with him.  BUT, there are still some things that need to get done.  So the schedule is just bare bones, with the exception, that in the afternoon they all have a time to read with him.  This lets him be a part of their schooling, it lets them have a chance to show him what they are learning, and it gives me a break.


Another plus, to doing this, is that I use to get so wore out trying to get everything done, and was aggravated when Gary didn't pitch in when he was home.  He has told me, if I will ask he'll help most of the time.  But I hate to ask.  This way we can talk about, what he's willing to do, and still have a chance to unwind at the end of the night.  We find a reasonable middle ground, since I need help in the evenings, but unlike him I get to sleep longer in the mornings.  It also helps me to be able to allot my major task each week, so that for example I don't forget to balance the checkbook and end up having to pay a fee when they transfer money for me.  The months we've used this schedule this school year, things have been less crazy.


You may be like me and build a beautiful perfect schedule, only to immediately need to throw it in the garbage and try again.  I frequently discover that things will take twice as long as I planned, or I forgot to put something on our list, or that we hate how this is working.  I always let Gary check it out for me before I start using it, to see if he catches any of those things for me.  Occasionally he tells me that something or another won't work.  And to change something.  Then, I put the thing everywhere.  It's in my school planner, it's in my personal planner, it's tacked up on the command center, for everyone to see.  It will go in each of the kids planners this year.  Because it doesn't do any good to work out a schedule only to never look at it again.

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

Part of the teacher books for next year. Not all of them have been ordered or arrived yet.

The saying is "How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time."  This is the stage in my planning where everything really comes together.  I have spent a ton of time trying to flesh out what our goals are for the upcoming year.  I've decided what's important to us.  I've sat down and done my homework, searching for curriculum that will meet those needs.  And now, is when I figure out how we will fit in in an entire year.  I pull out all the books I am going to be using, and start figuring out how they can be spread over the entire school year.

I have done long-range planning for the last three years.  The first year was a total fiasic.  Our fourth child was stillborn, and we did devote time to formal schooling, but basically just basic necessities, and that as I felt able to manage.  That year was proof for unschooling.  We spent alot of time reading library books, playing outside, and doing a little math and reading, but when it came time for Britt's evaluation he had progressed a great deal over the course of the school year.  So the first thing you need to know is that sometimes life happens, and you may throw absolutely all of this out.

Last year's long range planning.  I've checked off some of what we've done.

The last two years, I made did long range planning we stuck very close to the schedule.  In the 2016-2017 school year, we moved and got off on some of our planning as it took long than anticipated to get everything back together.  But with the game plan, I was able to look and see where we could double up, and which things I could delay or push off.  By the time the beginning of May rolled around, I was able to stop, having accomplished nearly everything I set out too, and still have time to prepare around the house for the birth of our fifth child.  With the 2017-2018 school year, We will have accomplished everything and more than I had hoped, with the exception of falling off schedule with bible verses since Christmas and with the exception of history.  The kids have loved history so well, rather than spending 6 or so months on Ancient Egypt we ended up spending about 14 months on Ancient Egypt.  But that kind of change to the plan is something, that I enjoy.  I want the kids to be so interested in a subject that they really retain the information. I want them to be disappointed when we check out the 374th book on Ancient Egypt only to discover that the library doesn't have any more books on the topic.

This year the two oldest made such leaps in their reading speed and ability that they covered more than I anticipated they would, and they blew through math in 5 months.  I did buy the next level of curriculum in language arts, but I opted to wait on the next math level.  Knowing the speed at which they are currently moving.  I have made plans accordingly for this coming year, and mapped out a little heavier load in those subjects than I have in previous years.


For Rebecca I planned very little.  She said she wanted to do school, but I didn't think she was ready.  I thought we'd work some on writing her letters, her learning that, and maybe do the Math U See Primer book.  Well, I quickly realized that she did want to do school, and that I wasn't going fast enough to suit her.  We pulled out all the miscellaneous workbooks, and she has gone through 7 this year.  We had some beginner math materials so we used that instead of Math U See Primer.  She has also learned more reading in the last 2 months than the kids did in their first year.  I'm concerned about keeping up with her and challenging her, so I have mapped out a fairly fast moving year for her across language arts. She also has done a little spelling this semester with the older kids, and wants her own spelling book for next year, so she's going to be using more language skills in more ways than the others did at this age level.  If we get into it though and she gets bogged down or is having too tough of a time, we can always scale back or lighten up the pace.

The first year of planning is the hardest for me, because it's hard to make a realistic plan not really knowing how they typically handle new material.  It's hard to tell how long it will take to grasp a new concept, and when they will be ready to continue on.  And that may still fluctuate from time to time.  For example, Britt had just turned 5, and was working his way through Math U See Alpha.  He was doing a lesson a week, having no trouble with new concepts.  He really didn't even need to spend a whole week on each lesson, but I wanted him to do plenty of review.  Then when we hit the week where they introduce solving for x (4+x=5), he just didn't get it.  We went through all the examples, the worksheets, got online and used the practice material there.  We spent more than a month on it, till it clicked.  Every other math lesson he has ever done has taken 3-5 days to get down pat, but that one.  We may hit a snag this year that means we have to push some of the things we've scheduled back.  But this is ideally how I'd like our school year to go.


I've also planned an insanely ambition school year to cover the Ancient Greeks and Roman's in a single year.  If I get through all of it, I will be shocked beyond all belief.  To be honest, I don't expect to get through all of this.  And it won't bother me if Greece stretches into February instead of wrapping up before Christmas, and if we don't finish Rome before the end of the year.  However, when I schedule while I want the plan to be realistic, I want to plan ambitiously.  It's not a big deal for me to have to slow down.  On the other hand, I don't want to be scrambling in the middle of the school year to figure out how to make up for finishing things far faster than I had planned.  This year was the first time that happened, and I don't want to do that again.  I'm afraid that leaving off math since February is going to hurt us when we get back into the swing.

Most curriculum I've found is set up for approximately 36 weeks, probably because alot of schools traditionally use four 9 weeks periods as their schedule.  You might recall that I have allowed for 32 weeks of school this year.  So, what do I do about the extra 4 weeks.  I'm so glad you asked.  I'll illustrate.


The first subject I sat down to plan was Math U See for the two older kids.  I know they have moved at their slowest at a pace of one lesson a week, and even though I don't yet have their books in yet, on the website I can see that there are 30 lessons in the next week.  That gives me easily 1 lesson a week, plus two extra weeks, if we have trouble understanding a concept and need some extra time.  However, I'd like to try to move through about a book and a half this up coming year.  So I'm opting to let math be the first subject I reintroduce during the summer break.  You might recall that I ease the kids back into a full blown school routine.  I've figured out that a little school work off and on in the summer, gives us some routine, and it makes starting back less of a chaotic shock.  Knowing that we are quitting by memorial day, I just work backwards based on where I'd ideally like to be at when we stop.  For Rebecca, I'm only going to shoot for one math book this year, it has 32 total lessons, that's one a week.  Very doable.

The next subject I looked at was history.  The kids love history, but it takes some planning ahead of time to be able to really implement.  I didn't make it as far as I wanted this year.  So in order to make covering the Greeks and Romans both this up coming school year more feasible, I need to cover a little more ground this summer to set the field for Greece this fall.  The kids LOVE the stories I read, and really love the crafts and activities, so by doing a little in July and August, they are going to be excited to create and do things.  They won't even realize that it's school, in fact I may get some complaint that we aren't making anything fun in June.  After that I divide up all the material on Greece over the 13 weeks from Sept-Dec.  Then I do the same for Rome over the 19 weeks from Jan-May.  Once again, there is very little chance we will move the material that quickly.  I could spend an entire school year on each of these civilizations, not just a half, but we'll see how it goes.  Rebecca will use the resources from Story of the World with us.  She's enjoyed listening and doing the coloring pictures, thuogh I don't test her on the material, and don't expect her to retain a whole lot.  As for the Homeschool in the Woods projects, most are going to still be out of her ability level, but I'll let her take part as she's able.


Next I wanted to slide some science in this year.  With the free curriculum I got from a friend that has been sitting on my shelf the last 2 years, it has a guide for 36 lessons, though it doesn't have work for every day, like my math or language programs do, so I'll review the first five short chapters in August.  It's all on material that the oldest two have learned about in the past, some of which Rebecca is familiar with.  From there I'll cover one lesson a week from Sept-May.

Finally I get to language.  This is where the bulk of my time goes.  It is more difficult for me to plan so I always leave it till last.  HOWEVER, this is the area of our school year that if I have to drop every other subject, this will be covered.  I strongly feel that reading is the foundation for EVERYTHING for the rest of your life.  You can learn anything if you can read.  This is an area that requires more work for Britt, and a slower pacing.  Ruth is fairly on par with him at the moment, so I can also schedule this aspect of their school together.  However, they take turns working one on one with me in this area.  This year's we are going back to Sing Spell Read Write, and there are 36 steps.  If I do the one review step in August, the other 35 will fit over a 32 week period, because their steps aren't weekly steps.  Some take only 2 or 3 days, and others 2 weeks.  All About Spelling has 25 steps, last year we covered 1 a day, but I'm going to allow for 1 a week this year, since the difficulty and number of rules needed increases.  Handwriting Without Tears has 24 weeks of work and recommends review the remainder of the year.  All of these can easily fit in our 32 week plan.  These two subjects are the ones that I know that I can push off and still finish in 32 weeks if I need to spend more time focusing on other subjects.  These also, if I don't have to push them off, will give me a lighter load in the Spring, when baseball starts up and everyone is kind in the mood to be done with school anyway.  Rebecca will be starting level 1 of Sing Spell Read Write this year.  I found the pacing to be much too fast for Britt and Ruth, but I'm optimistic that it will be perfect for her.  All 36 steps and the review of letter sounds should fit in a 32 week schedule.  The toughest part is that this will only work if we skip no days of reading instruction for her, which is probably unreasonable, someone will get sick at some point, there will be days with field trips, and sometimes, you just don't want to do school it's a nice day, or we get behind on house cleaning, or we want to do something out of the ordinary routine.  Her handwriting and spelling follow the same schedule as the older kids, and it will be the first thing I drop if she feels too overwhelmed.  Because while I want to challenge her, I also don't want to burn her out.


This process has been much more exact since starting to schedule our school year.  Before I was just dividing up the curriculum based off of what I thought could accomplish in a week, from say from the time I thought we'd start through May, not figuring to do any school in December or June.  But that didn't account for the weeks we'd travel or take off for other reasons.  Now, I have a more realistic expectation for what we might accomplish.

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

This is an aspect of planning that I resisted for along time.  I didn't want to schedule our year, or do long term planning, because what if we didn't stay on track.  What if we changed our mind and wanted to take a longer trip to Alabama, or let a kid go spend a week at the grandparents, what if we ended up sick with the flu for two weeks.  It would mess up my schedule, the nearer the beginning the year the more it disturbs everything.  I'm pretty type A, after I get it map out, I don't like life upsetting my apple cart.  I've gotten better in the last couple of years with giving myself the grace and flexibility to throw the plan out the window and write another one.  After all if you preach that you love the flexibility and then you aren't flexible what does that say?

Last year was actually the first time I did this.  I sat down, and tried to foresee anything and everything that might affect our homeschool year.  For example every year I want to be done by Memorial Day at the LATEST, if we can be done by the first week of May even better.  We either want to go to Alabama for Memorial Day weekend to see the Balloon Races, or maybe go to Orlando for the FPEA Homeschool Convention.  I typically take off the same week as the cousins for Spring Break, so that one of them can go for a visit.  I usually take the whole month of December off, because there are so many crafty fun things to do, and the kids have no attention with the impending holidays.  I also typically take around two weeks off for Thanksgiving and go to Alabama to visit my family.  Family might come down in the Spring or in the Fall for a visit, but I seldom know that in advance.


In some states you might have a minimum amount of time that you have to call "school."  You might have to log 180 days like we did in PA or perhaps you have to have school for 36 weeks.  You might have to complete a set number of educational hours.  If you have to log weeks, it might be enough to block off several weeks, with some breaks noted, and perhaps allowing enough so that you can always take off a week and tack an extra on the end if you need to.  If you have to log days, you might want to actually count out the days, to be sure that you account for days here and there that you want to take off, whether that's holidays like Labor Day, or your kids' birthdays.  If you have to log hours, you may need to actually do the math to figure out about how many hours a day you plan to do school and then figure up your days accordingly.  Or like me you may subscribe to the educational philosophy of real life learning.  That our children are literally learning all the time, through play and daily life, just as much as they do when they are hitting the books, perhaps even more.  In Florida we aren't required to count days, but I like to.  It gives me a marker, and it always makes me feel like I have accomplished something when I can actually measure how far we've come.


Most states require public school to meet somewhere between 160 and 180 days, they also allow students to miss up to about 15 days of school.  There is also a lot of non-instructional time in school.  There is the changing classes, bathroom breaks, lunch period, PE, and of course the down time in class.  It's not that they are wasting time there, it's just the nature of managing a lot of kids at once.  There is some down time in our school day, where one kid has to wait for me to finish with another before helping them when they get stuck, but the whole we can get our work done in a lot less time during the day.  We also have the flexibility to do some school on the couch when a kid is sick, or skip a day for that one, and have them make it up on Saturday.  Sometimes I double up on lessons so that we can take a pretty day and go to the park.

On average though I try to shoot for around 170 days, or somewhere between 30 and 40 weeks.  Before you say, "But Danielle, that's a huge range!"  Let me tell you a little about how we break down our year.  First I am in the habit of tracking our homeschool year July through June.  That was the breakdown in PA where I started our homeschool journey, and it's been a habit that has stuck.  That means for me, since my goal is to be done early to mid May, I'm going to take off all of June.  I'll do any planning then that I haven't gotten around to yet, I'll reorganize the school schedule.  The kids will watch way too much tv, and we'll visit family in Alabama.  When July rolls around I'll start thinking about educational experiences I can sneak in, without the kids realizing what I'm doing.  We'll have swim lessons, a week at the beach with the extended family, and this year 4H Fun Camp.  They don't realize it, but these are field trips, and great learning experiences.  I just named 4 weeks of learning, 5 days a week, and the beach is actually 7 days.  In August we'll ease back into our routine, starting back getting serious about our chores (can anyone say home ec., it's a vital life skill you know).  I'll pick up math just to make sure they aren't too rusty.  There will still be a ton of Splash Pad days with the local homeschoolers, library trips (we go every other week, since it's a bit of a drive), and there will be a ton of fishing with Daddy.  Until the planting season starts back up in September, he'll be home on Fridays, so we'll take day trips and do lots of "field trips."  By the time I actually start back Tuesday after labor day, I may have as many as 30 "educational" days already in the books.

There are alot of popular options for homeschooler schedules.  You'll meet people who go from Labor Day through Memorial Day because that's the traditional school year.  Those who follow the local school calendar because they have some of their children in school, or they use the local school district in someway.  There are those who go year round, taking a couple of weeks off here and there through the year.  There are lots who will do 6 weeks or 9 weeks on, and one week off.  Then you have some outliers like me.  My husband's busy season runs from Labor Day through middle of February when he is planting, and then from February through middle of May when he is still growing the crop.  Knowing that by far his busiest time of year is October.  We take advantage of his schedule.  He's going to be working 6 or 7 day weeks.  So we frequently log 6 days of school.  Then in the spring when the extracurricular schedule picks up, I can relax a bit.  Some years I've had a longer school year but only had a 4 day school week.


No matter what my upcoming school year is going to look like, I try to map it out.  I take my year at a glance page in my planner, and I circle every Monday for a week that I intend to do school.  I also put a little round sticker with a number on it on each Monday in my monthly spreads.  I then get a rough count of how many days of school that will entail.  I break them up into roughly 10 week periods.  With at least one week off at the end of it.  It doesn't mean anything to the kids, it's just a way for me to plan.  I don't like leaving a unit half finished before Christmas break, or introduce a math concept on Thursday if I'm taking a Spring Break the following week.  I note the different periods with different color dots on my monthly spread, and I number them.  This year I'm anticipating having 13 weeks in term one running from labor day till I stop in December, there will be a gap for Thanksgiving in there though.  I then have 10 weeks in term 2 from New Year's until Spring Break.  Finally there will be 9 weeks in term 3, between Spring Break and the end of our school year.  The first 13 weeks will largely consist of 6 day weeks, while the rest of the year will be 5 day weeks.  And if the grandparents come we'll adjust things.  Anything we don't complete this year, we'll just roll over to the following year.  After all I'm going for mastery, if that takes longer than estimated that's fine, as long as we really learn something.


It's nice to have a loose idea of what our year will look like.  It gives me the ability to look at plans when I want to do something different, and give myself permission to change tack because I can see where I can make adjustments.  Use to I would feel guilty if we were opted for a field trip after I'd already made lesson plans.  I use to beat myself up when I felt too lousy to do school.  Now, I just look and can readily see where I have wiggle room built in, and I can see how much we've already accomplished, and I don't stress as much if something comes up.

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


I can remember the first year that I was homeschooling that choosing curriculum seemed like a daunting task.  How in the world with all those options was I suppose to find the curriculum that would be the perfect fit for my kid.  The golden curriculum that would make everything easier.  And if I didn't find that magical curriculum what if what I bought was a total waste of money, or what if they didn't learn anything at all, or what if it actually made they more confused and made things worse.  Since that time I have figured out that there is no golden curriculum, the leprechauns probably keep it with the rest of the gold at the end of the rainbow, as a tantalizing trick.


These days my favorite part of planning a new school year is deciding on curriculum.  There are several things I look into before choosing curriculum.  I'll tell you a little about how I first began researching curriculum and then I'll give you an overview of my process today.  I have mentioned before, but it bears repeating that I feel like the best resource to start researching curriculum is with Cathy Duffy's books or website.  I started out with her book and learned alot about learning styles to help me narrow down curriculum.  While there is no golden curriculum, I think you will find that there are some that work better for different types of learners and different teachers and different family dynamics.  Now days though I check out anything new I'm thinking about trying on her website.  She isn't affiliated with any of the curriculum companies, she's just giving a well researched and thought out opinion on the products.

I am on several facebook homeschool groups and frequently get ideas about curriculum from there.  When something isn't working well for us I can throw out a question or search old post, and generally find some suggestions either for adjusting what I have, or for something that might be a better fit.  I also regularly read a number of homeschool blogs.  One that I have spent a lot of time reading in the last year is Homeschooling with Dyslexia.  A homeschooling mom of 8, 7 of who have dyslexia, has had tons of ideas and experience with curriculum that I can learn from to use with Britt.  A huge component in homeschooling is being willing to continually learn yourself.  In fact, this probably deserves it's own blog topic, but I never want to become complacent or feel like I know everything there is to know with the kids.  If one of my goals is to encourage lifelong learning, and a love for learning, then I need to model that.  This year, I made a list with some of her suggestions, to check out for different subjects.

So assuming you have thought about your priorities and interest for your upcoming homeschool year.  And assuming you have made some goals for your children, you are ready to dive into curriculum choices.  If you're priority this year for history is world history, and if like me you believe in a chronological approach to history; then when you hear about this AMAZING new history program for American history and the causes leading up to the Civil War, you are just going to make yourself a note for a later date, because it's not on your plan for this year.  Not to say that you might not make some changes.  I started out this year thinking we might do state history for the states we have lived, but changed my mind.  You just don't want to start buying curriculum willy-nilly and end up with 4 types of history that aren't complementary and you can't possibly all use in a year and no math when that was a priority, and have blown through your homeschooling budget.


When I am looking for homeschooling curriculum I'm looking for several different things.  First, I'm looking for things that meet the goals I set for the year.  I'll take math for example.  This year I have a goal for Britt and Ruth to learn multiplication, so a program that focuses on fractions isn't something I'm going to keep on my shortlist for this year.  So even though Math Mammoth is a top ranked program it didn't make the short list.  Next, I find something that lines up with my beliefs about schooling.  In math, I am not a fan of spiral learning, where you continually cycle through material.  I'm a fan of mastery, where a student has to really learn it.  I do like some occasional review though to be sure that the concepts remain in their mind.  So, for example another popular math program, Saxon, doesn't meet that criteria and it doesn't make the short list.  Next, I am looking at things that match up with the kids learning style.  Britt in particular is a very kinetic learner, things he can manipulate with his hands, so I want a math curriculum that works with manipulatives, even in higher grades.  That knocks out another favorite math curriculum Singapore Math.  This year I considered making a change to our math curriculum and had it narrowed down to Math U See the math we have used for the last several years and Teaching Textbooks.  I liked that teaching Textbooks, would let Britt be more independent in his math, that it read the problems aloud and would walk him through how to solve something if he got it wrong.  However, I ultimately decided that it was rigorous  enough and I didn't think it did a good enough job teaching the underlying concepts. I want the kids to do more than just learn the math facts, but have an understanding of mathematical reasoning.  I didn't find the one golden math program, I just narrowed down the field of great choices based on what I want in my child's education.


When I am selecting curriculum for the new year, I also look for things I think will engage the kids.  It doesn't matter how great of a history program I think it is if they are going to be bored to tears.  I have some fantastic history books on my shelves, but they aren't going to be interactive enough for the kids yet.  I need to find a program that really engages them, that works their imagination.  Something that they can get excited about.  I firmly believe the reason that most people hate history is because they were subjected to social studies in drab boring books all through grade school.  In areas like history and science I really like to ask the kids what they are interested in learning about and work those interest into our school.  Britt's first year of school he was obsessed with dinosaurs.  We checked out every book the library had on dinosaurs, for 6 months we read about dinosaurs every day.  By the time Britt turned 5, he could tell you about 30 or 40 different kinds of dinosaurs.  He made his own dinosaur book, dictating things he learned, with us recording their family and finding a picture for each one for him to color.  After that he was interested in the stars and space, so we spent 4 months learning everything about the planets.  I even learned about a number of dwarf planets that I didn't know existed.  That year at the homeschool convention, someone was selling a computer based program about astronomy, and he passed the test for their 4th grade program.  Kids learn and retain things that they are interested in, so use that to your advantage as much as possible.

Next we come to the final consideration that I have when purchasing homeschool curriculum - my budget.  After I've researched everything, and come up with my list, I start hunting for bargain prices.  Math is usually our most expensive subject.  But that is one of the areas in our budget that I'm willing to spend more money on. Science and history are areas that I'm more likely to build my own program out of library books.  There are components that I decide I can do without in a given year, or that I might put off buying.  I've put off buying a timeline that I want to use throughout our homeschooling years with history, for the last two years, but I'm springing for it this year.  There are tons of free or low cost options out there, but most of them are going to require more work on your part.  Now that we are up to 3 students, and I have a baby in the house, I don't want quite as much prep work, so I'm willing to pay a little more in order to have it better planned out.  Some people like a boxed curriculum or online options like FL Flex for this reason, I still like to retain more of the control over our choices, and for me the kids don't fit in neat grade level boxes.


I have a list of what I need to have up front, and what I won't get to right away.  For example, this year I plan to cover the Ancient Greeks and Romans for history.  Since I'm starting with Greece, I can wait to order the other material later in the school year.  Unfortunately for most people a budget is going to be a reality in getting curriculum.  I also prioritize my list, so I know what things I want to buy first.  And there are times, that I will go back to my second curriculum option instead of my first curriculum because it's a cheaper alternative.  There are also times that I go shopping for curriculum in my cabinet of handme downs, or find cheap or free options at used curriculum sales, or on the free table at homeschool gatherings.  This year is already shaping up to be my most expensive year yet, if we make it through everything I have planned, so Gary will probably require me to do some editing to my list.

A final note, on my very favorite thing to do though when I have a list of possible programs, is go to a Homeschool Convention.  There is nothing like being able to actually flip through books and materials, and to talk to the vendors.  Our first year I debated between Right Start Math and Math U See.  I talked with both of the booths, and after talking with Mr. Steve Deme the man who created Math U See, I felt it was the best fit for us.  The kids remember meeting him, and they watch his videos with their lessons.  They frequently tell people that Mr. Steve is their math teacher, not me.  When you are able to met the families and individuals who have crafted curriculum, you can learn alot about their educational philosophy and passion in creating a product, and if it will fit what you are looking for.

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


I was going to write about choosing curriculum today, but I'll save that for tomorrow afternoon.  I received a message this morning with a question about last night's post.  This mom wrote, "How do I determine what my child is ready for or capable of when setting goals for the next year?"  Ironically enough I had a scribbled note to remind me to talk about that in last night's post, but I completely forgot.  So before continuing on, I wanted to talk about setting appropriate goals.

As a parent, who spends copious amounts of time with your child, no one is going to know them like you do.  You know their likes and dislikes, you know what drives them, you know their strengths and weaknesses.  These things are invaluable in figuring out pretty much everything about homeschooling what goals to set, what kind of curriculum to buy, how fast to move through material. Everything.  To give you an idea of what that looks like, I ask the kids for permission to talk a little bit about their struggles and strengths when goal setting.

Last year after a particularly rough school year, we had some testing done with Britt.  We received the diagnosis of dyslexia and ADHD along with some other delays related to those two.  It is something I've not written about on the blogspot yet, because Britt hasn't been comfortable talking about it or sharing it with anyone outside of immediate family until very, very recently.  This greatly affects my goal setting.  Understanding that he has to work hard to read, and that it will always be more work for him, means that I'm going to need to break up our reading goals into smaller more manageable chunks.  I'm going to want to stretch him without pushing him to a breaking point.  It also means that some of the goals I set for him relate more directly to strengthening his weak areas, like executive functioning skills, working at getting him to plan and execute an idea on his own.  He also needs some Occupational therapy, so that is an area we are working on.  This will affect how neat his handwriting is and how long it might take him to learn to ride a bike.  Rather than yell at him for being 9 years old and still so messy or uncoordinated, I work with him at the level he is at, not some arbitrary point I think he should at.  It also means that we might work on some skills in an unconventional way.  For example, since reading is such hard work for Britt.  One of the ways he has worked on it this year, is by reading in his newest wii game.  It involves him accomplishing quest, which means he needs to be able to read clues, and talk to people to figure out the next step of the game.  This is something he enjoys and it is something that strengthens his reading skills.  Because if he misses a word, he has to read it again, to understand what it is that he needs to do.  In other areas like math he is a whiz, but I make allowances to help him read word problems and directions.

You will notice what I HAVEN'T told you to do.  I have not said, pull up your states standards for your child's grade.  I have not said, run down to the library and pick up a copy of "What your 1st Grader Needs to Know" in order to copy your goals.  I have checked out these books several years, and while sometimes they give me ideas of areas I might have over looked, they also typically make me feel inept because there's so much I don't have time to cover, or so much that the kids aren't ready for.  So, check them out if you want a starting point for some ideas, but don't be a slave to someone else's goals.  Many of the academic goals are arbitrary, why does an 9 year old need to learn about weather, why not a 7 year old or a 11 year old?  Others are written to keep a classroom of 25 moving together in a predictable fashion so that they all can continue moving together next year.  Nothing wrong with that but a necessity when you consider the number of students under different teachers moving up through a large school over multiple grade levels.  What you need to remember though, is the greatest advantage to homeschooling is moving at your child's speed and ability.  The custom education you can provide is only a benefit though, if you actually customize and adjust it for each child.

Britt is generally working on grade level, though he is behind for reading.  Ruth is generally working ahead of grade level, but she is pretty much on her grade level for reading.  Rebecca is definitely ahead of grade level right now.  However, these numbers don't really mean much for us.  Especially when you consider that we use a range of material our Phonics book was published in 1983, and one of our history resources that I want to use is coming out later this year for the first time.  What a 4th grader should know has changed alot over those 35 years.  Other curriculum such as Math U See doesn't even use grade levels.  I would highly encourage you to take the opportunity to think about where you'd like to see your kid progress to in the coming you; what their abilities, skills, and interest are; and what weaknesses you will need to work on or compensate for.

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

Setting yearly goals for our homeschool is something that I have been doing from the beginning.  In PA we were required to submit our objectives each year, and while these can be very vague, I felt that it was to my benefit to really consider what I wanted to get out of our homeschooling year, and to come up with some detailed objectives.  Those I couched in all the "high falutin" very academic jargon.  However, now that we are in Florida, a state that doesn't require objectives, I still find a benefit in goal setting.  Now they are much simpler, and to be honest, sometimes I think the entire purpose of the academic speak is to make us look smart, and confuse outsiders.

For the upcoming school year, I find myself months before thinking about what my end goal is.  I can see weaknesses and strengths as they come up.  I can see interests that the kids are developing, and often think of projects or future tie ins.  I make note of this stuff as I go, and I kinda ponder where I want to go next.  So, when I get ready to actually sit down and plan for the following year, I'm not really starting from a blank slate.  Sometimes I even go back and compare this year's goals to what we have managed to accomplish.  I have spent the last four nights in a row, roughing out goals for our three students for the 2018-2019 school year.  And this post is to share something about that process.


For me, our focus at this age, and at our children's ability levels is math and reading, and something in particular to interest them.  I sat down the first night and set some math goals.  These after you get started are in some ways obvious.  This year, Britt and Ruth mastered adding and subtracting large numbers.  In fact they finished up math in February.  The next thing obviously will be to tackle multiplication and division.  I also worked on science goals.  We have all but ignored science for the last two years, opting for history instead.  I would like to add back in some general life science, and I happen to have a teacher book, and three unused copies of student workbooks that were passed down to me, that will fit the bill.


The second night I set down to set some goals for history.  This area right now is where we devote much of our time, outside of those two core areas.  History is something that I'm passionate about, and that the kids have really enjoyed thus far.  It's a way for them to work on many of their language art skills in a fun way.  It's a way that we have incorporated bible studies, and cultural references.  I have over planned this area.  You may find that you fall at the end of the spectrum in that you don't plan enough, or that you planned more than could be reasonably accomplished in 3 school years.  I have had to gradually learn (with the obsessive personality that I have), that I'm not failing if we don't cover everything I planned in a give school year.  I'll talk about this more when I talk about scheduling, but in this situation, I want to give myself plenty of options, and write down everything we would do in a perfect, super industrious school year.



The final night I spend trying to think of any other areas that I think need work, that don't fall into the neatly academic areas.  Things like character work, or chores, or bible studies, music and art, extracurricular clubs or projects we want to do.  Some of these goals are really ambitious like Rebecca memorizing 10 new bible verses this year.  Some are more notes, plan to work with her on learning to ride a bike.  All through this process I'm typically trying to get input from Gary, but as a very hands off "principal" he doesn't typically have much to add.  So this is the night where I annoy him, until he agrees to discuss some of my concerns and bounce around some possible solutions or adjustments.

Finally, tonight, I sat down and wrote up everything, passed it over to Gary for a once over, and he told me as usual, looks good but pretty ambitious, I doubt you get to everything.  Which will lead me to the next step of the process - curriculum choices.