Are you already planning for the new homeschool year?
I read a great post last night at Tookshire about creating the skeleton calendar of the coming year. It is looking to become a multi-post series on how they plan and prepare for the year ahead. With three teenagers in the home I am sure that there is a lot of planning going on to make sure they have great transcripts full of the things that impress colleges. It is certainly a great post to read and take a few ideas from, even if you have younger children to plan for. I personally love how the first two things she plans for are the important dates for the family (birthdays,holidays, anniversaries) and the already existing routine that the family has.
I have seen some families try to write a perfect schedule that looks great on paper, but falls apart in action. Often becasue they failed to look at the family’s normal rhythm first. Sure getting up early to take a family walk and them jumping into the math lesson may look great, but if your kids are naturally slow to get going in the morning this could turn into a battle. Instead of trying to create a schedule that looks impressive then forcing your family into it, instead create a schedule of your family and work the schedule in around them.
What is your advice for planning out a schedule for homeschooling families?
homeschool, planning, schedule, family
June 28th, 2007 at 9:00 am
We are at our very happiest now doing everything self-paced. The kids know what subjects they are going to cover every day and how much time I would like them to spend. They also are allowed a certain amount of free/down time. THEY are the ones that then decide the order of things and how to divide up their breaks. That allows my linear son to do things pretty much identical every single day. My fluid daughter enjoys a lot of change every single day.
This year we will be doing some art, music and Oklahoma history some afternoons together, so they will still have their total flexibility in the mornings.
We are using LifePacs, so planning ahead for me simply means buying them (der) and as they are nearing a new workbook in a subject, I began to look through the new one to prepare for any project, experiments, etc. I have everything ready because they move at their own pace, and we don’t always know the specific day they will make to it to said project.
On days that we have to cut into our mornings, we decide if we’ll be taking schoolwork with us, or just doing a few subjects (I might say, “Pick your two subjects that you are moving through more slowly”). On special occasions and trips, we just don’t do school! It’s that easy for us.
June 28th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
I am a planner by nature, but I have learned to adapt my plans realistically to my children. I plan 30 weeks of lessons, but know that will end up stretched over 40 weeks time, with lots of room for field trips and interest led studies as they come.
We live in a state that requires a lot of different things that don’t necessarily fit naturally into our year. We start our year early, in July, with field trips for state history and videos for health and safety, as well as art camp,etc. By August, we add history, math, english and science. By starting early, we leave ourselves lots of time for breaks throughout the year. We usually finish in early May, and have time to enjoy spring!
July 6th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Thanks, Summer. I’m flattered that you not only liked the post but linked it as well. I hope that you’ll enjoy the rest of the planning schedule posts.