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Planning and More Planning


It's that time of the year, time to plan for the upcoming school year. I am not much of the planner, but after a couple of years of homeschooling, I have come to appreciate, love and enjoy the process. I still sometimes find it frustrating but I enjoy it nonetheless. It is so liberating to be prepared, to have a plan and not be running by the seat of your pants. It limit stress and chaos and allows you to get much more accomplished. I seem to never find planners that works well for me so I usually end up making my own planning sheets.

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So how do I plan?
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  1. I print out a school calendar and circle in a start date for the year, and locate the different holidays as well. We school year round with July off and a pattern of 4-5 weeks of school/1 week off. I cannot take routine for a long period of time and a break usually does the kids good. I get my calendar from Donna Young site.

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  2. I make a schedule of the subjects we will be covering, and on which day of the week. We have a 4 day week. Since dad has Thursday off we take it off to do things as a family. Also, electives, when it happens, is on Thursdays, so that works well. You can see it better here .

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  3. I make a schedule of the weekly school routine for each child. Last year I  struggled with how to divide myself between the 2 boys. This year we are going to be doing a lot of subjects together and the ones they do separately I made sure I scheduled something for the other child to do while I am schooling the other one (something he would not need me for, like reading, or play). I even color coded the schedule so that they can easily see what they are supposed to be doing.  For a closer view, click here.

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  4. I make a yearly schedule by weeks of what we will be covering and when. I may or may not fill it up all the way now, but I will definitely do the first 5 weeks.  I try to divide the school year in appropriate places using TOG as a guide, as I do not want to be breaking in the middle of a theme. It is pretty empty right now, that's because I am still waiting on my curriculum to get here. You can see it better here.


In addition to these forms, since we are using Math on the Level this year, I also made a schedule for when I want to cover which topic, to keep me accountable and moving forward. I also started gathering worksheets for their 5 a Day problems in folders.

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I also found a nice Tapestry of Grace schedule form (here) which I am using to fill in what we will be doing week after week instead of me having to go through the buffet offered in the curriculum every week. I will prepare this, unit by unit. We will be doing the history, geography, literature, and writing part of the curriculum, and see if we can fit vocabulary and art as well.

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I will also make a list of all the books I will want them to read during their daily hour of reading which I instituted in the later part of last year.

Lastly, I will make a chore chart for the kids so that they get more involved in helping around the house, and a cleaning schedule for myself, using the great ideas from 31 Days to Clean (which I still have not been able to complete), and an old schedule I had set a while back.

That's my plan for this year in a glance.
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Comments

Linda said…
Wow! Seriously, I am envious of people who can organize their lives like this. I only have one child to homeschool, and the only reason I keep a calendar is because there are outside activities to keep up with, as well as my mother's doctor appointments. Fortunately, our curriculum takes care of most of the planning for us (we use Time4Learning, online), but we never seem to get to the super fun things, like extra science projects. I hope to do better with our scheduling this year, and I will probably "take a page from your book" and write more things down. Are your children agreeable to participating in such an organized schedule?
July 30, 2011 at 5:55 PM
joelle said…
Actually the less children you have, the less planning you need to do, because you can just open the book and go and fit it in the day as you wish. The kids actually cooperate better if I give them a plan. They tend to ask "what is next?""How many more do I have to do?" and these kinds of questions, so having it laid out for them is comforting.I am the one who is more resistant to following a schedule. They may complain about the amount but I think it is good for them to learn diligence and discipline early. If I see it is too much I cut back on how much they have to do.
July 31, 2011 at 12:39 PM
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