Jump to content

Menu

What does "scheduling" mean?


Recommended Posts

In reference to homeschool planning? 

 

I have seen many references to scheduling. I am not exactly sure what that means. 

 

Is it deciding how many lessons/how much material/how much time to cover at a time and how often?

 

Does a premade schedule tell you what to teach on each day? 

 

Does it vary according to the ability of the child, or is a schedule somewhat set in stone.

 

I have done things a few different ways, but I can't say I have ever put much effort into scheduling. When others mention it, it seems like a much Bigger Deal than what I am doing. Mine also tend to be quite flexible and dependent on how the kids and I are feeling/grasping/enjoying the material. 

I must not be doing what others are doing.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scheduling for me is a couple different steps.  At the end of one school year or during the summer I set up what weeks we will school for the next year, along with what breaks we will take.  During the school year I a weekly schedule on Sundays.  I sit down with the teacher manuals or whatever books we are working on and plan out what lessons we will do that week.  Some things are pretty straight forward like math, we basically do a lesson a day.  Others I have to guess what we will make it through and adjust the next week as needed.  I use MFW as the core of what we do so it is scheduled for me, which is nice, but I do tweak it a bit to make it work for us.

 

I stick to a somewhat rigid schedule, allowing for some flexibility when needed. If I don't we don't get things done that we need to.  When it was just DD I was a bit more relaxed about things and just did one day at a time.  But with three kids and two with special learning needs, I need to be more structured.

 

I think that if what you are doing is working for your family then that is great.  Sometimes I wish we could be less structured and laid back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't schedule much. Every week I go into OneNote and write up some weekly goals (ie. pages 2-8 of math, history ch.2, etc), and I print off or copy anything I might need for the week. Then in a column off to the side I list the days of the week, as the days go by I record what we did. I don't spend a gazillion hours putting all my stuff into a program because I won't keep up on it. This system works well for me, is easy to implement, and I do it. I probably spend an hour or less doing this, usually on Sunday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me it means figuring out what we are going to cover and in what period of time. And then breaking that down into smaller chunks. I didn't worry about it so much when the kids were younger, but now that I am dealing with high school I am trying to finish a year's worth of a subject in a year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me it means figuring out what we are going to cover and in what period of time. And then breaking that down into smaller chunks. I didn't worry about it so much when the kids were younger, but now that I am dealing with high school I am trying to finish a year's worth of a subject in a year.

I think that's the main reason high school scares me. I have a few years but I really feel like it's important to make sure high school is well thought out and planned. I recently did some general goals/planning for the next three years to get us ready and where I want to be for high school.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I determine what days we'll do which subjects (since some are only done 2 or 3 days per week).

 

I schedule very roughly what time we'll do different subjects, so I can coordinate working with all 3 kids, some needing more mom time than others. We don't follow this schedule exactly, and I don't look at the clock, but having times listed to begin with keeps it realistic (ie, I know we can fit xyz subjects between 8am and lunch time, and we might even finish them early). I'm somewhat flexible on order of subjects, especially for my 5th grader's independent work (if he wants to swap the order of Latin and math, I don't care - he doesn't need me for either one). I have to plan my little kids more, because they're combined in one subject, and neither likes to wait for the other.

 

I pay attention to estimates of when we'll start/stop different levels of a curriculum, so I know when to buy the next thing.

 

Also, I do yearly lesson plans during the summer, putting them in HST+ with no dates attached. Once a week, I assign lessons, so then it becomes scheduled. Again, I'm flexible. I just need a basic plan so things do get done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah. Thank you.

 

I am doing all of that, I just do it in little chunks throughout the day/week/year as needed. It sounds like it's less of a thing for me because I work it in continuously instead of all at once.

 

I have a calendar with our school days and vacation days. I have written on it which subjects we will rotate through each month. That was all the planning I did that day. 

Each day/week I got down which lessons we need to cover and check them off as they get done.

 

That's it right? That's scheduling?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say so, I always wondered if I was doing it wrong too because it seemed like it wasn't as big a thing for me as it is for others, so I tried a couple of the hs planning software and hated them all, Way too labor intensive, but I probably will do that for high school.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can see how if one is using multiple resources scheduling could become far more complex than what I am doing. I have generally kept my curriculum very bare bones. There just aren't a lot of moving parts to maintain. But if one is using a much more involved set up, it would require more precision. 

I actively avoid anything that looks like it can't work on the fly. So that would account for a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm. I just tried the free trial for Homeschool Planet and find it very helpful, not so much for the box checking, day to day type stuff, but more to keep an idea of the big picture and to ensure that we stay on track with our goals.

 

For example, if I realize that we are going to be done with such-and-such a curriculum at such and such a date, and we are on track, then it's fine to take a break for a week if we want to. Or if we are behind in a subject and want to move ahead quickly, maybe we'll keep going. Or if we're taking forever to get through something, I can look at the schedule and get a better of idea of why. How long have we actually been doing it? Is the workload realistic? Do we need to change up our routine a bit? What about outside activities? Can I make some modifications to the curriculum? When I can track the work we actually did on any given day, it's much easier for me to answer those questions.

 

I guess by putting in that sort of framework, I feel I'm freed up to be more flexible, not less. I wouldn't do HS Planet if it took a huge amount of work to maintain though, or if I couldn't change the assignments around very easily. I guess it gives me a lot of freedom on any given day, while still having "a plan".

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I refer to it as "Planning" more so than scheduling. Scheduling, for me, is determining the "schedule" for how we're structuring our days. I have a "schedule" because the kids all need some of my time - so when you are on the schedule to do a certain subject (or have time) with mom, you're there.

 

Planning is what has been described here. Things that require "on the fly" stuff don't get done here. If we're going to play a game, it better be planned out. So, if I'm going to play math games or phonogram card games with ds#1 once a week, that's included in my planning. Everything else takes that into consideration. If I decide to play those games three times per week, that changes the plan. If I'm going to do a craft with ds#2, that better be both in the schedule and included in the planning. (Luckily, Kristin's Crafts for Kids makes it easy to include it without any planning. It just has to fit in on the schedule.)

 

As the kids get more independent, I plan out their subjects so they can realistically get them done in a year. Then, they get either a checklist (weekly, daily) or a "suggestion" of how much they need to get done every week in order to finish. Ideally, they'll transition to being able to do that themselves, but my oldest isn't there yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In reference to homeschool planning? 

 

I have seen many references to scheduling. I am not exactly sure what that means. 

 

Is it deciding how many lessons/how much material/how much time to cover at a time and how often?

 

Does a premade schedule tell you what to teach on each day? 

 

Does it vary according to the ability of the child, or is a schedule somewhat set in stone.

 

I have done things a few different ways, but I can't say I have ever put much effort into scheduling. When others mention it, it seems like a much Bigger Deal than what I am doing. Mine also tend to be quite flexible and dependent on how the kids and I are feeling/grasping/enjoying the material. 

I must not be doing what others are doing.

 

I think many people say "lesson plans" when they really mean "scheduling." :-)

 

Classroom teachers make lesson plans, which cover every.single.thing they will do during each class period, which will be more than just which page in their workbooks the children will do. Mostly, we homeschoolers don't need to do that.

 

I didn't do much of either one. Except when I did KONOS, we mostly did the next thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I started homeschooling, I planned a day at a time. After the first year, I moved to planning a week at at time. I did create a schedule for the year - which days we would have school, which days would be off. We sometimes changed it on the fly, but it gave me an idea of how many days and how much time we were going to spend. 

 

Now that my kids are in high school, I plan by the semester. It is necessary for me to know they will get the necessary material covered in a year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...