how do you sit down to plan?

[greenmamato3]

i'm curious about how everyone has found their "groove" in planning. i'm not talking which spreadsheet, or which daily schedule. i'm talking more the planning phase: getting all the information synced up on your weekly planning sheets, how far in advance do you pen things in your planners, how much wiggle room do you give yourself, etc etc etc?

 

i'm thinking of doing the 5-week-on-1-week-off approach this year. in that, i'm thinking that during the 1 week "off" we will still do lots of read alouds and readers, even to the extent of playing "catch up" if we've been too interrupted in the prior 5 weeks. {please speak up if you think this idea is fundamentally flawed}. it will also be a week to do more things along the lines of field trips.

 

what do you pen first and use as the framework for your year: the history? the literature/reading? the language arts?

 

do you do all one subject for the entire year and the nmove to the next subject, or do you do all of one week(every subject) and then move to the next week??

 

ya'll are just TOO much of a great set of resources for me to resist picking your brains! TIA!

[LoveBaby]

previously, I've used pre-packaged curriculum's with weekly plans. however, it seems we always get off schedule in one subject or another, so we're on week 4 in on subject, week 6 in another and week 7 in another.

 

so, this year I'm planning by subject only with a weekly "plan"

 

Mon - History

Tues- co-op

Wed. science

Thursday - literature

Friday - art/music/

 

Then for each content subject I'm making a list of what we want covered in what order. Every week, I'll just check off where we are on the list. I think this will make it a lot easier to "do the next thing" and stay on track in each subject w/out flippin' from one week to the next in our planner.

[AudreyTN]

A lot of times what I'll do is photocopy the Table of Contents for the book. Then I'll divide it up by # of weeks in our school year. It's more to help keep me on track than a set schedule.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

When my older kids were little I did what you are planning...5 weeks on 1 week off. It worked beautifully for our young family. Some years I just did a 4 day school week and left the 5th day for houswork one week and field trips the next. I think a young mom needs some catch up time since you are the only one who can actually clean/do laundry/shop etc. Now that I have teenagers, I manage differently, but for your stage of motherhood, I think your plan is perfect.

 

I have always used history as the basis for my planning. Now we are using TOG and this is done for me, but in the past I pulled together my own history and used that as the basis for my year. History and science are the only subjects I planned for the entire year at once. These are "content areas" and I do well planning these subjects for the whole year.

 

I never plan the "skill areas" too far ahead. I don't want to pressure myself or my children to move ahead in math, spelling, reading, grammar if they don't understand the material. I do use the table of contents to set goals as to where we should be by mid-year, but if we have to slow down, or are able to move more quickly I just go with it. I usually plan these subjects on a weekly basis, but I do have some long range goals.

 

I set up a weekly skeleton schedule for each child that lists the intended amount of work to be covered each week. I use the number of lessons or pages and divide by the weeks in our school year to figure out how much should be covered on a weekly basis. Usually I try to plan a little more than needed to give us some "wiggle room" For example, DD's grammar book has 100 lessons. Doing 3 lessons/week will allow us to finish in 33 weeks. That gives us 3 weeks "wiggle room" if I am planning a 36 week year. If some of lessons don't happen, that's OK, but the skeleton schedule is the "ideal". I tend to do "skill areas" in the morning and "content areas" in the afternoon.

 

I have also learned to tweak our schedule and plans as needed. I cringe at the times I let myself become tense and impatient because LIFE was interfering with my beautifully planned homeschool year. Sometimes a homeschool mom can get pretty attached to her plans. It helps to remember.... your plans and schedule are your tools...not your taskmasters.;)

 

HTH,

Leanna

[The Governess]

Well, I am just starting out but here is what I am doing this year:

 

9 or 10 week quarters with 2 weeks off between each, and 6-7 weeks off during the summer. We will be doing school 4 days a week except for math which will be 5 days a week.

 

I have 1.5 hours devoted to our core subjects each day (30 minutes - math only - on Fridays). They are: phonics, grammar, writing, math, and foreign language. I spend 30 minutes on math, 15 on phonics, 15 on grammar or writing (alternating), and 30 minutes on foreign language. I don't plan lessons out for the whole year, we'll just do what we have time for, get to a stopping point, and then move onto the next subject. I have a weekly checklist, broken down by day, for these everyday subjects. I'll probably write down what we did that week on Friday so I have a record.

 

Science and History I plan out a quarter in advance. I make a weekly checklist for each subject. If we don't get it done in the time I've allotted, oh well. We will move on to the next topic the next week. That's the nice thing about having a young student, it doesn't matter if we don't get to everything in these early years. :D But if there is something that will cause a problem the following week if it isn't completed, I'll make time for it on Friday or Saturday.

 

Reading practice will happen every night after dinner for 20 minutes. I have a booklist and we will just start at the top and see how far we get.

 

Fridays are our days for field trips, play dates, catchup work, and enrichment subjects. We'll do some cooking projects, some finger knitting/weaving, a couple history projects, watch some music theory videos, and maybe do some literature pockets.

 

Um.. this is getting really long. :lol: So, to summarize, I guess if it's an open and go subject like math or phonics, I schedule by the amount of time we will spend, rather than how many lessons we will get done. If it's a subject where up-front planning is needed on my part, I schedule what I think we can get done in a week, and start from there. But if it doesn't get done, we will just move on rather than push the schedule back. Clear as mud? :D

[greenmamato3]

 

Um.. this is getting really long. :lol: So, to summarize, I guess if it's an open and go subject like math or phonics, I schedule by the amount of time we will spend, rather than how many lessons we will get done. If it's a subject where up-front planning is needed on my part, I schedule what I think we can get done in a week, and start from there. But if it doesn't get done, we will just move on rather than push the schedule back. Clear as mud? :D

 

:iagree: yes, it IS clear, actually. that's a perfect way for me to think of it!!! :) thanks!

[greenmamato3]

When my older kids were little I did what you are planning...5 weeks on 1 week off. It worked beautifully for our young family. Some years I just did a 4 day school week and left the 5th day for houswork one week and field trips the next. I think a young mom needs some catch up time since you are the only one who can actually clean/do laundry/shop etc. Now that I have teenagers, I manage differently, but for your stage of motherhood, I think your plan is perfect.

I set up a weekly skeleton schedule for each child that lists the intended amount of work to be covered each week. I use the number of lessons or pages and divide by the weeks in our school year to figure out how much should be covered on a weekly basis. Usually I try to plan a little more than needed to give us some "wiggle room" For example, DD's grammar book has 100 lessons. Doing 3 lessons/week will allow us to finish in 33 weeks. That gives us 3 weeks "wiggle room" if I am planning a 36 week year. If some of lessons don't happen, that's OK, but the skeleton schedule is the "ideal". I tend to do "skill areas" in the morning and "content areas" in the afternoon.

 

I have also learned to tweak our schedule and plans as needed. I cringe at the times I let myself become tense and impatient because LIFE was interfering with my beautifully planned homeschool year. Sometimes a homeschool mom can get pretty attached to her plans. It helps to remember.... your plans and schedule are your tools...not your taskmasters.;)

 

HTH,

Leanna

 

thanks, leanna! this is great insight!!!!

[skaterbabs]

I much prefer to choose curricula of the "do the next _____" type of thing, but our science this year is really out of the box. We try to sit down at least once a week and figure out what we want to do during the next week. At that time I write out each child's assignments/goals for each day. We're still working out what works best for us, though, as we've only had Wacko home a couple of weeks and our system never has been one you'd wish to imitate despite my best efforts.:glare:

[Closeacademy]

When I get my curriculum for the new school year, I sit down and over the course of 2-4 days, I write out day by day plans for the year.

 

Every month, I print out and make copies of all the worksheets/notebook/lapbook pieces we will use over the next month and I bring the month's schedule up to date with where we really are. I usually take an entire afternoon or I split it up over the course of a week doing a little each day.

 

Hope this helps.:001_smile:

[rafiki]

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[Chris in VA]

Geez, I'm such a slacker!

I take the summer to plan--last year, I didn't have to plan for dd b/c she went to ps, but I've been trying to get her home. I've had lots of time to fool around with different ideas of what to do for 4th grade, but I'm basically sticking with what has worked previously.

 

I have lots of notebooks (spirals from when they are 15 cents at the school supply sales!) and use them to jot down ideas, lists of what I have to do, and curriculum plans. If I can find the same one two days in a row, I'm good...:D

 

Anyway, I'm mostly history focused. I lay on my bed after the day is over and write--last night, I wrote out which Sonlight books in Core 3/4 are used in the order they are used, and which subject they pertain to (and which year they are set in).I'm coordinating SL with SOTW and have about 19 books to schedule in, along with extra readings from Boorstin's Landmark book. I have the AG and SOTW 3 from the library, and I've gone thru and picked activities and AG rec's for reading. Now I just will combine the SL and the AG stuff, and history will be done--it will go by week, and be open and go. I just tackle that planning over the course of several months. Slow, huh?

 

Rod and Staff grammar, spelling, Prima Latina (finishing it) and Saxon math will just be open and go, so I don't even write down what we are doing. It's totally do the next thing, usually a lesson a day.

 

Science will consist of some field-based nature studies, and I'll probably have to call around to see what kind of programs will be available thru Jr. Ranger and nature center presentations, plus we are incorporating some informal bird study. I'll also see what kinds of field trips we can put together, probably including Jamestown and some cool factory tours. We'll just go when we can, but hopefully the Jamestown day trip will be around the time we are studying that period! lol

 

I may get adventurous and write out a lesson planner, but other than history and lit tied to history, there isn't much to write down for me.

[springmama]

I'm planning to start on August 17 and have been planning like crazy lately. I do not plan LA and Math because there are times we need to stop and master a concept before moving on. For our lesson planning, I made a form similar to what Sonlight or WP would use in the IG. It's a chart with 6 columns and rows for each book that we use, of course divided by subject. I have that available as a download on my new blog if you are interested-http://hillsideacademy.wordpress.com/

 

Anyway, here is exactly how I'm doing it this year. Keep in mind that I'm new at this so who knows if this is going to work out for us.

 

1. Look at each subject one at a time and plan out what chapters and pages will be covered each week, over the course of 36 weeks. This is just a general rough draft type of thing, not a lesson plan, but more of a list of topics to cover each week.

 

2. I pulled up my lesson planner and print the above list for one subject only. I then go to the book shelf and pull out the text, activity book, encyclopedia, and read alouds for that particular subject.

 

3. I look at my plan for that subject and start plugging in the reading and activities for that week only. If I don't have read alouds I check the suggested reading list and then check my library's website to see if they have what I want and if they don't have them, I start a shopping cart on Amazon.com.

 

4. Once I plan about 4-5 weeks of one subject, I move onto another one and do the same.

 

We plan on schooling year round and taking breaks every 5th week. I am almost finished planning our first 5 weeks and plan on working on the next segment over the next few weeks and then finishing it up during our break week.

[love2read]

I don't follow these ideas exactly, but I really like these ladies diverse ideas.

 

First, check out

which is a Waldorf mom planning her year. It's very different from what most of us do (she starts out folding a sheet of paper) and you'll find at least a few good ideas. She over explains things, so use the ff slider if you're short on time.

 

This blog describes the mothers comprehensive folder system used in planning. I've used this link many times, but it's coming up blank at the moment so she may be uploading something.

File system--http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/2006/09/my_file_folder_.html

and lesson planning that uses file system--

http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/2007/01/lesson_and_week.html

Edited June 26, 2009 by love2read

[2_girls_mommy]

I start by planning the whole year, broken down into months. So by the time I am done I have each mo. planned out. I start with math and L.A. stuff as they generally have the most lesson plans. Then I divide them up by the no. of months I want to do school (10 for us), and get an avg. # of lessons I will need to accomplish each mo. to reach my goal of finishing the books at the end of my school year. I like to do 4 days a week (and next year we are thinking of joining a co-op, so it will have to be 4 days.) So on avg. I need dd to finish 16 lessons of math and L.A. stuff a mon. Then I do the same w/music, history, basically anything w/chapters. So I want to finish 4 chapters of music & history a month. For Science, I jot ideas of which topics we will be covering that month. So Aug. will look something like this:

math lessons #1-16

phonics lessons #1-16

English lessons #1-14

history chapters #1-4

music chapters #1-4

Art (list SOTW projects or any plans I have)

Science begin Earth Science (any specific topics I will list too..)

P.E. dance class

 

This gives me a guideline for the year, and at the end of each month I can assess where we really are and decide if the plan is working, or if I need to double up on lessons or find one or two review that I can skip to catch up or whatever.

We are not sticklers to this by any means, but it helps to have a plan. Last year we got a little behind in music and history. We spent more time on some chapters than just a week. So in May we doubled up on music lessons to finish our book, and we are continuing history over the summer to finish SOTW 1 before we start SOTW 2 in Aug. Obviously, I have to do some more work before we start each week, namely get library books for Science and History and glance over SOTW and Art projects to see what we will do and gather supplies. I made copies daily before we started something last year. This year to save time I am considering copying all of SOTW before we start.

[Caraway]

This blog describes the mothers comprehensive folder system used in planning. I've used this link many times, but it's coming up blank at the moment so she may be uploading something.

File system--http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/2006/09/my_file_folder_.html

and lesson planning that uses file system--

http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/2007/01/lesson_and_week.html

 

This system seems like it has a lot of potential. I'll have to come back and read more closely when my kiddos aren't being so "helpful". Thanks for posting.

[FO4UR]

I am hoping to find my planning groove too.

 

I am spending this week planning for the fall. I have made up a basic outline plan for math and LA, ideally we'll get through it all this year. I left the weekly pages blank so I can have the flexibility to speed up/slow down in those skill areas. Each week, I'll just pencil in the daily work (taken from my yearly outline). So it's all planned, but won't be uselss if we get behind in math one week.

 

I'm also heeding the advice to get all copies made before the year starts. I know we will likely be moving mid-year, so I want everything to be as "pick up and go" as possible before we start.

 

We are doing 6 weeks on and 1 week off. This has been working well so far. Most things are written for a 36wk year, so that leaves a light summer.

[mompotter]

I use a core curriculum that is planned out for me.

 

The other things I use, I tend to look at what should get in order to complete it in one year but not schedule it out. I write it out each day as we finish things. For example I know that for my math I should do approx. one chapter a week. There is some leeway in this schedule because each book has 30 chapters. I shoot for a lesson a week but sometimes we may get stuck on a lesson for two or three weeks before they "get it". Then I move on. If it is too easy we do one page then skip to the test and keep moving.

 

It is fun seeing how other people plan. Thanks for this thread.:D

[Whereneverever]

I like to plan each subject separately, and by semester. That way if were ahead in one thing it doesn't throw anything else off, or if we're behind. I also like having it by the semester because then I know where approximately half way is- so if I'm behind I know we'll either need to speed up or go into the summer with it.

I have blank weekly pages that I fill in then with what I actually have accomplished.

I think the idea of 5 weeks on, one off sounds great.

[JoyfulMama]

I sit down with one subject at a time. For a set curriculum, like our math, I look at the number of lessons (incl tests) and figure out how many times a week we need to work in order to complete in X weeks.

I made up a calendar for us, and broke it down into basically 2 month terms, and scheduled out vacation times/down times. That gave me my X weeks.

I chose two month terms because of science - that is about how long we have been concentrating on something in depth - our natural flow of things, not based on a curriculum.

 

I write out a one-page plan per subject, since I recognize that, for us, where we are in one subject is not significantly linked to another subject.

I number my terms/weeks (A1, A2, A3, etc) and write a plan for how to cover the subject over our year. This allows me to see, per subject, our flow.

 

Then I took a bunch of file folders, and labeled them according to my terms/weeks, as well (again, A1, A2, ... B1, B2, ... C1, C2...), and stuck them in the filing cabinet. This way I can file anything loose that I have assigned to a time period. For something that is a general A, I just put it in A1. It helps me to not lose something. I can also easily space out extras this way, such as one mind-bender a week, or incorporating special stuff (the great stuff that I want to use for December is already in that area). I use lots of sticky notes (as they can be easily moved), and put a sticky for each subject in each file folder, with the rough plan for that week. For me, this is neater than erasing and rewriting, and yet is still very visual. (And different colored stickies can be easy for different kids.)

 

No, it's not a take-along schedule, but I don't usually need to take my WHOLE plan with me anywhere! Also, It's easy enough to file a book with "next week".

[Narrow Gate Academy]

i'm curious about how everyone has found their "groove" in planning. i'm not talking which spreadsheet, or which daily schedule. i'm talking more the planning phase: getting all the information synced up on your weekly planning sheets, how far in advance do you pen things in your planners, how much wiggle room do you give yourself, etc etc etc?

Weekly planning sheets I fill in on Saturdays for the next week of school.

 

what do you pen first and use as the framework for your year: the history? the literature/reading? the language arts?

For me it doesn't really matter where I start. I tend to do a little here and there as I get the resources to start putting it together.

 

do you do all one subject for the entire year and the nmove to the next subject, or do you do all of one week(every subject) and then move to the next week??

Neither. Some subjects like history take me a long time to plan. I get all the resources from the library and put together a plan for those resources, then move on to something else until I have the next set of resources in my hands. Subjects like grammar, I plan all at one time for the whole year when I'm waiting on library books or still prereading them for other subjects. I keep track of what's completed and what still needs to be done with a checklist. HTH

Edited June 26, 2009 by Narrow Gate Academy
fix a mistake

[jengjohnson]

I've done more planning this year than ever before. We're using HOD, so I'm following their plan for most subjects. We're doing additional science along with another family and we're covering a chapter a month. The number of lessons vary per month, ranging from 8 to 12, so I've just planned each month out and will decide how/where to fit the lessons in once we get going.

 

At this point I've planned out the first semester. Our co-op begins after Labor day so we go down to 4 days a week and I've planned for that as well. For math and grammar, I'm just looking at the number of lessons we need to complete and dividing that so I know how many lessons or pages we need to cover each week.

 

My goal is to get more accomplished and feel like I can really take time off during our scheduled breaks. We don't have time off at regular intervals, we range from 4 to 8 weeks before taking a break, depending on travel plans. Our co-op ends right before Thanksgiving so I'll plan for second semester during that time.

[yvonne]

Jessica at Trivium Academy was queen of planning! I got so many great ideas from her. She has a lot of great ideas and models on her blog.

 

yvonne