How far ahead do you plan with your homeschooled children?

[IsabelC]

Do you have a grand plan that extends all the way to a dazzling career, so you can choose pre-kinder curriculum for your toddler based on what she'll need to eventually learn to get into that elite college?

 

Do you get up in the morning and see what she's in the mood to work on that day?

 

OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, I know most of us would fall somewhere in between those two, but seriously, how much planning in advance do people do? Should I be thinking through the whole grammar stage now (about to start grade 1)? Or is it best to just see where the next year takes us?

[J'etudie]

I am a planner by nature so I do have a "master" plan through high school and I make plans for the upcoming week on Fridays, but I fully realize it won't happen that way. I change, tweak, and rearrange constantly, but I'd have anxiety if I didn't have something down on paper.

 

I remember being that way in college with papers. Once I had a rough draft written, I was calm. Sometimes subsequent drafts were so radically different that I had to rewrite the thesis. That didn't bother me. Blank paper bothered me.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I have an overall goal of what I want to accomplish and what I want them to know before they graduate. How we get there changes sometimes from year to year depending on life, ability, and curriculum choices, but, we haven't strayed too far from the overall picture.

[Cera]

I have a plan for the rest of the month, a stack of curriculum and ideas for the rest of the year and a copy of WTM to hopefully point me in the right direction for the next 12 years.

 

I sometimes feel my planning is woefully inadequate but the kids change so much on a daily basis that I think planning more than a few weeks ahead at this point would be a waste of time (my oldest is in K).

[swellmomma]

I have a tentative plan right through high school of what I want them to have by graduation. This is subject to change as they mature etc.

 

Currently I have our actual lessons planned until Christmas break. At that time I will plan the 2nd half of the year. Last year I planned the whole year in the summer then replanned at christmas, so figured I would save myself a step this year. Each weekend I review the upcoming week and tweak any of the plans as needed.

[Mama Bear]

I have planned as much as a semester at a time, down to supply details with reminder notes of what needed to be purchased the week before we took on the project. I have flown by the seat of my pants (illnesses, moves, family catastrophes, tree falling on the house) and just kept doing the next thing until the book is done.

 

I've always "read ahead" in TWTM and take it with me when I know I'll be sitting somewhere by myself for more than five minutes (this happens maybe once every three to six months). Checking back into the philosophy and HS schedules/curriculum helps me to remember that there is a big picture plan: to get them up and out, as well-educated, well-spoken, thoughtful and functional citizens. I re-read certain portions of parenting books that support the part where I want them to be kind, self-possessed, strong Christians, loving toward their sibs.

 

I currently have the next several weeks planned out, reaching into the second quarter of our school year. I much prefer this, with notes about supplies and scheduling in the margins. I have a notebook where the kids look for their assignments and then pages for checking off what's done (hat tip to mamalynx). This format is new for us, but it's been cool to implement in combination with workboxes. I'm finding that we're tracking better than we have some years. Of course, nobody's rushing to ER and there's not a tree on the house either. :D

[tex-mex]

I plan one year at a time. With semester goals. And weekly lesson plans. To plan more than this would be crazy... as even changes can occur in one semester. Illness, moving, or family emergency. The beauty of homeschooling is you can be flexible to your year plan and adapt. We hs year round due to this factor.

I keep track of Carnegie hours for my son's high school transcript. I have his 4 year High School planned with courses -- but as someone else mentioned, that could be changed. Again, nothing is set in stone.

 

You need a game plan -- a weekly schedule at best. Doing a day by day thing (if you are in the upper grades) would not work, IMO.

Edited October 16, 2009 by tex-mex

[EthiopianFood]

Depends on the subject. For instance, I have science planned through fourth grade (or 8th, if that curriculum works for us and their next level is also good); I have math planned through high school. :D I could teach the grammar stage and cover every subject already. I keep track of all the curricula and books that sound interesting to me. If nothing sticks out, I'm okay with leaving it open past the grammar stage. As much as I like to know my game plan (and I love to research), I can't really imagine what it would be like to teach a 10+ year old, so I have a hard time knowing what might work for her. :tongue_smilie: Like a pp, it makes me feel better just knowing I have some sort of plan, even if it seems quite a bit premature to some.

[keptwoman]

I am a planner by nature so I do have a "master" plan through high school and I make plans for the upcoming week on Fridays, but I fully realize it won't happen that way.

Me too, although the 12 year plan is very very vague.

I have a more detailed 5 year plan of what subjects we will cover each year.

Then a year plan for the current academic year which I'm starting to work on for next year (Feb start) which has all the curriculum detailed along with where we need to be in order to finish at the end of the year, that's what keeps me on track.

Then I plan on Sunday for the week ahead for actual lists of work.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I do/did both.

 

When dd was 4 I had curriculum chosen through high school. Every 6 months from then on, I made something similar, tweaking it based on changes in beliefs/philosophy, learning about curriculum, etc. I did similarly for ds though it was harder because he was linear in how he learned.

 

However, on a day to day basis....we weren't very schoolish in elementary anyway. We did a lot of interest based learning. They learned what they wanted or needed to learn in order to do what they wanted to do. We loved it.

 

Anyway, so though I planned quite far in advance along the way, we lived for the month, the week, the day, the hour.

 

When my kids were little, I was not impressed by the WTM. Now, I think it's awesome. And really, I find it where I don't have a ton of planning to do. With Gregory, we just started grade 1. The materials we use, except for Latin, are materials that will progress as he does. We will simply progress through them as he's ready. If he goes through 2 levels of a subject in a year, great. If he takes an extra time period for whatever subject, then fine also. But we know what is next. I don't feel the whole planning bug with him (part of that is also probably because he's not my child and there is no guarantee how long I have him).

 

Now I do plan a bit. Most of our stuff is "do the next thing." On a day to day basis, I'm actually handling each piece of material and figuring where we're going in the next day or week. I write out lesson plans the beginning of the week but it's very tweakable for the little one. My son (14) is expected to work til his plan is completed.

 

Anyway, so that is just my experience. A mixture :)

Edited October 16, 2009 by 2J5M9K

[Closeacademy]

I used to have plans all the way to the end but they kept changing all the time. I also used to have plans for the entire school year but they kept changing all the time.

 

Now, I have seperate planning sheets for each subject because some change more than others but I really only plan one week at a time. I do have tenative plans on what I want to cover next year as well.

 

:001_smile:

[angela in ohio]

Not for specific careers. I have a plan for a rigorous broad education in their pre-college years. They can take that and do anything with it. If I'd been planning specifically, I'd be in trouble, as my "if I don't become a vet, I'll die" dd just informed us that she wants to be a special education teacher now. :001_huh:

 

We do have long-range goals for dc, not just in education, but in all areas. It helps us to make consistent choices.

[linders]

I want them to have the tools to pursue what they would like in the future. That means good writing, advanced math, scientific reasoning, cultural literacy, and working with others. Ideally, it also includes some proficiency in a foreign language, a musical instrument, and presenting in front of others.

 

To that end, I have a rough (very rough) idea of what we would do for the next many years and keep notes from the more seasoned HS-ers on curricula and such.

[lionfamily1999]

I have a long term goal (upstanding, God fearing, well educated, moral) and a vague plan about how to get there (homeschooling until they can get into the CC, transfer to a good college, etc).

 

Then, I have a slightly more detailed plan for the current stage (finish SotW, FLL, WWE, etc).

 

An even more detailed plan for the current year (Cover x chapters per session, to insure completion of Y book).

 

Finally, an actual plan for every session (Week 1, day 1, page 1).

 

I love to daydream and look ahead, so sometimes I will spend too much time pouring over plans for the Logic Stage... and yes, the Rhetoric Stage too. Or even better, I'll start planning out vague plans for what we'll cover each year in order to have the boys ready for college by 16 :lol:

[Beth in Central TX]

I have a long-term graduation plan for each boy. It does change from time-to-time, but I like to see where I'm going.

 

Each summer, I plan out our school year schedule for each boy in Homeschool Tracker (down to page number and problems). Just FYI--I use to use EduTrack, but the back-up feature stopped working on my computer and their customer service could not help. I thought that was an important function for the amount of work I do in the program, so I had to make a change.

 

Every school weekend during the year, I print out a weekly schedule for each boy and prepare myself for school that week. This usually means reading ahead in literature and reviewing the R&S English 8 lessons. If I have time, I skim their history and science reading. During our summer break I try to pre-read the history book I've selected for my oldest son.

 

I'm a planner by nature, and I love to organize, so this aspect of homeschooling really appeals to me. YMMV...

 

HTH!

[dragons in the flower bed]

Every year, when planning that year's materials, I make a projection. I do it only because I need to know if, say, we'll not get to algebra before ninth grade if we have to backtrack a year in order to understand the wonderful new foreign math program. As my children get older, I'm getting better at predicting their rate of progress, their needs in specific subjects, and maybe better at saying, "What we've been using is perfectly acceptable." This means each year the new plan looks a little bit more like last year's plan. I'm still not foolish (or skilled?) enough to believe we'll go through with the whole 3-12 plan as it appears on paper at the beginning of third grade.

[abbeyej]

Occasionally I sit down and think about the whole picture (where we are now through high school). It helps me to make decisions about *today* if I have a plan for where I want to be at X date in the future. The specifics do change a bit, and they'll be a little different for each child. Some things I simply can't plan. (For instance, one child is very math-oriented, so seeing where he can be in a few years is easier than my other child who is younger and currently still loathes math and is befuddled by it.) I even have a sort of running list in my head (and sometimes written down) of materials that I might like to use at various points in the future. (For my 6th grader, I'm pretty sure of a number of the books and materials we'll be using in 7th and 8th -- after that, I have a couple of things in mind, but I'm very flexible.)

 

I have the 6th grader's schedule planned out week-by-week through the rest of the year. I know which books I'm requiring that he read, which section of his algebra book I want completed each week, how far he should be into history, geography, science, Latin, Greek... It's all right there. For my 2nd/3rd grader, I have the books and (other than history, where I have the chapters roughly plotted to the same subjects her brother is studying) we just keep moving with an eye to finishing (if possible) around the end of May. If she suddenly has a breakthrough in math and we can race ahead, I'll happily move on to the next book. If she were to hit a wall in something, we'd just slow down and continue to work on building a strong foundation. ... But even for her, I have general goals and occasionally think, "Okay, if we do this now, we can do that then, and then we'll get to those things..."

 

So my answer is, yes, I need a long-term view. And shorter-term plans. And flexibility to make both work for us.

[dangermom]

I have a good picture of what I want to do through the elementary years, and am mentally firming up the plans for junior high (very slowly). Over each summer I figure out exactly what curriculum etc. we'll be using, but it's all "do the next thing." Every night I set up school for the next day, filling out little assignment sheets for each child. We have a loose weekly schedule (spelling Mon/Fri, History MWF, etc.).

[caitlinsmom]

I have a simple idea of where I want the next 12 years to go but nothing concrete. I am however in the process of planning 2nd grade for next year. I like to have an idea whats going to happen but I am more than willing to change that. I am a bit obssessive with planning so I try to limit myself to only planning a year in advance! :)

[elegantlion]

We use LCC as our framework, so I have rough plans for the remaining school years. I keep a binder with rough ideas written, curriculum that might work, goals we'd like to meet, and even some posts from this board.

 

I tend to use the backward planning approach and know that if I want to at one point by his senior year I need to make sure a, b, and c are done in middle school.

 

He doesn't have any clear cut career goals yet, but I can see him bent in a few diverse directions. Before he was born I told dh he should be an astronaut and he could be one of the first men on Mars. Ironically, the planned Mars mission...well, that's my dream not his.

 

I don't have anything set in stone and I generally plan curriculum about a year in advance.

[Supertechmom]

Best advice I was given when my kid was tiny was to consider him at age 30. What did I want him to be able to do? What kind of man? What kind of person? Then we have worked backwards form there to achieve that goal.

 

I plan the entire year at the start of each year but use the 30 year old goal to keep me on track concerning what to use.

 

I have the 12 years of school loosely planned in the sense of to achieve a good job at age 30, he needs to be able to have completed college or trade school, so his high school years need to reflect the ability to get into one of those schools. Then middle and elementary reflect achieving that.

 

And I'm flexible enough to tweak as we need it and as he develops his ideas as he gets older. Right now he wants to be an electrician and a chef so we do stuff to work on that while still maintaining enough rigor to get into college if he changes his mind later.

 

I found it helpful to imagine what one needed to be a successful adult and then work backwards from there.

[johnandtinagilbert]

Elementary:

Phonics Road

Daily Grams (starting in 4th)

TOG + writing Aids in about 4th grade

Singapore/MUS

Apologia Elem./RS4K/Noeo

bible

for fun only: Rosetta Stone Span/La Clase Divertida, Mind Benders, Quest for Logic Spelling

Music

Art

PE

Piano (Pianimals, Alfred's)

 

Middle:

Math varies from here and has/will included:Singapore, MUS, LoF, Dolciain, Chalkdust

Latin Road/Daily Grams

TOG + writing aids

bible

Apologia Mid/High Sci./ Noeo/RS4K (General, Physical, Chem, Anatomy)

Rosetta Stone Span

Mind Benders

Quest for Logic Spelling

Music

Art

PE

Piano (Alfred's)/Guitar

 

High School:

Math: Chalkdust

bible

Media Angels Creation Science/Apologia, might look into Rainbow (Creation, Biology)

TOG + writing aids

Latin Road

Mind Benders

Superstar Student

Music

Piano (Alfred's)/Guitar

May design my own spanish by then.

home ec (for credit purposes)

driver's ed.

 

10th grade begin the following in college, but keep going at home with the other things:

Chemistry + Lab

 

 

11th grade on, full time enrollment in local college + bible at home + local sport/activity hoping to have an Eagle Scout or three in the end.

 

That's the master plan. It has developed into that, of course. Some things that were there in the past, but changed were not subject, but rather materials like:

Rod and Staff

SOTW (solo versus as a part of TOG)

MOH (combined w. SOTW)

 

We add in some team sports in elem. school and boy scouts at 11. Babysitting classes, sewing and cooking all the time. I want all of my children totally home ec ready beyond any curr. they take.

 

It may change by then, but we'll see! It seems to evolve annually :)

Edited October 16, 2009 by johnandtinagilbert

[Paula in PA]

My dd wants to be a vet and is quite determined. I know she's bound to end up doing something in the sciences, based on her personality and strengths. So I have a basic plan through high-school on what she will need to cover and when in math and science. We already plan to use the WTM for other subject areas like history and literature. My main goal, though, is to make sure she has a balanced, solid education.

[Desert Rat]

I take it year by year but I have a vague idea about their long term educational goals. I find I get very overwhelmed if I think more than a year in advance.

[kalanamak]

I know where I am in each subject and just keep pumping away on them. Round about April I figure out what we are "ahead" or "behind" in and get him revved up for a standardized test in June.

 

I had K5-2 planned out. I have some ideas for 5th-8th, but he is changing at age 7, and I'm not sure what 3rd and 4th grade are going to look at. I will have to evaluate 3rd grade this spring.

[justamouse]

I have a master plan. I take what they want to do (ie: one wants to be an actress, the other an aeronautical engineer) I get info on the universities to see the requirements and I plan backwards.

 

With the yearly stuff I just make sure we're on track to get it done by years end, whether that is 12 months or 9, just that it's done by the next Sept.

[TravelingChris]

I had a plan starting around 7th for my oldest and it worked almost exactly. THen my middle changed her mind and her capabilites and so the plan changed. Now with my youngest, it has to be a completely different plan since she is heading in a direction where more math and science is needed and less history and literature. Yes, she will do history and lit but not emphasized as much as the older two. and instead many years she will be doing two sciences like this year.

[Karen in CO]

I have a basic framework planned through high school. My oldest dd has the rest planned through homeschooling her kids to college after that.

 

The framework helps because I know that I want them ready for calculus their freshman year of college in case either of them want to go into a heavy science filed - the youngest currently wants to work on a space station on mars. The oldest wants to study art history in Rome.

 

I wouldn't buy things - other than the Singapore CWP's that were going out of print - ahead of time based on any plan. I have this year's material planned out, but I won't plan out next year's until the end of then year when I sit down, and reflect on this year and see what is working and where we need improvement or changes.

[Saille]

I've got an idea of what I consider a competent and active adult citizen to be, and what I believe such a person should know, etc.. I've got a basic homeschooling framework that extends through high school, and in some cases I have theories as to what curriculum I'll use, which subjects are most likely to involve taking classes at local colleges, etc.. I keep a mental list of the SAT2s my tutoring students are needing for college admission, and of AP tests, language exams, etc.. But I think it's all subject to change. For example, I periodically look through SWB's chronological lists of great works to read in hs, but I expect that my self-ed will cause me to alter my ideas about which ones we should do. And of course, if one kid or another has a marked interest in a certain subject, that could skew our choices somewhat as well. I like having an overall big picture, though. It clarifies why I'm doing what I'm doing *now*.