How do you plan out your year?

[A home for their hearts]

This being our first year of homeschooling I've come to realize that just flying by the seat of our pants doesn't work. I waste a lot of time each day just pulling things together at the last minute and usually by the time I have everything pulled together something happens and then nothing gets done. I need to make a plan, maybe quaterly of everything we are going to cover and the hows of it. Any suggestions? I really could use all the help I can get in this area. Thanks

[Sue G in PA]

This year was our first w/out the cyber (which had everything all laid out for me each day) and it was a learning experience. I'm not all that organized, but I try. This is what I started doing:

 

I planned out a month in advance using a simple student planner book that had a monthly calendar as well as weekly calendar w/ lines, KWIM? I used the monthly calendar to write a general "plan" as to what days we'd school and any special plans that came up (field trips, etc.). In the weekly section, I planned history and science one month ahead. I wrote down lesson pages, ideas for activites or experiments, extra books each dc would read or we'd read aloud and also wrote down what supplies we'd need in the Saturday box before the week started so I could purchase what I needed before hand. Follow?

 

I did get lazy some months, but mostly I kept it up. I also have weekly schedules for my older dc with lesson #'s, books to read, etc. for each subject hey are to complete independently. It helps keep them on track and they can work at their own pace as long as at the end of the week the work is all done. My dd11 loves this b/c she is a very ind. and efficient worker and uses her time wisely. She is often finished before Friday (which is a light day for us anyway). This works for us, but I imagine next year will be different once I add in my Ker and PreKer and am dealing with an infant! I'll probably need a more "structured", time-slotted plan! Sure hope others w/ more exp. chime in! I'm always looking for new ideas, too!

[angela in ohio]

Here it is - more than you probably want to know. :001_smile:

 

1. I determine our schedule for the year. For this coming year, we will have 42 weeks, which is 232 days (6 days/wk minus 20 sick/free days.)

 

2. I write a course description and goals for each subject area. Then I choose materials to fulfill each subject are's goals.

 

3. I go through the subject areas one by one deciding how I will divide everything up for the year, using the number of days determined in step one. This takes the longest and generally involves many charts and graphs, LOL. Usually I work through each area as I buy the materials throughout the spring.

 

4. Once I have a few sheets of paper outlining each subject area, I plug it into an Excel sheet I created, one subject at a time. I have the days set up horizontally, so that each subject goes across one row. I set it to advance across after I hit Enter, so I can just input each assignment and keep going. Generally this is just a lesson number or page numbers, but sometimes it is a book title or such.

 

5. I print out our schedule. I use it to record grades, write field trips and activities at the bottom, and so forth. I add the date at the top of each page as I use it.

 

I have tried many different variations over the years, but this is what works best so far. For example, I used to plan by weeks, but then a sick day would cause me to have to re-write the next week's plans.

 

HTH!! :001_smile:

[battlemaiden]

I'm a little less organized than angela [okay MUCH less organized, or would it be formalized].

 

I decide on our subjects. I decide on the curriculum. I pre-read and survey the curriculum the best I can before the year begins. Then I plan in two weeks blocks at a time.

 

More than two weeks and I end up rescheduling because someone was sick, or someone needed more review, or someone is too advanced in that topic and we just skip sections all together.

 

What I have found the most helpful is to decide on what courses I want my children to have completed by their senior year (Calculus etc...) then I work backward to see where we should be each year. For example my non-mathy son really needs to push it in seventh and eighth to meet the Calculus goal.

 

I think it helps to start out with a package curriculum if you really can't guage how much work should be getting done in a day. I remember going from loosey goosey in Kindergarten to Sonlight in first with my oldest---I was surprised at how much they did. It was a good eye opener.

 

Sorry this was long. It's late. It's quiet in the house. I have time to ramble. ;)

 

Jo

[sweetTN]

I like Battlemaiden's idea of working backwards. I hadn't though of it before, but it makes a lot of sense. I have nightmares about dd getting into highschool and suddenly I realize we left out something very important:iagree:

 

But as for scheduling right now, I have a general plan for the year, pick my curriculum, and print up a weekly schedule every week. Life is to unpredicable for us to schedule further ahead. My dd loves having her "schedule" so she can work ahead if things are really starting to click (or I'm otherwise occupied:)). She slides her schedule into the front of her binder and can check off her work as she completes it. I'm hoping this will give her a sense of responsibility for her work.

[homewithtrinity]

I look at the books and decide how long I want to spend on each topic based on the interests of my kids. Then I decide what we will do each month, then week, and finally each day. In the end I have a colmpleted lesson plan for the whole year. Yet, I only schedule for 150 days. This allows me to plan 30 or so days. This allows ample time for sick days and field trips to WalMart to practice our consumer math. :D

 

It usually takes me about a month to figure our plans for the year, but it makes the year a lot less stressful to me. I just have to look a week ahead of time to see the topic and a list of items needed to complete the lessons.

[asher]

I like Battlemaiden's idea of working backwards. I hadn't though of it before, but it makes a lot of sense. I have nightmares about dd getting into highschool and suddenly I realize we left out something very important:iagree:

 

But as for scheduling right now, I have a general plan for the year, pick my curriculum, and print up a weekly schedule every week. Life is to unpredicable for us to schedule further ahead. .

 

:iagree: on both counts LOL. I'll probably spend the next month planning my dc's curriculum from Senior High now. LOL.

[Closeacademy]

For laying out the year:

 

First I make a list of what I want to cover. I write down the subjects and/or topics. And any books we may want to use next to the subject.

 

Then: I go through my math, science, english or any other texts and divide them into 10 monthly units.

 

Next I take out my calendar and 11 sheets of notebook paper. I figure out how many weeks we will have school each month. I schedule out vacations and holidays, I mark fun weeks which usually happen on short or holiday weeks. Once this is done, I will have 11 sheets of paper with the dates we are having school and how much school we are having for each unit. The 11th sheet is for Decemeber and is used to plan out Christmas activities.

 

Once I have that I start to schedule out our units on a week to week and day to day basis. I try to make the beginning of the month heavier than the end of the month so if we get behind we can still finish up. I also make sure that every other month we have a fun school week so that if we do get ill we can just take the week off or if we don't we get to have a fun break every so often.

 

It works well for us. So basically, I find out what I want to cover, break it up into 10 units, figure out when we are going to do school for the year and what dates those units will cover and then break it up into weekly and daily bites.

 

Good luck in your planning this year.:001_smile:

[Beth in Central TX]

My approach is similar to Battlemaiden's. I plan each year with our long-term goals in mind. During the spring months I review our goals of where we want our boys to be academically and spiritually when they graduate. Then I make sure that each year's subjects work toward those goals. Once I know what subjects to do for the next year that I'm planning, I purchase the books. I have an Excel spreadsheet for each boy with the subjects lined up on the top. I'm more organized, so I actually plan out what they are going to do each day for each subject for the whole year, but you could also make a rough plan of what they will do each month or week too. Right now I'm working on my Excel spreadsheets for next year.

 

In July I'll take my Excel spreadsheets and input all of the information into a software program called Edu-Track. There are many other options out there; this is just the program I prefer. It has a "bump" feature so that if we don't get something done the week I have planned, then I can bump it to the next week (anytime in the future). I like the Edu-Track software because each Sunday I can sit down and print out weekly reports for each boy for the coming week. There are check-off boxes to make sure we get done all that I had planned. On Sunday evenings, I use that plan to review what we will be doing the next week and make sure I have everything needed. This system has worked well for our homeschool especially now that I'm trying to educate all 3 of our boys.

[Jenny in Florida]

I gather all of the materials, books, etc., I plan to use the following year and sit down with the whole mess over the summer. I figure out how many weeks we'll have to work during the coming academic year and how many pages or lessons there are of each piece of curriculum.

 

Then, one subject at a time, I divide the amount of work to be done by the number of weeks available to do it and start writing down assignments for each week of the year. The most complex puzzle is coordinating history and literature/reading. So, I usually do that one first. Once I have it sketched out on note paper, I sit down at the computer and enter it all into a table, one page per week. I also note what additional resources I want to have on hand that week (titles of DVDs I want to get from Netflix or the library, projects that might be fun, field trips we want to do, etc.).

 

Then I start over with the next subject. And I keep layering it on, one subjects at a time, until I have the whole year planned, one week at a time. Then I print it all out, punch holes and put it in a three-ring binder that lives on my desk.

 

Here's a link to an entry on my blog from the beginning of this year with a couple of sample pages from my notebook: http://tweakedacademy.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-do-you-write-your-lesson-plans.html

 

And, yes, I do have to make adjustments and re-jigger things now and then. For example, after I put these two pages up on the blog, we made a last-minute decision to change to a different text for English. And I've re-printed the second semester twice to accomodate changes in math curriculum. But, for me, being able to see the big picture and know that, most of the time, I can just come into the schoolroom on Monday morning, turn to the next page and get started is worth every second I put into the planning.

[Pink Fairy]

I use a scheduling software designed for homeschoolers (Homeschool Easy Records, but probably Homeschool Tracker and all the others would work as well). I spend a few days every summer inputting my lesson plans for each subject, and then I figure out what I'm going to do each day. You can choose which days of the week you'll do a subject, and I play around with it until the schedule shows us finishing the subject at the end of the school year.

 

For example, if I schedule science for Fridays, I might notice we won't finish until November of the following year. So I add it to Wednesdays, and I see that we'll finish in May. Also, the software allows me to make changes as needed--if we need to spend more time on fractions, I can change the assignment dates.

 

Am I making any sense?:blink:

 

When we first started homeschooling, I was a lot less organized, and that worked fine with just one kindergartner in school. Now that I have four in school, and the subjects are more than just the 3 R's, I do much better when I use a schedule.

[Christi/NC]

and a detailed one at that. I am TERRIBLE about staying on track if I don't. I tend to get a bit lazy without direction. :-)

 

First, I determine when our school year starts and ends, mark off holidays, birthdays, spring break, etc. I play around with that until I have 180 of scheduled school. Sometimes it comes out to be 182 or 185. I just keep the extra days in mind during the year if we need to adjust the schedule a bit.

 

The kids all get schedule sheets divided into days that tells them exactly what page and what exercise and what book. They check things off as they go. I usually work on and print off 10 weeks of school at a time. When I'm scheduling their work I put in already scheduled things like Sonlight as they are written. I divide up math into how many lessons need to be completed before the year ends and then I work up how many lessons per week. It does take a couple of days for me to make up the next 10 weeks of schedules but once it is done I don't have to think about it any longer.

 

My master calendar and schedule sheets are all Excel files that my dh created for me years ago.

 

I hope that helps!

Christi

[angela in ohio]

and a detailed one at that. I am TERRIBLE about staying on track if I don't. I tend to get a bit lazy without direction. :-)

 

Christi

 

I think this is key. You need to honestly decide what type of homeschooler you are and then use a system accordingly. If you know you can trust yourself to get through it all with a loose plan, then you can use one (or none at all.) If you would get behind, you might look at a year's plan that is more detailed.

 

Don't go too far over the other way (we'll never have a single sick day and we'll school right through Christmas! ;),) though. It takes a few years and a lot of honesty with yourself to come up with the right plan. :001_smile:

[angela in ohio]

What I have found the most helpful is to decide on what courses I want my children to have completed by their senior year (Calculus etc...) then I work backward to see where we should be each year. For example my non-mathy son really needs to push it in seventh and eighth to meet the Calculus goal.

 

Jo

 

:iagree:

 

I write out a grid that has every year until yongest graduates (easier if you have less or older dc, overwhelming when a dc is a baby, LOL.) Each year I update it, based on new research :D and where dc are at then. It helps to see how things will line up, and it saves any suprises (well, most surprises anyway.)

[A home for their hearts]

Thanks for all the great responses! It wonderful to see how everyone can plan differently but get at the same place in the end!

[Tess in the Burbs]

our K year is the basics: reading, writing, math. We just did the next lesson and I could easily figure out how many weeks it would take to finish and add in some 'vacation' weeks.

 

this year I had both K and 1st. More subjects. Science was easy, 36 weeks. Most was just the next lesson and I can count how many lessons are needed each week.

 

I do make a 'yearly' calendar if I already know the vacation plans. this upcoming year with the economy being tighter we have no set vacation plans but will keep an eye out for deals with the timeshare...so my yearly plan will be laid out but no vacation weeks added in....I do it in excel so it's easy to shift weeks :-)

 

I re-evaluate quarterly to make sure we will finish before the next year starts. And yes, we take days off. We only did school 4 days a week for the months of Feb/Mar. So I had to again consider what needs to be done this month and next to stay on track. But we sometimes go to the beach and have to finish our week on Saturdays, lol.

 

But the main plan is laid out before we start the year so I have a general idea of our minimum lessons each week to finish in May. It's always changing though, but I am glad for the master yearly plan to work from.

[OnTheBrink]

My short answer: in pencil. :lol:

 

My longer answer: I determine when we'll be off school and work around those weeks. I like closure on units, semesters, etc, so I try to plan my world along those lines, but it sometimes doesn't work that way.

 

I made a schedule sheet similar to Sonlight's design, where I list all the subjects and books to be used on the left, then I create columns for each day of the week (for us, M-TH) and pencil in what lessons are done on what days. So, I have all the materials I'm using for the year printed on the page, and the flexibility to write in when we do them to go along with however the week will pan out.

 

Most of the time this works well.

[Tutor]

My short answer: in pencil. :lol:

 

 

 

Ain't that the truth! :D

 

I am enjoying reading all of these responses because we need to get more organized for next year, and I am getting very good suggestions here.

[Christi/NC]

Great addition Angela!

 

My plan didn't come together for a few years. It took me a while to know myself and my limits and how far I could push things on my schedule. We're on our 14th year of homeschooling now and I know for sure I must be heavily scheduled! :-)

 

Christi

[Joanne]

I haven't actually used this product, but I've had it bookmarked forever. I *think* she is/was a single homeschooling mom, so supporting a woman in business like that appeals to me due to my background.

 

In any case, she also has an email loop if you have questions and I understand her customer service is excellent.

 

Full Year Notebooks

[Mom4Jesus]

We basically take all the books we've selected for each subject, count the # of pages for each book and figure out how many pages need to be completed each day to meet our goals. We adjust as we go along, some days we get more done, sometimes less or take the day off. I also would recommend planning field trips or some fun day - like art day, or park day - on a regular basis so there are days to look forward to to break things up.

 

I bought a good software called - Homeschool Tracker - at a curriculm event last year. It helps you plan out your year and keep track of your children's records, grades, etc. The only thing is I haven't installed it yet :(

Maybe next year!

[Mommy22alyns]

I waste a lot of time each day just pulling things together at the last minute and usually by the time I have everything pulled together something happens and then nothing gets done.

 

 

That sounds a whole lot like me! I've started going over lesson plans at night for the next day. I'm glad you asked this question, since I'm needing a plan too!

[RedHen6]

I took a baby-step towards organization that helped me. I started planning a week at a time. I made a chart for each kid that listed their assignments in each subject for each day...pages to read, math lesson, grammar problems. It gave us both some accountability. With my weeks more organized, then I could work on more long-term organization.

[Oakblossoms]

Before I plan anything I figure out what we can do together. We do History and Science together. While we do those I keep something handy for notes. That is usually a pad of sticky notes. I can then jot down those annoying bright ideas I have and not run off to the computer or various other corner somewhere.

 

I only do 2 weeks at a time. Otherwise I feel so disappointed in myself if we stray. I just look ahead an order some library stuff for History/Science and fill in what we accomplish in Math. Language Arts is just do the next thing. One page goals are plenty for my guys.

 

We are out of the house 5 days a week and we all need room to breath. I've accepted our limitations in this area. There are some academics that have taken us more time. (History is going to take more than one year.) But, we can make those up this summer when there aren't so many fun classes to be apart of!

[mcconnellboys]

I'm still a paper and pencial kinda gal, so I buy some sort of planner (although you could just use a notebook) and fill in all my subjects. I figure out how many days per week I'll do each subject and enter those.

 

I then go through my books for each subject and decide how to divide those up in order to finish all I want to do by the end of the school year.

 

Lastly, I enter the info about what we'll be doing for each subject, a little at a time, until I'm finished with it all.

 

Some books are written to cover an exercise a day or a complete lesson in a week. Spelling Workout is like this; MUS math is like this, etc. For those that aren't, such as Singapore, for instance, it just takes a little time to look through, count the number of lessons, tests, etc., and come up with how much needs to be covered per day in order to finish.

 

I've started drawing up my full lesson plans for science and history/lit in a Word document and then just transferring sketchy details to my planner, keeping a copy of the fuller outline in a pocket of the planner for reference.

 

I may change some things in my plans over the course of the year, and I don't stress about that if that's what I decide to do - but I feel that I need something in order to keep me going regarding at least the bulk of our studies, so that on any given day when I'm brain dead, at least I can still keep him working toward *something*, LOL.....

[farmwife]

Last year I did pretty good getting the subjects on separate Excel sheets but I thought , I'll just get the first 18 weeks planned out in case we get off track. BAD IDEA!! Once my lesson plans were over I kind of fizzled out too. It took me about 8 weeks to get back to where we were doing what we should have been doing. What a waste of time. For next school year I am working on a full year on Excel with all subjects listed on one page. One page per week. I am really excited about it! If we do get behind because of a sick day or what have you, I'm going to try to make it up on Saturday.

 

I love the accountablity that a schedule gives me. I actually have something to look at telling me what needs to be done. IT's great!

 

Good Luck!

~fw

[Bambam]

My first year homeschooling, I made a detailed (each subject, each book, which pages - just like a Sonlight Schedule) schedule for my child. We started fine, but then started having trouble. After several months of me getting upset because my schedule was *not* covered with checkmarks, I tossed the schedule. We started over again. I started with two subjects (scheduled just those because I am a list/schedule/organized person) and proceeded until we got those under control. Then I added another subject and waited till we got all three running well, then I added another one. I still do this to a certain extent after six years.

 

Now I made a term schedule (three terms per school year) with each subject and then what I want to accomplish each week for each subject. After I complete the term schedule, then I make a weekly schedule (each week) based on my term schedule - basically just breaking each subject up into each days portion. This allows me some freedom to make one week light due to other commitments, and then noting from my term schedule that I need to make the next week a little heavier.

 

For my 4th grader dd, I make her schedules so she can follow them herself and cross of her work when it is complete. I highlight the stuff we do together. Every term I ask her if she has any improvements or changes she wants me to make in her schedule. We make any (she wanted me to eliminate the checkbox by copywork and type in what book the copywork was going to be from for each day, simple fix)

[Kristiana]

So many good ideas here, you really do need to decide how much of a schedule YOU need. I really need structure, but with some flexibility. Things do come up and a pre-planned 180 day-to-day schedule would drive me nuts. I do well with a loosely planned weekly schedule. Here's a blog post I did last summer detailing how I planned our 1st grade year (after the detailed curriculum list.)

La Scuola 1st grade plans

Sometimes it just helps to see where people start making their own schedule. The hardest thing for me was sitting down to do it, but it has saved my life this year. (Even though we're 2 months behind in FLL.)