If you go all year, when do you plan?

[Moxie]

I would like to go to shorter weeks, more frequent breaks and school all year. My only hang-up (besides figuring out how to deal with neighbor kids all summer) is planning. I usually spend most of the summer, ordering, copying and scheduling. How do you plan without a big block of free time???

[NASDAQ]

I just do it on the go as we reach the end of whatever we're using. Say dd is doing HWOT at a pace of one page a day. I put on my schedule when HWOT will be finished at this pace and then work back three weeks from the end of that (because I live in Canada and things take longer). Then in I put in an alert on that day to remind me to order her next level up in handwriting. She finishes things at different paces.

[brehon]

I would like to go to shorter weeks, more frequent breaks and school all year. My only hang-up (besides figuring out how to deal with neighbor kids all summer) is planning. I usually spend most of the summer, ordering, copying and scheduling. How do you plan without a big block of free time???

 

Hmmm. We don't do a big planning block; we have general goals we want the kids to meet. Dh and I write plans for the kids each week. This isn't as cumbersome as it may sound. With 4 kids doing lessons it takes us about a half of an Inspector Morse or Inspector Lewis episode. We make all copies for the week on Sunday evening.

 

We don't use a lot of workbooks and still find it easy to schedule. We do plan per term (9 weeks per term), but more generally, not specific lessons.

[Aurelia]

Do it in little bits throughout the year. I start planning in January, shortly after we start most of the new stuff, for the following year, so I can know where I want to go once we finish the current materials. Some weeks I might work solely on, say, art, and once I'm happy with that, I'll move on to history or whatever. I also don't necessarily plan everything all the time, like spelling and math require zero planning because I just get the next level of the same curriculum as the current one is completed. Once I've got my primary plan down, I'll buy as we finish the prior level of that subject. I also have learned to stay flexible, and not try to start everything at the same time. I think it helps if you have a general plan for what you want to focus on for that year and begin planning that subject whether it be history or science or literature, etc., then once you have your "core" covered, work on the other subjects.

[GoVanGogh]

I only have one homeschool student, so that makes it easier. (Or it should. I think I tend to add in more extras, since I just have one to educate.)

 

Our school calendar runs from January to December, though we take most of December off.

 

I do have an overall plan in a 3-ring binder with a general 'road map' of what we will cover through grade 8. I start to look over the next year sometime during the summer and order any needed books. Around mid-November (because I don't have enough to do that time of year :lol:) I sit down with all of the books for the next year and start figuring out what I want to do when and write out a plan. Generally I use that quiet week between Christmas and New Year to finalize everything and make up my loose lesson plans. (I don't add in dates at this time, just lesson numbers.)

 

We have six terms a year and I only do detailed lesson plans for one term at a time, as our outside activities vary wildly between seasons.

[mhaddon]

I plan as I go. Weekly I write out the plan and adjust as I go and replan. Usually when I have a spare moment. I usually make copies as needed in case I change my mind. I always think ahead and research for what I will use next and when we finish I order. We never really go through a starting all over new phase.

[boscopup]

I plan the year (enter stuff into HST+) during my 3 week break between "years". I make copies and print stuff out during my 1 week breaks throughout the year.

[2_girls_mommy]

I consider us year round, though we take the whole month of July off. We begin each new year in August after that 4 weeks or so off. I do some planning in spring before convention. This is when I research what I will use in the fall and do most of my purchasing. I will spend some time in July planning by breaking up lesson #'s in books to see how many I want to aim to get done each month to finish by June of the next year. I will also write a daily schedule of which subjects we will be doing each day and for how long, etc. I also go through subjects I will be doing on my own and jot down general topics of what will be covered (so in Sept I may write art: state fair projects) even if I am not sure yet exactly which we will be entering. I can get to the specifics later.

 

If we stop in June and we haven't reached in the end of say our handwriting program, then we will put it up for July and just get it back out in Aug. Though I try to start the majority of subjects in Aug, there are some that just get picked up where we left off (SOTW being the biggest one. We have yet to finish before August and generally finish the last year's vol. in Aug and start the new one sometime in Sept.)

 

Any more specific planning gets done in small spurts throughout the year. If we are about to finish one science experiment book, I glance through the next one to get a feel for it and to make sure we have supplies on hand.

[mommy5]

What I've decided to do with the year-round schooling is to plan my "quarters" into 13 week chunks ... so each quarter has 9 weeks of "school" and 4 weeks off ... I plan to use those weeks as needed (vacation/sickness/a break) and also for my planning.

[Elfknitter.#]

I'm always reading and tweaking things as we go. Just seems to work out best that way. I also research curricula all year to have an idea of what I may want to try out or move to when the time comes.

[frankcassiesmom]

I'm always reading and tweaking things as we go. Just seems to work out best that way. I also research curricula all year to have an idea of what I may want to try out or move to when the time comes.

:iagree:

[ChandlerMom]

I'm always reading and tweaking things as we go. Just seems to work out best that way. I also research curricula all year to have an idea of what I may want to try out or move to when the time comes.

 

:iagree: I constantly have on my radar what is working, what is not; what are we missing, etc. I'm a constant tweaker. :D As we get past the halfway mark on a material, I get more serious about planning what to do next. I usually do units in science or history, and don't change much during those.

 

I think it depends on whether you are a plan person (happiest with concrete plans written in pen; satisfaction is based on reaching destinations) or a process person (enjoy the process of planning; think the fun is the journey getting to your destination). THis isn't a better than thing, just different strokes for different psyches. :)

 

If you like things planned (sounds like you), then monthly/quarterly/whenever look at where you are and make adjustments, order new materials, etc. You might think of this as "terms" and even take a week off to reorganize and plan the next term. You might also start with your goals for the year, then break that down to what you need to do in the first term to be "on track" for that goal, if that makes you feel better.

 

If you are a process person, planning is just done in smaller buts on an ongoing basis. It's like driving a car -- you have the destination in mind, but you gotta steer along the way.

 

Whether you plan once a year, once a term, or once a day, it's really the same process.

[FairProspects]

Well, from Jan-March, I reassess and research what it is I want to use for next year (official beginning late August). My goal is to order core materials between March-May.

 

May-June when the books arrive (usually over Memorial Day weekend) I do a major planning session for content - checking which supplemental books the library has, ordering any additional living books necessary, and cranking out SL style weekly schedules for content, including lists of materials for experiments or projects. I plan 36 weeks of content - science, history, and art. Over the summer any projects in those areas are for fun or are spontaneous.

 

Our skill subjects (LA & Math) don't require planning since they are do-the-next-thing, and I just order during the year for those whenever someone finishes a level. These we continue over the summer lightly.

[Mandylubug]

I only have one full year under my belt so I am still tweaking as I go. I did start looking more readily when our tax return was in. We typically use part of our tax refund for curriculum. Or atleast that is what happened the past two returns :) The stuff I have purchased now should last us until December/January unless I tweak something else. ETC and handwriting/cursive books I purchase as we go. I also keep a "wish" sticky note on my desktop computer and I have a book wish list on amazon.com that I keep updated with materials I am pondering on.

[WIS0320]

I started planning last year about this time for a July start. It won't take me as much time to plan this year as I will be continuing on to the next level of a few programs but I will start organizing in April knowing we will finish most of our current plans in June so we can keep going in July into our next year.