Planning for next year...gulp...anyone else?

[ThreeBlessings]

So....I'm fairly certain I have all the curricula we'll be using next year. :) I'm beginning to plan our schedule and curriculum plans for next school year. (gulp!) Anyone else taking the plunge yet? I'll be planning for PreK 4/5, 5th, and 7th, and WOW I think this is going to be difficult, lol. I could use some bolstering! I've been homeschooling for 8 years now and I swear it never gets less challenging, like I think it will. :)

[frugalmama]

I hope to start planning this week if I can - I'm only planning for one kiddo though :D

[TriciaS]

I have all of my main stuff for next year. It will be my first year (it will be pre-k and 2nd grade), so I'm not even sure where to start yet! I've been reading through the teacher manuals with the texts and workbooks to try and get an idea of what we will be doing, soon I'll be trying to figure out how I want to organize my plans. I still haven't seen a planner that I like, so I think I'll be creating a spreadsheet before I get into anything else!

[wintermom]

I'm feeling a little uncertain about how next year will flow. This year I started a SL core combining my youngest two, and it wasn't the best match-up for my youngest. My 8 yo made a sudden leap in interest for academics in September, which made it hard to keep the two together. I'm trying to figure out whether it will work to keep them together for next year or not. I can't imagine doing three cores (my oldest two are already combined in a core). I'm thinking the only thing to do is begin next fall as originally planned and make adjustments. Who knows, the little guy may have a sudden surge forward, too. If not, I'll probably repeat core A with him.

 

We'll be doing SL cores B and E (with Canadian content), SM, LoF, French.

[ondreeuh]

I am joining a distance program next year (kiddo will be enrolled in public school, I will choose curricula and what to cover), and they don't release funds until July. This is great for me, because I have plenty of time to figure things out (and change them) before then. I *think* I am pretty settled after lots of work.

 

One of my goals for the next school year is to do a filing system. I looked for materials that lend themselves well to that system, figured out how many days per week each thing will be done, and have finished planning out most things. There will be a lot of printing and copying to be done once everything has arrived, so I will do a little "inservice" where I get things ready.

[thefragile7393]

Already got most of next year's curriculum purchased with the exception of preschool and spanish.

[desiraejb]

I've been pinning the things I want for a few weeks now, so most of the work is done. I've just been deciding what to do for science and spelling. I think I have that figured out now, and I totalled up my wish list. The dh didn't cringe when I showed him the number, so I guess I'll start ordering. :) I'm doing first grade and pre-k, so it's not too difficult.

[chepyl]

Everything is purchased, I want to look at well planned day online before I start planning. I have edutrack....and I can download all my lesson plans for that, but I may switch if I like the new one. I will spend July planning.

[Mommee & Baba]

I have all the things we will be using for 3 of our children. The oldest will still need to get some levels up on her curriculum. I will begin planning for next year at the end of May. We were suppose to be planned to complete the school year next week, however we are set back 1 entire week. Plus we will continue math, reading, & spelling thru the current level before we break fully.

 

I'm eager to begin planning, but I'm also eager to check out the new well planned day planner too.

[heidirenata]

Ugh, I am just starting our curriculum list. I can't make any major purchases until we return from our vacation the second week of June. It makes me feel like I'm already behind schedule.

[iamrachelle]

I've bought everything and actually just finished the last of my lesson plans (for a 4th and 7th grader) for the year. It feels really good to be finished... we will start our new "school" year in four weeks. Yay!!

[Ecclecticmum]

Well I have already planned for the next year, because we're beginning in a week. I also had some downtime, so I've figured out a rough plan for 2013 too.....so I'm pretty much set for 2 years lol.

 

Hopefully will purchase main spines needed for 2013 soon, and I can slowly look through them over the next 3 months, and then purchase books, and supplies at tax time. Hopefully doing this year long planning for "next" (2013) year, will mean theres no final rush, and that *hopefully* the ideal end will be once we finish this years program, we can go straight onto next years with everything already scheduled, organized and planned......heres for hoping lol.

 

I got 3 months behind "this" year because I only started planning in August last year, then had a really bad relapse from Oct-Dec in my CFS, so consequently, had to restart the planning process in Feb (after I finally got fully better and found my brain :p ) thus, the late start, so hopefully this new plan will mean I won't end up with that sort of problem again (we wouldn't be behind if 2012 had already been planned)

[kolamum]

Me, which probably sounds weird & creepy because we are only 3 months into the school year, or 12 weeks. :lol: But, we order our stuff somewhere between July & September so knowing this far in advanced is super helpful. :D

 

Slightly unsure on math, but pretty sure we'll stick with what we've got for another year.. Ho-hum. :D Pretty sure for another year we'll stick with what we've got..

[boscopup]

I have purchased most things. I will get IEW next month and Sonlight Core P4/5 the following month. We start at the end of June or beginning of July (not sure when yet), but I'll wait until August to start P4/5 with my K'er. He can just do reading/math/handwriting during our summer start, getting us used to him doing school everyday instead of "when he wants to" (we've been doing school more often recently anyway, so it should be a good transition).

 

This will be my first year needing to school more than one child, so we're working the kinks out of that. Thankfully, my oldest can work with my 3 year old while I do stuff with the 5 year old. My 3 year old will have all of his multiplication tables memorized by the end of the year, I'm sure. :lol:

 

I've been entering things into HST+. I have Singapore 1A entered and about half of 1B. I need to start on 5A/5B, but they can wait until our break. We'll take 3-4 weeks off between school years, and we're not done with 4B yet, so I have time. I have Sonlight Core D entered, and we have already started it. Some other things we were already using, so I already had entered.

 

I need to work on a new cleaning/school routine for the day. I figure we'll work on cleaning routine during our break, then fold school on top of that when we start up again. Hopefully that will work. My house has been in chaos the last few months because we had all of our windows replaced, and we have a LOT of windows, so everything had to be moved away from the walls. Then we had a garage fire, and DH's office was out there, so he has a folding table set up in the living room with his computer now, where there used to be large bookcases (we're planning to put a piano there and build shelves above that). So all those books are still in boxes in that room. It just makes me feel all cluttered, but it's getting better, and the garage will hopefully be back in use by the end of summer.

 

I'm charging my iPod Touch that I haven't used in ages (it was completely dead), so I can throw all my homeschool related lectures on there and start listening to those while cleaning. :D My between school year break should be a good time to refresh my mind on things like teaching elementary writing. ;)

[Dinsfamily]

We start our new schoolyear in June so I'm almost done. I've had all of our core subjects for awhile but keep finding nice additions. Today, I'm looking at Prufrock's logic books. Since I just spent a bundle at Rainbow Resource, I'll hold off purchasing them until I need EM for ds3. That'll be in September. We'll see if I can hold off that long.

[MissKNG]

Sure! I finally decided on Sonlight P4/5 for my small girl with Singapore Math. We will just continue with the stuff we are currently using for my big girl, though she will probably want to participate in the SL action too!

 

ETA: Actually, I use different materials when we do a light summer school and I'm just going to use the P4/5 for that (not daily though, usually 2-3 times a week) for both girls.

Edited May 15, 2012 by MissKNG

[Dinsfamily]

Sure! I finally decided on Sonlight P4/5 for my small girl with Singapore Math. We will just continue with the stuff we are currently using for my big girl, though she will probably want to participate in the SL action too!

 

She will! I'm not allowed to read Uncle Wiggily unless D-Man is there. He remembers all of the books from when he did it and loves reliving them. It's a great core!!

[MissKNG]

She will! I'm not allowed to read Uncle Wiggily unless D-Man is there. He remembers all of the books from when he did it and loves reliving them. It's a great core!!

 

:D

They both loved P3/4 when we used that a while back! I know my big girl will definitely want to do the science too...along with the few other topics she is working on! I am excited to use it and am glad that we are starting it earlier! Hehe! They will have their own math - Big girl will continue with BA during the summer and small girl will begin Singapore.

[oraetstudia]

I have purchased almost everything for next year and have most of the first quarter's schedule written up. Normally I only plan 9 weeks at a time, but I would like to get at least a semester planned out (even though I know I'll have to revise it at some places) because a new baby and a new Kindergartner in the same year will throw a lot of complications into our days, I imagine.

[heidirenata]

Glad to hear such good things about SL. We are going to add in all the SL books from the P4/5 core this year because the girls wanted more books and we haven't done many on that list.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

I am :001_unsure: 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 9th :eek: Not quite sure when my oldest became old enough to be a fr.... a fresh.... a 9th grader :001_huh: :crying:

[ThreeBlessings]

I *think* I've gotten better at the planning aspect over the years, but it gets more challenging each year anyway. My two older kids have always been on the same level in almost everything, which made it easy to combine them. Now with my little coming up on PK 4/5 and my oldest going into 7th (when did that happen?) it feels overwhelming, lol.

 

Like a previous poster I've finally come to the conclusion that making my own planner pages is the way to go. I've dabbled with it before, but I'm making my own customized everything for planning this year. Yesterday I made myself a yearly school calendar with color coded blocks for holiday, birthdays, start date, end date. This made it easy to count out our school days and figure out how many random days off we can take and still complete all my plans. We'll have 20 random days we can take off without needing to extend our school year.

 

Then I made a planning web, which I printed double sided, to visualize which subjects are assigned independently and which require class time, each bubble has two smaller bubbles to write in how many days a week that subject is done, then how many total lessons for the year. Now I know how many lessons I have to cram each subject into. I made personalized weekly schedule pages for all three kids, the eldest two will have their independent work written out each week (we do this already and it works well), the younger I will use the page myself to plan out what we'll do for PreK 4/5 each week. Then there is a class weekly schedule page that goes in teacher's guide which has all work for the week that requires class time. Phew! I haven't started filling anythng in yet, but will today. I've planned by quarter, by week, and by the year at different times in the past. I think I really need to do the whole year this time. I feel it will be the only way to be sure the little isn't neglected.

 

I had an old SL binder, the large three ring with 36 tabs, and I've switched out all the SL materials to a different binder. I'm using it to store each weeks planning pages and printables. Then these will each week be loaded into my teacher guide and my two olders main binders. I think this should work out rather well. I don't need to be afraid of falling behind because I just won't load the next week until we finish the one we're on. Likely there will be periods where the days may not match up, but we'll play catch up at that point and get back where we need to be. I'm not averse to assigning homework when necessary. :) I left a blank for the actual dates on the weekly schedules. I'm feeling pretty good about the setup, now I need to get done to the nitty gritty!

[Mommyfaithe]

So....I'm fairly certain I have all the curricula we'll be using next year. :) I'm beginning to plan our schedule and curriculum plans for next school year. (gulp!) Anyone else taking the plunge yet? I'll be planning for PreK 4/5, 5th, and 7th, and WOW I think this is going to be difficult, lol. I could use some bolstering! I've been homeschooling for 8 years now and I swear it never gets less challenging, like I think it will. :)

 

Yup...me. I need to find a French tutor .....other than that...ready to plan!!!

 

Eta: I will be planning 3rd, 5th and ... <GASP> 9th.....where did the time go??? This is my younger crew!!!!!!

Edited May 15, 2012 by Mommyfaithe

[Mommyfaithe]

PICTURES PLEASE!! :lurk5:

 

I *think* I've gotten better at the planning aspect over the years, but it gets more challenging each year anyway. My two older kids have always been on the same level in almost everything, which made it easy to combine them. Now with my little coming up on PK 4/5 and my oldest going into 7th (when did that happen?) it feels overwhelming, lol.

 

Like a previous poster I've finally come to the conclusion that making my own planner pages is the way to go. I've dabbled with it before, but I'm making my own customized everything for planning this year. Yesterday I made myself a yearly school calendar with color coded blocks for holiday, birthdays, start date, end date. This made it easy to count out our school days and figure out how many random days off we can take and still complete all my plans. We'll have 20 random days we can take off without needing to extend our school year.

 

Then I made a planning web, which I printed double sided, to visualize which subjects are assigned independently and which require class time, each bubble has two smaller bubbles to write in how many days a week that subject is done, then how many total lessons for the year. Now I know how many lessons I have to cram each subject into. I made personalized weekly schedule pages for all three kids, the eldest two will have their independent work written out each week (we do this already and it works well), the younger I will use the page myself to plan out what we'll do for PreK 4/5 each week. Then there is a class weekly schedule page that goes in teacher's guide which has all work for the week that requires class time. Phew! I haven't started filling anythng in yet, but will today. I've planned by quarter, by week, and by the year at different times in the past. I think I really need to do the whole year this time. I feel it will be the only way to be sure the little isn't neglected.

 

I had an old SL binder, the large three ring with 36 tabs, and I've switched out all the SL materials to a different binder. I'm using it to store each weeks planning pages and printables. Then these will each week be loaded into my teacher guide and my two olders main binders. I think this should work out rather well. I don't need to be afraid of falling behind because I just won't load the next week until we finish the one we're on. Likely there will be periods where the days may not match up, but we'll play catch up at that point and get back where we need to be. I'm not averse to assigning homework when necessary. :) I left a blank for the actual dates on the weekly schedules. I'm feeling pretty good about the setup, now I need to get done to the nitty gritty!

[mama25angels]

I will be planning K, 4th and 11th this year. I haven't started planning yet, i'm going to wait until my DS's go to camp in June and i'll plan then. I'm hoping to start after the 4th of July, very slowly. I do know what we're planning to use, but i'm accumulating it slowly (we have the main subjects already)

[frugalmama]

I had an old SL binder, the large three ring with 36 tabs, and I've switched out all the SL materials to a different binder. I'm using it to store each weeks planning pages and printables. Then these will each week be loaded into my teacher guide and my two olders main binders. I think this should work out rather well. I don't need to be afraid of falling behind because I just won't load the next week until we finish the one we're on. Likely there will be periods where the days may not match up, but we'll play catch up at that point and get back where we need to be. I'm not averse to assigning homework when necessary. :) I left a blank for the actual dates on the weekly schedules. I'm feeling pretty good about the setup, now I need to get done to the nitty gritty!

 

I REALLY like this idea - think I will do the same. We're already using SL so really it wouldn't be hard to create a master binder by week with the full plans in it.

[NancyNellen]

I am in the throes of planning for a 10th, 9th, 7th, 4th, and K-er. Almost everything is purchased, and I just got a new iPad, so life in the planning dept. is good! :lol:

 

My oldest two will be completing formal logic over the summer, my middle two will be taking a speed tour through BFSU to fill holes in their science knowledge so we can start Elementary Science Education in Sept. Everyone will be continuing with math.

 

I am looking forward to next year very much....I changed up a lot, so it seems fresh and new for me. I need that!

[SnowWhite]

I have our lineup, but I'm waiting another week to start planning. We have 5 more days left of school.

 

3yo PK-

About Three workbook series (Pathway)

Teach Me Joy Animal Play Preschool 2-3

 

3rd grade-

AOP Lifepac Language Arts 3

BJU Math 3

WinterPromise Animals and Their Worlds (science, lit, art/crafts)

WinterPromise Readers for AW and AS1/2

TruthQuest American History for the Young Student 2/3

TruthQuest Beginnings Bible/lit

Outsourcing Art Classes

Upwards Basketball

Awana

 

6th grade-

AOP Lifepac Language Arts 6

Thinkwell Math 6/Life of Fred Decimals/Percents

Adaptive Curriculum Science

Truthquest AHYS 2/3 (history, lit, readers)

Truthquest Beginnings Bible/lit

Outsourcing Art Classes

Upwards Basketball

Awana

[redsquirrel]

oh goodness, I start planning the next school year in February. I have things arriving now. I need to have something fun to do in those dark winter months.

[oraetstudia]

oh goodness, I start planning the next school year in February. I have things arriving now. I need to have something fun to do in those dark winter months.

 

I start planning what I want to buy in February. I am now writing out detailed specific plans on how to use the stuff that I have bought.

[MissKNG]

Glad to hear such good things about SL. We are going to add in all the SL books from the P4/5 core this year because the girls wanted more books and we haven't done many on that list.

 

It took me a while to take the SL plunge and I'm glad we did. We worked P3/4, Science K and a bunch of Core D (had to sell cause I needed some $$ but my big girl loved it!) and soon P4/5.

[ALB]

I have to plan AND purchase for several years at a time since I have to bring it all over to Asia in suitcases. Its super fun when I'm placing the orders and getting the boxes, but then I don't get to buy anything new for a long time:glare:. We've already finished most of this year's curriculum and are starting on next year's, but our year will officially begin in June.

[ThreeBlessings]

PICTURES PLEASE!! :lurk5:

 

I went ahead and wrote up a blog post with pics to show how I'm planning. I added a link to my planning pages on google docs too just in case someone else finds them useful. :)

[Meriwether]

We still have at least 8 weeks left of some subjects. We are going to finish about one subject per week until then but will continue math, reading, and Latin a few times per week all summer. I've got no business thinking about next year.:tongue_smilie:

 

I have some of my materials already and placed a very large order with Rainbow Resource today. I'll still have more things to order, but I'll be able to start planning. I've used the filebox system for two years now. It works but hasn't been perfect. I can't keep up with the papers. I recently got a comb binder. I love it. It has greatly reduced my paper piles and lost or ruined papers. I'm still going to file by week. Each week will have a binder (Red for Dd9, Green for Ds7 and Blue for Ds5) that will have one week's worth of math, logic puzzles, memory work, handwriting paper, art warm-ups, etc. Other subjects will be bound in 3-6 week increments depending on number of pages. Every blessed thing will be contained in a workbook or binder. We'll finish one week's booklet before we start another. If we get behind in history or science, that will be okay because it will all be bound together. I have no idea how I'm going to schedule everything I want to do into our day, but I'm feeling good about organizing it.

[Guest Leoliza36]

Hi! It's my first time here and first time homeschooling. I'm wanting to use the classical method, but I seem to be overwhelmed with all the resources that are available. In the book TWTM, they say it's a good idea to do science side by side with the chronological order of history. And they say to start with the ancients even if you are homeschooling for the first time. I have a to be 2nd grader and a 4th grader. How do I do that? So they'll both be studying plants and animals. Any suggestions. Thanks.

[twoxcell]

I have had all of our curriculum for awhile but no I have not planned anything. This summer we are going to take a full break from regular school work until the last week of August. We will be doing review and summer school which I really should plan, but I think I'm going to end up just going with it.;)

[Guest]

We have all our materials. I like to do a broad plan per semester and than write out a detailed plan each week. I have my semester plan done and I put my first week into my brand new Well Planned Day planner last night. I will do a little more about a week before we start, but for now I think I am ready for a July 16th start date. I am still on the fence if we are going to do Apologia Astronomy, though.

[laughing lioness]

I have most everything planned with a few holes (like ds 17's lit/history and deciding what we are/are not having him take at tutoring center).

I just had the incredible good fortune of getting to review a core from MP (I'm hoping to some sort of give-away again in conjunction with the review)- which almost rounds out ordering.

I do want to get a couple of Great Courses and then it's just a matter of planning what happens when.

 

Still finishing up this year and we are all ready to be DONE!