If you plan a year or 6mo ahead, what do you do . . .

[momacacia]

about moving work ahead for sick/missed days or subjects that are missed on a particular day? Particularly if you don't use a software like Homeschool Tracker which automatically moves work ahead if it's missed.

 

Still paper planning a week at a time . . . . :rolleyes:

[Mrs Twain]

I plan our school year to be 36 weeks because that is my state law and because most of the programs are geared for that length of a school year. That equates to 180 days.

 

I subtract 1 week for testing (required by my state).

I subtract 1 week for snow/sick days.

I subtract 1 week for field trips.

 

That leaves 33 weeks (165 days) to complete all of our subjects.

 

Some subjects we do every day (math, English, etc;). I go through the programs the summer before the school year starts to make sure that we can complete them in 165 days. If we need more days to complete a particular subject, then we start it before the school year in August, doing as many extra days as needed.

 

Some subjects we do once per week (geography, civics/state history, art, music, etc.). I plan these subjects so that there will be 33 lessons for the 33 weeks of our school year.

 

If we do all of our lessons every day as planned, then I know we will complete everything by the end of the year. I don't have to keep track of lessons on a daily or weekly basis, just "do the next thing" in most of my subjects.

 

The main things I keep track of:

A calendar which I have marked for our days off (Christmas vacation, other holidays) and the week I have scheduled for testing.

A check list of the snow/sick days and field trip days so that I can mark them off as we take them.

 

This has worked well over the last few years.

Does this make any sense at all?

[Guest]

I subtract 1 week for snow/sick days.

 

That is amazing that you guys take only 1 week for sick days. That's what's wrong in our homeschool! We take wayyyy too many sick days! Heck, we took 1 weeks worth of sick days in the last two weeks! I'm stuck doing 1 wk. at a time just like the OP, because anytime I've done more, my plans go all wonky.

[TarynB]

I've never been able to successfully plan more than one week at a time either. We're required to do a certain number of days per year as well. Our sick days get made up on the weekend or a holiday break or tacked on to the end of the year. Field trip days don't count as school days unless the 3Rs also get done that day. As homeschoolers we don't get snow days because there's no snow inside to impede our commute to the school room. (We do get to enjoy hot cocoa and watch the snow fall outside the window while we study.) :laugh:

[Mrs Twain]

I put the snow days in not because we can't get to school (ha ha), but rather that my kids won't feel penalized for homeshooling compared to all of the public school friends. It is fun to wake up to a lot of snow outside (well, not really this year...) and be able to take a day off of school to go out and play in it along with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood. Since I have days set aside for snow, I don't feel bad about taking them off.

 

We haven't had to take many sick days off, thankfully. If we had to take more days off than what I have scheduled, I suppose I would make them up in the summer or just extend school longer until we got done with everything, or else I might use up my field trip days.

[lewelma]

I schedule 3 sick days each term, so 12 days per year. We also use them as overrun days, in case something takes longer than I think. If they don't need them, then the last days of term are used for reading and documentary watching. If I am completely off in my scheduling for a subject and these 3 days are not enough, I am likely off for the rest of the year, so at that point I have to rejig the entire schedule for that subject.

 

Ruth in NZ

[ElizabethB]

I use Excel to make sure we finish math on time, the rest I do not track. I make a list of all the days, weekends and holidays are left out, and put the assignment next to the day. It is then easy to add or delete things as needed. For example, for the next 2 weeks we have these dates all in a row: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22. If there was no holiday on the 18th, the 18th would be in there. There is a few weeks slop at the end for days we may need to make up. If we don't need them, we review or move on to next year's stuff depending on if review is needed or not. Some years a lot of review is necessary, some years only a few days worth is needed. I actually rarely go back and fix them, I just check things off even if we are a day or two ahead or behind, I currently do not have to keep records of time or days. If things get too out of whack, I update the Excel file.

[boscopup]

I use HST+ so I can have lesson plans without dates attached. :tongue_smilie: There is no way I could plan 6 months or a year in advance, not just because of breaks and such, but because sometimes my kids can do 3 math lessons in a day, and sometimes I need to stretch out a lesson to take 2 days. It's easier to adjust if I wait until the week before to make my plans. So I have all the lessons present, but assignments aren't attached to dates until Sunday as I'm doing my planning for that week. I very occasionally have to reschedule still, but not nearly as often. :)

 

I suppose if I were using a paper planner, I'd first look and see if the lesson missed is an absolute necessity, or can I briefly teach the material at the white board Monday and call it good? In b&m schools, not every lesson is done. And if you're using curriculum designed for schools, you may be able to chop off the end of the year and be just fine. After all, the schools rarely get to the last pages of the book. ;) Homeschool curriculum, otoh, is not usually designed that way, so you may just need to speed it up or run into the summer or skip a lesson that your child is already comfortable with, etc. I'd have zero problems skipping lessons in history or science - your content subjects. In math, I'd want to make sure the material is understood, but that can be taught at the white board and then move on, assuming your curriculum has review built in. Or skip or thin out some content subjects again this week and double up on your skill subjects to catch up on those.

 

We don't have very many sick days (the only ones I can think of this year are the 3 days I had strep, and then my oldest got it, which meant doctor trip 40 minutes away for him... I just took that whole week off). I do sometimes have unscheduled sanity days though. :D

[Spetzi]

I used to use a spreadsheet on excel so I could cut and paste. That might be an option for you (not as technical as HST). However, if school is missed we often just push through to try to catch up. I do plan the occasional "catch up day" even if it's just one subject at the end of a unit. I also encourage my kids to work ahead if they can because missed days/subjects happen. If it's a lot of work, perhaps modifying it would help.

 

I get stuck for the subjects the kids do together. If one is sick or not home, it can be a pain to make up the work. And I thought it would be a great idea......

 

They've got some work to do because I just planned a educational vacation for 4 days next week and we don't want to add 4 days to the end of our school year.

[MerryAtHope]

I *plan* for the whole year, but I don't *schedule* the whole year. I do keep a yearly calendar, so that I have an idea of what my school year will be, and I mark days that I *know* we'll take off. I plan what subjects we'll do and what books we'll use--even what week we'll use some of them. But in my actual day-to-day tracking, I haven't prewritten a date on what we'll do when.

 

Here's a blog post of my teacher binder, so you can see how I plan and organize our year, and the form I use for tracking (I'm a paper tracker). HTH some! Merry :-)

[Chelli]

Here is how I plan I school year which has free days built into it that we can use for a break, sick days, field trips, whatever.

 

I just recently went back to all paper planning instead of online. I use these worksheets from Donna Young to plan each subject by writing in the box what I want to cover each day. Then I write in a Weekly/Monthly Planner that I picked up at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago what I want to do each day for that week using my subject sheets to fill it in. When we complete it, then I highlight over it so I know we've finished. The next week I just move up whatever we didn't finish and add more from the subject sheets. I also cross out what we've completed on the subject sheets so I know we are done.

 

This is a picture of the inside of my planner. A dividing line separates my two girls and a line across the bottom of each day separates what we do together.

 

<I can't get a picture to attach>

 

So far this system is working really, really well. Better than I had hoped!

[ChicoryChick]

I plan the year in advance. I take each subject and put it into it's own 36 week schedule usually with the last couple of weeks blank. I then make a weekly generic checklist of each subject that is to be done each day and make 36 copies. They look at the checklist aee what needs to be done, then that subject's schedule for what they are to do in that subject. When they are done they ideally cross it off on the schedule and check it off on the checklist. If they miss a day they still just do the next assignment and keep on track. Clear as mud?

[snowbeltmom]

I have a yearly plan for each of my kids, but I found it difficult to even keep a weekly schedule in some subjects.

 

At the beginning of the year, I purchase a notebook for each child. I write out their daily assignments in the notebook. Some days they don't finish everything on the list and one of two things happen: either they need to finish their daily assignments as "homework" in the evenings, or if I know they were not goofing off during the school day, the assignments that were not completed get carried over to the next day's assignment sheet.

 

This approach has worked out very well for us.

[Mystie]

Here are a couple of my blog posts about how I do it:

 

http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2012/homeschool-planning-a-year-at-a-time-introduction

 

http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2012/homeschool-hours-independent-work

 

I am unconventional and I don't follow anyone else's set curriculum schedule, so I don't really ever feel like we're "behind." Slacking? Yes, sometimes. But not behind. We are where we are.

[SilverMoon]

about moving work ahead for sick/missed days or subjects that are missed on a particular day? Particularly if you don't use a software like Homeschool Tracker which automatically moves work ahead if it's missed.

 

Still paper planning a week at a time . . . . :rolleyes:

 

 

I avoid that problem by individually making plans for the subjects that need them, and compiling all that information into my main planbook only a week or two in advance. For example, last summer I spent time poring over the books and made individual plans for my grammar stage kids' joint science and history curricula, and each child's language arts. That made four separate sets of lesson plans. That bit of extra work makes those subjects open and go.

 

Another way to nip that in the bud is to stick to the "block" method. If you only did half the day's lessons this day, do the other half the next day, before you begin another day of work. My planbook says day 1, day 2, and such, instead of days of the week.

[nukeswife]

Well I use HST+ but it doesn't automatically move stuff from one schedule day if I don't mark it as done. it sits on that day and I have to reschedule it myself. I prevent having to do this too often by only submitting stuff to the assignment grid from the lessons plans one week at a time.

 

When I did it on paper, I would just write up the plans each Sat or Sun for the upcoming week. Sure you can plan your year quite a bit in advance,by making a list of the assignments for that subject, but you don't have to actually assign dates to those things until they are next on the list to be done.

[mama25angels]

Well I use HST+ but it doesn't automatically move stuff from one schedule day if I don't mark it as done. it sits on that day and I have to reschedule it myself. I prevent having to do this too often by only submitting stuff to the assignment grid from the lessons plans one week at a time.

 

When I did it on paper, I would just write up the plans each Sat or Sun for the upcoming week. Sure you can plan your year quite a bit in advance,by making a list of the assignments for that subject, but you don't have to actually assign dates to those things until they are next on the list to be done.

 

 

 

:iagree: this is what I do as well.

[RootAnn]

My plans are kind of like SilverMoon's. Each subject has its own sheet & I cross off as I go. Oldest dd has a weekly checksheet that I update on the weekends -- moving things that she didn't get to or moving up things that she already covered.

 

Otherwise, I just look at the next box & cross it off when it is done. I can do a "visual" to see how we are doing vs. how much time we have left for the year. I will say that this year, I am doing more things 'on the fly' (which means less planned projects & booklists).

 

I'm going to be more flexible about when we finish our subjects for that reason ... we might not get certain ones done before our "last day of school."

I do try to only schedule 32-33 weeks of school so we have some time off every once and awhile.