How to plan the year so you actually get the work done

[Flowergirl159]

For one year I have been writing my own curriculum as such, but I'd probably call it more winging it!!! I now feel like I am not getting everything covered, surprise!!! Just wondering how others plan it all and actually do it. I was thinking that for each child I need to do a yearly scope and sequence listing each subject to cover and which books or curriculum I will be using; then break it down into terms; then weekly; then break it down daily. In the past I have just worked out a daily plan, that doesn't always work. Anyway, I am on the right track if I do this new idea? Or will it just cost me a lot of wasted time?

[Ellie]

For one year I have been writing my own curriculum as such, but I'd probably call it more winging it!!! I now feel like I am not getting everything covered, surprise!!! Just wondering how others plan it all and actually do it. I was thinking that for each child I need to do a yearly scope and sequence listing each subject to cover and which books or curriculum I will be using; then break it down into terms; then weekly; then break it down daily. In the past I have just worked out a daily plan, that doesn't always work. Anyway, I am on the right track if I do this new idea? Or will it just cost me a lot of wasted time?

 

 

Personally, the thought alone of writing a yearly scope and sequence for each child would burn me out before I even started. o_0

[Flowergirl159]

Mmm... that's what I thought too! how do you plan to ensure you are covering what you need to?

[sewingmama]

I agree with Ellie...there are plenty of scope and sequences already written on the web....choose one and go from there. Mark off what you have covered and focus on what you missed.

[Flowergirl159]

That sounds good! I tend to find one and like most of it, but not everything, so then I keep searching til I find more.... then I am so confused and exhausted because I am trying to find the best one to fit our family!!!! Aggghhhh I have been doing this same thing with booklists the past week too, feeling a tad tired :/

[Murphy101]

No amount of planning makes up for actually doing.

 

I decide what I'm going to use, make a general weekly outline of it, then I use it.

[Garga]

Hmmmm...these answers are surprising me. There was another thread a day or so ago asking people what they're doing this summer to set themselves up for next year's success.

 

A number of them wrote that they're making a schedule for each and every day. They said that when they do that their school year is much better than when they don't.

 

I have never planned for every day like that and I feel we have suffered for it. I'm spending a few weeks this summer planning our entire 180 day school year, down to the exact page number in each book to work on each day. Something inside of me is telling me I need this. I was greatly dismayed this year to realize we only finished 1/4 to 1/2 of our books this year. I thought we were working hard, but without a firm schedule to keep us on track, we waffled.

 

I will not let that happen again.

 

 

[phathui5]

I would like to be more organized for next year.

[Flowergirl159]

Thank you :) Yes I feel like having not planned it out, we have not covered all we should have. Now that I am about to add another child into the mix, and my eldest is half way through grade 3, I really need to get serious about knowing where I want to go. The actual doing part is not particularly hard. What I find difficult is, steadily going along and then realising that a particular curriculum choice is not working, or I now also need to include such and such, or I read a blog or a forum post and read what others are doing and think that I really should do that too! So am I thinking that by having a plan for the year ahead gives me something to work toward.

[Ellie]

*I* define what "should" means. And generally, whatever we finish is what we "should" have been doing. :-)

[laughing lioness]

 

Here is my strategy. In a nutshell I overplan and then go with the flow.

[Murphy101]

Hmmmm...these answers are surprising me. There was another thread a day or so ago asking people what they're doing this summer to set themselves up for next year's success.

 

A number of them wrote that they're making a schedule for each and every day. They said that when they do that their school year is much better than when they don't.

 

Okay. Well here is what I wrote on that thread that I think you are referring to:

 

Same as every year. We school mostly year round, but im planning on taking all of July off.  

 

Clear out shelves and such in the school room.

 

Write out topic outlines for the year, so I have an idea of what all is being covered when.

 

Write out weekly plans for the first month.

 

Make the weekly routine schedule for reference next to the calendar.  It shows when we are home and when we are not.

 

Finish up some of my projects so they don't distract me.

 

Stock up on art supplies and anything else I might need to keep on hand.

 

Clear computers.  Backup.  Delete stuff I don't want anymore.  Clean up the drives.  Create hard copies of stuff I want to keep in addition to saving to disk.  This is basicly my "desk" clearing.

 

Create or print off anything I need for the year and place in appropriate binders so they're ready when we need them.

 

I have never planned for every day like that and I feel we have suffered for it. I'm spending a few weeks this summer planning our entire 180 day school year, down to the exact page number in each book to work on each day. Something inside of me is telling me I need this. I was greatly dismayed this year to realize we only finished 1/4 to 1/2 of our books this year. I thought we were working hard, but without a firm schedule to keep us on track, we waffled.

 

 

And doing what works (which requires knowing what does NOT) is what gets the job done.

 

I have 8 children to plan for, so that quite a bit of work.

 

What I really need to know is approx how many lessons per week to get through is reasonable.

 

This year I made a simple check list of materials/subjects to cover and each one has numbers 1-5 next to it.

 

Math 1 2 3 4 5

Cursive 1 2 3

CCM 1 2 3 4 5

 

And so forth. And each time I cover a lesson in that area, I X out a number until come end of schooling Friday, they have likely all been covered.

 

This works very well for ME for my younger ones.

 

For my older kids, I fill in a lesson planner for each week of the first month. Since we school year round, it's mostly just a continuation of whatever we ended with and a slow addition of newly started materials each week until we are back up to full speed and have a general idea of what our schedule needs to be to get it done. A general outline for the weeks of the year and a head start for written out plans works for me.

 

BUT I have taught my younger grades for 7-8 years now. My biggest goal for them is not what to cover, but making sure they don't get wait listed, iykwim. So the checklist is all I need for them.

 

Was that more helpful?

[*Lulu*]

I am an extreme planner who created my *perfect* preK-12 scope and sequence before Punk was 4. I have to give myself space to plan because planning is my process for sorting out all the thoughts in my mind and cementing what we need to do. Planning, for me, is where I work out the kinks but, more importantly, where I find my moments of inspiration.

 

I also have to know when to step away from the planner.

 

"Perfection is the enemy of the good." ~Flaubert

 

Say it 20 times a planning session. Cross stich it on a pillow. Tatoo it across your forehead. (But please, please don"t wear it emblazoned across your hind end! :p )

 

In all seriousness, the search for the perfect in our curriculum and our plans can short circit the progress we are making using the good.

 

A few years ago I quit planning down to the detail on all the skill subjects and took a similar approach to Martha. We do spelling 4x/week, grammar 2x/week, Latin 4x/week, etc. I can set a goal of completing a chapter of Latin every 2 weeks but need to go at the pace of the student, not my artifical timetable. While I do set goals for each year, semester, and 5 week period; the planner works for me, not the other way around.

 

Content work I plan in a touch more detail because I have actual begining and end dates for those topics.

 

The greatest weapon in my arsonal for getting things acomplished is establishing, and sticking to, a routine. Not every day has the same routine; Monday at our house doesn't look like Thursday, but Monday almost always looks like Monday. And when it is time for seat work on Monday everyone knows that means English, Math, Latin and Logic. (And that includes me. :) )

 

Forcing myself over the hump of complacency a few times a year coupled with the routines are what keeps our forward momentum. Having the big picture goals and the weekly style checklists keeps me on track. Having a few IRL friends and the Hive who get the importance of not becoming complacent but can say, "back away from the planner", keeps me sane.

[Murphy101]

Yep. Routine. Not getting distracted or derailed or letting discouragement or burn out keep me from keeping on keeping on.

 

Sounds awful. LOL

 

Really though, most days it's just life.

[alpidarkomama]

Here's what I do for a subject such as history. Our Story of the World book has 42 chapters. I divide it into 9ths and note in the book that, for example, by the end of our first month (which is half August, half Sept because of theJewish holidays), I hope to get to ch 4 or 5. I know, that with our busy dual curriculum we'll likely only have time for one historical fiction readaloud every other month, related mapwork, and two small projects per month. I plug in that guide and just gauge it as we go. Our tenth month, June, is for finishing up anything we didn't get to in the first nine months. So if we're "behind" I know we'll still get to fit it in. This is all for sure just a starting point, because I might discover that DS has a newfound passion for all things WWII. I don't want to leave the subject too soon and miss some inspiring learning. And really, if you delete a topic or two to spend more time on something else, it's fine. Learning is such an organic, continuously adapting thing that you really can't plan all the details in advance. The real joy comes in uncovering things together, both the somewhat familiar and the completely unexpected. What a journey! :)

[Ruby Rose]

The 1st step is to choose quality curriculum for each subject you plan to study. Most of what I use falls in the do this next category. I feel confident in my choices and sticking with a certain program like FLL means everything will get covered at some point in the series. Curriculum hopping is what will cause the gaps.

 

I'm not a big schedule keeper although I research and research everything before buying anything. I try to avoid GGS aka Greener Grass Syndrome.

 

This year with 2 I figured I would try a little week to week planning just because I want to explore some topics deeper as they are covered and i want to prepare extra activities for those subjects. So far I have downloaded Evernote and started a homeschool notebook. Inside I created 36 week notes. The next step will be to plug in what I would like to see completed. In some subjects this will be taking the material and dividing by 36. With subjects like math, we just work at it consistently everyday.

[SFM]

I write out monthly plans and then get a little more detailed for the weekly plans (which I do all at the same time). I have a general over arching plan but nothing hard and fast. Just as a guide for my other planning. I found myself getting overwhelmed when one day I was literally planning for my 2 year old's graduation --- seriously? STEP AWAY FROM THE AGENDA BOOK! I now think generally in terms of the whole year and then plan monthly then weekly, that tends to keep my stress level down. :)

[Tanikit]

I could never plan for the whole year - I have this plan of what must get finished but no schedule to do so - I find if its planned it will get done. I do have a basic idea of how much must get done daily or weekly to get it done, but if I planned daily I would land up frustrating myself because some days just do not go well. These days I have been writing out a daily plan the night before and then ticking off what we do. I always make sure there are more things on there than we can do and then what we do not get to gets put first on the next days list. We do of course do the 3Rs daily. I find my DD at this age jumps in skill levels too fast for me to plan a year ahead and sometimes she knows things that do not need endless review.

[SorrelZG]

Your idea may be exactly what you need to do succeed this year. For me, it would be a complete waste of time.

 

Moral: Know thyself. :D

[Laura Corin]

Our basic subjects were maths and English. For these two subjects, I would write quick notes once a year about what I wanted to achieve for each child (e.g., finish this textbook). Then I would count the pages/exercises in the book and divide it up by the number of weeks we planned on working (39). If we got behind, I would allocate more time to make sure that we achieved our (manageable) goals.

 

For other subjects, I just allocated a set amount of time each week, then stopped roughly when time was up. I wasn't concerned if a text book lasted six months or eighteen months. Our average timing for ages 7-11 was something like:

 

Mon - Friday maths and English first thing

Mon and Wed: 45 minutes each of history and foreign language

Tues and Thurs: 45 minutes each of science and recorder

Friday: 45 minutes each on a selection (rotating through the year) from art, art history, philosophy, logic, music theory, etc.

 

My weekly planning was just checking how we were doing on our English/maths schedule and adjusting as necessary, and making sure that I had everything ready for what I expected to study in the other subjects that

week.

 

Both boys entered private school with no problem and their teachers think they had good educations at home.

 

Laura

[126bugeyes]

I used to make a subject plan for the whole year for each subject. I would combine them in a weekly schedule. I couldn't go farther out than that, or it was no use. It never fails that every few days there are adjustments, and I would be completely off in no time. Now I use an on-line planner, and everything adjusts on its own. It can be as general as ch. 22, or it can have videos, coloring and notebooking pages, audiobooks, etc...

[LNC]

I plan 36 weeks in 4 quarter plans every year. Each quarter is one page with checkboxes and dates. I have learned to walk through my plans to check exactly how long things take - assigned reading etc. I also don't overplan anymore with extras like music and art appreciation. We own the books, and they can peruse in the summers as leisure reading.

 

My biggest advice is to plan, but make it realistic. Everyone has gaps, that is what the library is for!!!!

[Soror]

I've tried daily plans and those don't work the best. What has worked though is weekly plans, non-dated. This year I've been considering have a check-list for ds as well as I think he would like that. I generally start from a 36 wk template. I like to school 6 wk on/1 wk off, so that gives us 6- 6 wk blocks. From there I divide up our lessons for each subject to see how much needs to be completed per week. Past that I've not found a specific planner or schedule that I really love, so I'm looking for that.

[petepie2]

The first thing I do is figure out how many lessons need to be done per week for each subject to complete the curriculum. With the materials I use, this is usually obvious or divided into 36 weeks, for example. I then figure out how I want to divide the subjects over the course of a week, generally speaking. For example, grammar on MWF, science on MW, art/music appreciation T/Th, etc. (I do all "together" subjects in the afternoon.) I make a one page schedule that is basically a checklist for each day. Some weeks I may put more detail on the schedule. For history (TOG), I just list the books and decide each week how much I should be aiming to read in one sitting to finish the books in 3-4 readings.This is the point where I'm flexible. I may have a general plan for how each day of a week will be laid out, but really my goal is to complete the work for the week. I will shuffle things around to get that accomplished and just check them off.

 

At the beginning of the year, I will also work out a daily schedule with times allotted for each subject. I have yet to ever follow this schedule to the letter because life gets in the way. But it does give me an idea of how things could "possibly" be organized and how I can divide my time between the children.

 

This past year we were rather successful. Our geography, art projects, and science experiments were hit and miss, but other than that, everything else was accomplished.

 

I attached a sample week from this past year.

Sample Week.pdf

[happypamama]

I don't necessarily plan specific pages for specific days, because sometimes we are so into something that we want to read more or a lesson is short and easy so we do two at once, and sometimes we only get to read a few pages or need to split a lesson into multiple days. But it definitely helps me to plan on doing these several subjects on Monday, these several subjects on Tuesday (which might be slightly different from Monday -- even if we do math both days, we might do different math on both days), etc. That way, we're still doing the next thing, whether that's a new lesson or continuing one. If, at the end of the year, we realize that we didn't finish a book because we needed to slow it down, that's fine; what's not fine (for me) is if we didn't finish a book because we just didn't get to it. Does that make sense?

[Guest RebeccaZager]

If you can follow a plan then try to cover important first and least imporatnt in last. try to study by on your own first so that you can teach easily.

To make a plan is a good idea rather than random plans for each day.

[TraceyS/FL]

My planning in the other thready really referred to sorting out a routine, and figuring out what needs to happen each day to get what we need done. I do have a few things that I need to pull together and schedule so they happen at the same time. But, we go year round and so things can flex more.

 

My youngest might be doing K12 with the virtual school - so her days will be set by them.

[unsinkable]

Mmm... that's what I thought too! how do you plan to ensure you are covering what you need to?

 

I would use the WTM as a guide for each year. I'd decide if the recommendations for specific books would work for us. If they didn't, I'd pick a book or program that would work.

 

Then, for each book, I'd divide the book into the appropriate number of weeks. Next, I'd divide each week into the appropriate number of days.

 

And I'd simply do the next thing. I put a paper clip or bookmark where we left off each day.

 

It wasn't rocket science and it took very little planning once I chose the specific book for each subject. I just made sure the book covered what I wanted covered for the year.

[Sarah CB]

I think it starts with having realistic goals and then prioritizing them. If you try to do everything you're never going to have enough time to do it all well. You really need to take into account your own availability and the time you have at your disposal to spend and you need to think about all other obligations you and your family have.

 

I was looking at a week plan I made up for my dd when she was in 5th grade. It is radically different from what a current week with my boys looks like. That's because the boys and I are out and about way more than I was with dd. I've had to let some things go with the boys so that we can do really well with the things I think are most important.

 

Looking forward to next year I'm still shuffling those priorities and trying to make our time more efficient. The key, for me, is deciding what is really important and then making sure I plan our schedule in a way that allows us enough time to get the important things done.

[LisaKinVA]

I've found (for the most part) curriculum that works for our family. We have a daily routine, as long as we stick to that routine everything gets done. We school year-round, so I am not a wreck about "unplanned" disruptions. It also keeps the kids focused, school more efficient (less forgetting), and in general things moving in the right direction. I plan year-round, too (mainly because I don't have large "gaps" of time to myself.

 

For planning, I'm using HST+ (but not as intended). I plan everything out, schedule it, print out the lessons for each subject, and we check them off as we go. For subjects that are high school level subjects that need grades kept, I enter the grades/date complete as we get to them (I only have two I need to do this for right now...I don't bother recording grades for the younger 3). My subject plans wind up looking a lot like the Abeka lesson plans for the older grades (English). We have roughly 200 days of school planned for a year. Math never stops.

 

Our routine breaks things out by time-blocks. Each child has their own daily school routine (mainly so I can be available to help where needed).

[Flowergirl159]

You people are amazing!! Thanks for all of your replies, I am encouraged to yes take the time to plan out what I want to cover this year - by subject and resources. The books that I choose that are open and go, just work out how many pages each week needs to be done. The other resources, schedule say a half hour block once or twice a week to just work in that subject. I will check the daily plan that I have for the children. I usually allow 30mins for math for them - they know they have a set number pages to complete each day, if they finish early, they get more break time, if they dawdle, they have to do it during free time. I feel like I was on the right track with looking at it like this, so thanks so much everyone. I hadn't previously written a plan of what to cover in a year before, but I will take the time to do that (I already have an idea of most of their subjects and resources in my head anyway, so shouldn't take too long). If I get a chance later today, I will reply more personally :) Thanks again