How do you prepare and when do you start your year?

[tori729]

So I'm just starting homeschooling this summer/fall. I have almost all of my curriculum that I need and am planning on doing a bit of math and phonics starting in July (we are also doing some summer reading programs and this year, my son is required to read all of his books to me instead of the other way around to complete his list).

 

1. Should I start my school year in July when we do these things or should I wait until we start incorporating language, history, and science?

2. What kind of prep work do you do ahead of time for each year and then for each week? Do you read all the materials ahead of time or just skim? I know some things like science I will have to make sure I have the materials on hand beforehand and history I will want to have some books picked out that go with the lesson. Anything else? Are a lot of things just open and go? (We're using FLL, PP, HWOT, SOTW, Science in the Beginning, Horizons Math)

[Ellie]

So I'm just starting homeschooling this summer/fall. I have almost all of my curriculum that I need and am planning on doing a bit of math and phonics starting in July (we are also doing some summer reading programs and this year, my son is required to read all of his books to me instead of the other way around to complete his list).

 

1. Should I start my school year in July when we do these things or should I wait until we start incorporating language, history, and science?

2. What kind of prep work do you do ahead of time for each year and then for each week? Do you read all the materials ahead of time or just skim? I know some things like science I will have to make sure I have the materials on hand beforehand and history I will want to have some books picked out that go with the lesson. Anything else? Are a lot of things just open and go? (We're using FLL, PP, HWOT, SOTW, Science in the Beginning, Horizons Math)

 

Our "school year" began January 1 and ended December 31, just like the real year. :-)

 

Most things I used didn't require very much in the way of preparation, especially since I had spent so much time pondering what to do next. KONOS required the most planning ahead of time, but when it came time to actually begin, I just spent one Sunday evening a month writing things on the calendar (in pencil!).

 

Your school year begins whenever you want it to. You don't have to wait for anything. Start with what you have, add the other stuff when you're ready.

 

[ErinE]

We do reading, writing, and math year round unless we're on vacation or the kids are in camp. Since you're just starting out and you have littles, I'd do that until you get a good rhythm. When you feel ready, slowly add in the additional subjects.

 

ETA: I've run the gamut from elaborately planning the whole year to filling in assignment sheets daily. I've found that I work best with either a do-the-next thing curriculum (grammar, spelling, math) or a master book list (history, science, literature) that I map out monthly. My two older kids each have a planner that they mark off as they work through their daily assignments.

 

Part of homeschooling is trying different approaches and seeing what works best for your children and you.

[llifeon18wheels]

I'll jump in here with what I did. I only have one child and so I think that has directed a lot of what I've done. We chose to school year-round primarily due to our job (we are over-the-road truck drivers and our daughter is on the truck with us).

 

We did not really do a Kindergarten grade but she was in a local church preschool. Next, 1st grade was from Sept-Dec 2010. She finished fast and I knew we wouldn't wait until the next school year. Then we started 2nd grade in Jan 2011 and went until Sept 2011. We had taken 2-wk vacations grouch out the year so I just kept going. We stated 3rd grade in Oct 2011 and finished end of Aug 2012. I chose to give her a longer break at this point. We started 4th grade in Oct 2012 and kept on until Sep 2013. I really liked our previous schedule so we did it again. Fifth grade started in Oct 2013 and we should finish history in August but all my other subjects are behind that because I changed everything up a few months ago.

 

My goal will be to stay on an October to September schedule but always just moving to the next level in a subject even if it's in the middle of the year. So, it's an organized chaos.

 

Michelle

 

P.S. The lady in my profile picture is my mom but those other sweeties are all on the truck as we travel the country.

[Mandy in TN]

So I'm just starting homeschooling this summer/fall. I have almost all of my curriculum that I need and am planning on doing a bit of math and phonics starting in July (we are also doing some summer reading programs and this year, my son is required to read all of his books to me instead of the other way around to complete his list).

 

1. Should I start my school year in July when we do these things or should I wait until we start incorporating language, history, and science?

2. What kind of prep work do you do ahead of time for each year and then for each week? Do you read all the materials ahead of time or just skim? I know some things like science I will have to make sure I have the materials on hand beforehand and history I will want to have some books picked out that go with the lesson. Anything else? Are a lot of things just open and go? (We're using FLL, PP, HWOT, SOTW, Science in the Beginning, Horizons Math)

1. Start whenever you want. However, if you are in a state that regulates, check to see what the state's requirements are. This may impact when you start reporting, but it doesn't need to determine when you actually start doing work.If you feel like you want to start doing some things as a sort of trial run, you can start tomorrow.

 

2. Prep work is going to vary drastically from one homeschool to the next. For some families, preparing for school is like an episode of doomsday preppers. For other families, everything is off the cuff or child-led. For this one, you're going to have to figure out if one of these extremes or where in between works best in your home.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[Heidi]

I make a general weekly schedule so I know which subjects to do on which days.  I go through my books and see how many days a week we need to work on a subject to finish it before the school year is over.  Math is four days/week, history 2 days, geography 1 day, and so on.  Everything I use is pretty much open and go.

I read through the TMs and try to imagine what each day will entail, both in my time, my child's output, and any extra supplies I might need.  Right now I have all of their books in piles on my floor to make sure I have everything I need.  I realized I was missing a few things so I go those ordered.  I read through our new Latin program and realized I was missing a piece of it and that each child would need a notebook.  I'm printing off our math.  I'm trying to figure out how our days will flow the best.  I usually clean out my main teacher's folder and get it ready for the new school year (new calendar, book lists, schedules, etc.).  I tentatively plan the school year and when we'll take breaks.  I guess I just try to get as organized as I can before we begin. 

[73349]

One question to ask yourself is when you want the school year to *end*. Then look at your materials--how many weeks' work are they?--and plan backward to your start date, keeping vacations/holidays in mind.

 

I skim everything and put plans into a spreadsheet to make sure I don't get behind where I intended to be. If you can keep a rough idea in your head, you may not need to do that.

[CardinalAlt]

I make a general plan of what "spine" materials we'll use before the year starts, and get a basic idea of how much I'd like for us to get through a week or a month in each thing to get to a certain place by year's end. (That will flex as I see a need to change pace or supplement a strength or weakness...) I also don't worry to much at this point about finishing materials - I feel we can always keep going the next year, or finish during our summer "light" school. But that may change as DD gets older...

 

Then most of our materials are pretty open and go - I may peek ahead from curiosity, not necessity. I do know which area I need to look at a month ahead and make library requests or gather simple experiment supplies, but I've learned too much of that can be a pain or mean something ultimately doesn't get done. Now we keep a couple good tie-in dictionaries/encyclopedias/anthologies that help with not needing library books for absolutely everything, and science kits with most of the materials included.

 

I do like a gradual start up to the year, for all our sakes. Right now we're taking a summer break, but we're keeping a little morning table time for math and typing or Spanish, and evening routines of journal and read aloud. First I'll beef that 3R table time up in the fall, along with morning mini-circle time, then the next week add in her independent work (30 more minutes), the next week our content work (about 30 more minutes)... Around that time a few extracurriculars will start back up.

 

You'll make a plan that makes sense for you and tweak as you go :). Good luck, and have fun!

[Critterfixer]

I have to report to the state, but our year officially begins in July. I break the year into terms, Summer/Fall/Winter, and there is a short Spring section, which typically is my time to evaluate, have the boys take their standardized tests, and so forth. This year I began taking about six to eight week summer for us, which is giving me time to do some planning. Like whitehawk, I plan when we will end, and that sets the beginning date. Testing for us is quite early, and non-negotiable. Last year, for math, I took a calendar and put all our math lessons on it, but it mostly made me anxious, so I won't do that this year.

 

When they were little, most of my planning was just do the next thing. I had already read all the books I was asking them to read, and a skim through was all that was needed to ask comprehension questions. This year, the boys are going into fifth grade, and I'm finding I need to do more reading ahead, and I need to add more study times for myself. 

 

Things change. I'm still pretty comfortable with a flexible schedule of work, but see the need to start sharing the job of weekly planning and yearly goals with the boys in a limited way this year so that they can learn how to set a daily plan for themselves, how to read through a book in a set time, how to adapt when life trips you and sends you sprawling...all things I didn't need to do when they were young, and now need to make a priority so that they can begin to take more responsibility for their learning.

 

One thing you could do (I did and I only wish I could have used it more wisely, but at least it is still in the schedule!) is to schedule yourself a period in the day (or evening or morning) to think about school. You could use this time to plan. I would use it to quickly skim history several weeks in advance, so that if I wanted to pick up a book at the library, I could put it on reserve for pick up or make sure it was available, or I might actually get that book, and read it, and maybe I'd use it or I'd decide I wanted another option. I might use the time to do grading, and probably will do that some this year for working through written work more closely. You might want to use the time to make book lists, or to get art supplies together, or to make sure you've got all your manipulative things ready for math, or to pick out a basket of books for read-alouds.

[Hunter]

I start a new year whenever everything has fallen apart and I need a fresh start.

 

I take out a big piece of art paper and fold it up like is suggested in this video. If things are in total chaos I tape together pieces of mismatched paper. :)

 

[smudge]

I start the first part of August. I do a '6 wks on/1 wk off' kind of a schedule. I plan in 6wk chunks, the week off I use to sketch out the next 6 weeks. This gives me about 42ish weeks of schooling, not that it matters where I live as I don't have to keep any records. I felt this was a good way for me to stay on task.

[happypamama]

If you don't want to do any formal school, but your state lets you start counting on July 1, you can certainly count summer reading program days as school days. I count a variety of things as school days -- days when they take long bike rides with DH, days when we visit museums or historic sites, days when they read all day or listen to audio books, days when they take summer tennis lessons. . . It's all good.

 

When you start your formal work, you may want to start with a couple of subjects at a time and ramp up slowly. We will start with history and math, in addition to literature, and after a week, we will add grammar and foreign language. Then the next week, we will add writing and science. This lets us get into our routine gently, and it means that we still have plenty of time for summer fun.

[Rachel]

I've only done one year so far and it was kindergarten. Our official school year was Labor Day to Memorial Day for attendance purposes. Our actual year was some work beginning in August to ease into our school year. We just did the next thing in our lessons all year long.

 

As far as planning I have very basic goals for the year. On Sunday I would look ahead to see if I needed any library books or materials from the store. Then the night before I usually read through the math lessons for the next day to plan for games and to make sure I could explain concepts thoroughly.

 

This year,1st grade, will take a little more planning. Our children's librarian said I could give her a list of books/subjects and when I would like them, she will have books ready for me. So I will have to have an idea of where we will be ahead of time.

[My3girls]

2013-2014 was our first year homeschooling.  We did 2nd and 6th grade.  We started a week after they finished ps and haven't stopped.  I tried to schedule everything out, but figured out a few months in that I cannot keep a schedule.  I tend to follow the kids lead too much for that.   I pick big goals like botany and zoology for science and prehistory and ancients for history and then I pick out our LA curriculum and good books to read for literature.  We just do the next thing and pick out activities and field trips that look like fun.

 

I report that our school year is 8/1 thru 7/31 becuase the public school start then.  I start keeping attendance 8/1 and stop when we hit 180 days.  We do more but don't have to so no need to report it.  Our school year "ends" 7/31 just because it will be time to start the new school year. I'm planning on taking a few weeks off in August for vacation.  We'll continue to read, do nature walks, and try to incorporate some educational site seeing while on vacation.  No new curriculum will start until after Labor Day.

 

My advice to a newbie is research as much as possible before hand but be ready to make adjustments as you go.  While my big picture remained the same over the course of the year, everything else changed, and I mean everything! lol  The hardest part to wrap my mind around was that we were not going to finish all our curriculum before we started the next year.  We finished phonics, spelling, and vocabulary, but everything else is rolling into 3rd and 7th grade. 

 

ETA:  No, I don't pre-read.  I read pretty much everything with them.  We do the lists for necessary items for activities and shop for them together.   I don't censor books or documentaries.  If it pops up and needs explanation or discussion then that's what we do.   I see myself as a guide and not a teacher.  I learn as much from them as they do from me most days.  They love love love it when they can tell me something that I didn't know already or show me something that they've made without my direction. lol

[AngelaNYC]

So I'm just starting homeschooling this summer/fall. I have almost all of my curriculum that I need and am planning on doing a bit of math and phonics starting in July (we are also doing some summer reading programs and this year, my son is required to read all of his books to me instead of the other way around to complete his list).

 

1. Should I start my school year in July when we do these things or should I wait until we start incorporating language, history, and science?

2. What kind of prep work do you do ahead of time for each year and then for each week? Do you read all the materials ahead of time or just skim? I know some things like science I will have to make sure I have the materials on hand beforehand and history I will want to have some books picked out that go with the lesson. Anything else? Are a lot of things just open and go? (We're using FLL, PP, HWOT, SOTW, Science in the Beginning, Horizons Math)

 

We're going to continue 7th grade and meld into 8th grade over the summer.  During the summer we spend 2-3 days a week on academics (4 during the school year).  We do of field trips (and starting our new restaurant adventure) on the off days.  

 

I have so much curriculum on hand from ds and his 2 older sisters that I probably won't buy anything this year at all (well, maybe 1 or 2 things). Mostly everything I have can't really be used past 8th grade.  I pulled everything out and will utilize some of everything and see what fits best with ds.  I don't really schedule, we prefer the "open and go" method like you mentioned.  I do minor prep work for science experiments and field trips.

 

Our main curriculum will be Life of Fred Beginning Algebra, Apologia Physical Science (or Holt), K12 Human Odyssey 1 & 2, Runkle's Geography, Getting Started with Spanish, various novels and poetry, and a hodgepodge of language arts workbooks.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I'm not good at a detailed plan.  What I do to get ready is get very familiar with my materials- I read the introductions to various books/curriculum, I skim the lessons to get a feel for them, and for "homemade" subjects, I might make a list of books, objectives, etc, that are in the order they should be accomplished, but not necessarily dated.  I try to get as much photocopied or printed as I can- so I print out all the coloring pages to SOTW, for example, as well as all the maps, I organize those in a binder. 

[MerryAtHope]

So I'm just starting homeschooling this summer/fall. I have almost all of my curriculum that I need and am planning on doing a bit of math and phonics starting in July (we are also doing some summer reading programs and this year, my son is required to read all of his books to me instead of the other way around to complete his list).

 

1. Should I start my school year in July when we do these things or should I wait until we start incorporating language, history, and science?

 

 

Congrats on starting homeschooling! Biggest thing--enjoy your children :-).

 

I found, especially with young kids, that a gradual "ramping up" of our subjects worked best. So, I think it would actually be to your benefit to start with just a few and gradually add on more. 

 

Our year runs mid-July to the end of May, and then off for 6 weeks (ish). 

 

 

 

2. What kind of prep work do you do ahead of time for each year and then for each week? Do you read all the materials ahead of time or just skim? I know some things like science I will have to make sure I have the materials on hand beforehand and history I will want to have some books picked out that go with the lesson. Anything else? Are a lot of things just open and go? (We're using FLL, PP, HWOT, SOTW, Science in the Beginning, Horizons Math)

 

 

I use a lot of things that are open and go. I like to come up with a basic yearly plan--for example, how many lessons and tests does my math program have--can I finish it easily in a year? Do I have wiggle room if we need to spend more time on a concept? Etc... Many times I carry that kind of info in my head (if my plan is, do a lesson or test each day, I don't really need to write that down! OTOH, if I need to double up some things, I want to know that). 

 

In some subjects I come up with a yearly plan, listing roughly which weeks I think we'll get to certain books, and including some "optional" items in case we get ahead of schedule (and asterisks by the most important books, so that I don't drop them if we get behind--I drop something without an asterisk.) 

 

I don't do detailed daily plans, but instead I write down what we do each day.

 

Here are some of my blog posts on how I plan and organize for each year:

 

Organization: Priorities and Passions

Creating a Workable Routine

Implementing a New Routine

A Typical Day

Creating your Teacher Binder

My Teacher Box

[tori729]

Thanks everyone! Sorry I haven't been back here until now.

We ended up starting the first week of July with just some phonics, Life of Fred, read alouds, and handwriting. This week I started incorporating some random School Zone workbooks and have worked a little harder on phonics.

I am 9 weeks pregnant so I'm sort of tired so until I gain a bit more energy we'll probably hold off on the structured science and history until at least August sometime. However, we have read some short pieces from some basic science books. I'm just not all gung ho about having to get certain books and do experiments quite yet... but hopefully soon! :)

 

Merryathome I will check out those links!

 

As for planning, I got a template from someone on here that automatically schedules your long term goals but I need to put together just a calender so I can record what we do every day. Right now I'm just writing it on a piece of lined paper. I do see though how things just adapt as you go and you just sort of find out what works for you.

[OneStepAtATime]

For the fatigue issue, and even for when the baby comes, maybe check with your library or look on you tube for some great science/history/art/math videos that the kids might like for days when you are feeling really fatigued.  Let them play with playdough or legos or something else that occupies their fingers while you all listen to audio books.  See if there is a homeschooling group with teens and look into hiring one to come in once or twice a week to help out, even if it is just a couple of hours each time.

 

Welcome to homeschooling and best wishes!

[ChrissySC]

Well, I obviously start with a bunch of little squares, LOL.  I open Excel, list 180 days in column A, and add a column header for each subject.  From there, I plan each and every day.  I like this because I can see where it is intensive in one subject and lighten the others for a particular day.  Once this is done, I print anything needed for the first semester.  I add 18 hanging file folders to a milk crate.  I add all print outs and a weekly list of assignments for each of those folders.  I add all textbooks and workbooks to the crate.  I have small carrying baskets and clipboards for supplies.  In each basket goes the needed items such as glue sticks, pencils, pens, crayons, paper, etc.  Once this is done ... I am done.  In December, I will go through all of the folders for completed and graded work.  Selected items are placed in a portfolio.  I keep one binder for each student. I tried to journal each day, and I failed miserably.  More time is spent up front, but overall we come pretty close to finishing everything by end of year.  We take off about 2 months and spend this time reading for the next year and enjoying favorite fiction,

[duckens]

Welcome to homeschooling!

 

 

tori729 asks:

1. Should I start my school year in July when we do these things or should I wait until we start incorporating language, history, and science?

Start whenever works well for you.  There are homeschoolers who school year-round.  If you start early (if you feel that is the right choice for your family), then you will have some flexibility later in the year if someone gets sick, if relatives visit, if there are extra field trip opportunities, or if you just need a lighter day.

We usually start in early August, once the regular summer activities of Nature Camp and Swim Lessons and such are over.  Our family doesn't do well with too much free time, so starting early gives us flexibility later, and cuts down on extra bickering/fighting and whining that they are not allowed to watch more than 11 hours of tv/day. 

You don't have to start everything the first day.  Many families start the school year with just one or two subjects.  They add an extra subject every few days.  This allows them to

1) ease into the school year

2) not add more subjects than they can handle

3) still start even if some items are on hold due to budget or delivery delays

4) enjoy the summer weather by still having time for swimming and going to the park

 

tori 729 asks:
2. What kind of prep work do you do ahead of time for each year and then for each week? Do you read all the materials ahead of time or just skim? I know some things like science I will have to make sure I have the materials on hand beforehand and history I will want to have some books picked out that go with the lesson. Anything else? Are a lot of things just open and go? (We're using FLL, PP, HWOT, SOTW, Science in the Beginning, Horizons Math)

I skim most of the materials at the beginning of the school year. 

Example 1: I page through the Teacher's Manual and Student Workbook of Saxon Math.  If anything jumps out at me as unclear, I try to resolve it then.  I write notes in the margins and on post-it notes sticking up.  I put bookmarks (small post-its or a paperclip) on pages that are summaries of the overview or a glossary or anything else that will be used a lot.

Example 2: I make sure that I have coordinating resources ready.  This may mean separating perforated flash cards for a curriculum (Saxon Phonics), ordering extra books used in the curriculum (History Odyssey 2 requires an activity book and a coloring book), or collecting all of the science supplies in one place.

Some people organize several science experiments in a row by putting the resources into shoeboxes.

Example 3: I skim the child's materials for appropriateness of reaching our goals.  I read the preface or introduction, and I read select chapters that catch my eye.

For us, this was questioning one of the suggested history books that was written in 1922 and has a  worldview of 1922 (including racism, sexism, religious privilege, and some things that have just plain been proven historically wrong!)   In another curriculum, I am supplementing by adding the pages (in the book, but not in the curriculum) on reproduction.  Other families would choose to edit in a different direction.

--------------------------------------------------
From week to week, I keep a running list of things to prep as the curriculum progresses.  It might say, "Find a computer math facts game" or "Buy [these things for an upcoming science project]" or "Find youtube video on [science or history concept]."

[coffeegal]

If you're doing reading, writing, and math, I'd go ahead and count it as school. It's really up to you and it's not set in stone. We've run the gamut from Jan-Dec, year around, and now we're on the traditional school year. My young children do better working year around, while my older children appreciate having time off to focus on personal projects.

 

I plan for the school year now, although not by day but by week. It simply takes too much time to print everything for the family and one year we had a minor crisis every other weekend or so. I simply didn't have time to plan or print. Now I plan, print, and file all paperwork I need for the school year. My children are older and we're through the curriculum hopping stage, so it works. I plan a 4 day week for my 5 yo so we can skip a day as needed. ;)

 

You're just starting with a young child. In my experience young children vary dramatically from week to week. Some weeks they absorb everything like a sponge. Other weeks it's like herding squirrels to get the child to pay attention. It also takes time to adjust and adapt your homeschool to your family. My recommendation is to plan for short time periods such as a month, 6 weeks, or a quarter. As time passes, you'll figure out a good system for yourself. :001_smile:

[G5052]

Kind of in August.  I don't think we've ever had a summer without something we were adding in or finishing up.  I always found that continuing phonics/reading and math over the summer was best anyway.

 

When mine were young, I found that planning Sunday night worked best for me, one week at a time so we could flex things for field trips, illness, and such.  I never could go further than that.  I scanned everything at that point, but we pretty much used open-and-go materials. I also put science materials in a box so they were ready.  I kept a master list of how many lessons had to be completed per month in each subject to keep on track so that I could make sure we finished things.  I kept a teacher planning book with blocks for each subject divided in half for each kid.  Where it was obvious (i.e. do the next lesson or page), I just wrote the lesson number or page in the block. So the planner had all the subjects so that I could check them off for each, but there wasn't a lot written in some subjects.

 

As they got older, they had their own planners which I did Sunday night.

 

Now they plan their own, usually Sunday night or first thing Monday.  Several times a month I check their planners, and I grade everything once a week.  

 

Grading is something you'll have to work out as well.  I've never had to report grades, so I didn't record grades until high school.  I checked work and graded math, but nothing formal for K-8th.

[ChrissySC]

That's true.  We really don't stop schooling through the year, but I typically only report 180 days.  We are always doing something, such as reading and math.