Planning Your Homeschool Year

Homeschooling is often very exciting to parents. Planning the homeschool year can be exciting and sometimes a bit overwhelming. With a good plan ready your school year will be less stressful and you will have more time to enjoy each day with your children. Take some time to plan your school year with these simple tips.

Set Some Goals

Set clear and attainable goals for the school year. Without clear goals in mind you cannot fully plan for a successful school year. By starting with a set of goals you now have a foundation to build your new homeschool plan. Make a list of steps to reach your goals. This is one of my favorite saying, “A dream written down with a date becomes a goal, a goal broken down into steps becomes a plan, a plan backed by action becomes reality.” Planning might seem unnecessary but it is an important part of homeschooling.

State Requirements

Check your state’s laws to be sure you have a grasp on how much time and how many days a year is required. Most will require 180 days for year school year but it is usually a much shorter day that public school will be.  Some states will not have time requirements. Once armed with the requirements for your state you can be ready to figure out when you will homeschool and where that time will be spent.

Take Time to Rest

Leave room for rest. One great value to homeschooling is you have more time to rest and follow your child’s personal interests. Some people call this unschooling, I call it living life to the fullest. Plan days off for holidays, birthdays, and major life changes. By planning plenty of time off you keep your stress levels down and help keep the joy in homeschooling. Which can sometimes be easily forgotten when you are trying to adhere to a tight schedule. Joy is way more important to attain than making sure all of the “work” for the year is completed.

Pencils (and Erasers) are Your Friend

Don’t write plans with a pen. EVER. (Unless it’s for days off!) Stuff happens and you don’t (or can’t) always stick to your plans. Use sticky notes for easily moving your plans around or use a pencil so you can erase and change your homeschooling plans. Flexibility will become your friend and a key to success. Learn to be a bit more “bendy” as one of my favorite veteran homeschool mamas often reminds me!

Field Trips

Add in fun activities and field trips. If they are already in the plan, then you will most likely make time for them. Write Them Done Now. By planning at least some of them at the start of the year you are more likely to participate in field trip activities. But don’t forget to leave room for big activities and celebrations that make homeschooling interesting, this is where being spontaneity comes in handy.

Curriculum

Gather your curriculum and supplies. (Don’t forget to get some shelves, you are going to need them!) Until you have your curriculum you cannot fully plan how you will use it for the year. Gathering everything is often the most enjoyable part of planning out the homeschool year.

Routines

Create your weekly routine. Creating routines makes homeschooling easier to stick to; even if you don’t always follow the routine. Take time to decide what should be done each day of the week every week and plan accordingly. Plan time specifically for catching up on anything you fall behind on for the week so you can relax a bit more if things take a turn away from your lesson plans. This is one reason we work 3-4 days a week verses a full 5 days. This leaves plenty of room for things we missed during the week.

Lesson Plans

Start working on lesson plans. If you are using a boxed curriculum you will find this job is pretty much done for you. If you are being a bit more eclectic using different curriculum together or building your own you will need to spend more time on planning lessons. Try to have several weeks planned out before the year starts so you do not have to stress as you fall into a routine.

From You Friendly Veteran Homeschool Mama

Don’t stick so closely to your plan though mama. Follow rabbit holes, take the next left instead of the usual right, follow the kids down the path instead of herding them back inside, play in the rain, jump in the puddles, stop and smell the pretty flowers. The beauty of homeschool is that it works best if you just live life and learn some stuff along the way. Plan stuff out mama, but don’t sweat it if you don’t get it all done. It will always be there tomorrow AND God will always fill in the gaps that we miss! Enjoy your kiddos, as they won’t be this small for very long.

In His Grace,

Callie

Another (home) school year is upon us!

Some of you may have already started your year, or some of you might school all year long, or some of you might be making those final curriculum decisions before your new year starts.  Whatever boat you are in, I’m sure you could use a little extra money for homeschool curriculum or resources.  Am I right?
I’ve gotten together with some fellow homeschool bloggers and we are pooling our money together to bless two homeschool families with a gift card to spend on their homeschools.  How does $250 sound in helping you buy curriculum, books, games, puzzles, or whatever educational supplies you might need?

Two people will win a $250 gift card to Timberdoodle!!

We know homeschooling can put financial strain on families – whether it’s from living on one-income or buying curriculum for multiple children – the financial aspect of it can be stressful.  Our hope is that we can bless a couple of homeschool families (although we wish we could bless many more) so they can buy the curriculum and supplies they need.

To enter for your chance to win, simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.  Now I know that is quite a few entries for you, but each of these bloggers generously chipped in their own money to bring you this giveaway, so I hope you will take the time to do all of the entries.  And hey, the more entries you do, the better your odds are of winning!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends Aug. 15, 2018 at 11:59pm ET.  Must be at least 18 years of age.  Must be a resident of U.S. or Canada to enter.  Selected winners will have 48 hours to respond to email notification to claim their prizes or another winner will be drawn.  By entering this giveaway, you agree to be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers.  Please be sure to read the Terms & Conditions upon entering the giveaway.