Plan A Simpler Homeschool Year

You’ve decided to homeschool.  You’ve decided to be both their parent and their teacher (although I would argue you’ve been that all along).  School at home can be overwhelming because it seems there are both no handbooks and a million handbooks.  Here you will find action steps that will take you from overwhelmed to prepared.  Start with The First 3 Steps to A Simpler Homeschool or Choosing Curriculum. Today let’s move on to how to Plan A Simpler Homeschool Year.

You have an entire school year ahead for you and your kiddos.  A big picture plan for the year can assist you in meeting your goals for the year as well as teaching what you want to teach.  I sit down every summer and plan the upcoming school year.  It’s something I enjoy and look forward to because there is a big part of me that loves a good plan.  This planning process takes a few hours, which I sprinkle over the course of a week or so.  I suggest working on one step as long as it takes then moving on to the next step.  No skipping steps! Here is the process to Plan A Simpler Homeschool Year.

***A NOTE. If planning an entire year seems overwhelming, simply plan one quarter of a year or eight to ten weeks. Go through this process with a mindset of Quarterly Planning.

Plan A Simpler Homeschool Year

1) Decide what weeks you will teach.

Open up an Excel document and grab a calendar. If a spreadsheet isn’t your thing, use a notebook. Go through the year and decide what weeks you will teach and what weeks will be breaks or holidays. Each state is different in their requirements for how many days or hours of school a homeschooling family must complete, so be sure to check HSLDA for your state’s specific laws or this post for more information.

What I Do

Excel is the tool I use for big picture homeschool planning.  I use the same Excel document every year, adding a new tab for a new year.  Using my Google calendar and Excel spreadsheet, I go through the year and decide what weeks we will formally do school.  In Iowa we are required to teach for 148 days, so I need to be sure to plan 30 weeks. This year I planned 33 weeks.  

2) Decide what to teach.

If you’re using a set curriculum, this will be done for you.  You simply will teach what they tell you to when they tell you to teach it.  If this is the case, there isn’t much you need to add to your notebook or Excel spreadsheet. If you’re not using a set curriculum, now is the time to lay out what month you will teach what.

Those of you rockstars creating your own curriculum, check out Common Core Standards, which links to your state and lists the standards by grade level.  You can also check out SchoolhouseTeachers, which lays out an easy to read scope and sequence for each grade level. Now is the time to write your curriculum for the year!

When it comes to lesson planning for multiple aged kids, many homeschooling families teach subjects together.  This cuts back on the separate lessons and also adds a sense of community in the home.  Art, History, Science, Music, Foreign Language, Read Alouds, and some Language Arts are subjects that can be taught across multiple ages with the same lessons.

What I Do

Our language arts and math curriculums provide schedules on when to teach each topic.  We rotate back and forth between History & Social Studies and Science. One month I will focus on History & Social Studies, the next a Science unit.  I note on the Excel spreadsheet when we will cover each subject and for Science, what our unit will be.  For example, this upcoming year we will cover Safety in August, History in September and Mammals in October. We gather as a family for a few subjects: Art, History, Science, and our read alouds.  

3) Plan the read alouds.

If your curriculum doesn’t include read alouds (Sonlight curriculum does), then make a list of books you would like to read throughout the year.  This list can include books that go with a History or Science unit, an author study, or a series of books like Narnia or The Boxcar Children or The Magic Treehouse.  If you have multiple kids, try and choose books that will appeal to everyone so you’re able to do them as a family.  A great resource for choosing excellent read alouds is Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revivial.  She has great book lists for different subjects and ages.  Reading aloud is the single most important thing you can do in your homeschool, so planning out some quality literature to share with your kids is a worthwhile task.

What I Do

We do author studies or themes with picture books each month. For example, in July and August we will read books by Eric Carle. In October, we will read nonfiction books. I plan these author studies and themes with the help of Pinterest and authors I love or have heard about from the Read Aloud Revival.

I also make a list of chapter books to read aloud for the year. These books come from the Read Aloud Revival, Ambleside Online, and Sonlight’s listed read alouds. Sometimes we make it through most of them, sometimes we make it through half.  Creating a list guarantees there is always another read aloud on deck.

4) Plan the extras.

What else do you want to do this year? Devotions?  Poetry?  Calendar?  Music?  Art?  Cooking?  Scripture memorization?  There are loads of other things to teach our kids that aren’t included in the core subjects.  If you’re feeling these are important, schedule them into your year.  If this overwhelms you, simply skip this and add in these subjects as you have time and energy.  

What I Do

Our extras are simple and don’t take a lot of time and planning.  We read a Jesus Calling for Kids devotional everyday.  I have chosen four longer scriptures to memorize this year, five songs to sing and memorize, and four poems to memorize.  Our language arts curriculum includes art appreciation, but we also create 1-2 art projects a week tied to the seasons, holidays, or read alouds.  I plan these as we go, not on the front end.

Planning the year is absolutely attainable if taken in small chunks and completed step by step. Remember to work through and complete each step before moving to the next. At the end you will have a Plan for A Simpler Homeschool Year.