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How to Get a Grip on Homeschool Planning: Steps for Planning Your Homeschool Year is a guest post from Mary Prather of Homegrown Learners.
During much of our “off” time this summer I have been thinking about and planning for the upcoming school year.
The downside to immersing myself in homeschool reading (books, blogs, magazines, etc.) is the tendency to try and over schedule for next year. On more than a couple of occasions, I have had to take a deep breath and remind myself: “Keep it simple.” and “Less is more.”
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How to Get a Grip on Homeschool Planning: Steps for Planning Your Homeschool Year
How, then, to keep from being overwhelmed with the homeschool planning and the myriad of curricular choices? Here is what I do.
Start with the basics
In our homeschool, the basics are math, writing, and history. It seems that all other subjects will eventually fall into place. Once my children are in a groove with the basics, we can add as needed.
The last thing I want is for all of us to be overwhelmed within the first month of being back in school.
Make a list of classics to be read-aloud in the first semester
So much learning can occur through reading and discussion of great literature. No matter what the circumstances in our homeschool, if we have a substantial read-aloud in progress, I always feel that we are accomplishing so much.
This year I am consulting Classics For Young Children at A Thomas Jefferson Education for necessary classics.
Determine what the three most important “investments” (outside of academics) are for each of your children
My oldest child is quite musical. For her, music activities will take priority. My son, on the other hand, loves baseball. This is his priority. Add on top of these commitments our weekly co-op and church activities, and we have our three investments.
Consult with your children!
What do my children want to learn about this year? How do they feel about their extracurricular activities? This is all important to know and to plan around.
I’ve already conferenced with my oldest child and helped her start using The Well Planned Day for Students to help her keep track of commitments and stay organized.
Be cautious about reading too many of those great “Back to School” blog posts
Here I am writing for a blog and then telling you not to read too many of them. I have a few blogs that I know adhere to my philosophy of homeschooling. I need to keep my blog reading simple so as not to confuse myself (or compare myself) to other homeschooling moms.
Be confident in what works for your children and stick with it. Don’t let the latest fads or curriculum reviews sway you too easily!
Be confident in what works for your children and stick with it. Don't let the latest fads or curriculum reviews sway you too easily!Write down your plan for each child
I love all of Donna Young’s printables and planning advice. (You might also love this free 13 page homeschool planning set.)
I always put my plans in pencil or on the computer so they can be easily changed. I don’t want to feel that we are locked into ANYTHING in our homeschool plans. We homeschool so we can be flexible and adjust to each child’s needs!
Planning for the upcoming homeschool year should be exciting and full of possibility. It is my hope that you have a wonderful homeschool year!
Other Homeschool Planning Posts and Printables You May Love:
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How to Get a Grip on Homeschool Planning: Steps for Planning Your Homeschool Year was originally published in July 2012. It was updated in July 2018.
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Great post, Mary! We are using that exact same planner with Gracie this year!
Heidi – this will be our first experience with a “planner” for Anna. I’m hoping to help her keep up with it (planning is not my strong suite – funny how you learn so much about yourself through homeschooling, isn’t it?).
This is great advice Mary! Congrats on being a new contributing writer here 🙂
Thanks, Susan!
This is a most excellent planning post! I fall into many planning traps and get so overwhelmed that I just don’t start what I planned!
Thank you for this, Mary!!
Kela – I can REALLY relate to your comment. I always have such grand plans, and this year I am determined to keep it SIMPLE and FOLLOW THROUGH. Check back with me in a few month – ha! 🙂
Thank you for sharing Mary, I just spent the morning contemplating wether I should do some review math with my 2nd grader, or if I should start a lap book just to have some activity over the summer to keep us busy etc. and also trying not to mess up my free time with stressing over planning !!! Welcome to homeschool haha.. we are connected to a charter school so I do have workbooks etc. and i have some input from my boys about what they want to study about.. I kind of like to prepare as we go. I do have a set math and language arts schedule though.
God bless, Myriam
Myriam – you sound like me! I’ve had to let it go this summer and just give us a total break. It has felt SOOO good, and it makes me more enthusiastic about planning when I’ve had a long break, too.
Thanks for the reminder to consult with my children. Congratulations on your first post here and I look forward to many more!
Thanks, Nikki — I’m not so great about consulting with my kids, either. This is the first year I’m making it a POINT to do just that.
Great post. Next year is my first year, so I am actually printing this one out and putting it in my pile of things to think about when I sit down in August and get my act together. For now we are just enjoying the summer.
Jen – congratulations on starting your first year. I think you are WISE to just enjoy your summer. You’ll need lots of rest and energy once August is here! Blessings!
Wonderful advice all around Mary!
Like the tip on investments! I need to commit more time to planning those.
Thanks, Amy!
Hello, Is it possible that this site recently changed its feed address? I have it on my sidebar but I am no longer getting updates. Blogger I believe only updates feedburner feeds, so any Blogger user will need to put in your new feed address manually. Maybe there is another issue I am not aware of….but I have had this problem before when a site changed its feed address.
Thank you!
Same feed that we’ve had for the last several years (run through Feedburner), so not sure why it wasn’t showing updates in your sidebar. I went and checked on your blog and I’m seeing our current post listed. So, maybe it was just a glitch that is fixed now. Thanks for checking!
Thanks so much for this Mary :). We are leaving the public school system in the fall and will be homeschooling our son who will be going into 3rd grade. I must admit the abundance of info out there has been a bit overwhelming so it was a nice change of pace to find your article — it helped settle my nerves a bit lol. Thanks again!