Ah … the joys of homeschool planning.
The year spreads before you -- a blank slate -- ready to be filled.
What will you do? What will you learn? Where will you go?
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Maybe you’re excited. Maybe you’re overwhelmed.
Either way, planning a yearly, weekly, and daily schedule is something that homeschool families will do at least once a year.
(Or if you’re like me, you’ll plan and then revise several times a year!)
I’ve been planning my homeschool for over 15 years, and I’ve learned a few key ideas along the way to make my homeschool simpler and easier.
And to make sure that when I get to the end of the year, I feel awesome about what we accomplished!
These are 3 key ideas I recommend you do BEFORE you dive into which subject on which day at which time …
OR … what fieldtrip you want to take each month (or week!) …
No matter what style of homeschool you choose to do.
(And don’t forget to grab my free planning template after you’re done watching.)
Make your homeschool planning
easier and simpler!
Download my One-Page Homeschool Year Planning Template to help you have a successful homeschool year.
Transcript
Hey guys, ToriAnn Perkey here, and from my homeschool to your homeschool, are you in the middle of planning your next homeschool year? If you're anything like me, you probably are. It is time to figure out what are you going to teach your kids this whole coming school year, and if you're in the middle of that, today, I want to tell you the top three things that I recommend you do when you're in the throes of the planning.
Because planning can be fun, but it can also feel a little overwhelming because there are so many options, and you can start to feel overwhelmed. So let's take it back just a step and help you come up with just a a way to calm down so that you can plan successfully for your next home school year. Okay?
Tip Number 1 -- plan less than you think you can accomplish. There is no way you're going to get everything done in any particular curriculum, particularly if you pick lots. And if you're not a curriculum homeschooler, then you're not going to get every field trip and every book and every movie and every documentary. You're not going to get all of that done. So it's good to plan, but you can plan a lot less.
And kind of a little bonus side tip here, don't print out the whole school year. Just don't. If you do, it's wasted paper. It's wasted ink, and it's wasted cost. Do a few weeks, see if the kids like it, and then invest in a printing experience. I've had years in the past where I've printed out reams and reams and reams only to have it go into the recycling bin because it turned out it didn't work out for my kids. So we always now try it out before we print, and we never ever print everything all at once. Because I know we're probably not going to get through it all in the amount of time that I hope you do. So tip number 1,, plan less than you think you can accomplish.
Okay. Tip number 2 -- set major milestone goals. Not little Itty bitty goals, but just major milestone goals at the beginning of the year. Look to the end and say, "Where do I hope my kid has gotten by the end of the year?" For example, if you have a child who is just ...do you think they're just on the cusp of reading? You might set a goal that they are reading a certain amount by the end. Or if you're trying to teach a certain math concept or you're trying to get to a certain point in their math, and you're setting a goal that you'll get to that major milestone by the end of the year. Do not do not set a lot of these, set a few.
What you're going to do is you're going to write them down, and then you're going to go look at them at the end of the year, and you're going to weigh whether or not you got there. And I'm going to tell you, if you are careful about not setting too many, and you plan to spend consistent time on the few that you do set, then you will be pleasantly surprised how many of those goals are achieved at the end of the year, which helps you feel like the year has actually been successful, which is not always the case if you don't keep track of the major goals that you're trying to accomplish.
Tip number 3 is create a one-page grid overview of your schooling plan. Even if you have lots of plans and lots more written down, create a one-page overview. And if you have more than three or four kids, you're probably going to need two pages open like this so you can see it all at once. But the goal is to be able to just put it in front of you and look at it and survey what the entire plan for the year is.
And obviously in one page you're not going to be able to fit very much because you're going to have every subject and every kid, but what this allows you to do is quickly just get a sense of what are we trying to hit in all the key areas that are areas that are important to you, whether it be math, language, arts, maybe foreign language or physical education or their spiritual development. You know, whatever is important to you is going to be on that list and then you're able to look at that and get a sense of, yeah, I've kind of covered all the bases.
Now if you would like a free printable of a grid just to print out of examples of the subjects that I cover and what it looks like, then go ahead and click the link up above or down below. It's going to take you to my free homeschool help center, which includes a printable grid that you can print out that's blank that you can fill out with your kids, as well as several other really helpful things for homeschoolers.
There's reading lists in there. There's a college planning list. There's some different things, and for all different ages of homeschoolers. So if you would like a grid that you can print out, click the link up above or down below, wherever you're watching this video, and you can go grab it. So that's my 3 top plannings tips for the new year. Hopefully they'll be helpful.
And I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos every week so that you can be a successful and confident homeschool mom.
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