Another Year, Another Plan
I love to plan! I’ve used hand written planners for years and I would say my mind is pretty much organized like one. Planning homeschool curriculum came really naturally to me and that may be just because it’s how my mind works or because I also have classroom and teaching experience. You’ll find me scrolling through Utah Core Standards multiple times a year, but I recognize that turns a lot of homeschoolers off. And, they are not always easy to understand so if you’re interested in where to start and what your children need to know by year - I finally picked up a copy of Home Learning Year By Year to see if it’s something I’d recommend to other moms. There are a few things I didn’t love about this book, but I liked enough that I think yes, it is a good tool, especially for those who need some kind of guide. I didn’t love the preschool chapter and I would be weary of picking it up and trying to use the suggestions in this book as a checklist because I think that would get really overwhelming and is completely unnecessary. It doesn’t say to do that, but I would be nervous a new homeschool mom may feel the need to do that. But, other than that, make it work for you! What this book can do is give you some general awareness of developmental milestones most children will have around certain ages and appropriate expectations if there have been certain building blocks in place. IE it’s not appropriate to expect a first grader to understand multiplication and division yet - but it is appropriate between third and fourth grades or ages 8-10. That will probably seem obvious to some, but there are some less obvious skills that may be helpful. There are plenty of used copies for cheap on Amazon: Home Learning Year By Year.
Here are a few other suggestions that help me as I plan our school year.
Be prayerful
There is a lot of curriculum out there and a lot of homeschool styles - some of which don’t even use curriculum. How will you ever know which is best for your kids? I think the best thing we can do is observe and watch and get to know our children. As Charlotte Mason observed, children are born persons and it’s my belief that their spirits are unique to them. Learn to know who they are and then be prayerful about what is best for them. Sometimes we have formal homeschool interviews and sometimes I just ask or watch and see what they’re interested in and I’ll lean towards those things while I begin to compile curriculum.
Start Big and Work Down
I’ve talked about this before, but the best way I can visualize a year’s worth of curriculum is if I plan year -> month -> week -> day. I think of it like a funnel - do a broad overview of the year and months and then I just have a general idea of what is coming up and slowly work down. Before I purchase curriculum, I'm looking at what we want to complete over the next year. Once we purchase it and can look through our books, I’ll map it out by month (more on that below). As the time approaches for prepping then I plan out more details for the week and day. Most day planning doesn’t even happen until about a week or two before we actually implement it. Maybe a little sooner if I know I am going to need a big shopping trip (IE new unit study or a big project week).
I have a much more detailed post about this process and a free planning template on this post: Planning A Homeschool Year
Compile Curriculum and Research
I make a list of the curriculum I am interested in and research it. With nearly everything in my life that I need to make big choices on, I use the process of elimination and seek divine guidance. With research sometimes I can quickly tell what could work for us and what won’t work for us. One of the best ways I can do this is by watching other IGs or YouTube videos on the curriculum. I like to see people who actually use it and showcase it in action versus just a review of it though. Once I have things narrowed down then I bring in my children and show them some of the options and unless I have had a really strong prompting about something, I’ll let my kids choose what they want to do at this point.
Decide and Purchase
We use My Tech High to help fund our curriculum which you can read more about on this post: My Tech High. So I try to be intentional with our funds, but also make sure I am leaving room for hands on materials and extras that we will need through out the school year. I start collecting curriculum in spring/summer, but almost always wait to buy supplies or gather specific books until we’re within about a month of our next unit. I have learned it’s very normal to have a vision of how things will go and then mid-year something changes so I rarely open up a supply list in the front of a curriculum book in July and just buy everything on that list. Allowing room for change and evolution is really important.
Pencil It In
I am purposely choosing the word pencil here because I can’t stress being flexible enough. I would be shocked if someone did 100% of all their plans for an entire school year without any evolution. It’s okay to switch curriculum. It’s okay to not finish a book. It’s okay if you’re bored or your kids are bored and you completely shift gears. You’re not behind. These moments are what gives you EXPERIENCE. Learn what you need to about your children and yourself, erase or forget about what you need to, and then keep going.
Once we have the curriculum I like to look at the year and map it out by month so I have a rough idea of what we’re doing or where we should be with lessons through out the year. Most of our core curriculum is pretty open and go (scriptures, math, LA) and then we like to just study one unit theme at a time so we will do science every day for like 3-4 weeks and then switch and do social studies. This way we can dive a little bit deeper and I don’t have to have my mind wrapped around two units at a time. So when I pencil ideas in it’s just knowing about when we will be at which parts in the curriculum. Periodically through the year I’ll also count our lessons and see where we are at and make sure we’re on track to where we want to be. It isn’t uncommon for me to count lessons and know if we have 5-10 lessons left before a big break, we might double up or do a lesson on Friday/Saturday so we can take longer breaks.
Where I Am At This Year
Last year I wrote a more detailed post on planning and I did many of the same things for this upcoming 2022-2023 school year. However, I didn’t feel the need to throw my thoughts into my google template this year so I didn’t. Now that this is the fourth time around I’m feeling like I know what to expect and have a good flow of familiar to pull back on. I spent a few days and wrote down my thoughts and some rough ideas on a notes page in my planner and I’m calling it good. Our 2022-2023 curriculum has all been ordered and I am just waiting on the last few things to come (and some discount codes) before I share.
And because I know someone will ask - I am still using Leafy Treetop Planners and customize it with LDS content, but you can get a non-denominational version. I have used these planners for, I think, six years now so I am pretty committed to them! This year I have the 8.5x11 horizontal planner, but I’ll for sure be going back to the 6x9 horizontal size next year. I thought I’d try bigger and I don’t like it because its a pain to take places which means I haven’t used it as much this year as I have in the past. I take all sorts of notes, record quotes, prepare church lessons, homeschool lessons, meal plan, grocery lists, books I want and have read, doctor appointments, to-do lists….Basically, it is my “common place” for everything in my life so it just needs to be a little smaller so it can move around with me easier. I also prefer a Monday start date and customize it with the horizontal boxes and spiral bound. If you order mid-year the Academic version is available which is June-May. If you order at the end of the year, the Yearly version will be available which is January-December. They are the exact same layouts and materials, just different months.
In honor of the 4th of July in a few weeks I wanted to do a one week “summer camp” and learn all about WW11. I decided to simplify Little School of Smith’s American Girl Molly unit and turn it into a mini study that will work for next week. I happened to plan this out a week or so ago so I thought I’d throw in a picture of what our plans looks like for Thursday/Friday so you can see how I use the space in our planner. I haven’t started writing anything in for next school year yet. But, even looking at these plans again, I am already looking thinking I will adjust it so we can have the tea party on Friday instead, but we will see how the week pans out!
Let me know if there is another planning resource you love. If you’re looking for a planner more specific to just homeschooling, (which I think can be really helpful when you’re first learning how you like to plan things out) I would check out this new Homeschool Planner from School Nest (I do wish this was smaller!) or I think this print at-home version from The Waldock Way is nice because it’s simple and right to the point.