Planning Your Homeschool Without Drowning!
Homeschooling should be exciting! But it can be overwhelming...
First and foremost, you know your child better than anyone else. As a mama you know their hearts, their desires, their loves and the things they disdain. You were designed to help guide them through this life. That doesn’t mean it will be easy by any means or that you won’t have a challenging determined little person who thinks they don’t need your assistance, but this too will teach both of you more than you can find in a textbook.
What do you want your homeschool year to look like?
So, the first suggestion I have is to figure out what it is that you want from the school year and what your child wants to gain. It’s almost like doing a little mini interview. Jot down their strengths, the areas or topics they are most interested in, note the areas they struggle or to the topics they like the least. Ask them what they want to do in the future and keep that in mind as you plan out the year. Make a note as to their preferred learning style. Do they love to listen to audiobooks, or do they like them physically in hand? Do they learn best from trial and error or seeing someone demonstrate? If you're not sure where your child falls, I’ve included a link for a quick learning style quiz below. It’s free and not something I am promoting per say just one that I found and took and thought was helpful.
For yourself, what do you want the year to look like? Will it be days of baking muffins together or walking the local nature trails? Slow mornings at home or busy trips around the town to explore? Do you want to focus on building relationships? Certain skills? What do you want to be the main blocks of your home? Not too long ago I shared an interview with Charlene Notgrass, and she sent me the goals and objectives she had for her homeschool and I loved it. I’ll attach that as well for you all, but it had objectives like… learn as a lifestyle, help others come to know Jesus, learn about the cultures of the world, love reading, learn to communicate, have good character, learn the math you need to know. All of which I think are great! So, what are your objectives?
What should my curriculum plan be?
Once you have an idea of what your child wants to learn and what their learning style then comes the curriculum plan. Some families need a more structured traditional curriculum. One that comes will all the pieces, lesson plans, tests and quizzes, a very complete setup. Some families prefer to mix and mold their materials. Personally, we are a bit of both. Are boys have loved the Notgrass history kits which comes with the textbooks, activity books, as well as all the reading material. However, for our science I want to pick and choose based on the topics we are most interested. I love how the Good and the Beautiful has tons of mini units that you can choose from, but it is also structured enough that I don’t have to create my own lesson plans and what not. Another option would be to come up with a list of topics you want to cover and then each week you spend time exploring each of those areas. You could do nature walks to explore, do field trips, visit the library and find resources, search videos about the subject and literally just soak in as much knowledge as you can. No one way to do your planning is right or wrong; it has to be based on how you want to learn and how you enjoy the learning experience. For us, I love the idea of the third option, but I know that I need a touch more structure to be successful. So, you have to come up with a plan that suits your needs.
What should by homeschool year look like?
Once you have an idea of the type of curriculum you want to use you can come up with a game plan for the year. Are you going to aim to do school 5 days a week, 4 days? Will you do every subject every day or just certain days of the week? Do you want to have a detailed list of what lessons need accomplished each week or are you more flexible and aiming for a generic goal of 4 math lessons, 4 English lessons, 1 new book and so forth? This game plan is easier to complete once you know the curriculum you wish to use because for example, the Notgrass history is setup for 160 lessons which means you don’t need to complete it every day. Some of your math books are setup for 180 lessons so that should be a daily thing unless you plan to double up on certain days so you can skip others. What about extra activities like play groups or library days? For us we have a set plan on Tuesdays to attend a local mom’s play group and that is important to me. The boys have been doing better about getting up early to get their schoolwork and chores done before we have to leave for that activity. If you are looking for a more unschooled approach, maybe you have a family meeting on Monday to come up with a game plan for the week as to what activities you want to accomplish. That’s an awesome idea! The kids could each keep a journal about what they do and see and learn. No matter how relaxed or how structured, it is important to understand that kids learn every single day in so many different fashions. It’s important to keep some type of log be it a journal or a scrapbook or even a calendar book of what they accomplished, attempted or even experienced.
Common Myths and Fears in Homeschooling...
- What if I don’t teach them everything they need?
- What I have found is that when someone falls in love with a topic, they will do everything they can to learn more about it. So even if you skip "important" things to focus on other interests, your student can always dig deeper into those skipped topics if they need to later on. In most public-school classrooms, they don't cover everything they are "supposed" to because of time!
2. What if the curriculum I choose doesn’t work for us?
a. Often, we think we are stuck with our first choice but that is the beauty of being the teacher, you can change things as often as you need. When I taught high school, I did this on the daily… one day something works and the next you get crickets, so you are changing things on the fly. No one curriculum package is going to suit everyone. You may find, even in your family, that different kids need different styles and that is fine too.
The point of all this is first and foremost, if you have a desire to homeschool your kids, I highly encourage you to go for it!
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