Simple & Quick Homeschool Planning for Just Getting Your Year Started
Simple & Quick Homeschool Planning for Just Getting Your Year Started
I know I’m not alone. My summer planning for my homeschool didn’t go as planned. In fact it didn’t happen at all. I didn’t account for the number of guests we hosted nor factor in the total time it would take to showcase Idaho to our exchange student.
I also have transitioned our oldest to Public High School this year. This was not in my plan, but something she’s always wanted to do. She wants to be a writer. She wants to be able to write about high school in her stories. Her winning argument: How can I write about something I’ve never experienced? Right? I totally agree with her. So she’s started a new chapter and is now four weeks in.
Most years we have waited to start our homeschool until late September. After she finished her first week successfully, I decided I should have our homeschool on a similar schedule to her. Moving up our homeschool timeline a whole month is a big adjustment. But with now ten years of homeschooling under my belt, I have a general idea of what needs to happen and what we are going to study. This year will be much the same, but also very different in not having our oldest here. We usually have both independent subjects and combined subjects throughout each day.
Things I’d planned on being combined subjects for my two oldest will now be individual or need to be combined with his younger sister. This means more adjustments.
There are also two things that caught me off guard this year. I didn’t expect to feel so sad about my oldest going to school. Initially, I kept thinking about how she’d miss out on our adventures and field trips. And that I‘d miss out on getting to see her learn and wrestle with new concepts and ideas. I didn’t expect to need to grieve this.
The second thing I didn’t expect was to struggle with my own identity as a homeschooling mom. I didn’t realize how much it has become who I am. In the beginning of our homeschooling journey I decided we would take each year one at a time and reevaluate our goals and approach to educating our children trying to balance our needs as a family with what was best for each child individually and their unique interests.
For a few weeks her decision to go to public school led to me feeling like a failure as a homeschool parent and even questioning my worth. Silly but real emotions.
So without any formal planning, this is how I got started quickly.
Week 1 | Craft Your Short List & Gather Books You Already Own
First, I crafted a short list of what subjects I wanted to study each day and in a general order on my phone’s notes app.
Second, I gathered all the books and resources I already own that I thought would work for each of my three students and placed them in stacks on their desks.
Next, starting with my oldest son, we grouped the books into subjects and placed them on the bookshelf next to his desk. I asked his opinion on which books he’d like to start with and placed them in a reading order for each subject.
With my younger daughter, I asked her to go through the big stacks of books and make two. One that she was really interested and excited to read and one that she was not.
I was honestly surprised by her two stacks and grateful for the insight it provided. Lots of greek mythology, shakespeare and sharks but absolutely no history or exploration.
Week 2 | Create Your Weekly Checklist 1st Draft
I took the short subject list from my phone and pasted it into a google sheet. I then expanded a few things and added day of the week headings. I also added the first two initials on lines where my kids are doing different things for the same subject.
I adjusted the print settings so it would print on one double-sided single sheet of paper.
I printed three copies. One for me and one for each older kid.
We used it as a guideline for the week and I made notes for additions or edits as we went through our school week. We also haven't started every subject yet. Some of the subjects I’m still making final decisions on what we will be doing this year. Science, for one, I have some of the areas dialed in, but I want to add a formal curriculum that includes more experiments. Other subjects I still need to add some additional resources after going to our public library this week.
Week 3 | Update Weekly Checklist
I updated the sheet with the notes from Week 2 and printed them off again.
I took notes again and had my older ones start recording specifically what they accomplished. For example what book they read and the chapter or page numbers. Or for online subjects what unit and lessons they completed. This is still a work in progress as this habit does not come naturally to either of them. I intend to sit down with each of them at the end of each school day to review and fill in any information they forgot to write down.
We added typing this week and emailed each of my older two links what they’d be doing.
I made a choice on our Experiment based Science. I’ll be using Berean Builders Science in the Beginning for my younger two and Science in the Atomic Age for my 7th grader.
We printed off the example first weeks and experiment supply lists. I had my oldest read the supply lists for both books and mark each item he knew we already had. Then he started gathering them into two bins.
We also added in more of our extra curricular activities this week, specifically my younger daughter’s dance classes. We’d planned for 1x a week on Wednesdays. Earlier in the week I saw an opportunity for her to audition for our local production of the Nutcracker with a different dance company than her ballet class is at. I didn’t fully understand the commitment that would be involved, and didn’t guess that she’d be cast in two roles requiring two additional practices per week.
Plus at her home studio, her instructor decided she’d be a better fit in the next level of ballet. The bonus, she won’t be the tallest student in her class by a whole head, the downside she had to make the tough choice to drop her stop-motion class at the library which conflicted with the new ballet class time.
Week 4 | Repeat & Refine
We are heading into week four.
We decided to hold off on adding boxing for my older two for now. It's something they both want to do, but unfortunately they'd be in two different classes requiring 4 hours out of the house on the only two days of the week we have the option of being home. They can start anytime so we will revisit this decision in a few months.
We will be buying the remaining science experiment supplies and getting them organized while we wait for our books to arrive at the end of the week.
My older son said he preferred the detailed schedule spreadsheet that I used last year so I hope to start working on that for him this week.
I know I am not the only one having to get started without as much planning as I hoped to and/or having to make several last minute adjustments. I hope to help you get started and provide a simple school schedule that you can modify for your family. Here’s the link to my Simple Homeschool Schedule for 2024-25.
When you click on the link you’ll be taken to the preview. If you click the blue Use Template button on the top right, it will create a shared copy for you in your Google Drive. I’d love to know if you find this helpful!
Know it’s ok to start messy and slow. Know it’s ok to change your mind when things aren’t working well for you or your student and try something new. It’s also ok and good to start by just reading a variety of books for free from your library. I know you can do it and I’m cheering for you!
Homeschool + Solopreneur Planning Posts:
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