Planning for a new homeschool year and preparing for the first day sets off tingles of anticipation! At times it also evokes intimidation and overwhelm. Let’s plan your homeschool year together!
Identify Your Goals. Set Your Intention.
In the stillness of ebbing summer, lies inspiration. Unhurried, uncluttered, undistracted. Attune your ear to your inner voice, the deep part of you that speaks the truth of your values, desires, and purpose.
What is important for you and your children this year?
What do you want to create together?
What are your learning goals, your experience goals, and your family goals?
If you homeschooled last year, what worked well and what didn’t?
What changes do you want to make?
Do you want to:
- Go on more field trips?
- Spend more time reading together?
- Increase more joy and wonder in learning?
- Slow down and enjoy the process more?
- Spend more time in nature?
- Cook and bake regularly?
- Learn a new skill like typing, crocheting, or a musical instrument?
- Increase academic comprehension?
- Decompress from a previously bad schooling experience?
- Change attitudes about learning?
- Include more hands-on learning?
- Conduct more scientific research and experiments?
Set your intention for the school year. Write down 1-3 goals for the school year that will help you fulfill your intention and make those goals your focus. Your goals are the guideposts through the school year to keep you in tune with your intentions and values.
Let’s say I set an intention to expand our learning horizons to enjoy school with real-life learning experiences. I will set goals of going on more field trips throughout the school year, spending time in nature, cooking, and baking. Then I plan a strategy for achieving those goals throughout the year.
The Year at a Glance
At this moment, the school year is a blank slate, a fresh canvas, a pristine landscape, the open plain of which affords a clear vision for the future.
We are not in the weeds yet.
We have not yet lost the forest for the trees.
We must put down the guideposts of intention and goals now so when we are in the thick of it we can pull back as though overlooking a map of the landscape below and reorient ourselves.
Inspire with a Planner
A teacher/student academic planner that begins in August and ends in June provides a consistent flow for homeschool year planning. Fresh inspiring pages remind us the year ahead is full of promise and possibilities. Flip through each month penciling in ideas, goals, inspiration, and plans.
If one of my goals is to go on more field trips, I’m going to list possible field trip ideas for each month.
If another goal is to cook and bake more regularly, I will list recipes for each month that coincide with a holiday or a unit of study.
If I want to get out in nature more, I will look at what seasonal opportunities are available for nature walks, journaling, and adventures.
I’m going to plan a strategy of steps to meet my goals supporting my intentions for the year.
Organize with Dates
Here are some known dates that when penciled in upfront make planning easier:
- First Day of School
- Winter and Spring Breaks
- Family vacations or other scheduled breaks
- Assessments or evaluations
- Field Trips
- Scheduled co-ops, sports, or lessons
- Last Day of School
The Weekly Flow
Now we zoom in from our aerial view to the path in front of us, leading us forward. Think through your weekly flow.
What subjects will you focus on throughout the week?
Will you do the core subjects Monday through Friday, or keep Friday open for enrichment courses and field trips?
What days of the week will be scheduled with co-op meetings or enrichment classes (music, art, sports)?
How will you fulfill your intentions and goals each week?
Planning the fine details of each week doesn’t need to happen until you are upon it, but having the general schedule flow and a routine you follow makes for a smoother, less headache-prone journey.
Below is a picture of a weekly work plan I make for my children. We collaboratively plan their work ahead or fill in what we’ve already done as a way to track progress.
Download a FREE editable copy of it HERE!
The Daily Flow
We zoom in even closer to the path right in front of us, the daily steps needed to move forward at a pace that feels doable. Take time to think through your daily flow. Set up procedures for how things will be done and establish routines for doing them.
What will your morning routine look like and when and how will you segue into school?
Will you gather at the same time with a group reading or meeting?
Will you facilitate each child to independently start their work with a “morning basket” with brain-starter activities?
Will each child have his/her own work plan with lessons, workbook pages, or manipulative materials listed to independently begin?
Will you divide your time giving lessons to one child while the other does another activity?
When will you take breaks?
When will school end for you?
Which days will you implement your specific goals?
This daily structure may change after you get started. Some adjustment and tweaking is expected. However, it is important to go in with a plan.
The Curriculum
Look through the curriculum books your children will use for the school year. These include the core subjects and any add-on curriculum you have chosen. Get a sense of how the work is laid out and what will be covered.
Do you see any lessons that inspire you?
You may want to implement a unit study, experiment, cook or bake something, utilize a material, or read a book that complements it. Plan so you don’t miss the opportunity!
Do you see any lessons you know you or your child will struggle with?
Can you supplement with manipulative materials, a YouTube video, or a targeted workbook for extra practice?
Are there any holes or thin spots in the curriculum?
You may want to “beef up” or fill in the curriculum with a targeted workbook, manipulative materials, or a unit study.
Make planning notes in your planner as you go. You can even write notes on the lessons in the curriculum books as a reminder to yourself later.
If you haven’t chosen your curriculum yet, you can read my blog post and download the free workbook.
Review and Assessments
There should be an overlap from year to year reviewing what was learned before new material is introduced. Flip through your children’s curriculum books or work samples from the previous year.
Where did your children leave off last year?
What were the struggles that need to be reviewed?
Does the new curriculum review those concepts?
How can you support them with extra practice and manipulatives?
Does the new curriculum include assessments? If not, you may need to find or create your own assessments.
Set Up Your School Space
Where will you do schoolwork? An extra bedroom, the garage, the kitchen table? The school space doesn’t have to be elaborate. A shared multi-use space like the kitchen table works perfectly fine. Plan the transfer of space usage into your routine.
Organize Materials
School materials include books, paper, pencils, and supplies of any kind. A little caddy for pencils looks cute and offers convenience. A small box for each child to organize personal supplies cuts down on arguing and teaches personal responsibility. A shelf for manipulative materials, library books, educational games, fidgets, morning brain starters, etc. makes those things readily available for use and keeps them organized.
You Will Thank Yourself Later!
Have fun planning! Open yourself to inspiration. Embrace the idyllic.
We will soon be in the crushing flow. We may lose our enthusiasm, become weary, and lose our footing at times throughout the coming homeschool year.
That is when we look back at all our inspiration gathering and detail planning guided by our intentions and goals.
We will encourage, revive, and reorient ourselves to continue forward with a successful school year.