Homeschool Planning for a New Year

It’s that time of year where I evaluate what we did well last year and where we need to improve. It’s time to start some planning for the new school year. When I look at a whole school year before me, it looks a little daunting. I will be homeschooling 10th grade, 8th grade, 6th grade, and 3rd grade this year. I have to do some planning and break it down into manageable steps. Some subjects are pretty easy to break down into weekly and daily assignments. Math is one of those subjects. I divide the total number of lessons and tests by the number of school days in our year (180). Then I know how many lessons need to be done per week and per day.

For my high schooler, science and history break down easily, too. I use the same system of dividing the number of lessons by the number of days in our school year. Language arts for a high schooler is a little different. I have to look at the number of papers I want him to write, and the number of books I want him to read and break that down into monthly and weekly goals. I will meet with him about the expectations I have for the year. We will have a joint check-off sheet to go by, but it is his responsibility to see that he stays on track. I will check in daily with him on his workload.

For the younger boys, I use a unit study approach to science and history. Their reading and writing assignments are based on the topic we are studying, so language arts gets planned in with the unit studies based on age and ability. In the fall, we are doing a big unit study on the States and Regions of the United States. In the spring, we are doing a big unit study on the systems of the body. This balances out our science and history over the course of a year. For these three, I will stay on the same topic, but they will have books assigned based on reading ability, and their writing assignments will also be based on their abilities.

I have been writing up weekly plan sheets for the unit studies, so I know what books and supplies to be gathering. I hand-write these plans because it cements these plans in my head. I hope to share pictures along the way this year as we learn together. For now, here is a picture of the first four weeks of lesson plans.

I am using the KONOS curriculum (www.KONOS.com) for my guide on planning. I did this same unit study about 10 years ago, so that is helping me plan our activities. I am looking forward to this school year!

Enjoy the journey!

Tami

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About Tami

Tami Fox is a homeschool mom of 6, who in age from 26 to 11. She and her husband have homeschooled for 17 years and have graduated three of their children from their homeschool. They are currently homeschooling 3 boys who are in grades 11, 9, and 6. They use hands-on learning and unit studies to ignite the fire of learning in their children. Tami is a homeschool author and conference speaker. You can contact her by email at Tami@TamiFox.com. Buy her book, Giving Your Children Wings at https://tamifox.net/giving-your-children-wings/.

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