Homeschool Planning Tips
How do you feel about planning for your homeschool? Do you get excited about all the possibilities or feel overwhelmed by the responsibility? Or something in between? Perhaps, like me, you feel a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Over the 25 years that I planned for our homeschool, I appreciated some encouragement along the way. Now that I’ve finished my journey, I’d like to share some tips that helped me with planning, whether it was for the start of the year or at the beginning of a new term.
Relationships matter most
While it’s easy to focus on academics, remember that first and foremost you are teaching children, not school subjects. Consider your children’s overall needs. What else is happening in your family’s life during this term or year? How are your children each doing emotionally and socially? What are they passionate about? What would they like to learn? What are the best next steps for them academically? How can you accommodate their needs and learning styles into the academics you are planning? Where do you want to be in your relationship with each child at the end of this year? Asking some of these questions can help you come up with a plan that your children will enjoy and respond well to.
Sometimes it’s helpful to have a conversation with our children about what their expectations are for homeschooling. Marianne Sunderland of Homeschooling With Dyslexia has developed a helpful assessment tool for your children to fill out. You can read about it and sign up to receive her free pdf here.
Less is more
It can be tempting to pack the schedule full in order to tick every box. But our children need space to breathe and so do we. Not every subject has to be tackled every term. For example, you can focus on history in one term and science the next. Teaching the children together whenever possible and integrating writing into content areas can also save time. In a term with more extracurricular activities, you can lighten the academic load.
One term I made the mistake of having something outside of the home every day. Some families can manage that, but I didn’t thrive with that schedule and neither did my children. I found we needed at least one day per week where they could rest in knowing that we’d be home all day. It encouraged them to get stuck into a project and know they wouldn’t be disrupted.
As a larger family, we coped with juggling some extra activities by having a friend or extended family member come and stay home with the little ones while I took the older ones to a class or activity. Alternatively, sometimes a friend would be willing to pick up one of my children and take them along, or we could take turns. Everyone’s capacity is different, so make sure to consider what you and your children can manage each term.
Remember, homeschooling is a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t have to cover everything. Your children will have gaps and that’s okay. Teach them how to learn so they can fill in those gaps as needed. Give them the gift of time.
Name what matters
In recent years I came across Sarah MacKenzie’s idea of “Naming What Matters” in your homeschool which grew out of Kendra Adachi’s book The Lazy Genius Way. I love Sarah’s idea of imagining yourself having a coffee with a friend at the end of a school year and answering your friend’s question, “What are you most glad you did this school year (or this term?)” That helps you to name what matters and decide what to include now, realizing that you can’t possibly include everything. For more details about “Naming What Matters” and examples of what that might look like, check out Sarah’s podcast episode here.
Done is better than perfect
If you have a tendency towards perfectionism, like I do, you may find it helpful to be reminded to just get a plan in place. No plan will ever be perfect, but it can be good enough. I wanted to cover all my bases, plan well for each child, have it include enough without being overwhelming, and be sure it also met our need to keep the house relatively clean and meals on the table. My oldest daughter would wisely counsel me that it could be a “trial” schedule, not a final schedule. That idea would free me to declare the plan finished. Generally, it worked reasonably well and we tweaked it along the way as needed. Giving myself permission to declare it done helped immensely.
Start slowly
When starting the year or starting back up after a holiday break, begin slowly and ease your way into your routines. I found that jumping into a full schedule after children have been used to the greater freedom of the holidays met with resistance. Starting with a gentler pace and gradually adding subjects in worked much better.
You might want to get your morning rising time, breakfast and chore routine going, plus something your children will enjoy, like your read-aloud time, and start there. You know your children best and will know how much else to include at first and then build gradually.
Jessica from TheWaldockWay.com eases back into learning every January with a book and game a day. She calls their homeschool day a success as long as they’ve read one book and played one game. A lot of learning can be achieved that way. It can even be a fun way to ease in before your start a new term or make it part of your holiday plan. You can learn more about Jessica’s strategy here.
Summing up
Homeschool planning can feel daunting at times, but keeping the big picture in mind and remembering what’s most important can make it much more manageable. Whether it’s keeping relationships first, naming what matters, considering less as more, or giving yourself permission to just call it done and start slowly, I hope something shared here will help with your planning process.
Which one of these ideas resonates most with you? Or maybe you have a favourite planning tip or tool you’d like to share. Either way, I’d love to hear from you. Use the contact form to get in touch.
