Follow these simple tips to kick start your homeschool planning, get organised and have the best homeschool year yet!
Homeschool planning – what should you include?
With so many curriculums on offer and social media bombarding us with the perfect image of what homeschooling should be like, it is little wonder that homeschool planning can seem daunting and overwhelming.
How do you get started with plannning?
What should you include?
How should you structure your week and day?
How can you homeschool AND keep up with running a household?
If you follow the tips below you will soon find that homeschool planning is much easier than you thought!
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Begin your homeschool planning by making a list of the subjects or topics that you want your children to learn about.
This can be traditional subjects, such as History, Maths or Science or non traditional subjects such as Astronomy, Latin or Film making. Or they could be project based around a read aloud book or a series of baking challenges.
It is easy to come up with an enormous list of things you want to cover, but less will most probably lead to richer and deeper learning. If you still have a long list, then consider splitting your list in two and doing one half for half a term and the other half for the second half of the term.
There will of course be things that you consider important or essential for your child to learn, such as reading and maths skills, but do also consider allowing room for your child to pursue their own interests or passions. By allowing them to do so, you you will be encouraging a love of learning, which you will be able to build upon in the future and will ultimately make homeschooling easier and more enjoyable for everyone.
In the UK we are not obliged to follow the National Curriculum, but do check any state or legal requirements where you live.
Tip 2: Craft your weekly and daily rhythm
Once you have a list (and literally it is just a list at this stage) then you can begin to craft a weekly rhythm.
On a blank piece of paper create a grid with the days of the week and then divide each day up into segments. First add in your anchor points (such as breakfast, snack and lunch). Then add in anything that is fixed such as homeschool meet ups, regular classes, and activities or jobs that you consider essential to the running of your home that everyone will be involved in (such as dog walks, tidy up time).
Now you will have a realistic idea of what time you actually have left to homeschool in.
In the UK we do not have to match our homeschool hours to those used in schools, so for example we could start at 10am or finish at 5pm or skip homeschool on Friday and work on Saturday instead. Do what works best for your family, commitments and legal requirements where you live.
When ‘filling in the gaps’ also consider what would work best for your children.
We tend to do most of our more ‘academic’ work in the mornings and towards the beginning of the week, leaving afternoons freer for projects or more practical based work and the end of the week for more relaxed homeschool projects such as baking, crafting or outdoor based activities.
Also consider how you place activities next to each other – for example I try to follow something passive with something more active to add variety and keep my children engaged. If this isn’t possible, for whatever reason, you could simply try moving to another part of the house for the next activity, such as the kitchen table or the sofa (or learn outside).
If you like to keep to a timetable then add in the times beside each activity, otherwise just leave timings blank so that you are free to move on to the next activity when you are ready. We tend to have a rhythm to our days where we have a loose structure that allows us to extend learning or go off at a tangent if wanted. If you want more ideas on how to craft a gentle rhythm to your days then this article, which I wrote for the Green Parent magazine, explains how we usually structure our day.
Tip 3: Brainstorm ideas
Now comes the creative part. This is my favourite part of my homeschool planning process.
Basically, this is the time when you start brainstorming ideas of what you actually want to learn about or explore together. For example, you may already have decided that you want to include History – but what era are you going to learn about? And how? Could you include field trips or adventure days? Or practical hands-on activities? Or perhaps you want to introduce a Morning Basket? Are you going to focus just on a couple of key areas and learn at a deeper level or do you want your children to gain a good overview of the topic? What resources will you need? What order is the best way to approach the topic? Can you link it to other areas you are learning about?
I usually use a spidergram. I write the main subject/topic area in the centre of the page and draw lines coming out leading to different themes, marked with a sub heading. Under each new sub heading I then add bullet points to list potential questions to ask or areas to cover.
Tip 4: Sketch out a long term plan
Once you have a good idea of what you want to cover, then you can start sketching out a long term homeschool plan i.e. a plan for the coming month or term where everything is listed together in an overview.
Thre are several ways of approaching this.
Probably the easiest way is to create a loop schedule. This means that you list what you will be doing for each subject/topic (I do this on separate pieces of paper) and when it is time to, for example, do history, you simply find the next thing on the list. Then the next time you do History you just pick up where you left off. The advantage of this is that it is easy to follow and you don’t feel that you are getting behind when one area takes longer than you had expected as you don’t assign dates to each area on the list.
Another common way of planning (and one I used as a teacher in school and often come back to) is to carefully plan out what you want to learn and when and with what. For example, you may choose to study a particular area from a topic when there is an event at a local library that ties in with what you are learning, or you might want to help your children make connections by linking your art to something you are learning about in geography so will make sure they are both included in the same week. This takes a lot of planning, can work really well, and is brilliant for getting your children to see how subjects are interrelated. However, it doesn’t allow time for you to go off on a tangent and follow new interests or lines of enquiry that your child may want to follow. And if you don’t manage to complete everything in the time you have allotted, then you can begin to feel that you are ‘getting behind’, and if you over-run in one area then your plans will become out of sync. To combat this you could add in the occassional ‘spare’ week where you have nothing planned other than a catch up.
These long term plans usually only contain headings – they are there to give you an overview of what is coming up and when.
Tip 5: Add in the details
Once you have your long term plan sketched out then you can start to add in the details.
This is the part of your homeschool planning where you use your long term plans and expand them into your weekly plans. So, for example, if you have planned to learn about Ancient Egypt and in week 3 you have decided to focus on pyramids, you will then need to add in the specifics of how you are going to do that i.e. the key points to learn. This should be enough information for you to be able to have a good idea of what resources you may need. Some people like to write this information in a detailed lesson plan, whilst others may add notes to a daily or weekly plan.
This doesn’t have to all be done in advance. I usually do this the week before.
Tip 6: Be flexible
Being organised and having a plan can help enormously with avoiding the overwhelm and stress of knowing what to cover. It provides structure, which some parents and children find reassuring. It also helps to ensure that key areas are covered over the course of a term or academic year, which can be especially helpful if you are following the National Curriculum or other State requirements.
However, it does not allow for unexpected learning opportunities, nor cater to children’s changing interests and passions.
To counter this, we tend to alternate between unschooling and a fairly structured and highly planned timetable. We often have more structure towards the beginning of the new academic year and have a more relaxed approach towards the summer months. Sometimes we will have lots of planned activities for a few weeks in a row, followed by a week or two of unschooling. Unschooling does not mean no structure and no plans – it simply means allowing learning to be child initiated. This could look like a highly focused and immersive project which lasts for several days or weeks (or months!), for example, creating a website or making a piece of furniture, or could be something different every day, such as baking one day, creating a lego model the next and nature journalling the day after. Whichever style we are using, we do still try to maintain a rhythm to our day – with anchor points, such as walks, morning basket and snack and meal times, dotted throughout the day to help gather us together as a family. Irrespective of how we structure our day, we still have the threads of Charlotte Mason, Steiner and Wildschooling running through our activities.
As a seasoned homeschooling mum of five, I would recommend retaining some flexibility within your planning, perhaps a ‘spare’ day or week, every few weeks to allow your children the freedom to explore new interests and also to allow time for occasional sick days. There is nothing more demoralising than feeling that you are behind, and by providing this catch up time, children are given the time to complete any unfinished work, or go over concepts they found tricky.
Tip 7: Take time to reflect
It is really easy to plan out a year that looks absolutely wonderful on paper and ticks all the boxes – but what works on paper doesn’t always work out so well in reality. This is quite normal and happens to most families.
If you are finding that your children hate the project that you thought they would love, you dread teaching a particular topic each week or your children are not making the kind of progress you anticpated – then don’t be afraid to ditch that project or curriculum! Your homeschool has to serve both you and your children, and if it is not working well, then there is little point in ploughing on with it if no one is happy or engaged with it. Learning is far more effective if it is enjoyable.
Schedule in a regular slot to reflect on what is and isn’t working well – this could be daily, weekly or monthly. Involve your children in the decision making process – they are the ones that will be on the receiving end after all! Reflecting doesn’t have to be an onerous task – it can be as simple as asking your children what they did or didn’t like each day or taking a few minutes to physically record your thoughts. By responding to your child’s needs and interests your homeschool life will feel far more relaxed and happy.
Tip 8: Use a planner to get more organised
Using a planner can also help you to gather your ideas and keep them all in one place. This will make it easier for you to see at a glance what you intend to do each month/week/day and help your day to run more smoothly.
A homeschool planner can also be used to help you keep track of progress, record incidental learning and provide a written record of what has been studied, should you need to refer back to it or provide evidence to your local education authority.
Besides helping our children to learn, home educators also have to run a household alongside homeschooling. A planner containing things like meal planners, chore charts and useful checklists, can help keep you on track.
Tip 9: Practise self care
And finally, don’t forget to factor in some time for your own self care. Of course, this is easier said than done when you have babies and toddlers to care for, endless piles of laundry to deal with and meals to shop for and prepare – but just a few minutes each day or a regular half hour or more slot each week to look forward to, really does make all the difference to how you feel, and will have a knock on effect to how smoothly your (and everyone else’s) day goes. A tired and irritable mum will lead to fractious children which will in turn make for an even more tired and irritable mum! By taking time out to refresh and recharge your mind and body you will have more energy to cope with life’s demands and more enthusiasm to share with your family. This self care guide has lots of practical tips on slowing down and making time to care for our own needs, amidst caring for those of others.
Best homeschool year ever!
By following this step by step homeschool planning guide you will soon enjoy your best ever year of homeschool. Enjoy!
Don’t forget to check out the rest of my blog for more tips, ideas and tutorials to help make your homeschooling journey easier and that little bit more magical.
The Blossom Tree Homeschool Loop and List Planner contains everything you need to plan out your home education year. It has a huge selection of pre-filled templates to help you get started, as well as blank copies for you to personalise. The planner uses a natural pastel colour palette and is beautifully decorated with botanically themed illustrations.
This planner follows the Loop and List method of planning, making it easy to use and helping your home ed days run more smoothly. Using a Loop Schedule also helps you to avoid that feeling of ‘getting behind’ if you have to miss a subject due to life events – you simply pick up and carry on where you left off. If Loop and List Schedules are new to you don’t worry – there is a full explanation at the beginning of the pack.
Educational Philosophy and Goals – including vision boards and word of the month and year
Calendar and Organiser Sheets – yearly and monthly with pre-filled and blank ‘to do’ lists
Homeschool Planning Sheets – including notes and resources pages
Rhythms and Schedules – including timetables, weekly and daily rhythm sheets, weekly and daily planners, lesson planning sheets and weekly and daily reflection sheets
Home Organisation and Tracker Sheets – including attendance tracker, website password tracker sheet, individual book reading log sheets, weekly tracker, progress tracker, checklist, chore chart, meal planners, shopping lists, self care planners and trackers and homeschool review sheets.
