I’ve mentioned before that I am pretty relaxed when it comes to schedule. We fit in learning when and where it feels good to us. I know many people are strict planners and want to know how this chill outlook can still get the work done. Today I am going to give you the details on how I plan our year and our days and fit in all the learning.
I believe in “life plus homeschool”, it’s a motto I say in my head when I think about what needs to get done in any particular day, especially if I am feeling overwhelmed by the to do list. We live life, and we add in homeschool. Some days this may mean the learning was just a story or two tucked in where it fit, a science activity while dinner cooks, a video before bed. Somedays this means my plan of actions for the day flows perfectly and we complete each item and check them off.
To begin my planning process, at the start of a new year of learning, I will sit down and make some lists. I list out the subjects I plan to cover, what resources I plan to use to accomplish that, and what my general goals are for the year. Writing down those goals makes them real, you are much more likely to stick to your schedule and goals when you have taken the time to write them down. It is also fun to go back at the end of the year, or even to check back in after the first few months and realize how much you have covered in that time. It is easy to worry if you are doing enough and having those plans to refer back to will help quiet those doubts that can pop up. Try not to let your lists get away from you. Goals are great and I very much encourage you to make them, just also be mindful of how much time you have and not overschedule yourself. There tend to be many programs and resources I hear about and think “oooo next year”. Then when next year comes I realize I must trim the list some. I want our days to feel light and gentle. So I am cautious to not overschedule and to leave time and space to breath.
Now that I have my list of subjects I want to cover I move to step two of how to plot those lessons and activities into our week. New for me this year I am planning some subjects into 6 week blocks and some as full year programs. The idea of blocks is used heavily in Waldorf education philosophy. We used a Waldorf program for math this past year and I loved the flow. We both enjoyed the focus and the shift to something new this provided. For our upcoming year I will shift every other block and have subjects that feel draining for my daughter like math, be sandwiched by fun blocks like knitting and music (yep totally teaching my kiddo to knit, how crunchy of me right?). I also will have a rotating loop on Mondays to cover our nature activities. Nature study seemed to always get pushed to the back burner last year so I am hoping we truly take the time to get out and do these things now that they are planned into our week in a new way. As Miss W gets older I am finding we have more we want to fit into each day and having a basic idea of what happens when really helps get things accomplished.
Now it’s time to get out your calendar. Think about holidays. Will you need more free time during certain weeks to celebrate? Think about vacations. Will you bring your homeschool on vacay or take a break at that time? You’ll need time in your day/week for errands, housework, maybe a co-op or activities your child is involved in. You’ll want time for rest for you and free play for your child. Its easy to get excited when doing your school planning and forget that you have your everyday life that takes up time as well. I am a real fan of year round schooling to afford more time in the day to day. This year we took august as a very light month, mostly just working on our art and composure study to keep a learning rhythm going. As I look at this upcoming year I plan to take both December and August as our light months. This meshes with both giving me a break during my extra busy season at work, and giving us an end of year reset that we’ve not taken previously.
Next I look at the day to day planning. The real life. The “life plus homeschool” that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Some people use fancy planner with special pens, some use online programs and plug in all their info. Me I use cheap school supplies! I rely on a 50 cent notebook, highlighters and post its. This is all I need to keep me organized for school and in most areas of my life actually. My homeschool notebook has the framework I explained earlier on the first pages. The goals, the subjects for the year, when the blocks will happen. The rest varies and includes reminders, learning ideas I have, book lists and info I don’t want to forget as we move through the year. So where do the post its come in? I am so glad you asked as they might be the most important part. At the beginning of a week I take my notebook and any parent guides I may have for our chosen programs and I then write out my post its. They will list what subjects we will be covering for the week and which activities will happen. For example I may have one post it for science, it will then list how many books are scheduled that week, if we have a video, what our activities are and so on. I can cross things off as we accomplish them (so satisfying) and I have such a great visual on how much is left to do. Here is why the post it portion of this method is crucial, we all know life hits and can toss the plans out the window. If anything doesn’t get done by the end of the week no worries. I simply take the things that did not get done and they are placed on next weeks post it. The idea of getting “behind” on my plans doesn’t really exist because there is always room to make shifts and changes in the moment. If I had everything blocked on a calendar for the year those changes would be much harder to keep up with.
My final thought I want to leave you with for mapping out your homeschool year/month/day, is to know it will all get done. If you care, you won’t get it wrong. You don’t need to have a fully filled out calendar, or a beautiful planner full of stickers and beautiful penmanship (unless you want that just don’t let it become a source of stress). Me I have a kitchen counter full of post its and that is that. I once read that if ever you find yourself looking back over your day, feeling like you’ve not done enough, sit down and read to your child. If you’ve done that the rest will fall into place. I have found it truly does.
