First, I choose the calendar. The state requires me to conduct school on a regular schedule and to keep a record of instructional days. Normally we start a new year on Labor Day and have school almost every weekday until the end of June (with a separate summer session for July-August). I like to use a spreadsheet, with each row being one week; if you prefer, you can rotate yours 90 degrees and make each column a week instead. I make note of when holidays and other special events are likely to fall that year--for example, one set of grandparents always visits during a certain week--and code those weeks purple. Timeanddate.com is a helpful page for looking up dates in years ahead. I also pick a week for standardized testing (required in North Carolina) and turn it orange, and then go back a couple of months and make myself a note to order the test.
In the far upper-left corner, which is otherwise wasted space, I note four weeks when it's time to take stock of the child's progress and write up a narrative progress report for the past quarter. This process helps me to see growth over the course of the year and from one year to the next.
Why don't I use a hand-written planner? If we don't get to something this week, I don't want to erase or white-out what I have for next week and squeeze it in. I don't want arrows from a sick day to various places on other pages. I like the neat look of typing. And if I waited until, say, Sunday night to write down my plans for the week, it might not happen at all, or might not be done very well: What was that other book we were going to read next? How far did we get in science last time? Game night took longer than I expected, so I guess I'll do it in the morning.... No, that's not how I want to do things. (INFJ, can you tell?) There's nothing wrong with an off-the-cuff style if it's working for you, but I know from experience that it's not for me.
Since I plan by the week, it's important that I not choose more than we can do in a real week--one with a piano lesson a half-hour away, probably a homeschool activity or field trip, a library visit, a trip to a park, a scout meeting, the housework, and so on. I like to have enough margin that we are not frantic when there's something extra going on as well. Why set myself up to go to pieces when there's a wait at the dentist's office?
If you look at the spreadsheet, you'll see we don't have a lot of breaks planned. That's because my child thrives on routine. A couple of hours of school a day, about 220 days a year works a lot better for our family than 175 jam-packed days.Your mileage may vary, especially if you go away for the summer, for example.
Now that I have my calendar, I know my limits, and this will help me avoid over- or under-planning. Next, I make each column a subject (math, history, science...), keeping work we'll do at the table to the left and the "couch subjects"--those without written output--on the right, since that's the order that works best for us.
I can't do anything more until I get my hands on the curricula I choose for each. That's why I often order everything in late winter or early spring for the following fall. When I see or hear about something interesting that I may want to use in a few years, I make a note of it in my spreadsheet so I don't forget. Sometimes I buy something I'm sure I want to use, but not yet, and start filling in pages for future years--tentatively, of course, but it's so easy to cut and paste that I'm not worried about wasting my effort.
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| Work in progress |
Once I have my materials, I look through one subject at a time and consider how much we're likely to be able to do in a week. I type chapters, page numbers or topics in the correct squares on my spreadsheet. I make notes about supplementary activities, too, so you'll see some links or comments like "See Pin." By June, I've filled in the whole thing.
Each month, I print out anything needed for the next month and ProClick it together into booklets, one for the table (currently mostly language arts materials) and the other for the couch (memory work, etc).
On Labor Day, I promote my child to the next grade and preview the year's materials with him. We talk about what our typical week will look like this year.
During the school year, as we complete a subject's work for the week, I turn it gray on the spreadsheet. If there's a subject we're not doing very consistently, I can see that clearly. Am I avoiding something that's messy (read: art), that the child complains about (again: art), or that I don't find worth the effort? That tells me I need to either choose another resource or be more disciplined with what I have--or perhaps drop something that is just not useful right now.
When my student is older, I may use more complex tools--some people choose Trello or OneNote and have the student do more of the record-keeping, for example. However, the spreadsheet has worked very well for me for preK through third grade, and I might keep it as an overview even if I use something else in addition in the future.
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