Homeschool Schedule Planning for a Successful Year

Homeschool Schedule Planning

Homeschool Schedule Planning

Homeschool Schedule Planning, The most significant thing to keep in mind is, another family's schedule will not work for you. You must build your own. What works for the Jones's will not work for you. Trust yourself. You know what you and your students need more than anyone else. Here are five simple steps that will help you write your schedule.

Homeschool Schedule Planning Choose the curriculum

The first step to planning your homeschool schedule is finding the curriculum. The three main subjects are language (English), math, and reading. You may want to add history, science, and art. Study your state's laws for the requirements in your state.

Choose curriculum programs that continue each year building on the year before, and each year laid out in the same format. These programs will help a great deal if you are teaching multiple grade levels. Choose programs that you understand how to prepare. A good reading program includes phonics. A functional language program provides grammar and writing. A good math program builds skills step by step. Avoid extra busy work that looks, "cute" or "fun" that does not fit in with the program you are using.

Homeschool Schedule Planning Year's goal and plan

The next step is to define your year's goals for each student. Goals may include finishing the grade, mastering times tables, raise the reading level, etc. The year's overview is essential, so you know where you are going and how you are progressing toward your goal.

Make a yearly plan for each student. For a homeschooler, the annual program may be something like this; complete fifth-grade reading text and workbook, finish level 3 math and half of level 4, full level 4 spelling, science 5, memorize times tables, total level 5 language arts text and workbook.

Make a list of every text and workbook for each student. Read through your teacher manuals and see what papers, activity sheets, drills, quizzes or extra practice books which come in the program. Make sure you list everything.

Homeschool Schedule Planning Monthly plan

Now that you know what you want to accomplish this year, you can break it down into months. For each student, divide each subject into nine parts to determine how much, which chapters, pages, or units you need to complete in each month. Keep in mind the students' ability. Will they be able to achieve two language chapters of 12 lessons plus review, quiz, and tests in one month? Consult your teacher manual to see how long each section is designed to take.

For multiple grade levels, group chapters or units that teach the same concepts in the same month. For example, do nouns units for each grade in October, Verbs units in November. Use the indexes of the books to group the units that are teaching the same concepts. With this monthly plan, you have the necessary structure for your school year.

Homeschool Schedule Planning Weekly and daily plan

Before you begin to break it down into weeks and days, consider reality. Don't plan more than the students can reasonably accomplish. Your first schedule is only a rough draft. It will change. Keep that in mind.
The next step is to decide how many and what days of the week you will be teaching homeschool. A good strategy is to plan lessons for four days and Friday for the experiences that may not have gone as scheduled and as an extra activity or teacher prep day.

Which hours and time of the day will you teach; morning, afternoon, or both. Plan to start as early in the morning as possible, comfortably. You want everyone to be able to get up, dressed, combed, and fed and to school on time without an undue amount of stress. 8:00 a.m. to noon is an achievable goal.

Think about everything you want to do. If your allotted amount of school time is not enough, consider dropping less critical things, or switching them every other day. Be sure there is adequate time to cover the essential skills. Plan break and snack, and meals. Food and exercise are vital parts of your success.

A good start for your daily schedule is to allow one hour for each of math, reading, and language and fifteen to thirty minutes each for spelling, handwriting, or whatever other subjects you plan to cover. Plan about 30 min. For opening exercises such as date, calendar, prayer, singing, or whatever you choose to do to begin your homeschool.

Using your monthly plan, divide each month's work into roughly four parts. Some months have more than four weeks. Leave the extra days for "bumper space." some things will take longer than initially planned. In your teacher's plan book, expect the first week. A good start is to divide the day into hours. All students do math in the same hour, the language in the same hour, and reading in the same hour, and journal, spelling, handwriting, etc. in the same hour. Plan only the first week. Set aside a time each week for teacher prep for the next week.

Write down which lessons, student text and workbook pages, activity sheets, drills, etc. you will do each everything you will need including manipulatives, handouts, extra reading books, and teacher manuals with places marked in your designated teacher prep area.

Homeschool Schedule Planning Try it out and revise

As you go through the first week of school, make notes of what subjects need more time, which need less. Perhaps one student needs more time on one question and less in another while another student completed them all quickly. Write down what worked and what didn't. At the end of the week, plan your next week with the necessary changes, but be as consistent as possible.

Plan only one week at a time, so you don't have to rewrite the whole year if you need to revise the schedule. Plan each week from where you got to the week before, but be sure to finish each month's goal on time. By following these simple planning steps, you will have a successful homeschool year because you will have a structure that is flexible enough actually to work.