From Chaos to Curriculum: How to Plan Your Homeschool Year for Maximum Learning
Reading Time: 8 minutes Listen to the podcast version:
Simplify Your Homeschooling Journey: A Step-by-Step Guide with a Practical Planner
Creating a homeschool curriculum for the year requires careful planning and consideration of your child’s educational needs and goals. With a proper plan and strategy, a yearly curriculum an be a rewarding experience for both parents and students. I am going to walk through, step-by-step, how to achieve the ideal yearly curriculum for you.
- Determine your child’s educational goals
Begin by considering what you want your child to achieve academically during the upcoming year. Which subjects do you want to have your child learn? Set specific goals for each subject area, keeping in mind your child’s age, grade level, and any special interests or topics of focus that will be added.
2. Do you want to get a “cheat sheet” for the grade level expectations for your child?
Each public school has to post, online, and usually by state what the educational standards are for each grade level in each subject. This does not mean you have to teach these things, but it does give you a great baseline for when your child should know how to use prepositions, do long division, etc. Here is Arizona’s.
3. Choose a homeschooling approach
There are many ways to homeschool.
One is not better than the other.
However, one may be much better for you or for your child.
For example, online learning is not usually the best method for a social, kinesthetic kiddo.
Consider your child’s learning style and learning method preference. Then reflect on your educational philosophy.
Homeschooling, on your own, in your home, can be a lot of work.
You are signing up to be your child’s teacher.
It may be that if your child does not learn well independently, but you do not have a lot of time to do one on one instruction, then a homeschool co-op is a great option for both you and your child.
Homeschool co-ops can be found based on all kinds of beliefs (secular and non secular).
"How to Choose a Quality Homeschool Writing Program" Get the checklist!
If you want a more detailed description, please check out the presentation.
- 6 steps to prepare you before you look for a writing program
- Questions to ask or look for when shopping for writing programs
- Looking for more? We have a ton of resources for you
4. Select your curriculum
Once you know your child’s learning style and preference and you have reflected on your philosophy towards education, you should know what you want your child to learn. Now is when you start shopping for curricula. Explore different options.
I do not recommend just going to the Facebook homeschool moms group, hearing what one of the moms there loved for her kids and buying that one.
Each child is different. Look at several different materials for each subject and grade level.
I walk you through choosing a writing curriculum here.
I also talk about the major pitfalls and what you should avoid in a writing curriculum here.
If you are trying to be budget conscious, once you have chosen a curriculum, go to a Facebook homeschool resale group.
Oftentimes, you can get the parent resources at a discounted rate and simply need to buy the workbook or student book.
5. Sit down and plan (yearly)
Homeschool Yearly Plan
Fun Activities and Trips that Coordinate with Your Curriculum!
When you have a yearly plan, you can see way ahead to prepare.
- Two views, two calendars, to match your style
- Watch video to see how I us each one
- September-June 23/24
- Goal: coordinate family schedule, holidays, & curriculum
- Plan fun outings, mini trips, and vacations that support your curriculum
Plan your year.
Supplement academics with fun trips that support the curriculum!
Get your 2023-2024 homeschool planner here
This is the step that many skip.
This is also a step that I feel is crucial.
You will need two “planners” even if they are on the same actual “calendar.”
One is your “time off” plan. While you are enjoying weekends, vacations, holidays, etc, will you be visiting any places that line up with the curriculum your child is currently studying? Will you need to order any entrance tickets in advance (The Statue of Liberty, for example, you need to order admittance tickets far in advance)?
When you know where you are going and if it coincides with curriculum, you will want to make sure your child is studying the same material you will be vacationing to…at the same time (if possible).
The next part of the planning is the actual “bones” of learning.
This is where we go back to what should your child know by the end of the year?
Let’s start with what does your child know coming into the year.
If your child is halfway through 3rd grade level skills, for example, at the beginning of 3rd grade, you will want to look at what is expected of a 4th grader.
You will want to continue to challenge your child and help them grow at their speed and ability.
This is where you have a space for each subject, the topics or units, the skills within that topic or unit, and how long you hope to spend on that skill.
The overall, yearly plan will change.
Your child may love learning about counties in your state and you may decide to visit each one of them.
In this, they are writing paragraphs about a characteristic of each one, but this is a long project that originally you may have only given 2 weeks for.
The learning and the memory of this new experience outweighs your time table.
You will just want to see what you will not have taught, that you originally anticipated teaching.
6. Sit down (or jump back and forth) and plan daily and weekly
This plan is the most accurate plan.
It gets readjusted regularly.
Your child may soar through the construction and writing of paragraphs.
Since this was an emergent skill, you planned on taking a month on paragraph writing and realized you could quickly evolve into quality paragraphs with transition words and examples.
However, you thought your child would excel at cursive writing and it turns out they are dragging their feet and not loving it.
Your weekly plan allows you to move this into an additional week for extra instruction, delete this skill, or since your child picked up on it right away and add an entirely new unit that you had not even considered or known about when you made the yearly plan.
The daily plan will stay consistent
What will remain the same in a smoothly run homeschool room is a consistent daily plan.
The content is not important.
The time allocated does matter.
Your child thrives on consistency.
If you have 30 – 45 minutes for each subject, with a 10 minute break in between each, your child will know exactly what to expect.
Hopefully, you checked out my article: Home Sweet Homeschool and you set up the perfect space for learning at home.
I would build in a two hour “project or learning time.”
This is for a social studies unit on Egypt, for example.
Your child will culminate their learning by developing a board game on Egypt.
Each day they can do a little bit to create the game.
Or, if for one of your vacations you are going to get a stamp in your Parks Pass Book, which I highly recommend, have your child study in advance where you are going.
7. Track Progress
Grades, yuck, what do they really mean?
I love portfolios. When you have done a yearly plan of skills your child must learn, then you both know what has to be done and when that will be accomplished. You can create a portfolio for each subject.
In each subject you can have a “folder” that is labeled with each skill.
When your child completes work that shows competency at a skill, put that work in their portfolio and check it as complete.
8. Celebrate that completion.
Learning your times tables 1-12 is a big freaking deal!
Kiddos struggle over that, again and again.
So many still have not memorized them and then get to 6th grade, need to complete long division, or beginning algebraic equations and they are unable to do “basic math” because the 3rd grade times tables are still holding them up.
When your child learns something that is so seemingly obvious to you, remember this was a major milestone for them-celebrate.
Celebrations can be a couple hours at a splash park.
Activity, sunshine, other kids, and Vitamin D-you are winning again, and your child thinks they are the winner!
9. Flexibility
Remember.
You left the public schools because they were not able to meet the needs of your child.
You are homeschooling so you can.
Finding the right “recipe” is not always easy.
The great news, no one loves your child and cares about your kiddo’s success like you do.
By showing your child that you can adapt and you are flexible, you are teaching them a valuable life skill.
10. Get help
I don’t care how many posts you read online that tell you homeschooling is super easy and fun, it isn’t always sunshine and rainbows.
Sometimes your kids have no desire to listen to you.
Sometimes your oldest hates your youngest child and they continue the fight into the classroom.
Sometimes you were up all night with a puking child, but the one who wasn’t sick wants to learn.
And sometimes, nothing you try seems to work and you have no idea what to do next.
In other words, homeschooling is like most everything else that matters, it has its amazing days and it has its really rough days.
The fantabulous news, there is help.
There is so much help.
If you are a Facebook kind of gal, there may be a local homeschool group online.
In my area, there is Arizona Homeschoolers and there is one in Prescott.
These moms help each other out.
You can be vulnerable.
It is not just curriculum and school materials.
Sometimes it is, “Holy cow, I am tearing my hair out and feel like Sally is not going to learn anything this year, I think we fight everyday.”
Dollars to donuts, there is another mom who has been there.
Teaching homeschool is a rewarding experience for both you and your child. When you understand your child’s needs, learning goals, your educational philosophy, you can create your plan and have a successful and enjoyable year.