This is our first year homeschooling after a 5 year break. So most of this year has really been about getting back into the swing of things, organized, and just used to homeschooling again. I have been planning day to day but that is just not working for me. So I want to plan this whole week out before the end of the weekend. I know that I need to plan longer just not really sure how far out to plan. I am due with a baby girl on December 2nd (though I don't think I will go that long) and am homeschooling DS13. Anyway, I was just wonder what the rest of you guys do? Or if you have any advice for me. Thanks!
I do the whole year at once and revise as needed every week. Like this week I switched to a different phonics program for my Kindergartener so I had to redo the phonics for this week. I just posted my schedule on my blog today if you want a better idea how I do things. A lot depends on what type of curriculum you are using too. I piece together a lot of my kid's curriculum and put together some unit studies so I need to have a year planned ahead of time. But if you are using a workbook type curriculum I don't see why day or weekly planning wouldn't work.
Ditto ^^^ I also plan the year and revise as I go (which seems to be a lot lately since this is our first "official" year of HS.)
I plan a few weeks at a time, I know what i will do for the year, but as far as planning I write my plans a few weeks in advance and then just ajust them as needed.
This is my ninth year of teaching Other People's Kids. I try to match the curriculum to the kid and not the kid to the curriculum as much as I can, but sometimes I guess wrong and have to switch horses in mid-stream. Sometimes I do plan (written down on paper) a couple of days in advance, looking ahead to try not to give tests on Monday or homework on Friday, but SOMEbody will not get everything done, or will be absent, or SOMEthing, so it has to change from day to day. It doesn't pay me to plan very far ahead, because it WILL change! (I tend to spend a lot of money on wite-out!) I do have an idea what I want each student to get done by the end of the year, but mostly I put it down on paper in the afternoon what I want them to accomplish the next day.
I have been doing what Lindina is doing. But I also work from home. This is our first year back and I am having problems finding a happy balance between school, work, and home/family time. DS has Asperger's so we are pretty routine here. I sat down last night and planned out this week. I will work on the next few weeks today. I know that I need to have plans in place before the baby comes. She is going to be a big adjustment in our family as DS is an only right now and is 13 years old. She is our little surprise! Our decision to homeschool him was sort of last minute. I am a SAHM and we had him in private school but the weekend before school started we decided that homeschool would be best for him.
I do not plan out what we are going to cover. The only "planning" I do is purchasing the curriculum and putting together units. I make an objective chart for all the units but do not stick to it. It just allows me to see what is coming up next. Then I can change things around as necessary.
I work about 8 weeks out - I develop the lesson plan (if I am not using one. This year I am using Beautiful feel books for the girls, so I only need to do lesson plan for ds12) and then type it all up into checklists - that is a lot of cut and paste on the computer, then I just update the assignment or page #s for that week, per the lesson plan. Then, I print it up each week, but I take time before each printing to make sure the what we are doing for that week does not need some revision.
My ds has Aspergers too so he needs some sort of structure - I plan for the whole year -that is I buy all the materials I think we'll need and then adjust accordingly. I never know how fast my son will go through things...it's usually faster than I plan on so I have to constantly be ready every couple months to add new things to the basics that he does throughout the year. That's why I'm online 10 hours a day:lol: Jane
I buy curriculum for the year. That's the extent of my planning. I usually look at everything the night before to see what order we're going to cover subjects (i.e. if Science is going to require planting seeds, I'll plan to cover it last). Otherwise, I don't plan. I never have any idea how much material Eli is going to work through and we have to cover hours, not lessons because of state requirements. Some days it takes him the whole hour to do two pages, and others he'll do 9 or more pages.
I have all of my curriculum set for the year. (Except Spanish, which we will be buying eventually.) I have one binder with all of the copies (maps and stuff) I need for our history this year, and another (BIG!) binder with dividers in it for copywork, writing practice, notes, daily logs (something I'm playing with this year), book report pages, etc. And yet another binder that has everything we need for the next week and the week after that. When I finish one week, I move the stuff up, and then reset the binder for the week after. Both of the girls have their own binders to file the papers that they finish. This is the first year I've tried doing things this way, and so far it's been working great!
I've learned not to plan more than 2 weeks at a time. Otherwise, I end up sweeping LOTS of pencil eraser squiggles up off of the dining room floor. *lol* I try to have all the lessons planned for the current week and the majority of the basics penciled in for the next week and fill in as we go, seeing how well things are working in the current week.
