Plan your homeschool year!

I’m working on planing for the coming school year. Last winter we found a homeschool schedule that is currently working for us. I’ve gone through a few different schedules (and I’ll link to them further down), but this homeschool schedule and homeschool planing is working for us.

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First step: planning a homeschool schedule

Years ago I figured out everyone in my family works best with short periods. When my kids were in elementary school it was a 2o minute schedule (this is one of those schedules I talked about earlier). Then when talking with some other homeschoolers they mentioned the Pomodoro technique.

It’s got some research behind it, basically, you work for 25 minutes and then take 5 minutes off. So, we changed our schedule to 25 minutes on and 5 minutes off.

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I looked at our day and our family and I knew we don’t want to start too early.

And by we, I really mean, ME. I’m not a morning person.

By the same token, my kids don’t focus if our school day goes too late in the day.

I should also add, for those of you who do not normally read my blog, this homeschool schedule is for high school. We used quite a few less hours when the kids were in elementary school.

With those calculations, our homeschool schedule starts at 9:00 and ends at 3:00. We take an hour break for lunch at 11:30 because my kids all want to eat lunch fairly early.

So our weekly schedule was set.

Planning a monthly homeschool schedule

Each month I give my kids a new monthly notebook. I write out what I expect them to complete. They get a month’s worth of weekly schedules with planned field trips or other specific deadlines written onto their notebooks.

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This is actually my homeschool schedule sheet, I print mine 2 pages to 1 because I can write smaller, this is also in June, but I still need organization

Each week they plan out their schedule for the week. This is an important skill for everyone to learn, and one I never particularly worked on myself. I’m working on it at the same time they are.

I’m trying to be more organized, and this homeschool schedule is one of the ways.

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I’ve included both the version of our weekly schedule with our time and a blank version you can fill in yourself.

Putting accountability into our schedules

I’m distractible. In the time I’ve been writing this post, I’ve already stopped three times to do something completely unrelated because I saw notifications popping up or something else.

Left to myself, there is a good chance I will forget about something. Some assignment, an event, or many other things.

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Part of the way through the month I figured out I had put too much into our homeschool schedule, so I got rid of a few things

About April of last year I figured out I needed a “here’s what you need to complete list,” an assignment sheet of sorts (that is the last page in the Monthly Covers and Homeschool Schedule printable).

Since all of my kids are in the same grade, for my personal copy I create a master version with all of the kids included. It helps me keep track of what my kids have done.

What goes in our monthly notebooks?

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Since I know not everyone is in the United States, and not everyone celebrates Halloween, I did include alternate versions, someday I’ll figure out a Southern hemisphere version

The cover, I know I don’t need a cool-looking cover, but it makes me happy, and it helps keep track of which notebook I’m finding when I find a random notebook in the house.

Their to-do list with an explanation of each assignment

Assignment sheet to-do list

Weekly schedules, this does mean sometimes our monthly schedule heads into the next month, because it’s rare for a month to end on Friday.

History notes for the month

Writing Assignments and Rubrics (this is new for this year, last year we were using Byline which had a separate notebook, I much prefer one I can print because it’s less for my kids to lose)

Literature Guide, usually from 7Sisters Homeschool, if they don’t have one I search the web for a free one or a cheap one on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I may add in a science section again this year, last year I included the experiments from Real Science 4 Kids astronomy lab book. I don’t know yet what I might do this year. I’m starting to look into this in the next few days.

In case you can’t tell, I really like when I can download the materials and print it how I need it.

All of this is put into a notebook using my binding machine (That I super love).

Want your own copy of the Monthly Notebook covers or Weekly Schedule?

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The Monthly covers and homeschool schedule, it really is a terrible name for a product,  is over in my store for $.99, but if you join my newsletter you can get a coupon to get it for free. The coupon is part of my welcome series.

More About Homeschool Scheduling or Organization


Comments

2 responses to “Plan your homeschool year!”

  1. I myself use Pomodoro technique in my work. I wish A’s classes were 25 minutes each with a break. It sounds like you found something that works for you!

  2. Mickey Nash Avatar
    Mickey Nash

    I love your authentic humor! Thanks for being relatable 🙂

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