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4 Benefits to Planning Early for the Next Homeschool Year

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

There are 4 benefits to planning early for the next homeschool year. Also, look on my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter.

Whether you are a plan-a-holic or prefer to wait until your children cover most of the curriculum you got the year before, planning for the next homeschool year is one of the most thrilling things about homeschooling.

4 Benefits to Planning Early for the Next Homeschool Year

Besides being just plain fun to do, there are at least 4 benefits to planning early for the next homeschool year.

Too, look at some of the how to homeschool books which will help you have a great start or if you need to switch midstream.

5 BEST How to Homeschool Books

I've rounded up some of the best books to help you get started homeschooling.

Homeschooling for New Homeschoolers: When You Don't Know Where to Begin

Homeschooling 31 Day Boot Camp for New Homeschoolers is a real eye-opener on homeschooling. It will alleviate a lot of the anxieties about getting started homeschooling. Reading each chapter’s highlights will give you encouragement, knowledge, guidance, and peace of mind to homeschool with confidence. The best part is that you’ll be educating the person who loves your kids the most in this world--YOU! Armed with the knowledge to make better choices in curriculum will empower you to continue the path of home education. Unlike many books based on one family’s experience, Homeschooling 31 Day Boot Camp for New Homeschoolers is also based on Tina’s many years of mentoring hundreds and hundreds of new homeschoolers at live workshops. When you don’t know where to begin Homeschooling 31 Day Boot Camp for New Homeschoolers equips you to successfully homeschool your children.

The Unhurried Homeschooler

Homeschooling is a wonderful, worthwhile pursuit, but many homeschool parents struggle with feelings of burnout and frustration. If you have ever felt this way, you’re not alone! Most of us need to be reminded of the “why” of homeschooling from time to time—but "The Unhurried homeschooler" takes parents a step further and lifts the unnecessary burdens that many parents place on themselves.

Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace

Those who have made the decision to homeschool their children have done so out of great love for their children and a desire to provide them an excellent education in the context of a warm, enriching home.

The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning, and Life

Parents who are deeply invested in their children's education can be hard on themselves and their kids. When exhausted parents are living the day-to-day grind, it can seem impossible to muster enough energy to make learning fun or interesting. How do parents nurture a love of learning amid childhood chaos, parental self-doubt, the flu, and state academic standards?

Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom

Education has become synonymous with schooling, but it doesn’t have to be. As schooling becomes increasingly standardized and test driven, occupying more of childhood than ever before, parents and educators are questioning the role of schooling in society. Many are now exploring and creating alternatives.

Next, look at these 4 benefits to planning your homeschool year early.

4 Benefits to Planning Your Homeschool Year Early

If you have kept up with what is working and what is not working during the year, then you have a beginning point in what you are actually wanting to purchase.

1. You Have a Beginning Point for Purchases

Walking into a curriculum filled convention, smelling all those wonderful smells is too enticing for even the most experienced homeschooler.

It is hard to resist buying on impulse. I know, I have done it.

Having a beginning point helps you to buy curriculum that your children will actually use and benefit from.

2. Purchases Can Be Spread Out

Helping a lot of homeschoolers, I know money matters when it comes to purchases.

Too, the more children you have to buy curriculum for the smarter it is to spread your buying out over several months.

I know when I have done this, I have gotten exactly what each child needed.

I didn’t feel like I settled for anything because I didn’t wait to the last minute to buy and feel the pressure of the new school year.

Sometimes the best time to buy is when you have received your tax refund, if you get one.

Curriculum vendors know this and will run a spring sale on curriculum.

Take advantage of spring savings and buy online from reputable places like Rainbow Resource.

3. You Get Choice Picks of Second Hand Homeschool Materials

Like me, if you like to use part new materials and part gently used curriculum, then you have to start early.

By mid-spring or later, popular used curriculum is in hot demand and sellers know this.

If you are wanting to sell and get top dollar, then plan to have your gently used curriculum ready early in spring to sale.

If you are a buyer and want to get a good value, then look at off-peak times like January or February when sellers are clearing out for the next school year.

4. Avoid Back Order Backup

Is it just me or are you sorely disappointed when you finally decide to buy that curriculum that makes your heart go pitter patter only to find out that it is on back-order?

I have done this several times because I thought I was being cautious. I ended up delaying the start of my school year.

More Homeschooling Year Around Tips

Disappointed is an understatement to how I felt when all books or supplies were not in my shipment.

To the outside world, we may seem slightly insane to be so over the top when it comes to homeschool planning.

However, planning for the next homeschool year is one of the best ways to brighten up the coming months in spring, especially if you are coming out of long cold winter days.

How about you?

Are you a plan-a-holic and pretty well plan year around or do you have a specific time you plan?

4 Benefits to Planning Early for the Next Homeschool Year @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus-2

5 days of Homeschooling Mid-Year and Thriving. Day 3 Forward Looking–Planning!

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Planning is nothing more than forward-looking and then penning those thoughts to paper.  Planning can be painless and pleasant.  It can also become painful or a burden when we don’t know the basics or lose the simplicity of how to do it.

In our determination to be conscientious homeschoolers, we may clutter up our day with multiple subjects.  Stress sets in because we may feel all subjects are equally important. Then the hours don’t equal to the number of subjects we determine that needs to be covered.

Getting started planning or taking time to review your present lesson planning method mid-year can be broken down into simple steps.

Are You Making This Mistake?

1. Know Your Subject and Subjects.  It is an easy mistake to make.  Take your children out of the grade they are in at public/private school and put them in the next grade up in homeschool.

Grade matters very little in homeschooling because it does not always correspond to mastery. Knowing your child or subject takes time. But because you may want to have curriculum in hand to start school, you have to take other steps.

If you live in a state or country where you are not held to burdensome laws then take your time using very basic workbook style pages to see which subjects your child is struggling in and which ones he is bored with.
Many curriculum providers provide free on line testing and this will help you to make a better fit grade wise regardless of your child’s age.

Take time to know your subject or child before you spend dollars on curriculum for a whole year.

Another mistake made by many homeschoolers is to pile subject on top of subject to our children’s day.  If one is good, then surely ten subjects would be enrichment or so we may think.

How do you determine what the essentials are so that your subject load stays streamlined?   You may not be a seasoned educator but you know more than you realize.

Take a lesson from the past. One room schoolhouses focused on the 3 R’s. That is the secret. It is not very glamorous sounding but reading, writing and arithmetic are the solid mainstays of a well educated child.

If you are struggling with when and how long these subjects are to be covered, I get more specific in a 3 part series I covered named: What Subjects to Teach and When to Teach Them.

What Subjects to Teach and When to Teach Them.

What subjects to teach and when to teach them? Part 1 of 3

What subjects to teach and when to teach them? Part 2 of 3

What subjects to teach and when to teach them? Part 3 of 3

The other subjects are enrichment and make learning a delight. However, if a child is struggling with any of the 3 R’s, then all of the subjects can become contemptible to say the least.

For example, your child may love to learn about the animals of the rainforest. However, when it’s time to write a few sentences about them, he shrieks in terror and almost passes out at the thought of it. Tears normally follow because children don’t know how to articulate that something is not right.

Maybe he is struggling with fine motor skills and your expectations are too high. You may want to work on composition but he may not have the basics of penmanship down yet.

If you are a creative writer and your child is not, does he live with the fear of disappointing you? Children can have black and white standards. They are either all on board or not at all when it comes to homeschooling.

If they are not on board, then all subjects can be considered wearisome, boring and mundane.

2. Determine an approach. There are 5 basic approaches to homeschooling. Traditional, Charlotte Mason, Classical, Unit Studies and Relaxed or Unschoolers.

Avoid painful planning by sticking to the approach that works best for your family at the moment. It doesn’t mean you don’t investigate the others as you have time. It does mean that you focus on learning all you can about the approach that works best for your family.
I hear all the time that some homeschoolers are so overwhelmed by curriculum choices. But if you will remember to categorize them by these approaches, and investigate only the curriculum that works fits the approach you are using now, you only have 1/5 of the curriculum to review.
Why try to educate yourself on what is working for everybody’s children? You will be a much better teacher if you just focus on the 3,4,5, or 6 children you have.

3. Assign a time. Pen it. Now that you are more acquainted with your subject or your children and the subjects to consider in school, you have to “assign it all a place”.

By penning the subjects, which children you will be working with and how long you will be doing this, it becomes realistic. We avoid having more subjects in our day than we have hours to school. Pretty looking subject lists with no time slots in our day are stress inducers and turn ugly looking quickly.

Whether you use a phone, iPad, computer or printed curriculum planner to organize your lesson plans, you need to assign it all a place.

I have always said that lesson planning for me is better done the old fashion way with paper and pen.

Taking time to pen and assign hours in my day to the subjects helps it to stick in my mind.

It also creates balance in my day because one subject is not covered more than another or completely overlooked. If the schedule is not working, it allows me to go back and see where I need to adjust time slots.

Homeschool Class Schedule

Over-planning and no planning both bring pain. I provide free forms to help you keep it real and get it all done.

Click here to go to STEP 5b. Form 13 named Class Schedule/Teacher Schedule to create your class schedule. It’s EDITABLE.

These three basic steps have to be reviewed each year, whether you are a new or seasoned educator.

Planning can be rewarding because it rejuvenates our love for learning and creates homeschool harmony and balance.

Hugs and love ya,

 

Did you miss the first two days in 5 days of Homeschooling Mid-Year and Thriving?

5 days of Homeschooling Mid-Year and Thriving. Day 1 Mind-set Matters

5 days of Homeschooling Mid-Year and Thriving. Day 2 Mission Accomplished

 

Grab some other tips here for planning!

Divide And Conquer The Ever Growing List of Homeschool Subjects

Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1

Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2

Gauging Homeschool Progress – Masters of their Material?

Lesson Plan or Lesson Journal?

Homeschool Lesson Planning Backwards Part 2 of 2.

 

Homeschool Lesson Planning Backwards Part 2 of 2.

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I’m not saying it was a good idea to wait and do Part 2 to Part 1 of Lesson Planning Backwards more than a year later, but I had a real good excuse reason.  When my only blog was at New Bee Homeschooler, I really didn’t have a way for folks to follow me there until later. Many of my thoughts on my blog posts went to just my new bees either in a public workshop or on a private forum and not on my blog.  Now that I have two blogs and they are separated, I know that some of my blog topics belong over here too.  So I didn’t get back around to sharing some of them publicly until now.

HomeschooLesson Planning Backwards

Lesson Planning Backwards Part 2 is one of those posts and so today I am sharing the second part of that post. Plus, summertime is really a good time to talk about planning because you are not rushed with everyday school.

You can step back and reevaluate how you want this next year to go. Or at least that is what I like to do when school is slower in the summer.

Backwards Planning

It might sound like a bit of an oxymoron, but lesson planning backwards is not backwards. Planning means just that, looking forward to an end goal. Too, lesson planning for homeschoolers has changed over time because we now have some really helpful teacher’s manuals to choose from, which are not glorified answer sheets. The manuals make lesson planning more manageable.

Lesson planning though will remain a staple in any well-planned day because no matter how wonderful curriculum is, it will never replace your much needed guidance in tweaking lessons for each child.

Whether tweaking the plans of a laid out curriculum or drawing up a simple lesson plan, a few key points always helps me to keep lesson planning streamlined and forward moving.

  •  One central spot is key. Whether you have one kid or it feels like you have a dozen on some days, lesson planning is about finding all your notes for each child in ONE spot.  This is such a huge time saver.

Organized lesson planning is not about bulging notebooks of paper falling out of it, but it is about one central spot to see what everybody is doing for the day. That is why my lesson planning sheet is a weekly plan. I find that lesson planning is much like outlining. We just need a word or thought so we know what is planned for the day.

Lesson Planning Page 7 Step Homeschool Planner

(Step 4: Choosing Lesson Planning Pages)

The weekly planning page is just to glance at because most of the time there is no need for such detailed lesson planning notes, unless of course you lesson plan the whole year which I have mentioned to you before that I have done.  Oh my goodness! Let me say that again, oh my goodness.  I would not ever recommend that, but I will share why in another post.

Let’s just say I thought I was trying to stay ahead by planning that far ahead.

Simplified planning is suppose to cut down your paper work and time. Flipping through one book is easier than 4 books.  For example, having all 3 or 4 kids math lessons on one page is way more helpful than digging through 4 manuals each day for math lessons.

  • Plan longer, but not too far ahead. Sitting down about every 2 weeks to jot out the main points of what each kid will be learning over the next few weeks is a just about right pace for us.

You don’t want to play so far ahead that if your child has a problem understanding a new math concept, for example, that you can’t change your lesson plans to include more time for that. Too, some things my boys picked up quicker in grammar.  So I had another week to look at and pick lesson plans from which allowed us to skip ahead of what I had written down.

How to Homeschool Without Kids

  • Plan Like A Teacher. I learned this point early too when planning for multiple children and that is take a lesson from some public school teachers. There is a reason they stay a bit later after school or have teacher in-service days.  It allows them, hopefully, to catch up on some of that lesson planning.

Do you ever have school without the kids? You should. Use the time to get caught up on lesson planning.  It took me a while to learn that point. I never had a problem doling out time to catch up on things around the house, but it took me longer to catch on to that mind-set as teacher mom. My children’s education is of way more importance than a sink of dirty dishes.

Allowing time with minimal interruption from the kids meant that some days were a “mom is here, but teacher mom is not here” day. However, those days were meaningful and well deserved as I could get absorbed in analyzing which direction we needed to go next in our lesson plans.

As the kids get older and take longer for some lessons, use that time while they are working on school to also plan ahead. The time may come in 10 or 15 minute increments. I do some of my best brainstorming and planning when I am sitting there waiting on Tiny and planning in shorter spurts too.

Lesson planning backwards is about understanding the end process and then finding ways to simplify it.

Hugs and love ya,

Don’t miss these other tips!

Lesson Plan or Lesson Journal?

How to Write a Simple But Effective Homeschool Lesson Plan

Day 8. Creating a Unit Study Lesson Plan. 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together.

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Creating a unit study lesson plan is the culmination of gathering all the resources of your hard work. Unless you are using a premade unit study, you will want to develop the art of lesson planning.  I have mentioned before in How to Write a Simple But Effective Homeschool Lesson Plan that lesson planning is nothing more than a visual map of what you want to accomplish for the day, week, or month. You can do this! The educationalese do not have to be so overwhelming.

Unit Study Lesson Planning = Visual Map

Today, I will create that visual map for you.  Look at it below.

I have created lesson plans for week 1 for my Ocean Unit Study coming up based on the information I created from Day 4. Finalize Sub-topics. 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together and Day 5. Creating Unit Study Objectives. 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together.

Key to successfully planning your unit study is not just organizing your information into a workable plan, but creating engaging lesson plans too.

(Note: The form is from my Unit Study Planner)

Teaching is a learned art and lesson planning is no different.  Beginning your unit study is just as important as deciding how to end it.  So take time to think about a lure that will hook your children on the topic being introduced.

Do You Make these 4 Mistakes When Lesson Planning?

  • Notice that in my opening of the unit study I start with an edible tidal zone model. Though the idea is mine, the model is not.  The picture comes from a book that we already have at the house and we are going to make it an edible model.  So take your ideas for hands-on ideas from books that you have.  We are excited about making this and hopefully this will hook my kids on the topic of oceans.

The teacher in you may think that reading an opening chapter of a book is engaging. Though this may be true for some books, it is not the case with all of them.  I find that beginning my unit study with an activity creates the mood I want as we tackle another topic.  There is just no substitute for an engaging, interactive hands-on activity to begin your unit study.

Also, I looked back at the sub-topics that I wanted to stay focused on to decide my objective for the week. Since this is the beginning week, then I do want to focus on the basics of my topic. Think of the way a topic would naturally be introduced when lesson planning for the entire unit study.  Begin with the basics of a topic.

  • Focusing on the basics in the beginning instead of jumping right into complicated sub-topics will help your children remember key points from other unit studies that you considered that are linked to this one.  Give them time to simmer on the subject a bit.  Don’t rush the meditation process.

For example, for week 2 I will want to fold in some facts, as a reminder, that we learned from our study of a Coral Reef.  Having time to adjust to the topic for a week, they can now brainstorm and connect it with information they previously know.

Then, reviewing your lesson plans and using my form above, look at how easy I covered a variety of school subjects for the week.

  • Remember to not force a fit for the sake of covering that subject.  Though we do a unit study exclusively when we are focused on one,  I can have the boys supplement with math and grammar if needed.

Relax and design your lesson plans as an extension of your personality and with the unique strengths and weaknesses of your children in mind.  It is so much more enjoyable this way and meaningful.  As you can see from my form above that covering school subjects comes much easier than you think.

All of this looks good on paper right? Now, how do we execute all of this?  How does a day look in the life of a unit study family?  Next post, I will show you how we balance the day.

Hugs and love ya,

10 Days of Creating A Unit Study Together

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Day-2.-Tips-for-Choosing-Unit-Study-Topics.-10-Days-of-Diving-Into-Unit-Studies-by-Creating-a-Un.png
Day-3.-Selecting-Superior-Sub-Topics.-10-Days-of-Diving-Into-Unit-Studies-by-Creating-a-Unit-St.png
Day-4.-Finalize-Sub-Topics.-10-Days-of-Diving-Into-Unit-Studies-by-Creating-a-Unit-Study-Togeth.png
Day-5.-Creating-Unit-Study-Objectives.-10-Days-of-Diving-Into-Unit-Studies-by-Creating-a-Unit-S.png
Day-6.-Resources-that-Stir-the-Imagination.-10-Days-of-Diving-Into-Unit-Studies-by-Creating-a-Un.png
Day-7.-Unit-Study-Activity-Ideas.-10-Days-of-Diving-Into-Unit-Studies-by-Creating-a-Unit-Study-T.png
Day-8.-Creating-A-Unit-Study-Lesson-Plan.-10-Days-of-Diving-Into-Unit-Studies-by-Creating-a-Unit.png
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Lesson Planning Backwards! Part 1 of 2.

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Lesson Planning Backward Part 1 of 2 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
I have two criteria for lesson planning. One, it has to be EASY and two it has to have a PURPOSE.

If it doesn’t serve those two elements, it is something else to weigh on my during my already busy day.

A lot of curricula companies provide lesson plans, so why lesson plan?

First, I want to share what I feel is not easy. It is not filling out the entire year. I did that ONCE and guess what, I will never do it again. If I lived in a state where I had to yearly lesson plan, it would contain VERY simple guidelines.

What I realized less than halfway into my preplanned year was that life was not just about academics. Interruptions and sickness are part of life. Soon I got behind and stressed.

Purposeful Homeschool Lesson Planning

Then it got me thinking what is my purpose for lesson planning.

Isn’t it to see my children’s pace for each day, week, month and year and what we actually covered?

Do I really care what thirty other children in a classroom setting could do as they went forward on their pace not stopping for interruptions?

Boxed curricula providers and yes I do like them, have a purpose. However, their lesson plans are made for a classroom setting.

Also, it’s much easier to see my children’s work at a glance in ONE spot instead of flipping through a whole collection of teacher’s manuals. Even if you have an only child you still have a collection of lesson manuals? It only compiles with more children.

Next, I also want to change without prior planning if need be to a different approach or skill if my children struggled in one area.

Too, I needed a place to jot down what supplies I might need the next day or next week. In another area on my lesson plan, I needed to note how well my children understood the concepts or what I actually was trying to teach. Relying on memory is not a good way to lesson plan.

There needs to be one central location you can come to and review your day, month, your week, your year. That is lesson planning backwards. You now have a purpose.

Identifying your purpose for lesson planning and why you are doing it helps you to get there. Doesn’t everybody need a clear destination or picture of where they are going or what they are preparing for?

Lesson Planning Backwards

My husband was reviewing some blueprints this past weekend. He has very detailed plans for a beautiful building. He knew exactly what he was helping to build.

Lesson planning backwards helps us to get a clear image of what we are building first and then work back using our daily lesson plans to create it.

I will share some tips in my next article that work for me when I lesson plan. They will be EASY and will have a PURPOSE.

Check out my second post
Homeschool Lesson Planning Backwards Part 2 of 2.