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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.

 

Am I Doing Enough When Homeschooling

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

When we constantly wrestle with the question am I doing enough when homeschooling, it can make us weary, cause self-doubt and sometimes make us think that we are less suited to homeschooling than others are.

Normally, but not always, the nagging doubt sets in when you’re homeschooling young children.

When the boys were all very young, I felt like a supercharged homeschool teacher one day and then the next day I wasn’t sure if I was a classical homeschooler, Charlotte Mason follower or if I even knew enough to make an informed choice about the type of approach we should be doing.
Look at some practical teaching tips for each learning style.

From Extraordinary Homeschool Educator to Ordinary Mom and Back Again

Look at a few tips that will help you to find center again when you waffle between extraordinary homeschool educator and ordinary mom:

Listen to your gut. Yes, trust your gut about whether you think you should be doing more in your day, but only after you take a week to journal what you have done.

What I learned when I felt this way was that I needed to take an inventory of my day. Don’t leave it up to memory as to what you did for the day, week or month.

Big ideas come out of the time you take to journal or write down what you actually accomplished.  What do I mean by this?  From my insecurity, I created my 7 Step Homeschool Planner as a visual daily reminder of what I was doing for each day.

I needed a visual way to prove to myself what we were accomplishing for the day despite the mayhem created by my then two year old destroyer.

In looking back over my day, I was able to see that I got the essential skills like reading, writing and arithmetic done.

Not every day was such a fun filled crafty day for the boys, but it was solid learning.  Young children from about 7 years old and younger only need about 1 to 1 1/2 hours of meaningful learning time.

This means that somewhere during the day and despite the interruptions from your toddler, that you need to give them your 1:1 time for just 1 to 1 1/2 hours each day. The secret is that it does not have to be all at once and you don’t want it to be at this age.  Consistency is the key to plodding along each day.

Many small bites of learning each day equals a life-long learner.

Breaking up moments of learning into chunks also allows for a young child’s natural need to learn through play.

The only way to be sure that you are getting meaningful learning time in each day is to chart the progress.

Don’t Forget What Brought You to Homeschooling.  In trying to find the middle ground in teaching, it is important that you hold dear the principles and values that brought you to homeschooling.

When I would hold my 3 and 5 year old sons in my lap, the vision of them being 18 and almost 20 year old men seemed very far off.  Don’t let your eyes dim on picturing the beautiful woman and men your children will grow up to be. That is the bigger picture.

Barring any developmental issues, your children will learn to read, write and do math well if you do not quit.  Beyond the basic academics, it is up to you as to what else is needed in the day to be enough.

Are your goals for your children not only clearly in mind, but written down?

For example, whether your children go to college, take some vocational course, get married or if you set their path on mission service, obstacles are always part of any journey.

Making the commitment and sticking to the long term goal of homeschooling is what counts despite the setbacks.

Is it a Prompt to Change your Homeschool Method?  On the flip side, if we are not careful we can become curriculum driven and drudge forward, but our children may be dreading the time spent together.

Sometimes, we may need to cut in half what we are expecting for the day so that a child has time to process what we are teaching them at the moment.

Without belittling any struggle you may be going through, homeschooling can be quite simple. There is no need to worry about the number of hours it takes, but to focus on what you do during those hours.

Don’t watch the clock each day, but watch how your child develops through each skill set.

It is normal for a child to read anywhere from about 4 to 7 years of age and their skill set will have variety too. They could be reading anything from basic sight word books to chapter books.  It is all within a range of normal.

If you have a gifted learner, you may need to switch your approach so that learning is not boring for him.  Look at stop switching your curriculum, switch your course of study.

Too, remember if your child is real young and you feel they are gifted, it is much better to build their foundation by enriching it horizontally instead of always going up a grade level.  What do I mean by this? Remember their age because they only have one childhood.

Do not pile up the academic load reserved for a much older child, but feed their insatiable need for knowledge by enriching the topic you are currently studying about. Build it out and take different avenues down that one topic.

I learned this the hard way by almost burning out my oldest son by the second grade.  Propelling a high-achieving child can put undo pressure on them during the formative years and they may adopt a perfectionism streak that is hard to conquer later.

If your child is high school level, as a rule of thumb for what is enough, look at what your local state or country requires.

When my two older boys entered high school, I used a simple approach like typing what they did each day on my computer or if my time ran short for the week, I would type some notes at the end of the week to track our progress.Keep it simple.

Comparing what our local public high school required helped me to design a plan for their high school years and to find my middle ground for academics.

Evaluating our homeschool progress is normal.

One year too I thought I was an unschooler.  Later, I determined that what our day was lacking was a more relaxed approached.  Too, my sons’ desire to stay on a subject until their appetite for learning was satisfied helped me to see that I needed to adopt many of the concepts of the unit study approach.

What I figured out was that I didn’t completely have to ditch my workbooks because I liked them, I just needed balance in my day because I didn’t want to be constantly micromanaging my children.

Too, I was part of the problem because I wasn’t satisfying what I needed as the teacher.  I like detailed schedules, plans and thrive in organization.  It calmed me when I had a plan in place.

So it wasn’t necessary for me to prove to every homeschooler what my children were doing.It was enough for me. It was my job to be sure they were doing enough for the goals my family set.  I wasn’t homeschooling to please my parents, the next homeschooler or any of my friends who questioned my ability.

In the end what counts is how wonderful your children turn out to be.

What about you? Do you feel moments where you could rival any veteran teacher with your sharp and detailed lesson plans and then moments where you have sheer panic with no lesson planning?

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Discovering Geography Through a Field Trip to Incan Ruins

Grab a few more tips!

Making Each Day Count When Homeschooling

Helping our Homeschool Children Find their Inner Drive When We are Not Sure We Have It

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

A Day in the Life of a Homeschooler Part 1 Early Years

The Sticking Power of a Homeschool Schedule

Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1

 

Eliminating 3 Non-Essentials in Homeschooling

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

With our move to South America, I had two suitcases to pack with what was absolutely essential to living in South America.  Included in our two suitcase maximum for each person was not just clothes, but homeschooling books.

Non-Essentials In Homeschooling

Eliminating non-essentials was utterly crucial to making a smooth transition.  The line between absolutely vital and unimportant became very clear.

Homeschooling is similar because there are just some things that are not required to raising life long learners.  Instead of a homeschooling help, some things can become a hindrance.

Look at these Tips to Eliminating 3 Non-Essentials in Homeschooling.

Assigning a Book Report – Non-Essential.  I did it too.  I assigned my boys books reports in the beginning of my homeschool journey only because that is what I did in public school. 

Like most new homeschooling teachers I associated books reports with good readers and writers. 

The longer I homeschooled, the more I realized that my strategies like reading aloud, practicing writing each day, acting out stories, creating puppets with the boys when they were preschool age and debating an author’s viewpoint in the high school grades was incredibly more powerful.

It has been my experience that forced book reports do not fuel the love for reading and especially with wiggly boys.

Also, I learned that if I just had to assign one for the language arts teacher inside of me then assign a book my kids don’t like. Who really wants to be forced to use literary analysis on a book they love?

Instilling the pleasure of reading or lingering over vocabulary for the love of words has to be cultivated with other equally pleasurable tasks.

When you are doing copywork with your children, talking orally about the plot or rising action of a book or researching about an author, information in a book is then absorbed and retained.

More important reading is associated with pleasure and not drudgery.

College Degree – Non-Essential.  As you homeschool longer, you realize that all that is needed is the ability to learn alongside your children.

Here is a little secret I learned while conducting my homeschooling workshops. 

Quite a few of the public school teachers in my workshop didn’t want the other moms in the workshop to know they were teachers. 

Of course, I was elated and enthusiastic to have quite a few public school teachers in my workshops because I savored our time together as we shared teaching tips.

However, many (not all) of the public school teachers turned homeschool educator felt that their college education hampered their ability to think outside the box. 

Appreciating their candor and vulnerability, I realized we all struggle with things that make us feel inadequate.

A parent’s degree or lack of it has very little bearing on the success of their journey.

Check out the article The Myth of Teacher Qualifications by HSLDA.

Knowing All the Answers – Non-Essential. We may think we need to know all the answers, but when I have been honest with my boys by letting them know that I don’t know all the answers, they appreciate that I am human too.

What I have found is that knowing where to go to find the answers or how to connect with other homeschoolers has been more essential.

Too, a dogged determination, willingness to work hard and an unwavering dedication to your children's education have been the keys to successfully homeschooling.

Eliminating the clutter as I packed and weighed each bag carefully for our move, though stressful at the time, allowed more room for what was really important.

Only so much will fit in a bag and only so much will fit into a homeschool day.

Looking back now, unloading all that clutter and eliminating the non-essentials has allowed me to maximize the time we have together by savoring what we brought with us.

You'll love my other tried and true tips through they 20+ years I've homeschooled.

What about you? Have you overstuffed your day with non-essentials?

Hugs and love ya,

Patience, Confidence, Knowing all the Answers – NOT Required to Homeschool

3 Homeschooling Myths Debunked

Things Homeschoolers Know

3 Causes and Cures for the Homeschool Blues

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

Whether it’s the change in the weather, the humdrum days of every day school, or if you are just questioning the decision to homeschool, I am hoping by sharing 3 causes and cures for the homeschool blues that you will be rejuvenated and inspired to put the spark back into your day.

Look at these 3 causes and cures for the homeschool blues:

  • Cause: Feeling Unproductive.  Have you ever had one of those days where you poured out every ounce of teacher know how into teaching your kids math or maybe sight words for the past few months only to have them act like they have never received any instruction before?

Of course, it always seemed to happen to me when the Mr. was interrogating questioning the boys about our “”productive” day.  In the beginning of our homeschool journey, the Mr. was like a lot of new homeschooling dads and that is they want to see instant results. The frustrating thing is that I too wanted to see homeschool progress.

It just feels like your time has been wasted and it’s enough to kill your homeschool joy.

  • Cure: Slow Down or Take a Break Altogether.  Whether your child is struggling with learning what you have slaved over the last few months teaching him or whether you have tears over your lack of creative ways to teach him, everybody can benefit from a break.

Many years, I realized that no matter how hard or creative I tried to be in teaching something that was not clicking with one of my sons that progress eventually comes.

It is very hard to be patient and wait on that time period, but it was harder on me to question my teaching ability and then to drain my enthusiasm for teaching my kids afterward.

Nobody like the teacher mom that showed up the next morning after I had one of those I-am-going-to-do-it-anyway days.

Though the problem won’t go away, taking a temporary breather will bring some relief and sometimes my most creative moments came out of a change of pace.

  • Cause: Waiting on “Normal” Homeschool.  A time consuming and endless hunt is waiting on the perfect circumstance or routine to school.  If you think about it procrastination really is a pursuit of perfection.

Sure, I would love to have all things organized in my home before we started for the day.  But what I have learned is that waiting on things to settle down or waiting for perfect circumstances never really happens.

What can happen is that we can get further and further behind in what we want to accomplish for the day and then discontentment sets in along with the homeschooling blues.

  • Cure: The Secret is Contentment.  Sometimes circumstances won’t change for a while and it can be tough to stay contented during an extended time.

Maybe you have a long term illness or are taken care of a sick child or aging parents.  Life happenings and the every day life of a homeschooler can’t be separated.

During my journey,I have taken care of my mom who has a long term illness now, have taken care of my sister and her kids while she recovered in a long term care facility after getting out of ICU, cared for my husband in ICU after he had his heart attack and other wise cried alongside other homeschoolers who had very devastating circumstances.

{Because I love my sister, I would prefer you see this picture of her when she was out of ICU and on the road to recovery.}

{Though we spent much time at the hospital, our children learned lessons like the preciousness of life, family and that being together during times when things weren’t “normal” is what counts.}

Through it all I realized that I was the one learning.  Learning to be content with making homeschool work for my circumstances.  Sure, some years, a lot of my homeschooling years have gone much like I planned, but many did not.

Benjamin Franklin said: “Contentment makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor” and there is value in adopting that quote.  By not waiting or striving after a perfect homeschool day, then progress happens.

Unpleasant circumstances can strike at anytime, but being happy and grateful for the privilege of homeschooling and being with my children has always helped me to dwell on what I have and no worry about what I can’t control.

Whether we schooled later in the day, listened to audio cds I grabbed while traveling back and forth to the hospital each day or whether we simply set up school in a hospital waiting room,  I have learned that consistency and learning flexibility is the key to contentment.

Homeschooling is the pursuit of progress, however measured it comes, and not perfection.

  •  Cause: Physical and Emotional Drain. We probably don’t talk about this part of homeschooling enough.  But the physical and emotional drain of homeschooling is enough to want us to lose the battle.
  • Cure: Sometimes we need others to help.  By nature, we homeschoolers are an independent bunch and might feel vulnerable when asking others for help.   We may need help with the house or help in our school.

What I found though is that at times when we need help the most that we tend to isolate ourselves.  We may think somehow by getting off someplace by our self, it may be just what we need.  It may be, if we just need time in the day to catch up on rest.

However, I have found that an emotional drain seems to intensify when I am alone to fester it.  By including my husband in on those feelings, he has been able to take the boys away for an afternoon so that I can find time to physically rest.  Too, though sharing with him my fears and frustrations somehow eases the load.

By nature you know men want to solve the problem and though I do a majority of the teaching like most homeschoolers, he always has great gems of advice to share to keep my negative thinking in place.

Too, don’t underestimate the value of true homeschooling friends.  Sometimes we just need a sympathetic listener.

When I have unloaded my deepest fears, which I have kept pushed way down, to my closest dear friends, I realize they too have the same homeschooling struggles.  I am not so alone anymore.

Beating the homeschool blues is inextricably tied in to how you view your homeschooling circumstances.  Don’t hold back tears when needed because it just shows that we value our job as homeschooling educators and we need an emotional release.

Through tears comes strength and a renewed determination to put one foot forward and try it again.

Though we are not completely able to block out the homeschool blues because it is part of the homeschooling journey, we are more prepared in not allowing it to steal our homeschool joy.

You know I love ya,

2012Tinasignature Taking a Hit Doesnt Mean to Quit– Homeschooling Through Crisis

 

Grab some more go juice to flame the dying embers.

Biggest Challenges to Homeschooling

Taking a Hit Doesn’t Mean to Quit– Homeschooling Through Crisis

Cultivating the Desire to Homeschool

Easy Ways to Break Out of a Homeschool Rut

Have You Learned the Secret to Homeschool Joy?

Making Each Day Count When Homeschooling

Linking up @ these fabulous places:

Cultivating the Desire to Homeschool

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

You’ve probably come across the type before. Those homeschoolers that knew always that they were going to homeschool and they knew before their first child was conceived.

However, if you are one of those that just fell into homeschooling or came to it kicking and screaming, then cultivating the desire to homeschool has probably been a learned art for you.

Whether you always had the desire to homeschool or hopped on board later, we all need to rekindle and cultivate the desire to homeschool so we can foster our growth.

Let’s just face it too, the world we live in today doesn’t engender finding tranquil moments in our day to ponder our desire to homeschool and fill up our reserve.

On the other hand, each day that we homeschool can empty us of our eagerness to keep on homeschooling.

It’s essential to maintaining the pace of homeschooling to tap into homeschool resources that will stir you to action and to avoid certain mind-sets.

Avoid the Weight of Burdensome Negativity.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemies because we have a set standard unreachably high for either us or our children.

For example, do you need to adjust the time that you begin school so that you have time to get more house chores done, or just to soak up more time in the morning to wake up?

Between me and you, I had several days early in my journey where I missed taking a shower and skipped breakfast because my schedule said it was time to start. Why do we do that to ourselves?

I never did get any homeschooling mom of the year trophy award either.

What I did learn was that day in and day out schooling at a grueling pace only sets a homeschooler up for burn out.

The end of the journey is all that matters. Mr. Senior 2013 remembers more about the quiet moments we had at home together doing simple things like reading aloud and playing board games than he did large homeschool projects where we were all stressed out.

Maybe you feel your child is not progressing as fast some other homeschool children that you know.

Could your child be at a learning plateau or is he getting enough rest and exercise?  Look at The Dos and Don’ts When You Hit A Learning Plateau in Homeschooling.

Change Your Homeschool Approach.  I changed my homeschool approach three times until I found one that suited my children and my teaching style.

When we are fighting a switch to a new homeschool approach, it can have devastating effects on our desire to continue homeschooling.

Look at Stop Switching Your Curriculum, Switch Your Course of Study.  I use to think if only I can change my teaching methods at the end of the year that it would be less stressful.

What I finally realized was that like a parched and sun scorched plant that is drying up and shriveling, my children’s love of learning was the same way.

I needed to take quick action to inject a love of learning by changing either my approach, curriculum or schedule.

Just Can’t Avoid it – You Need Other Homeschoolers. Before I formed our co-op and field trip group, I use to think I was too busy to be meeting with other homeschoolers.  Ask me now about how I feel and I cringe about my thinking then because homeschooling and meeting with other homeschoolers are inextricably linked to homeschooling staying power.

When you are tired with several small children, it’s hard to see how fellowship with people you barely know will help you. It just seems like one more energy zapping exercise.

And to make matters worse, if your personality is like mine where you are perfectly happy with just your inner circle of friends, it can be hard to overcome the thinking that you are just fine.

But what I have learned is that the homeschooling spirit is contagious when you have a crowd around.  Instead of draining your time of one more lack luster thing to do, interacting and sharing tips, techniques, and venting about the the ups and downs of homeschooling with other homeschooling families bolsters our desire to keep on homeschooling.

Not only are we encouraged to keep on homeschooling, but we meet other families who have similar circumstances as our own.

Some of the most significant homeschooling changes that I have had the conviction to do came directly after mingling with experienced homeschool moms.

Stoke the embers of homeschooling by fueling the desire to homeschool through being consistent each day and being quick to take advantage of opportunities to be encouraged by other homeschoolers.

The end will be here before you know it.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

To go from exhausted to exhilarated, look at these posts:

The 3 R’s for Homeschoolers. Part 3

5 Ideas to Kick-Start Your New Homeschool Year By Including Others

Easy Ways to Break Out of a Homeschool Rut

Have You Learned the Secret to Homeschool Joy?

Look at some of these homeschooling books that will stir you to action!