Planning For Next Year

I have a confession. I like to teach, but for me, the really fun part of homeschooling is the PLANNING! I love choosing new books and working out schedules. I love organizational tools and forms that help me do so.

I’m beginning to start my planning for the next school year. We’re doing some light schooling through the summer, but our official new school year will begin in late August. I put together my own planner using The Schoolhouse Planner pages. There are actually five different Schoolhouse Planners:

• The 800 page “Big Mama” planner
• Special needs planner
• High school planner
• Intermediate (5-8th grade) planner
• Primary planner

Each of these includes calendars, scheduling forms, planning forms, and helpful articles. There are many different types of forms and I look at each of them carefully before I decide which ones will work the best for our needs.

Since the 2013-14 Schoolhouse Planner just came out last week, it’s time to get started!

This is my planner from last year.

First, I have pages for yearly goals, educational objectives, and course of study. Adding goals is something  that I’ve just started doing in the past two years. I’ve always had some goals and objectives for the year in my head, but I find that it helps to have it written down to refer to as I plan and reevaluate throughout the school year.

Then, I have some long term planning pages. I used pages that show six weeks at a time for these. Since we often use materials like unit studies or review products for just a month or two, I am able to pencil out my plans in advance to see the big picture. I also break down our history studies by topics. Last year, we studied ancient Rome for 8 weeks, Byzantines and Muslims for 3 weeks, and so on.

Then comes the “meat” of the planner—my weekly planning pages. I type up and print these out a few weeks at a time and check off assignments as they are completed.

The final section of the planner includes records—test scores, report card, field trip records, book lists, and community service.

I finish the year with a great record of what we have accomplished, all ready to go into the portfolio!

The Schoolhouse Planners can be purchased individually, or are included free with a membership to the Schoolhouse Teacher’s site (only $3 for the first month).