I love the freedom that can be found in this week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. During this week I’ll take an afternoon and examine how the first half of our homeschool year has gone. I’ll take notes of things I’d like to change, new things I think we need, and will plan and prepare for the next segment of the year. Listed below are six simple ways to prepare your homeschool for the new year. Do one, do them all, but make sure to do number six. 🙂
1 — Assess curriculum.Take each of your kids and look at their work — too much? too little? are they meeting goals? It’s okay to switch curriculum in the middle of the year if it’s not working for your family. I’ll take some time to analyze our curriculum choices and then make the changes that are needed. I’ve switched everything in January before — that’s okay — we have the freedom to choose what works best for our family.
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2 — Adjust your Goals. Pull out those planners and assess where you ended. Are you covering everything you wanted to? Are there some chapters that you could skip? Or do you need to practice those math facts some more? Now is a great time to re-adjust the goals. And remember — do not base success on where you finished — homeschooling is a journey and this is just some time to get a big picture view of your year.
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3 — Paperwork. Big sigh. Yes, paperwork. I’ve got a stack that’s crazy high to deal with right now. Here’s what I do — I take those papers and give each of my children several folders. One for math, one for language, one for history and science, and one for art projects. Then I go through the entire stack of papers and sort those papers weeding out what we don’t need to save and saving the rest. At the end of the year, I’ll take those manilla folders and tie them with string and file them away. An instant portfolio.
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4 — Declutter. Now that you’ve gone through the paperwork consider moving on to the toys. Get rid of the excess, the broken, the missing pieces. Go through your school supplies weeding out the old markers, dead pens, pencils, and more. We love to go through the house and find 100 things to throw away and then 100 more things to donate. Makes decluttering even more fun.
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5 — Plan, plan, plan. I’m not a big scheduler and yet here I am pushing the importance of planning. We homeschool with a loose framework for our day. However, I do like to have a general idea of what we’ll be doing or fieldtrips we’re going on. So this week I’ll check my menus and update our grocery list. I’ll plan field trips, and write in ballet practice times. I’ll make notes of events coming up, schedule dentist and doctor’s visits and more. And in there I’ll also determine how I want days to get structured — when will I work with the littles and when we’ll do math and when laundry should get done. If I could keep that one on schedule it would be a minor miracle!
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6 — Rest. Last, but honestly, the most important. Make sure to take some time this week to sit and be still. Enjoy those children that you’re blessed to be able to homeschool. Play a game, read a book, take a walk, and sit with them. Even if you don’t do any of the other items listed but sit and rest with your kids you’ve done well. That’s the most important — the planning, scheduling, filing, decluttering and all can wait. Family is first. So make sure to rest and enjoy them.
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How about you? What are your tips for organizing your homeschool after the New Year? Please do share!.
Rachel lives in the half-a-year frozen land of Minnesota. She’s a Christian home schooling momma to seven fabulous kids, and is the wife to an amazing cancer-surviving husband. In January 2011 her youngest son, Samuel, was diagnosed with Celiac Disease so you’ll also find her passionate about gluten free living and Celiac Disease awareness. Between home schooling, blogging, running her family, and, of course, drinking coffee, you’ll also find her driving her girls to classical ballet or her boys to soccer. She’s passionate about seeking joy and living a faith filled, intentional life. You can find Rachel blogging at Finding Joy
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23 Comments
The article is GREAT, but what happens when you’ve started about 6 months behind? We are considering year round, but I do not want to dis-advantage my kids. I don’t know whether to keep plugging away at it or just get the basics of math and reading, writing in!
Susan….we are behind as well. My mom got sick in Sept and died in Nov and we still aren’t back to school. My plan is to finish out the year strong in the 3 Rs with lots of reading in different genres thrown in for rounding out the year. Given what our family has been through, I think it will be just fine.
There is no such thing as “behind” in home education. Start each day at each child’s current ability level (ignore so-called “grade level”) and be diligent about making regular progress at each child’s pace – whatever that means. If you do that, each child will end up JUST where GOD intends for them to be when they leave your nest.
Absolutely agree that there is no behind. In fact, I’ve had to work hard to not define where I am based on an idea of being behind. I’ve written about it before — I’ll look for the link. In certain seasons we just step back and do the basics — if that is where you are now — then that is exactly where you need to be.
I agree- there *is* no “behind”. We do year round schooling ourselves, simply because it works better in my household to have scheduled lives as much as possible (one Aspie, one HFA/mild MR, one genius) and we also never let them compare themselves even to each other. There are no “grade levels” just “where are you in this subject today?” It works a lot better. Yes, we DO do tests, and yes we DO hang the test scores on the wall. That’s because they’re very proud of how well they do. Every kid and every family is different.
Fantastic article! I will be doing this this week, I have a ton of things to go through but I always get excited for a new year:-)Really our school years ends in August so we have another 8 months to go but I know it will fly by!
Great post. I am following pretty much all of your steps right now. We had some illness and major distractions last fall that really set us back this year, and I want to start 2012 strong. We can never “catch up” – those 3 months are gone – but I am working on simplifying our routines and working to get back on track. Even without the problems we had, it’s great to take a break to reassess and reorganize mid-year or so. (This is mid-year for us as we start our academic year on July 1.)
How do you handle situations where your children want to learn something else? I’m going down a path…where planning a week at a time…is what I’m doing. Giving the kids and opportunity to identify their path based on their interests….I’m a planner, but when I plan too far ahead….well, we spend more time at odds…. Thanks for your great post. I always enjoy them!
Rebecca, I’d let them help me plan. I’m not a huge planner — at all. I have to plan big things — like those appointments, and ballet schedules, and more. But academic wise? I set goals. I know that by the end of the year we want to finish our math books — so that’s my goal — but I don’t plan it out in a linear fashion for everyday.
If your kids are interested in certain things — plan that in — plan their interest seeking time into your schedule.
I love the freedom of throwing curricula out the window if it’s not working for us! that was so freeing the first time i realized it – although sometimes i’m too stubborn to do it mid-year.
i also think it’s great to include the kiddos and ask them what’s working, what’s not, what’s their favorite school memory so far, etc. Sometimes they’re answers are surprising!
A very timely article. Most of my planning this week is in the forms of a)decluttering everything that has been left out since August, and b) plotting ways to make money from home so I can quit this job and homeschool the way we used to. Probably some of your planning tips and portfolios (which I haven’t touched) would be a good idea too. Sigh…..
This time of the year is great for evaluating and making changes! I did some of this the other night. I wrote our lesson plans into my planner for the next 6 weeks, evaluated where we are in our various subjects compared to where I want us to be, and bought a few things online for this semester. One change I’m making is to teach my 5 yr old to read this year. I had planned to wait until the fall when she started Kindergarten but she’s ready to learn so I’m going ahead with it now.
I plan on following through with all and adding emphasis on number 6. This is our 2nd year homeschooling but our 1st year was rough. I appreciate and digest any and all little tid bits that seasoned homeschoolers through my way. Good food for thought. TU 🙂
Rachel: A friend just recommended your site to me. So amazing how much we share in common. We homeschool, my husband is battling cancer – but most of all we LOVE the Lord. I am also blogging about what we do (gluten-free, sugar-free & organic for the treatment plus being spiritually healthy at http://www.homecookedhealthy.com) Great ideas you have. Tomorrow is my planning day for the 2nd half of the year. The main ideas are laid out, but need to put in the details – we use Konos for our curriculum which works GREAT with our boy. I asked him today what he really liked and didn’t about the first half of the year. Humm, I forget was what he said – too funny. Mom doesn’t forget and we will be changing a few things!
Great ideas! Thank you! This week we rested and are getting our house reorganized…and redesigning my blog. This weekend a little work and a lot of play celebrating New Year’s at home as a family. Next week, I am planning to sit down and look at where we are and how far we have come and what my new goals are for our sons in homeschooling for the rest of this “school year”. I appreciate the great advise on how to go about that. God bless you and Happy New Year!!!
About to embark on HS with my son who is 9 1/2 and is doing some 4th grade and some 5th grade work. I am disappointed at the level of education he is getting at a private school and felt it was in his best interest to be home schooled. I am over whelmed at where to start and could use some advice and suggestions about where to start on a budget:(
Thanks in advance for any help:)
Lisa Travieso
The article is GREAT, but what happens when you’ve started about 6 months behind? We are considering year round, but I do not want to dis-advantage my kids. I don’t know whether to keep plugging away at it or just get the basics of math and reading, writing in!
Susan….we are behind as well. My mom got sick in Sept and died in Nov and we still aren’t back to school. My plan is to finish out the year strong in the 3 Rs with lots of reading in different genres thrown in for rounding out the year. Given what our family has been through, I think it will be just fine.
There is no such thing as “behind” in home education. Start each day at each child’s current ability level (ignore so-called “grade level”) and be diligent about making regular progress at each child’s pace – whatever that means. If you do that, each child will end up JUST where GOD intends for them to be when they leave your nest.
Absolutely agree that there is no behind. In fact, I’ve had to work hard to not define where I am based on an idea of being behind. I’ve written about it before — I’ll look for the link. In certain seasons we just step back and do the basics — if that is where you are now — then that is exactly where you need to be.
I agree- there *is* no “behind”. We do year round schooling ourselves, simply because it works better in my household to have scheduled lives as much as possible (one Aspie, one HFA/mild MR, one genius) and we also never let them compare themselves even to each other. There are no “grade levels” just “where are you in this subject today?” It works a lot better. Yes, we DO do tests, and yes we DO hang the test scores on the wall. That’s because they’re very proud of how well they do. Every kid and every family is different.
Fantastic article! I will be doing this this week, I have a ton of things to go through but I always get excited for a new year:-)Really our school years ends in August so we have another 8 months to go but I know it will fly by!
Great post. I am following pretty much all of your steps right now. We had some illness and major distractions last fall that really set us back this year, and I want to start 2012 strong. We can never “catch up” – those 3 months are gone – but I am working on simplifying our routines and working to get back on track. Even without the problems we had, it’s great to take a break to reassess and reorganize mid-year or so. (This is mid-year for us as we start our academic year on July 1.)
Rachel,
How do you handle situations where your children want to learn something else? I’m going down a path…where planning a week at a time…is what I’m doing. Giving the kids and opportunity to identify their path based on their interests….I’m a planner, but when I plan too far ahead….well, we spend more time at odds…. Thanks for your great post. I always enjoy them!
Rebecca, I’d let them help me plan. I’m not a huge planner — at all. I have to plan big things — like those appointments, and ballet schedules, and more. But academic wise? I set goals. I know that by the end of the year we want to finish our math books — so that’s my goal — but I don’t plan it out in a linear fashion for everyday.
If your kids are interested in certain things — plan that in — plan their interest seeking time into your schedule.
Great article, particularly about the planning. When we plan our day, it goes much smoother.
LOL I’ve been doing ALL these things this past week as we’re on winter break and half way through our school year.
I love the freedom of throwing curricula out the window if it’s not working for us! that was so freeing the first time i realized it – although sometimes i’m too stubborn to do it mid-year.
i also think it’s great to include the kiddos and ask them what’s working, what’s not, what’s their favorite school memory so far, etc. Sometimes they’re answers are surprising!
Oh my…I meant “their” answers! Not “they’re.”
Yes, I homeschool my kids. Sigh.
I haven’t finished my coffee yet, please forgive me.
Hee hee! Coffee is a necessary “school supply” here, too.
A very timely article. Most of my planning this week is in the forms of a)decluttering everything that has been left out since August, and b) plotting ways to make money from home so I can quit this job and homeschool the way we used to. Probably some of your planning tips and portfolios (which I haven’t touched) would be a good idea too. Sigh…..
This time of the year is great for evaluating and making changes! I did some of this the other night. I wrote our lesson plans into my planner for the next 6 weeks, evaluated where we are in our various subjects compared to where I want us to be, and bought a few things online for this semester. One change I’m making is to teach my 5 yr old to read this year. I had planned to wait until the fall when she started Kindergarten but she’s ready to learn so I’m going ahead with it now.
I plan on following through with all and adding emphasis on number 6. This is our 2nd year homeschooling but our 1st year was rough. I appreciate and digest any and all little tid bits that seasoned homeschoolers through my way. Good food for thought. TU 🙂
Thank you so much everyone for your generous advice! Your encouragement is so valuable and I thoroughly appreciate it!!!! Happy New Year!
Rachel: A friend just recommended your site to me. So amazing how much we share in common. We homeschool, my husband is battling cancer – but most of all we LOVE the Lord. I am also blogging about what we do (gluten-free, sugar-free & organic for the treatment plus being spiritually healthy at http://www.homecookedhealthy.com) Great ideas you have. Tomorrow is my planning day for the 2nd half of the year. The main ideas are laid out, but need to put in the details – we use Konos for our curriculum which works GREAT with our boy. I asked him today what he really liked and didn’t about the first half of the year. Humm, I forget was what he said – too funny. Mom doesn’t forget and we will be changing a few things!
Great ideas! Thank you! This week we rested and are getting our house reorganized…and redesigning my blog. This weekend a little work and a lot of play celebrating New Year’s at home as a family. Next week, I am planning to sit down and look at where we are and how far we have come and what my new goals are for our sons in homeschooling for the rest of this “school year”. I appreciate the great advise on how to go about that. God bless you and Happy New Year!!!
Thank you for sharing!! Ringing in the New Year and love it – Happy Homeschooling everyone!!
This describe my week perfectly! Great article.
About to embark on HS with my son who is 9 1/2 and is doing some 4th grade and some 5th grade work. I am disappointed at the level of education he is getting at a private school and felt it was in his best interest to be home schooled. I am over whelmed at where to start and could use some advice and suggestions about where to start on a budget:(
Thanks in advance for any help:)
Lisa Travieso