How to Plan Your Home School Year, Part 1

I have been homeschooling since 1991. I thought it high time I share some of my knowledge to make it it available to newer home schoolers.

When approaching a new school year, I always begin my planning with a word document I created to be my 36-week Daily Lesson Planner. I keep a blank template, and as the new year approaches I create a template for the new school year. I insert dates and holidays onto the weeks first, and determine when the school year will begin. 

My holiday dates this year are:

Labor Day - 9/7/15

Thanksgiving (week) - 11/23-27/15

Christmas break (includes New Year's Day) - 12/21/15-1/1/16

Spring Break - 3/28/16-4/1/16

Memorial Day - 5/30/16

I do not take all the same holidays as the public school. I plan way more school time than 36 weeks/180 days to give us flexibility. For instance, last year we took a week's vacation in late September. We still are finishing school before the local public school. (Part of that is because we also don't have to take snow days -- the public school had to ADD days in June to make up for snow days taken this past year.)

Once I have loaded the holidays worked into the schedule, I can calculate an approximate end date based on 36 weeks of classes/180 days of classes. The end date is not firm yet. I want to keep my options open. I might tack on week 37 just for a cushion.

I next went through the schedule, and in a little box in the upper left hand corner indicated the grade my son is in. Next I altered the subject column, since my high school son is taking different subjects than on the original template. Here's the current view.

What I actually did, that you can also do, is:

1) take a 2-page Monday - Friday Spread as my total document;

2) entered the grade;

3) entered the courses;

4) replicated the 2-page spread to be a 43-week document;

5) entered the holidays and dates.

Lesson Plans for Term:           1         Week:          1    .

                    Beginning:                                                               Student:                                                         .

	M O N D AY	T U E S D A Y	W E D N E S D A Y
BIBLE
MATH
SCIENCE
LANGUAGE ARTS
LITERATURE
HISTORY
GEO-GRAPHY
ARTS
PHYS ED /HEALTH

Tomorrow I will talk about how to use my 36-Week Daily Lesson Planner to plot out your various subjects.

Page 2

Week 1      

T H U R S D A Y	F R I D A Y	N O T E S