Getting Ready for the Homeschool Year

Whether you're new to homeschooling or have been doing it a few years, the task of preparing for the new school year can seem intimidating. Sometimes just the thought of record-keeping seems overwhelming. Planning the lessons might feel a bit daunting.

With a little bit of planning before the school year starts, you can lift that weight right of your shoulders and feel ready to meet the new school year head-on.

Step 1: Plan a school year, complete with holidays and breaks.

Nobody's school year will look exactly the same. The first thing you need to do is embrace the fact that that's okay! One of the many benefits of homeschooling is having flexibility.

Before you actually start writing down dates and holidays, consider all the factors.

Does your state require a certain number of school days? (You'll need to plan at least that many, plus a few extra for when sick days happen.)
Are there other family members who work for or have children in the public school system? (You may want to follow their spring and Christmas breaks, perhaps.)
Do you want to go year-round or take the summer off? (If you school year-round, you'll be able to plan more breaks or have a shorter school week.)
What holidays, birthdays or vacation times do you really want to break from school for?

Now that you've got that out of the way you can pull out your calendar, dayplanner, or computer organizer and start scribbling away. Mark a start date, an end date and mark all the holidays and breaks in between. Do it in pencil - you may change your mind.

The average school year runs around 36 weeks. Feel free to adjust that a little, as long as you meet your state's requirements.

Step 2: Set a pace.

You don't need to plan out every lesson for every day, a whole year in advance. If you got behind, changed your mind, or even got ahead - it would take too much of your time to go through and make all those changes.

But you do need to set a pace. You don't want to get to the end of your school year and realize you're only halfway through your math curriculum. A little bit of time and a notepad or Excel spreadsheet will help you plot that all out.

One at a time, peek at the curriculum for each subject to see how many chapters or lessons are included. With some quick math, divide that number by the number of school weeks you just planned and you'll now have a minimum number of lessons to complete each week. You can always speed up or slow down if you need to - making sure the child is really learning well is more important than checking off our to-do lists. But this will give you a good starting pace for the year.

After you've completed this for each subject, you'll also be able to get a feel for what the work load each week will be like. You may find yourself saying things like, "Oh look, we only have to make it through one science chapter a week!" Seeing it all laid will help you mentally prepare for what lies ahead.

Step 3: Set up a record keeping system.

It's important to check your state requirements to see if and what you need to record and keep. Even if your state doesn't require this sort of thing, it's a good idea to keep good records for several reasons.

It will help your sense of accomplishment as well as your child's.
It would be beneficial if your home school was ever called into question.
You will need to begin keeping records at some point for a school transcript and diploma when your children are ready for college. It will be helpful if you already have a system in place.

There are several home school record keeping systems available online for free or for a low fee:

After choosing a record-keeping system, begin by entering your school dates and holidays. Using your list you created to set your pace, go ahead and enter lesson plans for the first week or two. You don't want to plan too far ahead because of the reasons we've already mentioned. However, having the generic list you've created will make it easier to plan specific lessons at the beginning of each week.

Once school gets going, use your record keeper to record your children's grades at the end of the day, or even at the end of the week. The lessons will already be in there since you planned ahead, and all you'll have to do is add the numbers. If you want to record the amount of time spent, jot that down at the bottom of each assignment or on a notepad as they complete each one so you'll have that information later. The record-keeping that seemed so daunting before will flow smoothly if you make a plan and keep up with it.

Step 4: Be diligent but flexible.

Allow yourself a bit of flexibility - knowing that different things work for different people, you've gotta do what works for you. If you find it works best for you to sit down at the computer every day and record things immediately - do it. If you find that it's easier for you to keep everything in a binder until the end of the week and then record them - do that. Keep on top of it, though. If you fall too far behind, it may add stress and worry to your day instead of relieving it.

So grab the new school year by the days and months and show it that you're not afraid. Go forth and plan.

Need a real-life example?

I just finished planning our own school year. You can read about that process here:

http://bringinggoodhome.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/school-year-planning-101/

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