Homeschool Planning Step One: Setting Subjects & Goals
Your first step in planning your homeschool year should be creating a general overview of what you and your child will learn and accomplish over the course of the year. This can include academic subjects like math, science, and history, as well as unit studies on topics like horses, space, or dinosaurs. You should also set specific, achievable goals for your child, such as being able to write in cursive or memorizing all of the times tables to 12×12. Make sure that your goals are appropriate for your child’s age and development level.
Ages 1 to 3 years old:
This age range is more about learning through everyday life and play, rather than academics. It’s a good time to set some simple goals, like developing life skills, learning a new language, improving large motor skills (like climbing on the playground), and basic fine motor skills (like holding a crayon). This age should be free of stress and pressure when it comes to learning.
Preschool & Kindergarten:
This is a good age to start working on academic goals, like learning the letters of the alphabet and their corresponding sounds, or being able to recognize and write numbers up to five. Other goals could involve learning how to print their name. This is also a good age for having goals around doing easy chores, like emptying the dishwasher, cleaning up toys, and putting laundry away. Unit studies, which involve being hands-on and creative, are a great way to teach and learn for this age group since most young learners do well with this method.
Elementary Years:
As you begin to consider your goals for the future, you may want to start following a more specific plan. However, don’t make your plans too complicated or overwhelming. You should also decide whether you want or need to follow the government’s curriculum outlines. Make sure to cover the essential subjects, like math, reading, and writing, but also consider adding extra subjects that your child is interested in. By taking your child’s interests into consideration, you can create a plan that they will be more likely to stick to.
Some ideas for getting them to help come up with ideas of what they want to accomplish in a year:
- Use a website that runs online classes then ask your child to look through the list of what they offer to see if anything catches their eye.
- Here’s an idea that you can do with your children – have them create a vision board for the year. Cut/paste pictures or words of things they want to accomplish or attempt throughout the school year. You can divide up the page into sections to focus on, like academics, social, spiritual, physical, financial, etc. This is a great way to see what your child’s goals are, and to help them figure out what steps they need to take to get there.
- Write a list of favorite topics or subjects they are curious about, then see how you can use these in your school year.
Middle School:
Many people see middle school as a transitional period between elementary school and high school. They often want to make the coursework more challenging, promote independent learning, and help kids be more purposeful in their studies. However, it is not necessary to make major changes. Some recommendations for gently easing into a more academic focus include using topics that interest your child as a starting point for more intentional learning programs.
High School:
During the fourth year of school, students generally take more specialized classes. This is the time when students need to decide if they want to get an “official” diploma from the government through accredited programs, or if they just want to do their own thing without worrying about a diploma. In general, classes are divided into two sections: core subjects and electives. Core subjects typically include math, sciences, language arts, and social studies, while electives can be anything outside of these core subjects, such as photography, computer studies, business, or music. Students should get an idea of how many classes they want to complete in a year, as these are known as credits. Credits are awarded based on the amount of hours completed on a subject or the amount completed of a course. The fourth year of school is a good time to evaluate passions and goals for a student’s current and future life.
THE BIG PICTURE
The first step is to focus on what you want your homeschool to achieve, not just the curriculum you will use.
If you’ve never made a homeschool mission statement, now’s your chance. Get creative with it: you can jot down words and ideas, make a Pinterest board, a collage, or even a series of drawings. It’s okay if it’s not super realistic, because this is about dreaming. If you’re stuck, think about that future day when your homeschooler is graduated. What do you want him to look back and think about his homeschooling experience? What will he have accomplished through his years of home education? You need a clear vision of where you want to go before you start drawing a map.
At the same time as you are working on a one or two sentence description of your students learning style, ask yourself what work does your student enjoy? Does she prefer to read or do hands on work? Does she like to experience things or does she prefer to analyze what she is learning?
When you are planning your homeschool curriculum, you should keep your homeschool goals in mind, as well as what kind of learning style your child has. If a certain lesson plan or activity meets both of these criteria, then it is likely a good choice for your homeschool.
Create a list of things that don’t work in your homeschool, such as workbooks or narrations, to help you avoid them when planning.
NAME YOUR TOPIC
Now you will direct your focus on the topic you want your curriculum to tackle. Maybe you are determined to cook up an animal studies curriculum or you are yearning for a good U.S. history program. Take a little while to consider what you want your curriculum to achieve. Are you interested in a broad introduction? Is mastery your goal? Do you want to work with big themes or specific chronologies? Use your homeschool goals and student’s learning style to guide you as you narrow your focus: Your student who loves knowing about the people behind historic events may be inspired by an art history curriculum that focuses on the lives and works of great artists, while a hands-on, creative kid may respond better to a curriculum that focuses on techniques and allows them to experiment with the styles of great artists.The name you give your class will help you to focus on what is important, and this will make it easier to find the relevant information.
BIG PICTURE SCHEDULE
To help you get organized, you should break down how much time you want to spend on your curriculum on a weekly basis. You will be able to include more information if you spend more time on it. Be honest about how much time you want to spend so you can focus on what is most important. If you know you have a busy schedule, be realistic about the time you have to spend.
Some things to consider when planning your homeschool curriculum are the type of work you want your student to do and how it meshes with their learning style. You may want to look at a “What Your X-Grader Needs to Know” list to see if there are any academic milestones that would be a good fit, like writing a research paper or doing a science project.
BREAK IT DOWN
The work of curriculum planning typically begins with identifying existing curricula related to the desired topic. This can be done by searching online for free resources, consulting books shelves, or borrowing copies from friends. It can be helpful to maintain a notebook, Pinterest board, or master document where key information such as topics covered, reading lists, organization, projects and activities, special tools or equipment, can be recorded.
If you’re putting together a curriculum on Big Issues in Philosophy, you may want to tackle topics like truth, beauty, love, and goodness. If you’re working on a grammar curriculum for your elementary student, you may break it down into smaller sections on nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, sentences, and punctuation. You may also need to go back and start over a few times as you work, but eventually, you should be able to see an outline for your subject emerge.
THE FUN STUFF
Before you start scheduling reading and projects, consider the opportunities for fun in your curriculum. Look for field trip opportunities. Consider creating a soundtrack to go with your class—for example, songs inspired by poetry for a poetry curriculum, or a chronological journey through American musical history for American history. Find movies and documentaries to support your studies. These extras are often the things that make the biggest impression on your students, so make room for them from the beginning instead of trying to squeeze them in as you go along.
COMPILE YOUR RESOURCES
Make a list of all the materials you want to include in your class. Include any book, workbook, or activity that you think you might possibly want to use. Knowing that you’ve really done a thorough job of listing all your resource options will make it easier to narrow down to the dozen or so resources you can actually use.
After you have made your list, begin to whittle it down. You won’t need ten different books on cells for a life science class, so it is important to compare titles with each other to decide which one is really the best. As you do this, something interesting will occur: You’ll begin to feel like an expert—you’ll feel good about the choices you’re making, the resources you’re choosing and the ones you’re leaving out, because you’ll have a strong understanding of your subject and the available materials. You may make copies of chapters from different books, taking a section from this title and a timeline from that one, and clip them together into a book for your class. Or you may just want to make notes to yourself about what you’re reading and why.
PUT IT TOGETHER
Your outline from above will now be used to fill in your topic breakdown. Write down the fun activities and resources you will use for each topic next to the topic name. If you find that you have left a topic without a good resource, go back to your resource list to fill in the blank. Alternatively, you may find that your plan includes too much of a particular topic and you will have to get rid of some of the materials. Once you have finished, check your plan against your resource list and your fun stuff list. Make sure you have not left out anything that you really wanted to include. Make sure you are excited about each topic. Go back and change each section until it feels perfect.
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