Some of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to homeschooling are about scheduling. How do you plan for the year? What does a typical day look like? When does a parent work? How do you make time for everything? With all the opportunities to choose from, where do I even begin?
This week, we hope to tackle exactly those questions!
There is no right way to homeschool and it takes a while to figure out what will work for your own family. What works one day, may be different from what works another. Fine tuning your homeschool routines will be an ever evolving process. An important first step in this process is putting time into setting up systems that work.
Schedules and routines will help!
Strict schedules are difficult to stick to, and with most homeschool families the word “routines” may be more accurate. The main thing is that, in the homeschool life, having some structure to your day is crucial for maintaining everyone's sanity. Routines are balancing and grounding. Tending to the practical aspects of homeschooling can free up your emotional resources and help you to meet this daily adventure with more peace, trust, and patience.
Considering both the emotional and practical elements of homeschooling is something that is key when talking about schedules because they are both equally important. Yes, schedules are great, and no, you will not be able to stick rigidly to any schedule, so you have to develop the capacity to accept (perhaps even welcome) the reality that your schedule will be upended.
Being flexible and having realistic expectations will serve you well throughout the year.
This week we will be posting about all things scheduling and will go from the macro level to micro. We’ll start with the overall, big picture plan and continue narrowing until we get to the day to day schedule.
Day 1 - The Big Picture
Day 2 - The Yearly Plan
Day 3 - The Weekly Schedule
Day 4 - The Daily Rhythm
Day 5 - Taking a Break
The Big Picture - Getting Started
Grab some paper and pencil, or your computer, or some paints and a paintbrush. This can be a creative time for you, and you can get this information down in whatever way feels best for you and feels engaging. Let's get to it!
Parent’s Goals :
Before any homeschooling plans take shape, it is important to take some time to reflect and set some goals for the year. These goals do not have to all be academic.
Social and emotional goals (taking more responsibility with household chores, taking care of personal hygiene with fewer reminders, cleaning up after making a mess, better coping strategies…) are often at the top of the list here.
Journaling is a good place to start. As you think about your home, your family culture, each individual child, and yourself, you can write about what is working and what isn’t. Journaling can help crystalize the biggest priorities for this year in your family’s life.
Your goals will be more meaningful and also more likely to be met, if they are personalized, and you do not just follow the standardized academic goals for your state.
Children’s Goals:
If it’s age appropriate, asking your children to come up with goals for the year is a powerful tool in getting them to take ownership of their growth. If they are not
comfortable with writing, they can dictate their goals, and you can write them down.
Goal making can be fun and a great activity to help launch your homeschooling year. What are they interested in learning this year? Are there any projects they have been meaning to get to? Are they hoping to advance belts in martial arts? Language goals? Music goals? Lego building goals?
Listening to and including your children in the planning process will help set the tone for the year and differentiate homeschool life from school life. Some children may be motivated by the idea of revisiting all the goals at the end of the school year to see how much was accomplished.
Self-Care Check-in:
It is important to stay present with how the adults in the scenario are doing. Where is your support system? Having at least one person in your life who you can debrief with and who will celebrate your wins and not judge your inevitable stumbles is GOLD.
Taking care of yourself is another biggie that many parents struggle with. Are you getting any exercise? Sleeping well? Eating well? When we take care of ourselves it is easier to tackle whatever gets thrown at us, and with homeschooling, that can be a lot.
If homeschooling is feeling overwhelming, what parts of it can you outsource? Can your partner or another family take on one or two of the subjects? Khan Academy? Duolingo?
Thinking realistically about what you can commit to and prioritizing your own needs will go a long way in keeping the homeschooling experience feeling doable.
Good luck with Day 1! And as you write down your goals and get ready to move into the next step of planning, be sure to keep in mind that this will be an evolving process, and we must remember to:
Be patient!
Finding a schedule that works for your family takes time, be easy on yourself as you figure out what is going to be right for your own unique family culture.
Be flexible!
The home school is different from the school school.
Rigid schedules are hard to maintain in a living, breathing, ever-changing family system.
Fine-tuning is a constant in the scheduling life of a homeschooler.
Be open!
Recognizing moments of joy and nourishing moments of love and connection are crucial and important to acknowledge. Cultivating gratitude for these moments can help make all the times of tension easier to take.
Use inevitable hiccups as grist for the mill; learn from what isn’t working; make some changes; try again.
See you tomorrow, where we will dive into the year’s plan!
Comments