Planning

 I absolutely love planning out the school year. I love the look of fresh notebooks and binders, opening the new curriculum (or re-using some old for a different child), looking at the meet-ups of our homeschool group...

Mostly, I love figuring out what books we're going to read* as a family.

Now, we do Classical Conversations (CC), which isn't for everyone but I highly recommend you take a look at it if you are not sure what you need to do this year. I say that because that will give you a glimpse into our homeschool model. 

We mostly school the classical method, lots of reading and memory work for the younger ages, then building from there. Personally, we keep it very simple. Many CC families supplement a lot of other curriculum into their school - which is fine if that works for them. Us, the only thing I supplement is math. We follow the CC curriculum for basically every subject. We read* a TON of historical novels and biographies that go along with the history of this cycle. We also love the podcast Real Cool History for Kids.

 

Anyway, back to the planning thing. I want to share two book series, by the same authors, that my girls absolutely love and is also great for boys. Heroes of History and Christian Heroes:Then and Now. These are great biographies, and as read-alouds they are good even for slightly younger ages than those who could read them by themselves. 

Another aspect of planning is.... the planner. There are so many options out there! From a typical calendar planner, to fancy ones you can buy of Etsy, you can find almost anything. It's so overwhelming, but I dove in with a vengeance this year.

Honestly, until this year, I didn't use a planner. I bought a spiral notebook for each child, wrote the week on the top of a page, and Monday-Friday wrote out what I expected of them each day. Because we keep things simple, that worked great for us - until last year. My oldest added a writing and grammar curriculum (Essentials in the CC world) and both wanted to learn an instrument. I couldn't keep up by the end of the year. So, I'm hoping/praying to find something better this year.

Planning is a reminder to me of God's promise in Lamentations, that His compassion never fail but are renewed every morning - great is His faithfulness! 

We too get a new chance. Maybe school didn't go well last year. Maybe starting is a struggle we don't want to face, or the end was all tears.  We got a new chance at this he educating thing. A chance to focus on what is important and take a new look at what is needful.

So, I'll end with a question that I hope to answer myself for you in the coming month. This question is key to planning, because if you don't know why you are doing what you are doing, or where you want to go, then planning is kinda... pointless.

The Question: Why are you homeschooling?

This could be answered many ways. What made you start, why do you continue... but really, what is your goal for this year and the years to come? Do you take it only one year at a time, or are you in it for the long haul?

Feel free to comment and share your answer - or comment with any awesome planners you have found, books/series you recommend, etc. I love to hear what works for others!

God bless!

*Read being sometimes I read aloud during lunch, but often we listen to audiobooks. I have fallen in love with audiobooks because my 3 year old doesn't like when I read aloud for more than 5 minutes, so I can quietly keep her occupied while we listen for 30+ minutes.