First year HSing, need help with lesson plans

Ok so explain how best to make this work. We have several books that don’t have quite a full years worth of work in them. For example or Wordly Wise books have 17 weeks with 5 lessons and 1 test. We only school 4 days a week but even so we will be done with the book long before the year is over. What’s the best way to handle this? Go on to the next book? Just be done? If we just been done we have several subjects that we will finish a month or two early. Not sure what to do!

I’m in the same situation with our spelling. We use AAS and there are 28 steps per level or more in the later levels. The first year we used it, we did spelling everyday and finished really early and I just moved on to the next level. The past few years, we only do spelling 2 days a week but we still can go through 2 levels a year.

You could try spreading it out more or moving on to the next level or both. Also, by the end of the year, it’s kinda nice to have some things finished and only be working on the core subjects. I don’t know about you but I start getting the summer itch and I’m ready to be finished so the less the better. :blush:

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This is my first year too and all I did was figure out how many weeks of school we were doing and divided the number of lessons by the number of weeks. That gave me how many days a week I needed to do certain subjects. We are doing AAR and we do it 2x per week. It won’t always be clean math so I’ve added the extra lessons in somewhere. Anyway hope that helps!

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It is always nice to have some flexibility to review or expand parts of a lesson. You might find that you want to do that at times.
I, too, am happy to have some things done earlier in the spring.
My two do retain really well over the summer break so I don’t worry about them forgetting what they have studied.
When we finish a book very early, I give them the choice of continuing on the next level or being done. They sometimes choose to start another level. Often they say wait till fall.

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I try to space things out in advance - predetermine approx. how many lessons per week to have the book finish close to the end of the year. However, there are some things that wrap up 1-2 (or even 3!) months early. For example, last year we used AAS. I think we finished the entire book/level 1 1/2 - 2 months before we were going to be done with school. In this case, I printed out loads of free spelling games (not busy worksheets, although that’s fine also) - and when we had “spelling time” (which used to be AAS) we would break out various spelling games. My daughter loved it. It was a great, fun way to end the year, but still review the things she had worked so hard on. If/when writing, vocabulary, etc end early, I’ll do the same - fill in the space with review games and projects. I hope this helps :smile:

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Depends on what it is. You may be able to alternate some subjects rather than doing them all daily (for example, you could do Vocabulary 2-3 times per week, or take 2 weeks to finish 1 week’s worth etc…)

In the case of AAR and AAS, these programs are meant to be done at your child’s pace. The company recommends doing them 4-5 times per week (3 is the minimum they recommend for the sake of retention). When you finish one, simply go on to the next level. You don’t have to start and stop levels at the beginning/end of the year.

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It might not work for this year if you have already started all your subjects. But a thought for the future…what about staggering the start of subjects. So if you have a subject like Wordly Wise that doesn’t have as many lessons you might start that subject like the 5th or 6th week of school and other subjects that take longer or you find your child needs to spend more time on you start at the beginning of the year so you can work slowly if you need to. Or you could even take a break or alternate different subjects. Instead of doing everything every week, take the things that will finish up early and do them every other week, or do them for two weeks and then take a week off. That is the beauty of homeschooling…the possibilities are limitless and how you structure your year is up to you, and your child’s ability! Good luck.

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When my kids finish up a workbook like vocabulary, or language arts, etc. I generally do not go on to the next year. I feel like if they worked really hard on something - then they should be able to have a break - and not have to worry about so many things to get done for that day. :slight_smile:

I completely agree. But I worry about my kids getting rusty or losing ground in some subjects if we take 4-5 months off. This is our first year so this is new territory for me :slight_smile:

That’s true. :slight_smile: You could always review your words throughout the year. Make them write stories or sentences using the words - that way they don’t forget them. In literature and other subjects - you can always add new words.

Now…

If my kids finish up a core subject early - then they are going to have to go on to the next year’s subject…:slight_smile: lol. But I don’t really worry about the workbooks as much. Kids keep learning those things with the other subjects. :slight_smile: