I plan as we go. I have my curriculum, which is patch worked from some different sources I have and like, I have a formula he follows every day, and then we go at his pace. If I try to plan out, I can get really rigid with progress and frustrated if he’s not where he “should be,” which leads to a lot of problems. We homeschool year-round.
We plan a week at a time. We are behind currently so I’m trying not to stress and take it day by day.
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I have been fortunate to use curriculum that provides a year lesson plan. Each week I look through the plans for the next week, see what we can do together (2 different age groups) and organize it by which activities will need my time and which activity they can work independently. I also will throw in some extras that we may be working on.
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I get all the curriculum I want to try for the year. I start using it and either keep it or go pick something new. Once we discover what we are going to stick with I just follow our “master schedule.” I am unable to type out lesson plans and schedules. I just can’t follow it and it all feels redundant to me. So I follow the curriculums we choose and I just know where we leave off and pick back up. For everything else, like extra fun activities, I just go with what the kids are interested in at any given time and we go to the library and find books and then I plan some corresponding activities. It changes often. As far as a scope and sequence of what I feel my kids should be learning for the year, that is something I look for when I pick a curriculum.
Since we are jut doing prek and pre-pre school we are doing a “plan per week” kinda thing right now. I’m still researching for how to approach next year.
I like to have an overview of what the year will look like, but usually only plan out each week or 2 at a time. That way I can tweak things when necessary, spend more time on things my daughter needs to review and go through lessons at her pace.
I just began homeschooling my 5 year old this year. I have found that planning one to two weeks at a time has helped me this year. It allows me to more easily plan around unexpected things like illnesses.
Brand spanking new to this, so I’m not sure yet!
I usually go through The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer throughout the spring/summer and select curricula based on her recommendations.
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So far, I plan weekly, but I would love to get to a point where I can plan further ahead.
I usually plan for a couple weeks at a time with pen and paper so that we can be flexible with our schedule, but next year I’m going to have a lovely Saturday at Starbucks and plan out the whole year on the computer so that I can just cut and paste changes and print out the plans weekly.
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I try to plan the year out but life always changes my plans. I now consistently just plan a week at a time
I start officially planning in February/ March by going over all the things that worked or didn’t work for us for the year. I write up a list of each topic and what we are using pros, cons etc… Then I start looking around for the topics that need changing so I can be ready for the conference in May (Financially ready and ready to know exactly which curriculum I need to look at before the day comes so I am not overwhelmed!) I research as much curriculum as possible that fit within the style/ goals I am looking for.
In general we do Sabbath Homeschooling 6 weeks on 1 week off which is great for us because just as we start to get tired or our work is starting to get a little sloppy or off track it’s time for our week off which we spend intentionally reading aloud, learning to cook and playing games (which is just the children learning without even realizing it! lol)
Because we know we exactly which weeks we will have off I try to plan what we will do for the month. E.g Ok lets try and finish 2 light units before our sabbath week, or lets try to get this section of Social studies done. I don’t plan for everyday or every week as I was discouraged when we wouldn’t get it all done and so were the children, or I would push them to try and get everything done for the week. Now we write down what we HAVE done for the day/ week and they feel motivated to keep going! Our planning has become a lot more relaxed and funnily enough we get more down with a lot less stress.
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I prefer to plan the year out in advance. If we get side tracked or “life” happens, it gives me a place to jump back on track.
I plan out which curriculum we’re going to use for the next year in the spring. Then I buy it in bits and pieces through the spring (when prices are lower than summer). I use MFW, which has all of it’s stuff organized already. I do look ahead at our LA and Math to get an idea of how much we need to complete each week, but I don’t make rigid lesson plans. We just go along and do the next thing each day.
I take a couple of days during our summer break to plan out what I want our year to look like, plan any weeks/days off and how many lessons need to be done per week. This is the first year we are using the 6weeks on/1 week off schedule and I love it. I take 1 day during our break week and do all of the planning for the next 6 weeks for each of my children. There has been a few days that we didn’t get things done on the scheduled day, but we were able to make it up over the course of the week. I also use pencil for all of my planning so I can easily make changes as needed.
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Since we’ll be new to homeschooling next year, I’m planning to start off with basic goals for the year but planning week to week. That way I can see what pace my oldest son needs to move with his reading especially. Also, we’ve spent several months with lots of illness the last few years, so I don’t want to re-do a lot of planning because we miss school days.
I am new to homeschooling and don’t really have a plan for how to conduct learning for my children. I am actually terrified. The planner seems like it will really help organize my thoughts and plan for the children. Whomever is blessed with this gem will be off to a great start! I love reading everyone’s post on how they plan for their children! Good Luck everyone be blessed!
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I plan out a semester at a time. But it’s not set in stone. And it’s in pencil. Basically I’m writing out how we will get through each subject. I label them by week so I don’t have to have our vacation time figured out. Then I mark on my monthly calendar what week we are in. When we take a day off here or there, we play catch up because I really like being “on schedule.” If we are consistently slower/faster than I had planned, I go through all the weeks and replot that subject at a different pace. This may be my favorite part of homeschooling 
I used to plan out by the entire year, but it was so hard to stay on track. Now I review new products regularly, so it is beneficial to plan from months at a time to weeks at a time, so I can incorporate the products I am reviewing.