Just curious how much time ya’ll spend planning school days. And do you do most of your planning before the school year starts, on a weekly bases, daily, etc?? Thanks!
I try to plan on the weekends, but lately it’s turned in daily planning:( I will be planning out topics for unit studies for the year:) I’m in the process of trying to streamline lesson planning and finding a system that works for us.
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@CindyLu I do things a little bit differently. During May, I plan out the entire year - sort of. I take each curriculum and determine how many lessons/how many per week, and divide it up by quarters. By the end of each quarter, I should be at XX point.
Then, as I start the new term (June 15 is when our new year starts), I plan on Sunday for the week ahead. In pencil. 
Life happens, you know?
The whole point of the “master plan” is to make sure that I hit the target by each quarter. Some days I may do more, other days we may do less, but I am still looking at mile markers to make sure we don’t fall behind.
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Last year we used a pre-planned curriculum and I ended up planning once a week when we started changing it. This year I am making daily plans but not by date. We figured a schedule that allows plenty of days off for life but still gives planned breaks at holidays and in the summer. I am praying that this system is a good fit! I have spent several hours on it this month but if it works well I imagine next year’s planning will be easier. 
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This year I planned in a way that was very similar to @KathiJohnson as far as planning out the entire year ahead of time. Then I also planned over the weekend for the week ahead (specifics as far as experiments, online activities, library resources were usually planned out two weeks in advance, etc.). I found that when I planned ahead for the entire year (benchmarks for where we needed to be at every target point), it was much easier to know if we were on track and to plan weekly for where we were at that point. We definitely didn’t stay “on schedule” this year per our “goal” but I know we got WAY more done that we have in the past two years without that plan. And I am definitely going to stick with this plan for next year and am really looking forward to mapping next year out as soon as we finish up this year at the end of next week But I love organization, so this kind of planning is actually how I like to spend a Saturday afternoon! lol!
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@erica plans the entire year…of course she leaves room for adjustment. 
She has some friends and they get together and have a “planning weekend” and I keep the kids entertained. They usually do it right about now. She gets her curriculum figured out and much like KathiJohnson lays it out. She has been bugging me for a couple of years to create her some software to help with that. I may actually do that this summer 
She’s blogged about it a couple of times if anyone missed it.
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In late July or August, I will print some free “off the web” 8.5 X 11 monthly calendars and plan the whole year - each subject. It takes me about 8 hours per child - two days of thinking and planning and writing for a reasonably well planned and functional year. I do this in pencil.
I make two copies the calendars and put the each boy’s nine months of calendars in a plastic sleeve. Then I mark off each day as it is completed.
The second copy goes in the permanent record I keep as a reference and a proof of material covered. After the year is over, I add the marked up ones as reference and “Halleluiah” we made it!
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I get all science and history units planned the spring before the new year (we begin in September). I also make a tentative schedule for which months I want to do particular science and history units. Then, once the year gets going, I plan 1x each month - then on the weekends I can just quickly grab any extra special materials I’ll be needing. It works great for us
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Thanks, Kathi. That’s pretty much how I’d like my lesson planning to look…I just get thrown off course too easily I need to work on persistence!
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Thanks, @Forchristandkids. I think this is the plan I need to strive for. It’s hard for me to find a chunk of time to get it all done, but I think planning everything before the year starts is my goal for the summer!
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Good to know approximately how much time you spend per child. I think I would need about that much too–it just feels like so much! I enjoy lesson planning–just don’t know if I’m overdoing it. Thanks for your feedback
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I pre-read the new math book and group concepts in page amounts that the boys can handle. Then I make my assignments in a list format for the year. For example: Lesson 12 - pages 16 and 17. Lesson 21 page 26.
The Lesson numbers get transferred to the yearly calendar.
It makes it easier to have thought through the whole of the book and then break it into manageable parts. It really has allowed me to individualize the speed of learning. One son is very good at longer assignments. For the other son a page may be too long some times.
I love to read through and plan and think about how the lessons will work out. When I do my planning, my husband and sons let me have the time - for the most part - UNINTERUPTED. That is so nice and I can think and plan and read to my heart’s content . . .
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I do the majority of my planning before the school year starts. Some subjects are easy–math, I simply decide how to divide up the lessons over the year. If we can test out of some early lessons to make “wiggle room” for later on, I write down how many I’d like to try to test out of. I don’t do any kind of individual daily plan (such as day 3, lesson x on concept y). I simply write down what we do when we do it. If we put in the days and follow the yearly plan, it all gets done. If I build in wiggle room, it’s okay if we hit a struggle spot. Not much time spent at all on this.
Some subjects take more time. When I used Sonlight, it was also pretty open and go, so I didn’t do much planning. Now we are more eclectic, so I spend some time choosing books, and then deciding an order for those books. Usually I include a few “optional” books in case we get ahead of schedule. And, I star the most important ones, so if we get behind, I can cross off a less important book and save it for later. I come up with a yearly plan that says what week we’ll start each book. Usually I can come up with a good plan for the year in about a weekend. During the year I can open and go.
I put some thought into our schedule–what order will we do things, what can one child do while I work with another one on one, how to divvy up computer time, things like that. Sometimes it takes a few tries to come up with the right schedule. We generally start gradually with one new curriculum and one familiar curriculum. Work for a couple of days, then add in one or two more. This way we can get a feel for how things will work best without getting overwhelmed.
I try to pre-read any controversial books or lessons over the summer.
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@Merry I really like how you introduce a new curriculum along side a familiar one! I will be using this method for next year:)
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I find it difficult to plan further than a couple weeks out, because lessons and pace need to be constantly adjusted for each child. If one of my kids grasps something very quickly, we move on. On the other hand, if something just isn’t making sense to one of my kids, I hold back and often switch to a completely different approach. In one case, I just skipped math facts memorization and went on to higher level problems and let my daughter learn her facts while using them. I just can’t predict how things will go for each child, so I can’t plan that far ahead.
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I like to check out ahead of time, how many lessons each curriculum will need to be completed, then from there I can have it sort of organized each month. Sometimes I find other activities that I would like to add to a subject, so I try to leave room for those too. This year I ended up leaving the field trips for now the last week of our school year, but I would like to have them throughout the year for the next school year!
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