School Planning
When summer sets off is when I like to get started with planning for the next phase...
School Starting!
I have to say, planning for the upcoming school year is one of my favorite things to do.
Organizing, purchasing new school supplies, spending hours pouring over books...those are all of my favorite things combined into one totally awesome experience!
Not to mention that it's the chance for me to start with a clean slate. Forget that I bombed teaching language arts properly or we never finished with all of the math lessons.
Forget about it.
Because at the beginning of a new school I get to school school at being school. I get to look awesome smart and not at all like a slacker mom who once forgot to put a bra on when she left the house.
Some of this stuff you just can't make up folks...
Or that I've bribed a friend with alcohol to teach my kid latin. Again, these are true stories.
But anyway, at the beginning of the school year I can put on real clothes and forget that in two months I'll be wearing my glue covered yoga pants and trying to figure out who thought paper mache was again a good idea.
Here are some of the things to help you start planning for this upcoming homeschool year:
1. Planner!
One of the biggest components for me to be successful in planning is my Homeschool Planner. It's loaded with everything I need to be successful. I have it all in the planner so I can grab and go whether I'm surfing Pinterest for ideas or going to the library to get books for a certain week of school. Whatever it is, it's all in there and I am ready to go.
2. School Supplies
Another thing that helps me to be successful in planning is to start stocking up on school supplies. It's never too early to keep an eye out for a great deal.
This past week I was buying Ziploc bags at Costco (I am probably the ONE person that runs into that store with ONE thing on my list, teehee). And as I was browsing I saw these great deals on pens and pencils:
The Ticonderoga Pencils. 96 of them for $12.96! Holy Moly that's a good deal. Now these do go on sale at back to school time but I don't remember them being this cheap. And even if they are I don't have to push people out of the way to get to the pencil display. They're mine I tell ya, all mine!
These pens though! So I heart colored pens. Have ever since I was a wee bit. But my kids...my kids REALLY like colored pens. Now that they are getting older I am starting to let them use pens. I think learning to correctly write with a pencil is super important. Mind you, I say that as a mom who has dragged her son to a children's hospital week after week after week to work with someone who could help him understand how to hold a pencil. Let's just say form is important in our house. And we still use pencils (hence the 96 mondo box of pencils above) but sometimes you just need to shake things up and use 8000 different pen colors.
And now we can.
3. Organizing or Perhaps Reorganizing
When the last worksheet is done and everything is completed I know that the last thing you want to do this summer is trudge back through all of your school stuff to try to prepare for the next year.
But do it anyway.
Give yourself some time to chill from the situation and then you can charge back in with fresh eyes and a new perspective. Look at the books, manipulatives, supplies, everything from the perspective of your children and what their ages as well as developmental stages will be when coming back in the fall.
It always seems you blink and your kids are grown. I just went through our books and found I had pre reader workbooks for the kids, my kids, who are writing research papers and are gearing up to read Shakespeare next year. Clearly we no longer need the practice on how to trace a triangle.
So out those go. And out go the little bears to help us add. Those type of things. Some of these things don't even take up much room at all but by getting rid of them we can a) find someone to give them to that really needs them and b) it helps to clear the mental clutter.
It's so great to know your classroom is ready for the grades and ages that you will be teaching in the fall, not a mishmash of just a bunch of stuff you've collected along the way, and who in the heck knows what's even in there.
Anyway, I highly recommend going through your things, donating what you are no longer going to use, pitching what's broken or ruined, and reorganize what is going to stay.
That being said let me remind you to only get rid of things that only your youngest is done with. Even if you have quite the age gap or kiddos who learn in completely different ways, the youngest can still benefit from things that your older children have used in school when they get to that stage.
My case in point here is our abacus. I bought it a WAY long time ago because I thought it would be cute. Cute! Emma never even touched the thing. Cal would play with it all of the time but never to do math with. I could have gotten rid of the darn thing years ago. But then this past year Cal was having a really, really hard time conquering multiplication. I pulled that out and discovered he loves learning with it. So keeping things until you are completely through that developmental phase just to be sure, really pays off.
4. Planning "Workshops"
I'm just gonna say it:
Sometimes homeschool planning ain't easy.
I remember last year being holed up in a hotel room trying to combine the sequence and scope of two different homeschool methods or plans.
It was grueling.
I wanted to cry.
I think I grew an ulcer.
But in the end I finished it and it felt great. Through all of the mental hurdles that I posed for myself by doing this, in the end I felt greatly prepared for the upcoming year.
I felt like I owned this school year because I was prepared. I put it together.
I have to mention that I did say I went away and did this in a hotel room. I couldn't imagine all of the crap spread out over the dining room table trying to figure it all out between snipping popsicles open and untangling kite string.
Whether your curriculum is boxed and ready to go or you are starting from the ground up, I would urge you to get away. You certainly don't have to get out of town and I should mention that I was with my husband on a business trip, not on some spa retreat for "homeschool planning". You could go to Panera for a few hours. Or a library. Or somewhere you really love to go just to get out of the house so you can think. Or do it when the kids are in bed and have time to just sit and mull over everything. If you're an early riser during the summer mornings is a really great time to do it. There have been years I've found myself pouring over everything for a couple of hours before our kiddos got up on their summer schedules.
And working on it could mean any number of things: maybe you're pinning things on Pinterest to use for this year. Or writing out a week by week plan of what you're going to do and what supplies you need. Or just reading through teacher manuals to make sure you know what you'll be getting yourself into, ha! Last year I started an all inclusive list of every art supply, thing to buy at goodwill and food item I would need for art projects, history dioramas, science experiments or food exploration. When I went to the store I kept the list with me and could pull it out to see what I needed and how much of it to get. So super helpful!
Whatever it is, carving out some time to plan for the upcoming school year is so important and will really give you a feeling of accomplishment and being ready for the upcoming school year. As I've mentioned before I have to look at this as a full time job rather than just something I do here and there. So preparing for a new project (next school year) is something that goes with treating teaching as a full time job.
Well I hope these help you to feel prepared to prepare for school! Have any more to add? Share them in the comments below, I'd love to know what helps you feel prepared and ready to go for the upcoming school year!
Happy planning!