planning + preparing for a new school term (free resource)

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I'm going to share a cringe moment from my early years as a homeschool mama: when my oldest son was ready for some gentle preschool work, I became overly excited and temporarily lost my mind. I printed off enough material for an entire Montessori school, organized it in 47 binders, laminated 500 flashcards, and made an hour-by-hour plan for an entire 356 days.

You can probably guess the end of this story already. It took about 5 minutes to get off track on our first day and I felt like a complete and total failure. Since that time, I've traded in my binders and surrendered my year-long plan in favor of a more moderate approach. In doing so, I've opened our home to more freedom and flexibility with large doses of joy and peace along the way.

Since home education always requires some measure of planning and preparation, I want to give you a behind-the-scenes peek into how I tackle this process with grace and simplicity these days. I should preface this by sharing that our family has adopted a year-round schooling rhythm and much of our formal education plans fit in and around other family life elements. This is the beauty of home education — it's not just a cut-and-dry education choice, it's a beautiful, rich lifestyle shift.

My husband and I spend an afternoon each spring brainstorming and dreaming about the months to come — we cover loose vacation plans, upcoming birthday milestones, recurring character issues that need addressing, simple goals, house projects, and a broad overview of the topics to cover in our homeschool studies. By way of an example, here are the topics we selected for the 2020-2021 school year: 

autumn: ancient rome + machines
winter: states and capitals + anatomy
spring: the industrial revolution-the great depression + botany
summer: ohio history + naturalists

You'll note that this broad strokes overview doesn't cover things like composer and artist studies, literature selections, or even specific resources. Those decisions are worked out in smaller chunks throughout the year. My actual pen-to-paper planning and prep work happens during the breaks between terms and I'm only ever looking ahead at the next 6 or 12 weeks. I simply start with our daily rhythm and work down the list to cover: faith studies (Bible, hymns, memory work), family studies (history, geography, science, and nature), individual studies (language arts, math, reading), truth and beauty studies (music, poetry, art, handicrafts, recitation, literature), and afternoon occupations (foreign language, lessons, typing).

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faith studies: bible, hymns, memory work

plan: My husband and I touch base to select a devotional or Bible reading plan and chose which 2-3 hymns we'll cover that term. Our memory work usually comes from Awana passages or we'll select a longer piece of Scripture for the whole family to memorize together.

prep: I simply have to make sure we have the devotional hand and print off lyric sheets to add to our family hymnal and music wall.

real-life example: This term, we're working through the first six weeks of Foundations: 12 Biblical Truths to Shape a Family by Troy and Ruth Simons alongside a review of the hymns we already know from our Family Hymnal and Prayer Journal. This year, we're pushing pause on Awana to simplify a bit. Instead, we'll be including my parents in our Scripture memory work with a family subscription to Dwell.

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family studies: history, geography, science, nature

plan: I refer to our overview for the year to see what topics we're supposed to cover for the coming term. I pick a spine (either one or two books or a simple study) and one read-aloud selection for each subject (one for history/geography and one for science). I research some projects and activities to scatter along the way that coordinate with our readings. And for nature studies, I pick a read-aloud from our shelf (typically something in the vein of nature lore) and have the boys pick a special studies project.

prep: I make sure we have all our books, divide the readings across the term into our weekly intention sheets, match up the projects and activities with where they fit best in our readings, and make a list of supplies I need to gather each week. The boys and I also spend a few minutes looking up books that cover their special nature studies to reserve from the library along with some videos to watch on Youtube throughout the term.

real-life example: This term, we're studying States and Capitals. We'll explore our country through The 50 States by Gabrielle Balkan and 50 Adventures in 50 States by Kate Siber alongside some games, songs, and activities to help us memorize. We'll also learn how to draw a map of the United States using Draw the USA by Kristin Draeger and we'll create a passport with states we'd like to visit from each region. We're also studying Anatomy — Blood and Guts by Linda Allison will serve as our spine for readings and experiments along with Galen and the Gateway to Medicine by Jeanne Bendick for our read-aloud. We'll also be adding to a Body Systems project each week. Our nature study will cover material by our favorite naturalist, Jim Arnosky — we'll work through his PBS drawing videos, read two of his books on studying wildlife, and put it all into practice with our nature walks and journaling!

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individual studies: language arts, math, and reading

plan: We've used Math Mammoth for the past 4 years and LOVE its flexibility for our family, so I don't have to do a lot of research or planning in the area of arithmetic. Each grade level contains two worktexts, so as a rough guide, I know we need to complete the first book over our autumn and winter terms and the second book over our spring and summer terms. For language arts, we use Arrow Guides from Brave Writer — so I pick one or two of these for each term based on what piece of literature we'd like to tackle next. For official reading, my boys cover 1-2 books individually each month — we work together to rotate topics between something that relates to our science study, history study, and a personal selection.

prep: I note which of our math lessons have coordinating games or videos and rough out how many we'll need to cover over the course of the term. I print off our Arrow Guide and familiarize myself with the grammar and writing concepts, make sure we have the coordinating book and divide the readings across the term. I purchase or reserve any books my boys need for their individual readings and divide the chapters across the coming weeks along with space for them to complete their written narrations and illustrations.

real-life example: My boys are finishing up books 3A and 4A in Math Mammoth and we'll be adding in a few weeks of fun tutoring with my mama via Zoom for some extra multiplication drill and games. In language arts, we'll be covering The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, and my middle boy will be reading The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, while my oldest will tackle Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis. 

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truth + beauty studies: fine arts, handicrafts, recitation, literature

plan: This is where I pick our composer, poet, and artist for the term, along with what handicraft skills we want to explore.

prep: Taking our fine art selections, I choose 6 specific pieces of art, music, and poetry alongside biographical info from online sources. On occasion, I'll find a good biography or two from the library that serves as an introduction to our composer, artist, or poet. I'll make sure we have enough Squilt pages printed off for our composition listening activities, art prints sent to the printer, and poetry selections marked. The boys peruse the poetry with me and select one or two they want to focus on for recitation. And I take our literature readings from history, science, and language arts and plug them into each week.

real-life example: This term, we are studying the music of Tchaikovsky — I've picked 5 famous pieces alongside an overview of his life from Classical Kids, Tchaikovsky Discovers America. I've read up on Winslow Homer so that I can share tidbits of his life and work with the boys over the term and I've picked 6 pieces of his art to feature. The boys picked "The Land of Counterpane" and "Block City" from our book of Robert Lewis Stevenson poetry for their recitation and I've marked 6 other poems to highlight along with reading his biography in the front of our Poetry for Young People book on his life and work.

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afternoon occupations: foreign language, lessons, typing

plan: This area requires the least amount of hands-on preparation from me as it's largely independent work. My boys are studying Spanish, taking online piano lessons, and learning to type with a copywork style format.

prep: I simply make sure they have the materials needed for each of these activities — books and printed materials along with a charged laptop and iPad.

real-life example: This term, my boys are working through the next unit in Hoffman Academy for their piano lessons, moving through Book 2 and Book 3 from The Good and the Beautiful for typing, and they use our family iPad for working through their lessons in Duolingo for Spanish.

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In total, it takes me 1-2 afternoons during the break periods between our terms for me to jot down our plans, gather materials, reserve books at the library, and divide the work across the term into our weekly intention sheets. Since we only plan for four days each week in our official books and lessons, there is always flexibility and margin to move things around as needed to fit with whatever happens in our family life each week.

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if this style of planning and preparation feels like a good fit — give it a trial run!

to that end, i'd love to offer the google document i designed and use throughout the year to guide my own planning and preparation. after joining the free resource library, you can download it directly to your google drive and adjust it to fit your family’s season and needs. this 8-page resource includes three main tools alongside real-life examples:

+ term overview — for quickly capturing all that you’ll be studying
+ subject overview — to put all the materials and details for each subject in one place
+ weekly intention sheet — a flexible tool to plug and play lessons and assignments

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