Home Education should not complicate things, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed and distracted. After years of fumbling around and trying different things, I have come up with a basic roadmap to follow for planning a homeschool year. There are 5 key parts, also known as the 5 P’s, to a great homeschool plan.
1. Plan with Purpose
Knowing your Purpose for Homeschool is important. Especially when it gets tough! Knowing your “why” and having a mission statement for your homeschool will help keep your focus on track and direct your priorities and goals.
2. Prioritize your Plan
After figuring out your purpose or mission statement, prioritization helps narrow down and order what needs to be done and how often. Much to our dismay, we can’t fit in everything we want. We need to prioritize and decide what is most important to meet our goals and vision for home education. This is where goal setting takes place, while keeping our eyes fixed on the purpose or mission statement. Are your kids still young or are we working toward graduation? What’s most important at each age and stage? What can we let go? Think about the bigger plan and break it down into smaller sections. What do you need to accomplish just this year to meet your bigger goals?
3. Personalize the Plan
Make the plan fit your personality, your child’s interests, and your family’s values and culture. Don’t be afraid to do things differently than what you grew up with or what your neighbor is doing. Every homeschool should reflect the personalities and interests of those involved parents and children alike. This is where you get to put your own spin on things and take advantage of the freedoms of not being boxed in by someone else’s plan or expectations.
4. Make the Actual Plan
Make an actionable plan. This is the part most homeschoolers think about when it comes to homeschool planning. The actual Plan! If we jump in headfirst with no direction or guidance, we will quickly drown in all of our ideas and assumptions of what homeschool should look like. So if you started here go back to #1 and fill in the gaps for a smoother year.
{If the “normal” homeschool planner doesn’t work for you, check out this post!}
5. Track your Progress
As we work toward our goals, we need to step back regularly to assess our progress. Are we staying on track? Does a curriculum need tweaking? Does our routine fit our schedule and needs? Has anything fallen off the plan that needs to be picked up again? Does something need to be dropped for more breathing room? Assess regularly, Qtly is great, Semi-Annually is good, Annually is bare minimum.
This is just a general overview of the homeschool planning framework. Need help on the nitty gritty? Be sure to subscribe for more!