For a variety of reasons which I won’t get into here I chose Rod and Staff curriculum for most of our subjects when we started homeschooling twelve years ago. They take a little more planning because they are textbooks. I didn’t want to spend my summer setting up school courses so I came up with a system that allows me to use the same plan each time I use the same textbook.

This is what I came up with…

Subject:_______________________________________________________

Grade:______________ Quarter:_____________

I divide the textbook into four parts and then start filling in this chart – one page for each quarter. I usually try to build some leeway in as well so there is room for field trips, sick days, etc.

Here is a sample of what one of my pages looks like…

As you can see it’s pretty barebones, but since I’m sitting within three to six feet of any student it’s easy to know what is needed. I try to keep my lesson planning as simple as possible. In the younger grades I will read the lesson with the child, but no matter the age I always mark all of their assignments. It’s time consuming, but it gives me an idea of how they’re doing.

Now when I’m ready to start a new school year, I just go to my files and pull out the grades I need. Inside are all the courses already laid out. I transfer all of the grades I currently need to one folder which I keep with my school supplies. Then I take out the “first quarter” sheets for each subject in each grade and put those in my school planning binder.

On Fridays we take a look at what was accomplished that week and plan the next week. Sometimes someone has struggled with something so maybe didn’t quite get all their assigned work finished. I no longer panic about this because I’ve worked some wiggle room into our schedule. I write up our new assignments for next week and fill in everyone’s assignment book so they’ll know what to do the next week.

This system has worked so well for me. It really has taken all the pain out of planning. In ten minutes I can have all my course outlines ready to go for the next year. Occasionally I find a course isn’t working for us and I need to redesign it – the beauty of homeschooling.

I can be fairly OCD at times and this system really makes me feel in control. What do you do to make your homeschool day/week run smoothly?