This week on Homeschool High School Podcast: Scheduling Your Homeschool High School Year Successfully- Special Replay!
Scheduling Your Homeschool High School Year Successfully
We know that many homeschooling moms love scheduling…and many DON’T. Whether you enjoy scheduling, it is a good idea to employ some scheduling skills! High school needs organization and scheduling if you are going to achieve your goals (and your teen graduate in four years).
We often receive questions about the right way to plan and then create schedules for homeschool high schoolers! What is the one right way to schedule your homeschool high school year?
There’s NOT one right way to schedule but there are some tips for developing a schedule that works for you!
Based on what has worked for our 7Sisters families (along with our teens), here are some tips for successfully scheduling your homeschool high school year:
Start with the end in mind.
- Write out your vision or mission statement (click here for a writing your mission statement guide). For our purposes right now, vision and mission are pretty similar.
- A written vision or mission statement really does help you keep your homeschooling family on task.
- It helps you choose curriculum (will it advance the vision or mission? or am I experiencing peer pressure to buy curriculum that just will not fit our needs?)
- When you remember your vision or mission, you can best choose activities that fit the family’s needs. (These days there are SO many options for our homeschool high schoolers that we are often faced with having toooo many activities to choose from.)
- It helps you imagine and create an idea of the kind of homeschool environment you want.
- Do your want a quiet, serious, by-the-book homeschool or a rollicking, spontaneous homeschool (or a mix of both)?
- When you feel stressed, a vision or mission statement can actually help you keep calm and homeschool on.
- A written vision or mission statement really does help you keep your homeschooling family on task.
- Next, set four year goals.
- What do you want your teens to have accomplished by the time they graduated (on the transcript and in real life).
- When they walk across the stage at graduation, what kind of person do you hope your teens will be?
- What kinds of experiences (academic or otherwise) do you want them to have had?
- Life preparation- what do you want them to definitely know how to do?
- Read this post on how to set goals.
- What do you want your teens to have accomplished by the time they graduated (on the transcript and in real life).
Organize your homeschool year by scheduling backwards.
- This is the time to download Sabrina’s freebie: Scheduling Backwards for detailed how-to’s.
- As Vicki always says, this is the guide that changed her life! She schedules backwards to make sure projects get done:
- Project or events for homeschooling the family or homeschool community events that need prep
- Planning for holidays
- Making sure home projects get done
- And more!
- As Vicki always says, this is the guide that changed her life! She schedules backwards to make sure projects get done:
Schedule backward for your homeschool
- Looking at the end goals, start by putting those end goals and the date(s) of each end goal on your calendar. Then you will start working backwards.
- Decide what kind of educational year you want
- Each subject all the way through
- Block scheduling
- Here’s a post on three formats that you can choose or mix and match for scheduling the year
- Mark the halfway point on the schedule.
- Then ask where should we be in the curriculum by halfway through the year. Put those on the schedule!
- Mark special dates
- portfolio reviews
- missions trips
- scheduled guests visiting
- co-op field trips
- drivers ed
- sports competitions and performances (tips on preparing for NCAA, if you have a serious athlete)
- holidays, especially if you will be homeschooling through the holidays
- Now decide how much should be done on each subject day by day
- The number of pages (or chapters) in the text divided by the number of weeks in the year or number of days in the year
- Create your syllabi and course descriptions
Remember: stay flexible! As Vicki always says:
A mom’s mind plans her way, but God directs her steps.
When life happens or things go wrong, give yourself grace and breathing space! Then get back to the schedule as soon as possible OR choose the create a NEW schedule based on the family’s current needs. (For instance, if a chronic illness has developed, you will probably need a whole new schedule. Thats’s okay! Realistic goals and flexibility are key!)
Remember to include teens in the planning process, so that they can own their education.
- Be sure to write your goals down.
- Have an accountability partner.
If you need some support, you might enjoy some coaching from Vicki at VickiTillmanCoaching.com.
Join Sabrina and Vicki for this helpful discussion.
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Angie Ferrell on Knowing your Why
