Plan Your Year– Episode 96

Join FPEA Chairman Suzanne Nunn and Sharon Rice for this episode where we discuss tips and thoughts on planning your homeschool year.

Top priorities

⁃ Create a plan to plan

⁃ Implementing change

⁃ Creating routines

Choosing the constants

⁃ Weekly things (play dates; family dinners/game nights; meal planning/prep)

⁃ Sports

⁃ Drama

⁃ Church activities

⁃ Family time

Highlights

⁃ Highlight the seasons (early, middle, high)

⁃ Book lights (reading lists)

⁃ Oh the places we’ll go! (Field trips)

Love to learn

⁃ Experiences

⁃ The environment

⁃ Excitement

⁃ Educate (curriculum)

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Easy DIY 5-Year Homeschool High School Flexible Plan

In “Easy DIY 5-Year Homeschool High School Flexible Plan” episode #114, Meredith Curtis shares easy ways to plan ahead and take advantage of educational opportunities for your teens to get every high school credit possible and make sure the core classes are completed by graduation. Meredith explains that education is a gift and helps you define what gift you want to give your teen, when you should start planning, and how to make and keep the plan flexible. Breathe easier through the high school years with a plan that is purposeful, proactive, and easy to tweak.

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Bringing Homeschool Joy to Families Everywhere!

Show Notes

You can homeschool high school! Really! You can do it!

I decided to make a 5-year plan instead of a 4-year plan for high school from 8^th-12^th grade.

some courses you can use on their transcripts from 8^th grade so I thought it would be good to include that in our plan
gives us more time and flexibility to get everything done we want to accomplish

What Do You Want to Give Your Children?

Education is a gift.

Gift of a Christ-centered, well-rounded education that will bear good fruit in their lives for years to come.

Think of things you want to teach your teen in high school that will bless them in years to come.

Make a list of your dreams for your son or daughter.

What gift of education do you want to give them?

My list for each child includes things that are the same and things that are unique for each child.

Read Communist Manifesto in high school so that they can understand the socialist agenda in American universities and colleges
Study worldviews so that they can recognize the different worldviews that are predominate in our culture
Memorize God’s Word, applying it to all of lifeRead classic books that have changed the world
Use Bible study tools
Make and live on a budget
Understand physics, chemistry, and oceanography
Grow in their gifting of: (fill in the blank)

Don’t just shove a bunch of classes at them. Choose courses that will benefit them for life and lay a solid educational foundation if they will be going on to college.

What Does Your Teen Want to Learn?

Now it’s your teen’s turn.

What do they want to learn in high school?

Some of them may have a career goal in mind.

Others may have a dream of playing sports at a particular college.

When Should You Start Planning?

Summer before 7^th or 8^th grade

Build confidence by:

Reading a few books on homeschooling the high school student

Talk to other moms who have (or are!) successfully homeschooling teenagers. Other homeschooling moms can lead you by the hand and help you through the questions and decisions.

Make It Flexible

I sit down and make a five-year flexible plan for each child. This way you can take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Realize that your plan will change over the years, but it is good to have a rough idea of what you want to accomplish.

What is Your Goal?

I keep a folder for each child’s homeschool plan on my computer with a high school plan file. Each year, I adapt the plan as opportunities arise for them to take various classes.

Pretend that the following is your high school plan for you high school child.

Eighth Grade: Old Testament Survey/World History I/Algebra I/Western Literature (3.5)

Ninth Grade: Church History/World History II/Geometry/Biology/Oral & Written Communication/British Literature/Spanish I/P.E./Drama (0.25) + Piano (0.25) = 0.5 Fine Arts Credit/Growing in Christ (0.5) + Courtship & Dating (0.5) = 1.0 Character (8.5 credits)

Tenth Grade: New Testament Survey/USA History/Algebra II/Chemistry/Essays & Research/American Literature/Spanish II/P.E./Sewing (0.5 Homemaking)/Godly Womanhood (0.5 Character) (8 credits)

Eleventh Grade: Worldview & Apologetics/Government & Current Events & Politics/Pre-Calculus/Shakespeare/Fiction Writing/Drawing & Watercolor (0.5) + Drum Lessons (0.5) = 1.0 Fine Arts Credit/The Christian Family (0.5) + Starts own Business (you make it a course) (0.5) = 1.0 Life Skills (6 credits)

Twelfth Grade: The Great Commission/Economics & Business & Personal Finances/Calculus/Great Books/College Prep Writing/Runs own business as course 1.0 Life Skills/Leading worship as a course 1.0 Fine Arts (6 credits)

Total credits (32 credits)

Juggle Things Around Every Year

When Opportunities arise, I take advantage of them–make changes in my high school plan so I can make sure that my teen takes the important/required courses.

So, pretend there is an opportunity to take chemistry with a pharmacist, I will switch chemistry and physics around. Or maybe the pastor is teaching a worldview course in my teen’s freshman year. I sign her up, but change my plan, moving worldview to ninth grade and church history to eleventh grade.

Some classes, of course, need to be take consecutively (like Math!), but most classes do not!

It helps to have the basic plan, because I realize that all the classes have to fit in somewhere.

Another Idea:

Do an intensive class in a month during a break from normal school
Do semester classes like colleges do

With math and literature, I don’t recommend shortening the time frame because your child can only do so many hours of math a day before he is burned out! But, this can be a great way to get something “out of the way” quickly.

Your flexible 5-Year Plan is a servant, not a master. In my life it has been a great blessing and helped to guide us through the high school years. I hope it will be a blessing to you!