Preparing for Another Homeschool Year

With August here I am in final preparations for the new homeschool year. This is one of my favorite things! I love seeing the possibilities ahead of my family as I sort our materials, make plans, and contemplate weekly schedules. This year I will have 7 students in grades 9, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1, with a 3 and 1 year old tagging along for the ride. My oldest will be a college freshman in another state. I'm going to miss her, but it will be a wonderful adventure for her. I thought I would share about how I'm preparing things for this school year.

Task #1 was to create our calendar year. Homeschooling is flexible and laws vary in each state. In Ohio we are given a specific number of hours to aim for - 900. We do not have a number of school days required. I still block out our year and mark when we will be schooling and when we will be on break. Each year is a bit different based on our start date, when holidays fall, and when the local high school spring break is. Until I had high school age students I ignored this. However, from 9th grade on, my teens attend an early morning scripture study class, called Seminary, at 6am. This class follows the local public school calendar somewhat, and I learned with Makayla that it is really nice to have our spring break overlap the seminary class spring break. 

Task #2 was to write out the books and curricula I need for each child and start gathering everything into one place. I ordered materials earlier this year, and some things we reuse for younger children. I have been gathering things to a cubicle in my bedroom. For anything new, that we haven't used before, I spend a few minutes reading through introductions and making notes. 

Some new to us materials this year are:

• Handwriting Without Tears - we've used the orange level, but this year I have kids who will use the next two levels. 
• The Good and the Beautiful History 2 - we used History 1 last year and loved it. History 2 is similar in setup. I have a few things to prep for this year. I printed the first quarter of student explorers for different grade levels. I created a supplies list by lesson. I made a list of coordinating art projects from my Deep Space Sparkle stash of lessons. I gathered books for the first quarter of topics from by boxes of history books in the attic (these are a mix of nonfiction, picture books, and chapter books). They will go into a book basket for free reading. I chose a history read aloud. I transferred the audio story files onto a kindle and grabbed a speaker so these are ready when we need them.
•  The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts levels 3 and 6 - we used 4, 5, and High School 1 last year. This year I will have kids using 3, 3, 5, 6, 6. I'm looking through the new to us levels and making a daily checklist for each level that doesn't already come with one. 
• Photography - Joseph wants to do digital photography as an elective this year. We have a couple resources: Fundamentals of Photography (The Great Courses) with National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore is 23 video based classes, Basics of Digital Photography with Rick Allred is 9 video classes, and we have a checklist of photograph categories (ex: flowers, landscapes, buildings and bridges, teens and adults) that Joseph will use to take 50 photos per category, then choose 10 favorites in each category. He will edit 2 from each category and create a book of his photography from the year. 
• Artistic Pursuits: The Elements of Art and Composition - Emma and Joseph want to do this course. I grabbed a picture of the materials list with my phone and picked up the few things we needed. 

Some materials we have used before:

•  Apologia's high school Biology - I gathered the student notebooks, textbooks, dissection tools, dissection specimens, microscope, and biology slides. Dissections don't begin until Module 11 (about 22 weeks into the course), so those items won't be brought downstairs to the dining room yet. 
• Science for my Elementary group - This year the 5 boys in this group (Daniel, Oliver, Caleb, Mason, Samuel) each chose a couple topics they want to study. We will rotate through the topics together. Here are the ones they chose: Bats, Ants, Bees, Big Cats, the 5 Senses, Muscular system, Circulatory system, Light, Simple Machines, Motion/Mechanics. I have the Apologia Elementary Science series of textbooks, which is what the kids flipped through to give them topic ideas. We will use the chapters that go with each topic, as well as hands on learning, and nonfiction and picture books from our shelves or the library. 
•  Math U See - Pulled teacher's manuals and dvds from the attic for Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, Pre-Algebra, and Algebra 1. Opened the box of student workbooks we ordered. 

Task #3 was to have each child empty their school bin and pass out their new books. It was a quick and fun job. 

Then came the hardest part - Task #4 - making a realistic weekly schedule. One interesting facet of homeschooling is that I teach lessons for everything from elementary school through high school in a variety of subjects every day. There are independent portions, such as math worksheets after the weekly lesson, but a lot of mom-led lessons happen too, especially with the younger students. I do some group teaching. For example this year Joseph and Emma combine for Biology and Art, Daniel, Oliver, Caleb, Mason, and Samuel combine for science, and Emma down through Samuel combine for portions of history. Add in the fact that I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old, cooking meals, physical therapy and daily medical care for Mason, piano lessons one afternoon a week, and life in general, and having a realistic schedule is important. 

This year we are starting out trying a slightly different way of scheduling. In past years the kids get assignment sheets listing how many days per week they need to do each subject. They would then schedule that week however they wanted. It works, but it means I have some days very heavy on lessons kids need me for, and others lighter. I want this year to be a more even balance. 

To get that balance, we are trying a more set schedule, where each day has the subjects assigned out already. For example, I will teach the elementary science group lessons on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, while we have a history block on Wednesday and Friday. Our block schedule allows for more time to immerse ourselves in a topic each day, instead of rotating through every subject every day for a shorter time. I also won't have as much mental jumping around because everyone has history on history days, or everyone has science on science days.

Task #5 is to start teaching and learning together. That happens Monday. I'm as ready as I can be. The kids are ready. The schedule is cleared, with as few interruptions to the first week as possible (no appointments).
Here we go!