How to Schedule Your Homeschool

Homeschool Scheduling

Start With Your Personality
Start with who you are as a family. Your idea of how to schedule will flow from here.
I recommend taking the True Colors Quiz. This short, fun quiz breaks us into four personality types based on colors.
When you finish the quiz, come back here to determine what kind of scheduling you might need for your family:

Orange

• Present-oriented
• Competitive
• Results-oriented
• Achievement-oriented
• Productive

Tools:

• Mind Map
• Large binders, artist's portfolio
• Family planner to keep dates for tests and competitions

Gold

• Responsible
• Structured
• Organized
• Practical
• Sensible
• Duty and Obligation

Tools:

• Donna Young's Homeschool Planning forms

Green

• Persistence
• Determination
• Firmness
• Consistency
• Intellectual
• Theory & Data oriented

Tools

• Mind Map
• Wall calendar, to record daily practice
• Artist's portfolio or binders to keep track of work completed toward goals

Blue

• Calm & Tranquil
• Balance
• Tension-free
• Empathetic
• Feelings-oriented

Tools

• Family planner for daily homeschool scheduling
• Pencil, not pen, in order to accommodate changes

All the Tools in One Place

First, you need to know what you are scheduling. You need to either

• set goals for your children
• have them set goals
• look at your packaged curriculum and notice the goals it sets out for you
• look at your state or province's requirements and notice the learning outcomes

Mission Statement

I highly recommend writing a mission statement for your family's homeschooling. Who are you? What do you stand for?

Setting Goals

Once you know more or less where you will end up, whether it is finish books 3A and 3B of Singapore Math by June 15th, or learn Japanese, you've got yourself goals.

You now need to break the goals into small, doable packets. Make them short and measurable. When you say "learn Japanese", what do you mean? Do you mean finish a one-year curriculum? Do you mean have a meaningful conversation with a native speaker? Do you mean become fluent (schreech...stop right there. That is not a doable one-year goal...back it up a bit)?

Your Singapore Math goal might be quite simply to take the books, count the number of units and figure out approximately how many you will need to finish each day (or week) in order to finish the book. Your Japanese goal might be broken down by deciding to study for 20 minutes each day. Yes, that simple.

Daily Homeschool Planning

Once you and your kids have goals and "baby steps" laid out for each subject they intend to tackle, you can write a tentative daily plan for your homeschool scheduling. Simple and written in pencil. Things to consider:

• Are you a morning person?
• Are you time-centered or project-focused?
• Are you achievement-focused?
• Is daily, structured practice important to you?

When you are setting your goals, work a little ease into them so that you can take "well days" The school year is only based on 180 days of instruction, or about 36 weeks (give or take). Use your "pro-D" days and have a little nap now and then.