Does Homeschool Planning Stress You Out?

Most of us have been there. The current school year is coming to an end. You begin to feel the pressure to plan as you hear others talking about classes they want to teach at co-op or a fun curriculum that so and so found, but you have no clue where to begin or what your children need. It's easy to get lost in the curriculum search. I have been at this homeschooling journey since 2004 and year after year I use the same form to begin. With this blog post, I will give you a gentle push into the "river" by sharing my form with you and I'll even keep you floating downstream with a few pointers and resources that I use to help me navigate homeschool planning.

First, lets get right down to business. Here is a free PDF printable of my Subject Planning Guide that I use for my kids every year for all grades. Print this out.

​Next, you will need to figure out what curriculum, topic, or class your student will need or is planning to take next year at your homeschool co-op. The best place to start is on your book shelves. Many homeschoolers are book hoarders - I will raise my hand to that. This is the first place I begin. I pull out things that I have wanted to use. You can begin to fill in the subject planning guide with curriculum titles for the subject they fit in. Depending on your child's age and grade, you will not need to fill in the electives options - these are  for middle and high school students. Something else to note is that some curriculums cover more than one subject so you will not need a curriculum for each one.

Lastly, Its time to fill in any holes you may have and begin researching new curriculum to purchase. My favorite place to begin is on Cathy Duffy Reviews. You can browse her reviews and look at any curriculum that interests you. If you live in Washington state, you will also want to check out Homeschool Potpourri which is a curriculum consignment store - I have spent hours upon hours fumbling through curriculum books and other educational material here, my absolute favorite store. If you don't live close by, you can email or call them and they will ship you any curriculum you desire that they have in stock.  A few other places I love to shop for curriculum are: Materbooks, Rainbow Resource, and Christianbook.

Our homeschool plan for next year is just about complete. I'll give you a breakdown of what I'm using which will give you an idea of how I plan things and more resources for great curriculum that I have found. With my oldest graduated, I am now homeschooling three of my four children.  My oldest will be 11th grade, my middle child will be 8th grade, and my youngest will be 2nd grade. This means I'm teaching the entire educational spectrum: high school, middle school, and elementary. In reality, my high schooler is very independent, aside from teaching his two co-op classes, grading his work, and recording it on his transcript, I don't teach lessons at home since he does all his work independently.  My 8th grader is a different story, he needs more of a hands-on, unit based, delight-directed approach to learning which means more involvement on my part which I love because his learning style is my teaching style. My 2nd grader is easy in the sense that I have taught this grade three times through with my older children so I know what I'm doing. He is harder in the sense that he does not like a traditional approach to learning, just like my 8th grader, so I end up piecing together several supplemental curriculums to create one subject for him.

If a curriculum isn't working for you and your child, don't be afraid to throw it out and find something that does work. I had to do this a few months ago with Masterbooks first grade math. I love the math book and they have done an excellent job creating a living math curriculum with a good mix of math stories and worksheets, however, my son did not appreciate it. This meant throwing it out and starting over. 

If you need to know what your state homeschool requirements are, I recommend checking out HSLDA. They are specialist in the homeschool law and have a ton of helpful information for you to browse. If you have a high schooler and need to information on credits and creating a transcript then I highly recommend checking out Lee Binz, she is a professional when it comes to high school transcripts.

Below is a list of the curriculums I have chosen for my kids for this upcoming year. I have include a brief explanation and links for you to browse.  I hope you feel my gentle push into the curriculum "river" as you begin to research curriculum options so you can fill in your Subject Planning Guide.  

​My High Schooler's Classes
Math - We are using Aleks math. This is an online math curriculum that is mastery based. It uses an algorithm to detect when the student understands the new concept and moves on to a new concept. If you don't understand a new concept the program will generate more practice problems. It also is self grading which is a plus.  My son has been enjoying this compared to Teaching Textbooks - this is also a great option but we found that once you get to the pre-algebra, the curriculum was a bit difficult and they were needing a lot of help so I only recommend it for elementary grades.

Bible - We will be using Nine Fruits of the Spirit by Robert Strand and What He Must Be by Voddie Baucham. This will count as a  .5 elective credit.

Photo Credit: Masterbooks.com           

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Photo Credit: Christianbook.com

 English - I have not written it in on my Subject Planning Guide yet, but I am planning to use Jensen's Format Writing. This curriculum has an option for a two-year schedule so we plan to complete half of it for his 11th grade and supplement it with Jensen's Vocabulary curriculum.  My son will finish the second half of both curriculums for his 12th grade year.

Social Studies (History, Geography) - My son will be studying American History and I will be teaching this subject at our homeschool co-op. I am super excited to have found American History: A Story of Courage, Conflict and Freedom by Mike Zietsma! This high school curriculum offers an eclectic mix of projects which is a trait that you usually don't see in curriculum for high school - all the American history curriculums I have seen thus far are heavy reading with chapter end tests and exams. Zietsma's curriculum uses a multi-media approach which includes a balance of reading, videos, movies, research, animated maps, PowerPoints, games, and online history simulations – this makes the curriculum very appealing. It brings history to life and incorporates a delight-directed method to learning. There is a wide variety of worksheets so students wont get bored doing the same thing for each unit- he even makes writing a thesis and an essay look super easy with his formatting and directions. The course overview estimates 106 hours of instruction for the main bulk of the curriculum and has optional projects for each unit to choose from. I plan to supplement this by using some of the optional projects, having students choose two books from my list below and use the video series America: Columbus to the Constitution by Drive Thru History with Dave Stotts.

American History Book list: the following list was  compiled from Sonlights American History and American Literature course readers for high school - they are also an excellent resource for homeschool curriculum. 
o Up From Slavery by Booker Washington
o A Separate Peace by John Knowles
o Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
o Traitor: The Case of benedict Arnold by Jean Fritz
o The Panama Canal by Janet Pascal
o Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
o Dragon’s Gate by Laurence Yep
o The Yanks Are Coming by Albert Marrin
o Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491 by Charles Mann
o The Boys’ War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War by Jim Murphy
o Sacajawea by Joseph Bruchac
o Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman
o The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz
o Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution by Jean Fritz
o World War ll: The Rest of the Story and How It Affects You Today by Richard Mayberry

Science - I love, love, love the 101 DVD series for high school science.  For this coming school year, my son will be using Physics 101 DVD curriculum for science. It's a great alternative to Apologia. The first DVD can be inserted into your computer to access and print the course Guidebook and Quizzes, and the Course Accreditation Program for your student or you can purchase a hardcopy of this on their website. I love this curriculum because its simple and it's not a textbook! As a side note, I love Apologia's curriculum but I find that their high school curriculum moves way to fast, has too many tests, and the book tends to very difficult to read because of the college-level vocabulary - its very well written but its not for every student. As an excellent alternative, Physics 101, Chemistry 101, and Biology 101 are wonderful.  Each DVD fulfills the high school requirements for a 1-year, 1 credit high school course. For each topic in the course, you watch a portion of the DVD, then you use the guidebook to read a review and additional facts of what was just learned on the DVD, and then you use the Course Accreditation Program worksheets to guide you through the required projects to complete for that topic. This portion of the curriculum works like a check list for students and offers a wide variety of activities to complete.

Physical Education - I left this blank because my son has already fulfilled the two-year requirement for this for my state. 

Electives - My son wants to learn American Sign Language to fulfill the two-year requirement needed on a high school transcript for college enrollment. Since I could not find a class for him to take, I will be teaching this at our homeschool co-op.  I plan to use an online video course called Sign It!  I will supplement this with worksheets, games, deaf culture, and deaf history. I found many great lessons to supplement with on Teachers Pay Teachers.  For my sons, second elective I wrote "Bible, however, I already wrote that above so he still needs to pick out an elective for this.