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School Planning
By Kendra | May 27, 2009
“I have a question though. HOW do you plan all of your children’s assignments? Sunday nights are filled with filling out assignment sheets for everyone and heaven forbid if we are busy all weekend with other things! Is there a better way?”
Here’s the massively overwhelming answer: I do it all at once over a weekend or two in the summer.
I hated the Sunday night thing- just what you’ve described- and so years ago my best friend and I asked for an overnighter to spend planning and thinking through our upcoming school year. We have students of similar ages and grades, so bouncing things off of each other is helpful. So is a little dark chocolate and a phone call to have lunch delivered.
When I say I do everything during the summer, I mean everything. I’ll try to break it down step by step:
1. Make a list for each child of the subjects they will be studying during the upcoming school year. I typically do this in January, and the rest begins to flow from there. In years without babies, I can be totally ready to go by July, then relax the rest of the summer. This year? Nope.
2. List all curriculum you are planning to use, purchase, borrow, etc. Mark prices next to each item and begin to bargain shop. As with anything else, if you have a plan you can avoid spending too much for items you don’t really need.
3. Go through each subject individually and make a spreadsheet or other type of lesson plan that works for you. For me, a good old Excel spreadsheet works for most subjects. Here’s an example of our Mystery of History Year One spreadsheet:
Click to Download (PDF document)
Be realistic with step number three. It is going to take up a lot of time, but what you plan in the summer means NO MORE SUNDAY NIGHT SCRAMBLING! Keep repeating that to yourself when you get bogged down.
4. Make a list of everything that needs to be photocopied. The list can be as detailed or as broad as you like. You can list “history coloring pages” or you can list actual books and pages- “Medieval Coats of Arms, p. 32″
5. Are you ready for this? Photocopy EVERYTHING for the ENTIRE year. Now. All at once. Make binders for each child and each subject with their already photocopied items, in order. For history, my kids’ binders have tabs for each week and the pertinent items are all in order. Maps, coloring pages, word searches, biography pages, etc. are ready to go.
Ever told your kids, “Just a sec. I need to go copy this.”? What happens when you turn your back or walk out of the room? That’s right. Chaos! Now you’ve lost one to the bathroom, one to a drawing he “has” to finish, and two to an argument. But when the photocopies are ready to go, so are your students.
6. Make a “Mom List”. I keep mine on my clipboard so I can just glance at it and remember what each child needs to accomplish daily:
16-year-old: Constitutional Law, Math, Science, French, Rhetoric, Lit and Composition, CLEPS
14-year-old: Math, Science, Latin, Logic, Theory, Italic, Copywork, Guitar
♥
If this seems totally overwhelming to you, just say to yourself, “Kendra has six students this year”. 
You can do it!
Topics: Educating at Home, School Organization, Training Little Ones | 34 Comments »
May 27th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I’m chewing on this. The year we are finishing up is our first year uninterrupted by adoption stuff and it was amazing! I did the Sunday night thing and was totally organized. I’m already decided on next year’s school work so maybe I can pull of doing what you’re saying. My only reservation is that I have one child that gets overwhelmed with too much work in his binder. I have to put in one day at a time for him. Thinking about how to approach this concept for him, but recognize this could be good for my other children that like to work ahead. Hmmm…
May 28th, 2009 at 3:53 am
I love your blog! This is so encouraging to me and timely as we are about to start our new year in July. I did some of my subjects this way last year, and was amazed by the flow and ease and HOW I DIDN’T DREAD IT! So I’m going to try the whole deal this year, having everything ready. It is exciting to think about the peace with which I’ll greet the school morning!
Kathleen
May 28th, 2009 at 4:05 am
P.S. The link on the link for Motivated Moms didn’t come up…could you elaborate on that in your copious free time?! ; )
May 28th, 2009 at 4:14 am
You have inspired me to do more planning for this coming school year, to make my load much easier. I love your blog and am so thankful my husband heard you on the radio one evening..I have been hooked ever since.
May 28th, 2009 at 6:11 am
I so appreciate your work in sharing HOW you do things. I’m getting ready to homeschool my 2nd grader and Kindergartner next year with their 3 year old and 9 month old siblings in the mix. I am so glad I found your website! My kids had been in a Classical schcool and I want to keep on the classical route. Thank you for all your curriculum reviews. I’m going to start Picture Book Preschool this summer.
May 28th, 2009 at 7:12 am
NO MORE SUNDAY NIGHT SCRAMBLING!
Does Harvest Moom deliver?
I wonder if Kinko’s will close down for a copy party?
This was awesome! Thanks!
May 28th, 2009 at 7:19 am
I love how organized you are. I have recently written down all of my desired curricula for this fall, with the prices. I love your chart for the Mystery of History. We just completed vol 1 this past year, and I can see how having a master chart of all necessary library materials and other resources, can make planning so much easier! I love your idea of putting all of the paper work in a binder from the get go. I was planning on doing that with my children for our geography study, this fall, Galloping the Globe. Many Blessings!
May 28th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Nates5bs, perhaps you could keep a “master binder” with all of his work and then just transfer it a day at a time to “his binder”. This would allow you to still have it all planned and wouldn’t overwhelm him (just need the extra binder).
Kendra–thank you for this timely post. We are entering our first year of homeschooling with just one student and I am already finding myself overwhelmed at times. I am trying to have things mostly organized by the end of July as we are expecting our 4th child then but sometimes I’m afraid we won’t be getting to “school” until Christmas time. I so appreciate your blog, thank you. I will have a kindergartener, a preschooler, a toddler and a newborn this fall. Whew, just typing that wears me out. Thank you for being a constant breath of fresh air and reminding us to turn to the Lord for our strength and to our husbands for their wisdom! May God bless you!
May 28th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Thank you! I have all my books and a general outline plan for our first year (first grade & preschool & toddler), but have been trying to figure out how to work out the specifics. This helps tremendously! Of course, I too am a compulsive planner.
May 28th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Thank you all for your kind comments. When the blog seems to pull at me more than I’d like it to, I remember that it’s a blessing for all of us (me, included!)
~Kendra
May 28th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Hoo boy!! What a post. I read it (present tense) with longing to be so organized and ready to go. I, too, will have 6 students this yr. Along with my 2 grown sons, and a preschooler and a toddler.
But the fear sets in. That old perfectionism rearing its ugly head. Surely I couldn’t “really” do this.
This post will require much re-reading and studying.
Thank you, Kendra. You really bless me. And challenge me to re-think the way I do things.
Have a lovely day! Dawn in SC
May 28th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I think my first comment (made a while ago this morning) didn’t come up. I guess I’ll try to reiterate here…
Love the post! I love to plan, too. We do ACE or School of Tomorrow, so we use paces but I like the idea to get the gist of what they’re working on laid out now and then when school starts I have an idea of what the topics per each subject are so I can get ideas for extra projects. Also…love The Critical Thinking Co., thanks to your previous post on that.
Also, thanks for the link for the clip board…I am going to give that a try!
Do you love office supply stores as much as I do?!
May 28th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Okay…I think I have this end of things…I’ve found that having things planned a year in advance is a TREMENDOUS help to our well-being and my sanity…
My hurdle???? Record keeping…grading, recording grades, portfolios. What do you do?
May 28th, 2009 at 11:56 am
As always, thanks for more great ideas!!! Isn’t it amazing how a summer break can provide some perspective (at least for me, anyhow)? I feel like I am ready to conquer next year
.
May 28th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Thanks for this, Kendra. My eldest is beginning K, and I really have no idea where to start or what’s truly necessary. I love the idea of planning it all out, though.
May 28th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
LOL…thanks for the bright side..I don’t have six students only two for now
That makes it seem a lot less overwhelming 
Good idea of planning it all out..something to think about.
I so enjoy your posts thanks for all you do!
May 29th, 2009 at 6:34 am
Can I ask what you do with the kids when you are planning? I only have three, but I can’t even imagine tackling a project like this with them around!! Do you escape somewhere or lock yourself in the closet??
May 29th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I love the idea of having everything planned out and ready to go — I’m a person who likes everything in it’s place. However, what do you do if you discover during the school year that a book or curricula is not working quite how you thought it would? Do you continue on with it trying to make it work, or do you start over with something else?
Also, what about falling behind in the schedule (or working ahead)? I know that the schedule is a tool to be used to help me, but I don’t always remember that when life doesn’t match the schedule. It seems so concrete when the whole year is planned out. (I see myself saying, “We can’t just finish this project next week, because we have something else planned for then.”) Do you just cover the parts that you can and not worry if it all doesn’t get done, or do you really get everything done that you plan to do?
Thank you for your sharing your life through your blog — it is a great encouragement to me! I would be disappointed if you were unable to keep it up, but I would understand . . . and re-read your past posts instead!
May 29th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Kendra, this post was forwarded to our local homeschool fellowship email list, and started quite a discussion! It was very beneficial, and really blessed so many moms. We are spurring one another on to more intentional homeschooling and living! Thank you. There are rumors of planning and dark chocolate parties ciruculating….
Shawna
May 29th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Cyndy- Well, in those areas, I fly by the seat of my pants and pray! Gotta figure out a better method (other than the prayer, of course…)
Tai- NOOOOO. No kids. No way. I do my initial planning (steps 1-4) over many evenings and weekends, but the rest of it is done in the time away with my best friend. Dads watch the kids. If you don’t have a husband who understands the absolute necessity of time to prepare for the school year, then pray and ask God to give you a solution.
Angela- It depends on the child, the curriculum, and the situation. Sometimes we muster up the guts to get through it, sometimes we ditch it.
I almost always do everything that is planned, although the weeks rarely line up. And I can see when we need adjusting; yesterday I sat down with my 4th grader and circled the exercises I wanted her to complete in the remaining chapters of her math book. She is so good at it that I didn’t feel she needed to do absolutely every problem anymore this year.
Shawna- Can I come, too??? I’m a sucker for dark chocolate, especially of the Scharffenberger variety
May 30th, 2009 at 3:13 am
This is exactly how I plan! Great minds think alike!
I have been planning like this for years now and it has been so helpful. I have 6 school age (if you count the 4 year old as preschool) and 2 littles.
We generally have only had one vehicle over the years so I had to know what we were doing and what I needed from the library etc. well ahead of time. Getting it all planned out really helps the rest of the year go by so much more smoothly and makes things less stressful.
May 30th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Kendra,
Once you have this laid this out, do you give your older kids a weekly schedule so they know what’s expected of them each week or day?
May 30th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Yes, Lisa, I do. I revamped it last week and gave them a summer checklist that includes all the subjects they’re still working on.
May 30th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Just a thought…I have 5 students and the way I handle record keeping is that I keep all of their schoolwork in a basket throught the school year. During the summer, i sort through that basket and pull out a sampling of each student’s work from the beginning, mid-year and last part of the year. I take that and put it in their “cum file.” I have a file for each child for each grade. I also put any special projects they did, medical info (updated immunizations), a record of their attendance and course of study that I did at the beginning of the year. I also put together a paper that maps out what extra-curricular activites they did and what holidays we took off for that year.
May 30th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Angela — I plan my schedule at the beginning of the year, too. BUT instead of dating the assignments, I individually number each subject’s work as Day1, Day2, etc. Each week I then place the next 5 days worth of work on the weekly planning calendar. So if we get ‘off schedule,’ a day’s worth of work may look like: Science Day20, Math Day24, Handwriting Day16, etc. If the numbers get too out-of-sync, it’s easy to see and then catch up … but the days mostly stay together.
May 30th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
An idea about record keeping–my sister started me on this, and I am so happy with it. We buy a 3 or 4 inch D-ring binder for each child, place dividers in it for each subject, and fill it as the year passes with worksheets, journal entries, math pages, etc. I have a misc. tab at the end for swimming lesson medals, concert programs, notes from friends or grandma, etc. I also take pictures of big projects and make a simple page with that photo and make room for the child to write a little explanation underneath.
This has turned out to be a simple scrapbook of our year, proof that we learned a lot in case anyone ever gets nosy, and lots of fun for the kids to reminisce over. Combined with my lesson plans, it should satisfy any educational authorities, if (heaven forbid!) things get tougher in future years. And it makes me feel very happy and proud to see the fruit of my educational labors!
May 31st, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Hi kendra,
Just a question, are you expecting? It’s just on this post you say in years without babies? Just wondering! I’m a friend of Barbara Smiths and live in New Zealand, Palmerston North.
May 31st, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Me again..sorry! Could you please post a photo of your binder, I really need to SEE something to get an idea, this is a new concept and I’d love to see what you mean and how it works for you. I too have 8 children aged 14,13,11,9,6,4,4,3! I also love to glean ideas to help me be better at planning.
May 31st, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Hi Sandra-
Nope, not this year. We have 8, and I am typically expecting a baby every other year (the oldest is 16). But the last three years have been doozies- I got pregnant in January of 2006, lost the baby in March, got pregnant again in July, had the baby in March of 2007, found out I was pregnant in September, had that baby in May of 2008… phew!
We visited Craig and Barbara in Palmerston North in 2002. Do you live very near their home?
June 1st, 2009 at 7:38 pm
HI! I am working on planning my sons second grade year. First grade was a doozy, finding what worked and learning our styles and such. I really like your ideas and thank you for sharing them! On your history lesson you have two activities listed (I & II), I was wondering what the difference was between the two? Younger and older? Morning and afternoon? Or is it two days of the week? Thanks for all you do to help!
June 1st, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Hi Mandy-
Yes, I means projects for the older kids and II are projects for the younger ones.
~Kendra
June 2nd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
When you put all the kids work into their binders, are the tabs numbered 1-36 (or however many weeks you “school”)? I have some tabs that came with a Sonlight core curriculum that are numbered 1-36 and I love those things! I haven’t been able to find similar ones anywhere. Any thoughts?
June 4th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Hi, we live 15 mins North of the Smiths, we attend the same church! Their daughter Charmange looked after our children last year while I was in the USA in Hanford, CA. I took the 2 older children for a holiday – Disney -then to friends in Hanford.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I usually buy a planner book from the teacher supply store and write in pencil what I plan for each child, I use to teach in a private school before I had Kendra – and actually enjoy the plan work. I also type up the daily work on the computer for the girls,
I make plans for my best friend’s children too – in exchange, she cleans my kitchen! Altogether this year, I’ll be making plans for Kendra – 14 – 9th grade, Vannan – 12 – 6th grade, Katie – 11 – 7th grade, Bethie – 6 – PreK5, Joel and Matthew – 4 – PreK4, and Marriana – 3 – PreK3. We do a lot of combined work. I’ll probably also be helping my little sister make up plan books for her 3 boys, 7 in 2nd, 5 in K, and 4 in PreK. We will also have 2 year old, 1 year old, and newborn in the mix.
I love seeing how other poeple plan things out – it gives me so many good ideas. Thanks!
I try to buy my books late in the spring when all the good sales are running. We use Rod and Staff, Christian Liberty, and Alpha Omega for most of our curriculum. We also use our public library a LOT.