Homeschool Planning Tips (From a Mom of 11!)

The other week, I made a post on Instagram talking about how quickly I plan a #homeschool week for seven kids. This prompted several questions about how I do it, so today I’m going to share that with you.

Homeschooling 101 | Geography Made Easy

One of my favorite things to talk about when it comes to #homeschooling is how to simplify it. Today I’m tackling a subject area I haven’t spoken about much before – #geography.

It doesn’t have to be all labeling and memorization. In fact, I’ve found that it’s easy and fun to incorporate without needing a curriculum for it at all.

Plan a Homeschool High School Week with Me!

Last week when I published my Plan with Me post, I received a few requests for me to do one for our high schoolers, as well. So I did. 🙂

As simple as my homeschool planning is for my 1st through 8th graders, my high school planning is even simpler.
Sounds counterintuitive, right? I explained why this is the case in my latest video.

Plan a Homeschool Week with Me!

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of “clean with me” videos come up in my YouTube feed. While I could never make a video like that myself (I wouldn’t have the patience!), they gave me an idea.

People are always asking me how I do my homeschool planning, so today I shared a video of me planning next week’s homeschool activities.

I hope you enjoy it!

5 Homeschool Planning Hacks to Save Your Sanity!

Ah, homeschool planning. You either love it, or you hate, am I right?

Me? I’ve always loved it – perhaps a little too much. I enjoyed doing it so much that I would often go overboard. I’d plan too far ahead. I’d get too specific, and I would get too ambitious about what days we’d be doing what activity…even six months down the road!

Lord, I don’t miss those days. Since then I’ve learned that when it comes to homeschool planning, it needs to follow in the footsteps of my homeschool philosophy: keeping things simple.

Here are the five most important things I’ve learned about planning a homeschool schedule. I hope it helps some of you!

Our Beginning-of-the-Year Homeschool Plan for Elementary and Middle School

I can’t believe it. Our new homeschool year begins next week already. Wow, this past six weeks went quickly!

As I was gathering books at the library for our first unit study the other day, I realized that some of you might like to see how I’m planning for our homeschool days to unfold, especially in regard to our unit study. I’m fairly certain that, even though I address unit studies quite often, they can be a bit of a mystery to those who are unfamiliar with them.

As you might be aware, for years I’ve been breaking my children into groups for their learning, simply because I have so many of them. 😉 (This year I’m homeschooling 8 again.)

However, now that my second youngest is ready to move up to the middles group, I’ve got a bit of a dilemma – that leaves my youngest alone in the littles group. She’s not too happy about that.

2019/2020 Homeschool Curriculum for 8 Kids

It’s that time of year again…. curriculum time! Admit it, you feel just a little giddy planning for your next homeschool year, too. 😉

Like this year, next year I’ll be homeschooling eight kids – 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and 12th. At one point I was homeschooling ten, so I’m getting there! One thing I’ve learned over these ten years of homeschooling is that our curriculum choices aren’t set in stone.

They just aren’t.

I refuse to allow myself and my children to get caught up in trying to make our homeschool fit our curriculum, rather than the other way around.

With that being said, I’m going to share with you the resources we’ve chosen for next year. Before I start, though, I’m going to make one thing clear:

Using Read-Alouds as the Spine of Your Homeschool

Imagine a homeschool day with no textbooks, no worksheets, and no busy work. Imagine a homeschool day quietly spent reading aloud to your children, all the while feeling perfectly confident that this was enough. Imagine a homeschool day devoid of disconnected subjects and seemingly impractical lessons but instead filled with quiet conversations and sometimes passionate debate.

Sound impossible?

This, my friends, is a homeschool that is centered on read-alouds.

Are You Overcomplicating Your Homeschool?

When it comes to homeschooling, there are many temptations that come with it, both good and bad. Unfortunately, as is often the case, we parents will ignore our God-given instincts about what’s best for our children and, instead, try to stick with the status quo of what school is “supposed” to look like.

Think about it.

How often have you been tempted to take the day off and just do something fun, only to give in to guilt and continue with your homeschool routine as planned?

How many times have you suppressed the urge to just let your kids sit and play together quietly in order to interrupt an intense period of play so that your kids could learn about consonant blends?

And how many times have you gone against your instinct as a parent to keep your homeschool simple, and alternatively jammed as many things as possible into your everyday routine?

If you’re anything like I am, probably quite a bit.

Today I just wanted to talk to you about that last one: the oh-so-common pitfall of becoming obsessed with covering everything, only to find that not only does it not work, but it’s likely to impede a child’s learning as a consequence.

Our Homeschool Morning Basket for 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Grade

As a relaxed homeschooling family, our family’s combined learning time is crucial to our everyday routine. When you’ve got multiple children learning- all at separate levels- consolidating your homeschool regimen as much as possible is an absolute must.

For us, this happens during our daily morning time.

As with all homeschooling techniques, morning time can and will look different for everyone. One thing that most families who incorporate this routine into their day will have in common is a morning basket.