Planning For Year 2

I wanted to briefly explain how I prepared for homeschooling year #2.

  1. Think about what went well the first time, and what didn’t.

  2. Make notes of the things each child gravitated toward, excelled in, and struggled with.

  3. Save PDF’s (sometimes print) the school district’s grade-related subject coverage goals.

  4. Search the internet for grade-related ideas and topics covered by other programs. Look at IXL and Khan Academy for Math.

  5. Begin a Google Excel doc to dump all the information and links into.

Then the monthly breakdown of lessons begins!

InfoDump.png

Once the information for each kid is gathered and put somewhere, like my document above, I start grouping and moving.

I group things that seem to make sense together, like studying how communities change in Social Studies & Earth’s natural resources in Science. I also look to see what the suggested books for their age/grade could work with topics to create units. There are even some occasions where the 4th and 2nd grade items mesh well together, so the kids can both be learning similar things in a shared unit! A good example of this would be learning about sound-both kids will learn about how the ears work in more detail, discuss sound waves, make drawings, learn about Helen Keller, and discover technology that aids in hearing.

Something else that is important to consider is the time of year and holidays. November/election time is great for Social Studies, Winter will be busy with Cultural Studies and holidays, Spring is great for Science, etc.

Additionally, I try to keep my kids’ schedule as close as possible to their local school district and friends’ schedules.

Sept.png

Now that I’ve moved the info into the month I feel it flows with, I start filling in details for each subject.

My 2nd grader is in orange, and my 4th grader in blue. The main topics to cover are on the far right. The most important information in my opinion is knowing your basic goals and having plenty of books/websites/movies/places to visit entered to help learn.

You could plan out every minute of your day, but you’ll end up wasting time and getting frustrated. Having a general plan is best I think, then let the child’s learning steer you.

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The First Year