Setting a Homeschool Schedule for the academic year can be a daunting and often time consuming task. What makes it worse is after you have decided just what you are going to do each hour in the homeschool classroom, you realize that the schedule needs constant readjusting to stay on course with the original plan. Don’t let that give you a head ache. Here is a simple secret to setting good homeschool schedules : Accept that they will change constantly.
Does that mean you will never get what you planned done?
Not at all. Instead of making a homeschool schedule in detail, just write down your major homeschool goals for the academic year. Have this list posted in the classroom where you can refer to it easily. Now next to this you can stick what you are going to cover the next week in the homeschool classroom. Make sure to include free time for the children to pursue what they wan alone. Add some quality family time or activity everyone can do together and feel happy, creative and satisfied. Being a homeschooling family means that you have the flexibility to cover what you want when you want to.
Have clear major goals so that you can break it up into smaller activities
A major goal is the achievement that you wish your child to have at the end of the academic year. Suppose the major goals are – get proficient in reading grade appropriate books, writing grade appropriate vocabulary and expanding general knowledge. Achieving this could be something as simple as writing a five hundred word book report of every book they read in the year. This ensures that the child is studying reading (Let them pick the first couple of books), writing (the book report will ensure this) and creative thinking (allow them to retell the story in their own words).
If you let them read one book per month at the end of the year they will have twelve book reports to show for their effort. This is the smaller activity that you have divided your major goals into. The written book reports are a great way to record the success of your major goals.
