My eyes always go a bit crossed at this time of year. After all we are busy trying to finish up the last of the year. We need to fit in testing or evaluations. I have conference season and get to go on a bunch of mini vacations. Then to add to the pressure I need to plan for next year.

I homeschool all year around. This has worked wonderfully for  us. The kids are learning more and having to spend less time in review. We used to spend as much as a month reviewing what the kids had lost over the summer before we started this all year round schedule. The one big hang up to this schedule is I can feel like I never get a break to plan the next year.

Do how do I get my act together and design a plan of action for the next year?

There are a couple of ways I have tried in the past.

-I tried the laid back plan as you go. Get books when you need them, rest when you and the kids are tired out. That one didn’t work well for a family of autistic kids that NEED schedule, direction and if left to their own devices would obsess on their tech constantly.

-I have tried printing off freebie schedules, or making my own. The freebies tended to not be able to handle special needs extras like therapy. I have never worked with making schedules before so I just couldn’t get the hang of it..maybe some time in the future I will try again.

-I tried last year The  SchoolHouse planner, from The Old Schoolhouse magazine. hmmm that one worked pretty well. I am thinking of using it again.

What was the difference between the years when goal were met, and time was well spent?

1.  I had goals to aim for. If you know where you are going it is easier to get there. Seems simple but setting goals can be easy to over look with all the other pressures we face in life. Why add another hoop to jump through?  The possibility of not making those goals may loom. Instead let us look at goals as a wonderful stop on our road to success. You are going to be successful homeschooling your child! You are going to make the goals that you have set! Perhaps with some more time or additional therapy and growth. Relax!!!

2. We had a schedule for the day, month, and year. I have to admit I have never had a schedule made out for the whole year by September. I will have several months into the future. If we have a schedule for each day, the everyday grumbles go away. Your children soon know what and when to get ready for school, etc. As for a monthly schedule a general outline of where you start and where you end in your books is helpful. This gives you a heads up to get more materials if needed. Also a great idea I picked up from the last Heart of the Matter conference was have a in-service day. Mark one day of the month as a teacher day. That day instead of homeschooling you work on making sure all your paperwork is up to date, your books are in place, and all the little details of homeschooling that can get out of control are taken care of. Finally a year in advance…I plan each large break ahead of time so I can plan out roughly how many units per this book verses our time working.

3. ORGANIZE your material!! Does finding your stuff for the day take over a half an hour? This year I got a harsh lesson in organization. After Christmas we had several dr appointments and then we would be home for two days and off again. I was beginning to think we lived in the van. As this kept going I noticed the kids were more and more resistant to start homeschooling. One morning it turned into an all out rebellion, “no and you can’t make me!” The older kids walked off and they were right physically I could not stop them. hmmm? WHY? As I thought about it I realized that each morning I would have them sitting longer and longer while one of them or I tried to locate this book, find that colored pencil. You name it the lack of time on organization had so impacted the day it created a ready made excuse to give up! (more later this week on issues like rebellion) So I have turned to a friend that just started an article in Homeschool Enrichment magazine. Bethany LeBedz has a wonder blog Confessions of an Organized Homeschool Mom this is a great place to start!

4. Share this with your hubby. Use your wonderful hubby to help keep you on track. This also helps that your hubby also knows the kids very well and can help you adjust your goals if you are off. My hubby tends to really stress math and computers (go figure he’s a computer scientist LOL) so he will often raise the bar in math. At first I though “I don’t think we can get there but I’ll try” the kids did a great job and rose to the occasion. Teamwork!

I am going to be posting more about specific disabilities and material choices you can try! Anyone have an area that I need to address? Any learning material that bombed or was WONDERFUL? Let us know. Money is tight there is no reason we  need to be wasting money trying out different learning material blindly.

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