After a full month of crazy busyness in June, things are finally slowing down enough around here for me to start planning our next school year. I have had several people ask me how I plan out my school year so I thought I would share it in a post. I already know what curriculum I am using for the most part, so the rest of my planning is pretty basic.

The first thing I always do when I am planning is to print out an academic calendar and mark off the days I want to take off. Then, after it is pretty much where I want it and know we are officially hitting the required 180 days, I mark our time off on my Google Calendar. I also add reminders to my calendar a week before each new term begins so I can request any library books we will need for our next term.

Last year, we did 6-week terms of school followed by a 1-week break. While it worked really well for us, I am not going to do 6-week terms this year. Instead, I altered the terms’ lengths since I have a better feel for when we need more frequent breaks and where we don’t.

After our terms are set, I take a few of our lesson books and figure out which chapters need to get done in which terms, or what subjects I want to focus on for character development. It also gives me a spot to note any specific holidays I would like to touch on but would otherwise probably forget.

My term planning just gives a quick overview of what I would like to carry out each term. This is mostly for my accountability. I should mention that I don’t schedule reading or math far out because it is more important that my kids master those skills and not just finish a curriculum within my time frame. You can download a copy of simple term planning form that I use.

Honestly, that is pretty much what I do for planning. Most of the curriculums I use now are made to just pick up and do the next lesson, which is already laid out for me. This helps simplify my days and planning greatly. I still need to sit down and decide what I am doing for science and social studies, but other than that we are ready to go.

This year we are starting school on August 8, and at least until the end of July, I am taking a break from blogging to focus on having some fun summer adventures with my kids.

How do you plan your school year?

I’m sure all the homeschoolers out there are probably in planning mode as well. I would love to hear how you plan your year or any helpful hints you have to share. Trust me, I still need all the help I can get!

Printable

6-Term School Year Planner (PDF)