For me, plans=sanity. If you agree, let's be besties! Haha I have always liked having a plan, making lists, being organized, and of course thinking through all the possible different scenarios and outcomes before I can make a choice… it's a blessing and a curse, trust me. So it's not really that surprising to me that I decided to homeschool because it means I can have more control and more flexibility in our home and life. And by “me” I mean my husband and I. He was fully on board with homeschooling as well when we started for the first time last year with our 5yr old.

Our first year homeschooling went pretty well in my opinion but I've been able to look back and see all the areas that I want to improve and different things I'd like to implement. One of those is being way more prepared as far as planning. Last year for me (and many of you may be feeling this right now with the pandemic) felt very random, thrown together, overcomplicated, and just not super clear on what we actually wanted to focus on and accomplish.

Because my kids are only 6 and 3, I don't feel pressured to use a specific or strict curriculum just yet (not sure if we ever will to be honest). Instead I use all of the free/accessible resources out there to pull together our own unique and fun lessons that involve lots of play, nature time, and real life experiences. I use the site, Teachers Pay Teachers quite often; as well as Pinterest to find worksheets, guides, activity sheets and more! Most things out there are free or extremely cheap. We utilize the library or find cheap used books for our reading. I honestly believe that most topics can be taught through a simple “diy” lesson using online resources, Google, YouTube, books, and real life.

With all of that being said, rather than feel glued down to one particular curriculum, I decided that I'd rather us focus in on 2-3 main “themes” each month and have a weekly/daily schedule of a few activities that touch on core subjects yet also relate back to our main theme that month. This took some time to do but I feel so much more prepared and EXCITED for homeschool now that I know what we're going to do. I find it easier to just plan a whole month in advance rather than a single day or week at a time like I tried to do last year.

So I now have all of our monthly themes planned as well as all of September. (We still do a typical school like rythmn of Mon-Friday and take summers “off”) I wanted to share this with you as a guide or inspiration for you to build from if you're feeling stuck or unsure what to do. This is not at all a perfect plan that will work for everyone so feel free to take the bits you love and ditch or adjust the bits you don't love. (Most of these can be easily adjusted to fit different ages!) Or I'm totally fine with you “copying” all of it! Either way you've totally got this!!

THE MONTHLY THEMES FOR 2020-2021

So these main themes or topics are ones that I want most of our lessons and activities to trace back to but it doesn't mean everything will and that's okay. I like to leave some room for flexibility because who knows what will pop up in our life during the month or what my children will be interested in (I always want to give time to their interests because that's when the best learning happens!)

In addition to these monthly themes, I also plan to read aloud an accompanying chapter book. I think “little kid” picture books are great and of course we like ones that my 6yr old can read by herself but I want to start introducing them to more complex storylines and deeper characters. (And give her practice with some bigger words and longer sentences) So we'll take a single beginner chapter book and read a few pages every night through the month. So for September, we’ll be reading Charlotte's Web since it goes along nicely with our Farm, Foods, and Fall theme! (And bonus, we can watch the movie as a family at the end of the month!)

After the monthly themes were figured out, I wanted to figure out where to put the focus on each day. Last year I tried to hit all the “core” subjects in a single day and it usually just resulted in frustration and stress. I realized I needed to stop trying to recreate public school at home and do what felt right to us. So here's our daily structure/focus topics for each week!

DAILY FOCUSES EACH WEEK

So again, different things may pop up during the week that don't “relate” to our daily subject which is totally fine! This mostly just simplifies it for me so I can just pick a few activities or lessons that have to do with science or art ect for that day. I don't really go by a specific hourly schedule for the day because again, I just feel like that creates too much pressure and too much trying to do public school at home.

So instead we enjoy our slow mornings (even if we sleep in everyday!) and typically do one activity after we're dressed and then some more later after lunch. I don't think you need to spend half a day trying to “get in” all the things. Just have fun and let learning be flexible and natural! You'd be amazed at how quickly and well a child learns when they're ready to learn it AND especially if they're interested in it. So if they're just not handling the moon phases lesson, it's okay to skip it and try again another time (we had to do this last year and the second attempt went so much better!)

COMPLETE SEPTEMBER PLAN

I wasn’t kidding when I said I have our entire homeschool planned out for September including lessons, crafts, outings, books ect. Monday-Friday starting Sept 8th. Would you like the plan to either replicate or get ideas from? Click the button below and I’ll email it to you! (it’s completely free) This will also make sure you get every month’s full plan so you never run out of ideas or feel unprepared! October’s plan will be sent out no later than September 26th. **edit to add that when you submit the form below you will get that current month’s plan! If you’d like all the previous months, please email me through the contact page**

Get my September Homeschool Plan

That’s all I have for you today! To all my fellow homeschool mamas, whether you are doing online, partial in person/home, using a curriculum or doing completely free, nature based learning… if it’s right for your family and results in your children thriving then keep doing it! You know what’s best for you and your kids. Some days are going to be so hard and maybe feel impossible but give yourself some grace and know that you’re doing enough, I promise. I do feel like for me, having specific plans and ideas prevents a lot of frustration and stress and allows me to enjoy the moment and have fun with my kids! Here’s to the best (and maybe strangest) school year yet!

Until Next Time… See Ya!

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