If you find yourself overwhelmed with where to start, you’re in the right place! I’m going to break it down to the basics & help you get your home school classroom up and running!
Homeschooling doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. The best part is we can change what doesn’t work until it does.
Planning the Year
A rough outline of the year by month is a great place to start. It serves as a “Road Map” for the year. My monthly plan is for my 6th grader, so yours will likely be different. If you don’t want to create your own, and you are working with a charter, the credentialed teacher (CT) will usually have one you can follow or you can check out mine by clicking on the picture below.
You can base your plan on the major units found in textbooks. You could also organize it by standards, report card categories, or thematically. But, the best way to organize your yearlong plan is in a way that makes the most sense to you because it’s your road map. What works best for me is a condensed, color coded plan. It serves as a visual to ensure that major content doesn’t get left out, and it can make collaboration easier. I made some months interdisciplinary. For example, in month 3 reading, writing, & science are all based around plant & animal systems. You can theme all your months if you’d like.
I don’t plan on having him do all subjects every day. I also plan on it taking nearly 3 hours a day. They will recommend 4-6 hours a day, but you won’t need that long.
**Don’t worry if you don’t get to everything on your plan. Part of the beauty in homeschooling is that you are able to adjust the pacing as needed.
A Home School System
It’s nice to have a file system with the work for each week ready to go. Basically, I organize our ENTIRE year in this box. I fill each week with the plans, worksheets, & curriculum we’ll need. If we’re using a workbook, I’ll tear it apart and section it out by the appropriate number for pages for each week. (If you have multiple children, each child can have a different color folder.) The whole year is ready to go!
A binder for each subject is a nice way to store the completed work you want to save. Your child is essentially creating a portfolio of their best work!
The internet has given us so many great tools, but taking hand written notes is still one of the best ways to retain information! I have my son take notes before each math lesson. Basically, I’ll write the notes in one notebook and he copies them down in his. We use 2 or 3 colored pencils to help visually organize the information. We write topic, new words, & number the steps for solving the problems. After doing a few examples together, I have him try a couple on his own. (The graph paper notebook below is especially helpful for math because it’s easier to line the numbers up correctly.)
You could have notes pre-written for your child to copy in their own notebook. If you do that, I suggest using a white sheet of paper to cover the notes. Keep the notes concise & slowly reveal what you want your students to copy as you explain it. This makes the process of note taking less overwhelming.
**Teaching tip: Use “I do – We do – You do” when possible. This process gradually releases the responsibly of completing the work to your child, while ensuring they have the skills to do so.
The Home School Curriculum
Some charter homeschools will let you choose your own curriculum, while others will direct you to use theirs. I opted for a charter that allowed me to pick. Below is a brief description of what we will be using next year.
MATH: Khan Academy is GREAT & FREE! It allows students to learn at their own pace and requires the mastery of skills before students move on. Engage NY is another FREE program that many teachers like! So, I may use both of those for my math curriculum. You can too. Just select your grade level. (If Engage NY is too dry, I may replace it with Spectrum Math and lean heavily on Khan Academy to keep up the rigor.) I also LOVE “daily counts” as a 6th grade math morning warm up. The kids use the # of days they’ve been in school over the total # of days to create a fraction, ratio, decimal, & percent each day!
WRITING: I’m using the writing curriculum above and a sentence editing boot camp I got off of Amazon. I created the writing curriculum to provide a straight forward approach to instruction. It covers informative, narrative, descriptive, opinion, & summary writing.
READING: I have a strong reader, so we’re just going to do simple novel studies (ie. Read, summarize, & find 3 words to define), the history passages below, & my text structures activities.
HISTORY: The library will be our best friend here! I’m going to have my son research and complete several ancient civilizations projects. I am also excited about the 6th grade reading passages & PowerPoints from StudentSavvy.
SCIENCE: I went light here. This is where I’m going to spend my money (later in the year) sending him to science camps & small group classes at Hands in Motion. Bill Nye is fantastic. Summarizing his videos can also count as writing.
You can find lists online of what is taught each year in public schools. This is where you have to trust your gut. If it is overwhelming to you, it’s definitely going to overwhelm your child! Your home school does not need to mirror public school. Home school offers a chance to teach to your strengths, your child’s interests, and meet them where they are!! Just as I did in the classroom, I plan to start small, keep a positive vibe going, & slowly add in more when it feels right. It’s going to be GREAT!
Multiple Children
Home schooling can get trickier with each additional child. One tip that works wonders in this scenario is to align their history & science lessons. Remember, it’s OK to teach grade level standards out of order (especially in regard to history & science as they are not as linear as the other subjects). Teach them together & differentiate their assignments.
If you have toddlers & big kids, it helps to get the toddler a little workbook of their own. If they have “work” to do, they are considerably less distracting.
Want more? In the following post, I lay out some of my favorite resources by grade level. Check it out!
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Happy teaching!
~ Melissa
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