Podcast 170 – How to Have a Flexible Homeschool Year

If you know you are going to have a busy homeschool year or if you just want to keep your homeschool schedule open and flexible, here’s how you can plan for the upcoming year without stressing yourself out!  This is the method I have been using for years with great success!

For more help, get my book: Flexible Homeschool Planning

Resources mentioned:

• Flexible Homeschool Planning (book)
• Are Local Homeschool Groups, Co-ops, and Classes a Waste of Time? (post)
• How to Put Your Homeschool on Autopilot – Podcast #50
• Five in a Row (curriculum)
• Rod & Staff ABC Series Workbooks (curriculum)

Transcript

Last time on the Raising Arrows podcast, I talked about what if you’re not ready to start the homeschool year? And the previous podcast was on homeschool planning inspiration. But I want to talk to you this week about having a flexible homeschool plan. One that is going to adjust as the year progresses and one that’s going to fit your family. So let’s dive into this week’s podcast.

Hello, friends. Welcome to the Raising Arrows® podcast. I’m Amy Roberts from raisingarrows.net and this is episode number 170, How to Have a Flexible Homeschool Year.

This podcast is going to be based off of my book, Flexible Homeschool Planning. In this book, I give you lots of resources and ideas for creating a flexible homeschool plan. I’m not going to be able to get to all of this today, but I will share some highlights from this book and some ways to make this homeschool year very flexible.

This will be particularly helpful if you already know that you’re getting ready to have kind of a topsy turvy homeschool year. So let’s just dig in to how we can make this work!

First of all, I want to give you my two resources that you need to homeschool plan for a flexible year. Now listen closely. Lean in a little bit, okay? You need a pen and paper, or you just need your fingers and your computer, whichever, but it’s not difficult. You don’t need planning templates and all kinds of extra resources. And that really super fancy pen that’s in your Amazon cart. You don’t need any of that. None of that is going to make your homeschool plan better. It might make the planning more enjoyable, but it’s not going to make the plan any better. So pen and paper, your fingers and your phone and your computer, whichever of those you prefer, whatever is your favorite medium. Got it? Now this is how you’re going to do this….

So in my book, Flexible Homeschool Planning, my very first chapter is why you shouldn’t stress about homeschool planning. And I have a whole myriad of reasons why this shouldn’t be a stressful process. But we’re not going to go into that. We’re going to dive right into the actual process of making sure that your homeschool year is as flexible as it can be.

The first thing I need to stress here is what a flexible homeschool year is not. We can talk all day long about what it is, but you really need to get clear in your head what it’s not and then move from there.

First of all, it’s not complicated. It’s not a long, drawn out process. It’s not something that is going to require hours and hours and days and days of your time in order to implement. It is a very simple process that keeps things fluid and flexible all throughout the year for you.

You also may be tempted to think that this process, this method, can’t possibly work because it’s too simple. That’s where I’m going to ask you to just trust the process on this. That is exactly why it works. The simplicity of this method is why you can continue to be flexible with it because it’s not overly complicated and it’s not going to bog you down and it’s not going to take forever for you to do. It is so super simple, it’s almost insane how super simple it is.

So get that out of your mind first before we even dive into this. Just because it’s simple does not mean that this isn’t going to work. Because just because something’s complicated doesn’t mean it’s the right method. It just means it has lots of extra steps and it kind of looks fancy and it makes you feel good, especially if you bought something like some sort of homeschool planning course. And it’s got all these steps. First of all, the steps are going to bog you down. And secondly, you want to feel like you got your money’s worth, so they give you lots and lots of things to do when really, you just need some super simple guidance.

Okay, let’s talk about your curriculum first, because that’s going to be the backbone of keeping this plan, keeping your year flexible. Are you using workbooks? Are you using online classes? Are you going to co ops? Do you do some things together as a family? You need to write out each of those in what category they are in.

Workbooks are a no brainer. Workbooks are always “do the next thing,” even if you have to go in and mark out some of the problems. Because the kids don’t need to do everything. They are going to work sequentially through a workbook. That’s just the nature of the workbook.

That is also the nature of online classes. We very rarely skip around in online classes. We do the next thing. That’s going to be the backbone of this – do the next thing.

When it comes to the co op classes, that’s really out of your control unless you are teaching the class. If you are not teaching the class, what they do in the class is really not any of your business other than helping your kids with whatever homework needs to be done because somebody else is taking care of that. All you have to keep track of is when do you go to co-op and what do you need to have ready for co-op the next time. That’s all you have to keep track of there. So don’t worry about those either. Except for setting reminders on your phone or putting things on the calendar and helping your kids work through that.

You don’t need to necessarily need to include co-ops in your personal plan. Just remember that is one thing you can’t make flexible. You can’t change the time and day of the co-op. So if you need to be really flexible, you probably need to take the co op out of your life this year. I do have a post on this topic as to whether or not homeschool groups and co ops are a waste of time. It might behoove you to take a look at that post and really consider whether or not a co op is a good idea for you, particularly if you are needing to have a very flexible homeschool year.

All right, the last thing I mentioned was subjects that you do all together as a family. This would be like morning time subjects or things that you are intensively working with your children on. Maybe the curriculum is kind of all over the place. Maybe you’re pulling things from YouTube or online sources. How do you plan for those kinds of things? That’s where this flexible homeschool planning really kicks in and helps you to be very strong in your planning but flexible in your plans.

So now I am going to read to you from a section in Flexible Homeschool Planning where it kind of puts everything together for you in a picture of what a typical week might look like with this flexible plan.

Okay, so basically you’ve got your pen and your paper, or you have your computer or your phone, and you are basically now going to create a running list. Now, the curriculum that is workbook based and online based and co-op based, you can remove that because that’s do the next thing – that doesn’t even need to be on your plan. You know, when your child finishes the workbook, that they finished all the work. You don’t need to put it into a homeschool plan.

You also kind of need to get out of your head the idea that everything has to have a checkbox box next to it. For years I thought that I needed to have some neat little square with more neat little squares that had the lesson of the day in all of these squares under all of these subjects, and that I had to have that so that I could check it off every single time. No, you don’t need that. You just do the next thing. And when you’re finished with the workbook, you’re finished with the workbook, the job is done. You don’t have to mark it all off all of the time. Even if you have to have a portfolio for your state, you can go back and simply plug in all of that stuff. You don’t necessarily have to have it all upfront because you may have days that change.

If you make a huge schedule, 3 months ahead, and one day you don’t get to that thing you thought you were going to do on Wednesday, the second you move it to Thursday, you are behind and your entire schedule is off! Don’t do that to yourself.

Instead, you’re going to keep a running list. Remove workbooks, online classes, co ops, remove that from your lesson plan. You’re going to only focus on a running list, which is the reason you only need a piece of notebook paper or a document on your computer.

What you’re going to put on there are the things that you are wanting to include in your homeschool that you’re going to do with everyone or you’re going to do with a group of children or you want to make sure that you implement, you’re going to keep as a running list.

I actually use a real live notebook piece of paper. I will use different sections of the notebook to put different things. One section, like one side of the page will be the different books that I want to make sure that we read that week. And I usually do my running list week by week. Monthly can work for you as well. I just tend to do my planning in either weeks or units. Um, little snippets of things that are all grouped together that make sense. And I will have the books that I want to read, the YouTube videos I want my kids to watch, the art lessons that we’re going to do, all of these different things. And I kind of just use different parts of the notebook paper. So I’m sort of categorizing them without really categorizing them. I’ve just got them on this piece of paper.

Our geography is on there, our Bible lessons are on there, the things that we’re doing all together, and that becomes a working list. And I will work my way through that list.

Now, I’m not necessarily going to go from top to bottom because I might have a day where I don’t have enough time to do all of these things. Or maybe I have something I want to pull from this side and something I want to pull on this side. And I can’t just go through it, you know, one by one by one down the list. I want to pull things from different places.

So say I’ve got my YouTube category down here and my book category, and I want to take one thing from my books and then we end up wanting to watch a video that kind of corresponds with the book that we read. I want to be able to jump down and then all I do is cross it off. That’s how simple this is. Super, super flexible.

Write down in sections what you want to do. Cross it off when you do it, and then you’re never behind. You are always continuing to work on your list and you get things done. And when you get things done, you mark it off.

And the list is not nagging you. It’s simply a plan. It simply helps, you know, this is the direction I want to go. I may not get there today, but I can get something done today. And if I can’t get it done today, it’ll still be there tomorrow. But it’s not making me feel guilty. It’s not telling me I’m behind. It’s simply there. It’s innocuous. It’s not yelling at me the way that checkboxes and things that are on a calendar tend to yell at you. And this will keep your entire year super flexible. The same thing works with your workbooks. If you have to skip a day, you know exactly where your kids need to be the next day, and they know, too. The computer class is same thing. It’s the next day that we get to do school. This is where we are at. It’s not upset with you over not having it in the right box. You don’t have to move everything over on your calendar because you missed this day or you didn’t get enough done that day. It keeps your entire year super flexible.

Flexible Homeschooling Scenarios…

Okay, so I want to finish this with some scenarios. And these are directly from the book. I put in a bunch of different scenarios so that you could see how this works in real time.

So we’re going to start with what I called Shady Acres Homeschool. We’re going to talk about this family’s dynamic because you have to keep that in mind when planning. Dad works a flexible schedule. Mom works from home and all the children are ages eight and under. Okay? So think about that.

Their curriculum is going to be the Rod and Staff ABC series, Five in a Row, and some random workbooks that mom found at a local store. Mom homeschool plans once a week, usually on Sunday night, so that she can shop for supplies on Monday morning while dad hangs out with the kids before he heads into work that afternoon.

Five in a Row is the only planned curriculum, and it’s not even that planned (for those of you who know what Five in a Row is). So on Sunday, mom’s going to gather the books for the week. She places it in a Five in a Row basket, and she sits down to look through the curriculum for what activities she wants to do with the kids for that particular book. She makes her running list, that’s your flexible homeschool plan on your notebook paper or on your phone. So she’s got her running list, and she places that in the basket as well. She takes her supplies list and goes through the house gathering the things that she already has, as long as it isn’t something perishable. And then she puts those things in the Five in a Row basket, and she crosses everything off her list as she goes.

She puts the final supplies that she doesn’t have on her shopping list. She puts that in her purse on Monday morning, remember, because dad works a flexible schedule so she’s going to go to the store on Monday morning, and she buys all of the supplies that she didn’t already have on hand.

But while she’s in the store, she remembers that she wanted to do a baking project with the kids. So she buys the ingredients she needs and jots down a reminder on a piece of paper, tells her phone that she wants to do this baking project. She wants to add it to her running list, even though it’s not part of the five in a row curriculum. This is something extra that she wanted to do.

When she gets home on Monday, she’s too tired to do anything but the Rod and Staff workbooks with her kids. Remember, those don’t have to be put on the list because they’re just do the next thing. So she does a couple of pages of those. The rest of the day she spends prepping food for the week, playing with the kids outside, and reading that week’s and Five in a Row book for the first time.

Then on Tuesday, she starts the day with Five in a Row. She reads the book again and does several of the projects that afternoon. The older kids work through their workbooks while the younger ones nap. Mom’s feeling super productive. Dad’s home early from work. Dinner’s in the crock pot, so she decides today’s a great day for the family baking project.

Dad is able to take the toddler outside when he starts to get crazy in the kitchen. The project goes well and the kids are begging for more. So mom decides to sit down that night and she’s going to look for more easy kitchen projects that the kids can do. She adds those to her running list. She carefully tries to find projects that she already has the ingredients for so she doesn’t have to go back to the store. And then she adds a couple of things, maybe for another week, onto her list and adds those ingredients to her shopping list.

Then on Wednesday, this is dad’s long day. So mom does the normal five in a row lesson, the usual workbooks after lunch, and she spends the rest of the day working online because she works from home too, and she keeps the kids contained.

Then on Thursday, dad’s home until the afternoon. So mom works online for a couple of hours and then pushes hard to get all the schoolwork done during the morning hours so she can do a kitchen project with the older kids during nap time.

And then on Friday, mom looks over that running list that she had before school even starts, and she decides to do just one more five in a row project and then call it good. She can mark the rest of those off her list. She’s decided she doesn’t want to do the rest of those. She only is going to do that one last project.

And then that afternoon, she just happens to see a cute and easy craft online. She decides to do that right after workbook time. She writes it down on the running list just so she can cross it off when she’s finished. (How many of us do that?)

And that is a week at Shady Acres Homeschool. As you can see, because dad works a really different schedule, it’s not an eight to five kind of job, and she also works from home, she needs to have a flexible homeschool year, so she takes advantage of dad being home to take care of some things. She figures out what days she actually has more energy and more time. She makes executive decisions at the beginning of the school day as to whether or not this is a day that she can get a lot done or whether or not all of these projects are things she actually wanted to do. She crosses off things she doesn’t want to do anymore. She makes sure that she has supplies on hand for the things that she does want to do and that is how her flexible year goes.

And hopefully, you can see how that running list of things that she wants to do and the fact that she’s also using workbooks that just are “do the next thing”, how that plays into that flexible plan.

Okay, I’m going to give you one more scenario and this is the Lighthouse Academy homeschool. The family dynamic is that dad works nine to five, so he has a very set schedule. But mom has several health issues that flare up from time to time and then all of the children are above the age of ten. So I’m going to kind of give you both sides of the spectrum when it comes to this. And there’s a couple of other scenarios in this book, but I wanted to focus just on a couple of these to give you an idea of what this flexible homeschool year can look like and how this running list and this do the next thing idea can actually help you create that flexible year.

Okay, so the curriculum is mostly computer based, but mom has a creative side that desires to do special projects with the kids when she feels well enough to do so. She doesn’t want to just give that up, but she doesn’t always have the ability to do these special projects.

Every month mom puts together a list of theme based activities that don’t require a lot of extra or expensive supplies. She sends a list of things she needs to her husband via email and he grabs them after work or she orders supplies online so they come straight to her door. She keeps her list of ideas on the computer and her supplies in the closet in the hallway.

Most days the kids simply start in on their computer work with mom checking in on them as needed. As an aside here, I do have a video and podcast and post all about autopilot homeschooling, so you might want to check that out because that’s what I’m talking about here – when they go ahead and start their schoolwork and they’re working through that list of things they need to do – with her just checking periodically.

Since she never knows when pain may keep her from doing an activity she has planned, she never makes set plans until the afternoon of each day she’s having a good day. She gathers everyone around the table or outside, or they jump in the car for an impromptu field trip. She tries to take advantage of seasonal activities and projects and keeps easy projects on hand to enjoy with the children. Sometimes the children even ask if they can put together the project on their own. Mom is always delighted to see how creative the kids can be even when she’s not there to guide the activity.

She’s flexible. She never knows when she might be in pain, so she has to keep a very flexible outlook to her homeschool year. That’s how all of this works together.

And I hope you are really catching an excitement and a passion for putting together a homeschool year that does stay flexible, even when I have years that are very set in stone, which never happens. But anyway, if I were to have a year that was very set in stone, I would still use this method of homeschool planning because it is so simplistic, so uncomplicated, so easy to implement. You literally just do the next thing.

Even if your curriculum has a grid and a set lesson plan that came with it, you don’t have to do that. I almost always take that lesson plan and separate it into pieces because there’s going to be pieces in there I don’t want to do. I don’t want to do all of that stuff. So I just take the pieces and put them onto my notebook and work through just the things I want to do.

A lot of the curriculum out there has gone to these grid lesson plans where they’ve got the subject, and then Monday through Friday or Monday through Thursday is planned for you. I will even print off those grids and just mark an x through the stuff I don’t want to do and circle the things I do want to do and not even always transfer it to a piece of notebook paper. But that way I’m also not having to be beholden to the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday part of the grid. I don’t care if you need to mark through that part on the curriculum, do that. That will allow you to stay flexible and just grab bits and pieces here and there.

Respect and honor the dynamic of your family, the flow of your family. This helps to really honor and respect the God given family you have and the dynamics that you have and the circumstances that you have. It allows you to stay super flexible and not creating a homeschool plan that is so rigid and structured that you always feel like you’re behind.

All right, if you would like to learn more about this method, see more of those scenarios and get more ideas about flexible homeschool planning, take a look at my book, flexible homeschool planning. You can snag this book on my website at raisingarrows.net/store. And that would be a great little resource for you to have on hand, just to keep reminding yourself not to overcomplicate your homeschool planning. And in turn, don’t overcomplicate your homeschool year. As always, friends, I am so glad that you joined me here on the Raising Arrows podcast. Your home for all things large, family, homemaking, and homeschooling. Have a great week.