Join me as I outline and prepare for our spring 2024 homeschool semester!
Here are the things I like to get to do to get ready for the beginning of a new semester:
1. I like to start with a few lists so that I can see a high-level view of what the next months will look like. I list out goals for my kids and then meet with them about what those look like. I also list out any electives or extracurricular activities.
2. The next thing I like to do is outline our calendar. I look at a year overview and pencil in when we'll be doing school and which weeks we'll take off. I don't like to teach more than 6 consecutive weeks. I find we all need a break by that time. This upcoming semester, we'll be doing formal, structured learning for about 16 weeks total.
3. I take a look through our core curriculum and go ahead and outline which lessons I want us to have completed by the end of each week for our core topics such as math and language arts. I also look over our electives and loosely plan the topics or lessons I'd like to cover. For example, this semester, for history we'll learn about the Victorian era, and for science, we'll be learning about weather and also animal habits in the winter to name a few. I like to allow for flexibility in our learning and don't get granular during this overview creation.