Homeschool Planning

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Homeschool planning for me takes place once a year, usually in July. Just in case you didn’t know, we school all year round, working for 6 weeks, then we take 1 week off. We used to school 4 weeks on and take 1 week off when I had only primary school level children. However, when I switched my oldest to using Abeka Academy, I had to shift our homeschool schedule to 6 weeks on, 1 week off.

Our School Term

We usually start school in August and finish off in July.

In the beginning, I followed our local Singapore school schedule of 10 weeks of school with either a 1 week (March and September), 4 weeks (June) or 6 weeks (November-December) break. But neither the children nor I could stomach doing 10 weeks of school.

Also, the longer breaks of 4 or 6 weeks were just too long for us. They forgot what they had learnt and routines were hard to re-establish when school was back on.

Therefore, the number of weeks we school is different from the public schools. Besides taking every week off after 6 weeks of school, throughout the year, we also take 2 weeks off for Christmas and 1 week off for Chinese New Year. Public Holidays and birthdays are also no-school days.

Once our school year ends in July, I would take 3 to 4 weeks off to plan for the next school year. This plan is obviously not set in stone. If necessary, I would do a review in December and tweak the necessary kinks.

Note:

A word about the curriculum used and subjects covered in our homeschool:

From aged 6 onwards all children use Student of the Word* for our Bible and English. Once they reach primary school level (aged 7 and above), we follow the Ministry of Education‘s syllabus for Maths, Science and Chinese.

Why?

In order to homeschool and be exempted from the Compulsory Education Law, our children are required to sit for PSLE, a compulsory nation-wide exam all Singaporeans are required to sit when they reach 12 years old unless a special exemption has been granted by MOE.

In order to prepare them adequately for it, I need them to know the local syllabus well before venturing out to learn the “extras”. Besides, in this season of my life, I do not have the luxury of time to let them learn another syllabus and then switch the child to the local requirements 1-2 years before PSLE.

*UPDATE: It is with sadness that I discovered that Student of the Word no longer exists.

Full-Year Planning

I do a full year of homeschool planning for the kindergarten and primary school levels only. Abeka has its own Lesson Plans and the older ones follow them. And I have found that the best place to get all the required MOE textbooks and assessment books is from Popular Bookstore.

So far, I have found that the main branch at Bras Basah has the best and most comprehensive range of books. The other branches tend to carry dribs and drabs from certain publishers only.

Makes for very frustrating shopping since I can’t finish it in one session. After many years of trial and error and from talking to more experienced mothers, I usually zoom in on a few publishers.

Dividing Up Lessons to Fit our School Calendar

After I have all the books on hand, I would divide up the lessons into the number of weeks we are schooling for the year.

An easy example to explain this – if there are 100 lessons in Science to be covered in 50 weeks, then I need to cover 2 Science lessons per week. But if there are 200 lessons of Maths to be covered in 50 weeks, then I need to cover 4 lessons of Maths per week.

I do this for each subject for each child. I key all these into Donna Young’s typeable calendar*. Looks much neater than when I used to write it out! This full-year planner is only for my eyes. The children have no idea what they are going to cover at this point in time. Less daunting for them!

UPDATE 2017:

Sadly, Donna Young no longer provides these planner pages for free. I am currently downloading my free yearly calendar pages from Calendars by Vertex42.com. They are also typeable so my planners look nice and neat.

Weekly Lesson Planner

Once the full year planning for each child is completed, I will transfer it week-by-week into each child’s personal planner. I only transfer 6 weeks’ worth of lesson plans each time. Then I would transfer another 6 weeks’ worth during our one week break. That means they do not get overwhelmed with the full year’s work all at once.

Doing it this way also allowed me to make any modifications should the child miss school due to illness or some other unforeseen occurrence. Also, if I discover that the child is over or underperforming. I would slow down and reduce the workload. Or vice versa. This way afforded me much more flexibility.

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I also combine all the children’s weekly lessons into my own DIY Planner.* This way, I know what they are supposed to do without me taking out my master planner file OR asking them what they are supposed to do. Also, it keeps me accountable. I will make notations on my own Planner to indicate if I have graded their work and/or if they have done their required corrections. Being kept accountable is very important to me since I tend to slack off as the days go by 🙁

Each child has his/her own planner pages to tick off when they have completed their assignments. This teaches them to take responsibility for their own work and lifts some burden off me.

UPDATE 2017:

I no longer do this as they are now more responsible. 🙂 Whew!

Half-Yearly Review

Each December, I would look over the full year planner and see if we are on target. Or if I need to tweak something. Some assessment books look good but may not agree with the child’s capabilities. Then it means I’ve got to spend more time at Popular Bookstore or surf the internet for more appropriate books.

Homeschool Planning for Toddlers

That is how we plan our homeschool for the kindergarten and primary school level children.

For nursery levels, 3 and 4-year-olds, I am totally relaxed. I don’t do any planning at all. I just gather a few books that I like while browsing around at the bookshops or online and then we do a few pages a day. It is only to get them used to the routine of school.

We are mostly reading and playing at this stage. For more on how I homeschool our toddlers, read Teaching our Toddlers.

Related Posts

Our Homeschool Schedule
Homeschool FAQs
Considering Homeschooling?

Homeschool Resource

Need more help for homeschool planning? Check out Pam Barnhill’s Plan Your Year* here.

*This is an affiliate product which means I will be paid a small commission if you should choose to purchase the product through my link.)

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