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Homeschool Planning for the Year (in less than 30 minutes!)
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Jun 19, 2024
Want to see what it's like using Homeschool Planet to do your homeschool planning for the year quickly and easily? Curious about our homeschool schedule and how I organize my classes? I'm taking you with me as I set up my planner for the upcoming homeschool year. CURRICULUM & RESOURCES MENTIONED β Homeschool Planet Planner β https://homeschoolplanet.idevaffiliate.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=242 (get a FREE trial!) π» Homeschool Hall Tracker β https://homeschoolhall.com/activity-journal?aff=blessedhomeschool (use code BLESSEDHOMESCHOOL for 20% off!) π My Father's World ECC β https://www.mfwbooks.com/item/95101/ (referral code W059321) π Learning Language Arts Through Literature β https://www.commonsensepress.com/store/c2/Learning_Language_Arts_Through_Literature.html β CTCMath β https://www.ctcmath.com/ βοΈ Bible Study Fellowship β https://www.bsfinternational.org π Not Consumed Devotionals β https://store.notconsumed.com/?aff=489 π¨ Creating a Masterpiece β https://creatingamasterpiece.com/ref/sara.radginski/ π€ First Form Latin β https://id.memoriapress.com//idevaffiliate.php?id=272 π» Typing.com - Free typing classes for your kids ********************************************* Hey there! Iβm Sara, and Iβm a teacher-turned-homeschooling mom to 4 kiddos (including a set of twins!). I balance homeschooling while working full-time from home, and am so thankful you are here. I love sharing about homeschooling on my blog, Blessed Homeschool, where youβll find tips, resources, and curriculum reviews. Whether you are a newbie or a veteran, I hope you will leave inspired and equipped with what you find.
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hey guys, welcome to my channel
0:01
I'm Sarah from Blessed Homeschool. Today I'm gonna take you with me as I plan out our classes for the upcoming homeschool year
0:08
using an online homeschool planner I love, Homeschool Planet. So it's the end of June here and believe it or not
0:24
we're gonna be starting school in the next week or two. I say starting
0:28
but we really haven't stopped completely this summer. I just mean we'll be slow rolling
0:33
slow rolling into our new curriculum. This is the first year we really haven't taken
0:42
a specific break over the summer. Usually we stop all traditional type lessons
0:47
but this year we kept going with math, spelling for my girls, science and history
0:52
We also started the Generous Students Homeschool Curriculum Kit, which I reviewed in my last video
0:58
Now we did slow down a lot, meaning we didn't do a full load every day, but my kids did do math every day
1:03
and we did the other subjects when we could, leaving room for lots of other fun summer activities too
1:08
The reason that I began my official school year in July is because this is when we're able to start logging
1:12
our homeschool hours that are required by the state. So anything educational we do from July 1st on
1:18
I can log it. If you have to keep similar records or track other state requirements
1:21
I highly recommend Homeschool Hall for this and you can check out a couple of videos I've done on them
1:26
to learn more. All right, even though I start logging hours in July, we don't go right into a full load
1:31
We'll start with one subject a week, do that for a week
1:35
and then add on another subject the next week and so on until we're up to our full load
1:40
This year will look a little bit different because I used BJU Press the last three years
1:45
where every subject was very much separate. This year we're using My Father's World
1:49
where it's a little bit more integrated. So it's gonna look a little bit different
1:53
but we're still gonna ease into things slowly. So what I'm gonna do now
1:57
is actually share my screen with you and talk you through how I set up my school year
2:01
and how I'm going to add classes to the planner. And I'll also share how I'm gonna have my kids
2:07
using Homeschool Planet to help them stay organized and on track next year
2:11
This may be kind of a boring video. I don't know if you wanna sit and watch me
2:15
type everything into Homeschool Planet, but if you aren't familiar with the tool
2:18
or you haven't done this before, you don't know if it's something that you wanna do
2:22
it might be helpful for you just to see what the process looks like or how I do it, I don't know
2:27
So if you're interested, let's go. All right, here we go. So I'm logged into our Homeschool Planet
2:33
And the first thing I wanna do is just show you how I have our school year set up already
2:40
So this is under settings and under school years, this is where I set up our new school year
2:47
for 2023 and 2024. So in here, you can set your first day, your last day
2:55
you can select which days are going to be class days. And here you can even select
3:02
if there are certain holidays you wanna make sure show up on your calendar and it'll automatically mark those as days off
3:09
You can go in and edit any of those as needed. So you can see it shows you my calendar right here
3:15
and the green check marks are days that we're going to have school. I've already kind of went in and X'd out
3:21
some days that we're gonna be taking breaks and that we won't have school
3:27
So I set all that up ahead of time. And you can see it shows me at the top
3:31
the total number of school days that I have planned right now. And every month it'll show you kind of at the bottom
3:38
any holidays or things that are coming up. So that is for this school year
3:45
And if I click to subjects, this is where I set up all the different subject areas
3:51
that we're gonna be covering. So I added all of our subjects here
3:55
You can color code them, whatever color you want to make them. So this is just what I have set up
4:00
And then you can select whether they're core classes or non-core classes
4:05
This is really helpful if you do have to track hours. I don't necessarily like using Homeschool Planet
4:12
for tracking hours. Like I mentioned, I much prefer Homeschool Hall and their interface
4:18
but there are options where you can track your hours within Homeschool Planet
4:22
if you want to use one program for all of that. And then here with category
4:28
these are for things that aren't necessarily your subject. So I set up categories for chores, field trips
4:36
core and non-core, and then miscellaneous. I honestly have not used these very much
4:41
but I have them set up there just in case. And just real quick, the grading tab
4:45
this is where you can set up your categories for grading, your grading scales if you want to
4:52
Again, we don't use this much right now, but it is here if you want to
4:58
Okay, so let's get into our calendar and actually planning things for the next year
5:03
Okay, so we're gonna go ahead and move into next week. And you'll see we have no school on Tuesday
5:08
it's the 4th of July. And I do have some items on the calendar already
5:12
We've been working through our heritage studies this summer. And so you'll see some of those lessons on there
5:18
And the only other thing that I have on here right now is our Bible curriculum
5:22
We started this a couple of weeks ago, and I did not have to fill any of this in
5:28
I got this lesson plan from the Homeschool Planet lesson plan marketplace
5:32
and it loads it all in for you. So they've got tons of lesson plans
5:37
from lots of different curriculum companies, and they're not too expensive. You can purchase those lesson plans
5:43
and it will automatically fill in your calendar for you based on the guidelines you set
5:49
So super helpful, everything is planned out. I just have to tell it where I wanna go
5:55
And then from there, it's really easy to rearrange if I need to
5:58
All right, there are just a couple of things that I do want to do for this week
6:03
Last year, when I set this up, I put our different subjects
6:07
at different times during the day. I kinda had them scheduled. And this year, I don't wanna do that
6:12
I just wanna have more of a running list of what the kids wanna get done each day
6:17
We're not gonna be super sticklers about the time. I don't know if I'll change that later
6:21
but I do wanna change this so I take the time off. So what I'm gonna do is I'll click into it
6:27
and I can edit it. I'll go into change schedule, change the schedule in other ways
6:33
I'm gonna select no particular time. We'll hit save, save and close
6:40
And then it takes that time frame off of it. So what happened before when I had all the different times
6:45
it would put them in order of what time I wanted them done
6:49
And I don't necessarily need that this year. What else I wanna add to this week is our music practice
6:55
So I do have the kids practice music daily. So I'm going to click just anywhere in that spot
7:01
and it's gonna pull up where I can add either a class, birthday, or everything else
7:07
I'm gonna click on everything else and the activity. I'm going to just call this music practice
7:18
And it is gonna be, I am gonna have it different days for my different kids
7:22
So for my category, let's just go ahead and add a category called music
7:28
We'll make it this color. Close that. And let's do this one just for
7:40
this is gonna be for Luke and Carly. They have lessons on the same day
7:46
So I want both of them to be practicing on the days that they don't have lessons
7:50
So I'm gonna click on when I want them to practice. So we're gonna do selected days of the week
7:59
Starting the 4th, we're gonna go until the end of our school year
8:06
which is gonna be the end of June, 2024. And then for the days of the week
8:15
they have class on Friday. So I'm gonna uncheck that. And I'm gonna uncheck the weekends too
8:20
just cause I don't typically have them log in to Homeschool Planet on the weekends
8:24
And then what I'm gonna wanna do to make the little check boxes appear
8:29
you wanna have an assignment in here. I don't typically have an assignment
8:34
other than practice your music. So what I'll do is in this task section
8:42
I'll just type in practice instrument. And then we'll click add. This is gonna make all of the tasks the same
8:53
And it's gonna add all of those assignments to the lesson plan. So I don't have to do it all by hand
8:58
It will add them all at once. And it's gonna add them for both Carly and Luke
9:03
That's all in there. And then we'll hit save and close. Okay, that is really bright
9:10
I don't know if I like that or not, but you'll see that that's showing up. So it's a bright color because it's not a class
9:16
It's just an extra task that I want them to do. And that's why it's also showing up on the no school day
9:24
I may decide to take that off. I'm not sure, we're gonna be busy that day
9:27
But you'll see that it shows up on every day except for Friday
9:32
And it has the little check boxes in here. So when Luke logs into his calendar
9:37
he's just gonna see his name. He won't see Carly's tasks. All right, I'm gonna do the same thing for Emma
9:45
So we'll add this. Music practice. It's gonna be music. We're gonna do this for Emma
9:53
Selected days of the week. She practices on Wednesday. So we're gonna uncheck that
9:59
We're gonna go to June 2024 again. And again, the great thing is
10:07
is I can come in and edit this at any time. I'm not gonna be locked in. If I wanna change my schedule, it's really easy to do
10:18
She practices the violin. So we're going to add this assignment. It's gonna give me the same prompts
10:26
It's gonna create all those assignments and we'll save and close. All right, so that assignment is added
10:32
all throughout my calendar for the rest of the school year. Another similar task I wanted to add is chores
10:38
I like to put a little task box on here for chores so that when my kids log in each day
10:43
they are reminded that they have chores to do. So again, we'll click in here, click everything else
10:50
And I had two separate boxes last year for morning chores and afternoon chores
10:56
I'm just gonna call it daily chores this year. We'll select chores
11:02
This is gonna be for all the kids. Selected days of the week
11:11
We're going to end it, whoops, at the end of our school year
11:20
And again, they have these daily. So I'm gonna uncheck the weekend and I'm just going
11:25
so they all have the little check box. I'm just gonna call this morning and afternoon chores
11:38
Let's just call it morning and afternoon chores. So once those are done, they can check this box off
11:42
We'll add that, same prompts, and it'll create those tasks for all the kids
11:49
Okay, there they are, a little bit less bright. I like that. Okay, that is on there
11:56
Okay, the final thing I'm gonna add this week is our daily devotional time that the kids do each day
12:01
So I'll click into here. And again, this is gonna be everything else
12:05
I will call this, let's see, I'm gonna probably need to set up
12:08
a couple of different things because we have different timelines for this. But we'll do daily devotional is the activity
12:19
And I think I'm gonna need to set up, we'll set up a Bible category
12:23
And let's do like a light blue. This is gonna be for all the kiddos
12:33
We'll do every day of the week. And we're going to only have this on the schedule
12:40
until September 11th, because after that we start Bible study fellowship and we're gonna have different Bible assignments
12:49
that I want them to do in the morning. So it's gonna go until then
12:53
And for their shared tasks, I'm just gonna fill in daily devotional
13:00
And usually for this, we do one of the not consumed devotional journals
13:04
or any other kind of Bible study that we're doing or that I want my kids to do on their own
13:10
So we'll add that in. Okay, and while we're here, I'm gonna go ahead and add that one more time
13:20
because after BSF is done, I wanna have this on the calendar
13:23
So we're just gonna add it in real quick so that I don't forget
13:32
And this one is actually gonna start. So we'll do every day of the week
13:37
It's not gonna start until June because that's June of next year
13:43
So we'll go from, actually we'll probably go from about here until the end of June and it'll be the same thing
13:55
So I just wanna get everything set up for the year so I don't have to think about it or worry about it later
14:04
All right, and then I need to set up our BSF. So same type of thing
14:10
but once we start that, instead of doing their daily devotional, they're gonna have their Bible study work
14:15
So I'm gonna put BSF homework. It's gonna be our Bible category
14:21
All three of my older kids. We're gonna do every day except Tuesday
14:30
because that's when we have BSF. And we're gonna start this in September
14:38
So we'll start on the 13th and we're gonna go through probably the end of May
14:46
So I started the other one here. Let's just go to here. I don't remember when it ends
14:51
but and then we'll type in BSF homework as the assignment and it's gonna go and assign it to all students
15:03
That is all that I wanna schedule for this week. Remember, we're gonna slowly kinda add things on
15:09
So let's go into the next week and add some things there. All right, so when I click into next week
15:15
you can see everything that I already added is in there. Now you do see learning language arts through literature
15:22
There's no assignments under here yet because I've added this to our school year
15:27
but they won't have any assignments this week just yet. And I haven't added our heritage studies assignment
15:33
That's why you're not seeing any checkboxes here. But this week I do want to add in their math
15:39
and their Latin assignments. We've been doing math throughout the summer, but we took a little break last week
15:45
So I'm gonna go down, I'll click here, and this time I'm gonna add a class
15:49
So my subject is going to be math and their title we're using CTC math
15:55
So I'm just gonna type in CTC math. Now with this, I don't actually have to create
16:04
any assignments because I create all of the assignments in CTC math
16:09
I just add this to the planner so my kids remember to do it, and they have a checklist that helps them remember
16:15
So this is gonna be, every weekday they'll have it. It's going to start, let's see
16:22
I clicked on the 12th, that's why it was starting on the 12th, but I actually want them to start on the 10th
16:27
And it's gonna go until that last day of our school year
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which I guess would be the 28th of 2024. So since I don't have any assignments
16:39
that I need to create specifically, but I want them to have that checkbox
16:43
I'm just going to type in complete CTC math assignments, and we'll add that in here
16:55
Now a couple of other things I guess I should have showed you, if I want to add any notes to this
17:01
I can do so under this tab. Grading, again, I'm not setting that up in here right now
17:07
but you can set up your grading. You can add a description if you have maybe upper level
17:12
courses, you need a description in here. This is really helpful. You can track hours here if you do want to do that
17:19
And then resources, this would be, you know, if you want to add a resource to your schedule
17:25
if you had a specific website or something you wanted your kids to go to. My kids all know how to access CTC math
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so I'm not gonna bother adding it here. But just so you know, all these are here
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and I forget what's under options. Oh, show this class only on days for which there is
17:39
an assignment. So you can check that box too, if you want to
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All right, so we'll do save and close. And now the math will show up in their checklist
17:50
The final thing I want to add is Latin. We are using first form Latin through our homeschool co-op
17:58
which it doesn't start until September, but we're gonna be doing a little bit of practice every day
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So I will add in first form Latin. All my older kids as well
18:10
And we'll do every weekday starting the 10th, going until the end of our school year
18:16
And for right now, I'm going to leave the assignments blank. I am gonna add in specific pages I want them to complete
18:22
in their work, but I don't have the book in front of me right now. So I'm gonna leave those blank for now
18:26
and I'll go in and edit those later. But this will at least just show up on the schedule for now
18:32
And the checkboxes will show up once I add those lessons in there. Okay, so that's what our week of July 10th through 16th
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is gonna look like. The next week is when I want to kind of roll
18:42
into our language arts. This is gonna be a new program for us this year. So I'm curious to see how it's gonna go
18:48
I wanna start that before we do everything all at once. And I start my preschooler, we start science
18:56
history, all of that stuff. So it's already here, but the lessons don't
19:00
I didn't have the lessons start until August, and I actually want to change that. So I'm gonna click in and edit this course
19:07
And you can see I didn't have lessons starting until August 7th
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So I do want to move that up. So right now, if I wanna move them to the 17th
19:19
what I'm gonna do, we're gonna give this a try, I think it will work
19:23
Let's see, eliminate gaps in schedule from this day forward. So it should take out all of the gaps
19:31
and start the assignment. Let's try it and see what happens. Okay, good, it worked
19:35
So it moved everything up. It just took out those gaps and it moved all of my lessons up
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So now everything should be good. Looks like I had some vacation days scheduled there
19:47
for some time off. So I'm gonna leave that and I'm just gonna hit save and close
19:54
So now you see I've got check boxes there and it tells us what we're gonna do for our literature that day
20:00
Same thing with this one. And I don't remember if I mentioned this, but this was another lesson plan
20:04
that I purchased through the Marketplace. So I didn't have to type any of this in
20:11
which I'm really thankful for. So we're gonna move that up for my son too, okay
20:16
So that's gonna be it for this week, just those language arts lessons
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and we'll be all set. Now, when I move into the next week
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I'm not actually gonna add anything extra for my older kids to do
20:28
but I am going to add my preschooler's work to the calendar
20:33
Now, he's obviously too young to log in and use Homeschool Planet
20:37
and we are using my father's world voyage of discovery. So I'm not gonna add a lot of lessons in here
20:43
because my teacher guide is gonna tell me what I need to do every day
20:47
However, I just want to have, I like check boxes, and I want to have something on here
20:53
so that I can see it, and I'm held accountable to getting it done every day
20:59
I may decide to go in and add different things in the future
21:02
but for now, I just want to see it on the calendar. So to do this
21:07
I'm gonna add a person, and we'll do his name, and I will do the photo and everything else later
21:16
change the color, all that stuff later. But that adds Oliver to the calendar
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So he will now show up in my dropdown up here. And all I'm gonna do is I'm just going to add in our class
21:33
And I think what I'm gonna do, my father's world encompasses lots of different subjects
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but I'm not gonna be breaking it down because we're gonna be doing
21:44
the my father's world curriculum we have for my son and my older kids. We're gonna do it all together
21:48
I'm just gonna add in a subject called my father's world. And since I'm not using this program
21:54
to track hours or anything, it really, I don't think it's gonna make a big difference
21:59
This is the first time I've kind of done this. So we'll see if I like it
22:03
and if I wanna make any changes next year, but that's what we'll do for now
22:07
And I'll just call this voyage of discovery. It's gonna be for Oliver
22:14
We're going to do it every day except for Thursday. Thursdays are our co-op days
22:21
So we're going to try to do a four week schedule with this
22:25
We'll start it on the 24th, go to the end of the year
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and add. Okay, so that'll add those
22:39
And then I've got a checklist more for me to see so I can just be accountable
22:44
And like I said, I like to check boxes. Anyone else with me there? Am I alone
22:49
I don't know, but that is just gonna help me this year. All right, so that's all I'm doing for this week
22:54
All right, so the next week I had set kind of as a break week
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So I don't have any class stuff this week. We're just gonna take a little bit of time off
23:03
And then the week after that, we will add in my father's world
23:07
exploring countries and cultures for my older kids. And we'll add in art class that we do once a week
23:13
and then typing. I have my kids do a little bit of typing every day
23:16
We use typing.com for that. So again, with my father's world, this is a complete curriculum for our history, science
23:25
It does include Bible, art, and music. I'm not sure how much of that we're going to do
23:31
depending on our time constraints during the day. We may skip around with some of that
23:35
but mainly for history and science, lots of geography in here, which is great
23:40
So I do wanna add this to the calendar. So if I go down here, this will be a class
23:46
I'm gonna use the my father's world that I set up and we'll type in
23:54
this is gonna be for my bigger kids. It will be every weekday
24:02
I may come in and change this. I am considering taking Thursdays off of this
24:10
again, because we've got co-op this day. And so that's gonna be kind of a crazy day
24:15
but I think I'm gonna leave it on for now and just kind of evaluate once we get going
24:19
Again, I can come in here and change this anytime I want to. So start and end dates look good
24:30
And I'm not splitting it up into all the different subjects here. I will be tracking hours in homeschool hall
24:36
So it's in there that I'll add in, you know, our history hours, science hours, whatever
24:41
So we'll just add this to here for now. So it'll have the nice little check box
24:48
and we'll save and close. Okay, and then finally, just two more things
24:54
We will add art. We use creating a masterpiece for art. And everybody does this
25:04
Oliver's sometimes get a little creative, but he still participates with us
25:09
And we usually just do this every Friday. So I'm gonna uncheck everything else
25:16
We'll do art, let's say lesson. Save and close. And then lastly, we will add in typing
25:32
I think I just had this under life skills last time. So we'll do typing for my three older kids
25:42
And I will have it on every weekday for now, again, I may change that
25:49
Let's see, you know what, actually, let's take it off of Thursday
25:53
just because I know that's gonna be a crazy day. And we'll do typing.com lesson
25:59
And they know typing.com is free and it's great because they log in
26:05
and it tracks all their progress. So whenever they log in, they just start on the next lesson
26:08
And I am not too particular. I just want them to do, you know, one short little lesson or so a day
26:14
just to keep practicing it. So we'll go there and then save and close
26:21
All right, so that should be everything that I want added to our schedules
26:28
It looks like a lot because I've got all the kids on here. But for example, when Luke wakes up
26:36
he logs into his homeschool plan calendar and he's gonna note some of the stuff he'll do on his own
26:41
Some we'll be doing together. This we'll be doing together if we have any lessons I wanna finish
26:48
This, I don't know how it's gonna go. I think we're gonna complete it together, but there might be some stuff
26:52
he'll be able to do on his own. This is gonna be together
26:57
but he knows when he gets down to here, he'll have music practice, he'll have his daily chores and his daily devotional
27:03
This, he'll be completing on his own. Latin, he'll be completing on his own
27:08
This we'll be doing together and this he'll complete on his own. Basically, my kids know that when they log in
27:14
they scan down their list. Usually they start at the top, but I don't care if they skip around
27:19
They will do everything that they can do individually and then the rest of it we'll come together and do together
27:26
Pretty easy. That's how you add things to your calendar and get your whole school year planned and set up
27:33
in very little time. All right, well, there it is. Did you stick with me the whole time through
27:38
I'm feeling pretty good because I've got everything planned out already for the next school year
27:43
So what I'll be doing in the next couple of weeks is pulling out some of our new curriculum
27:47
reviewing teacher's guides, getting organized, making sure that I have everything that I need
27:51
to get started when the time comes. I hope this was helpful for you to see
27:55
how I organize my homeschool planet planner and how we're gonna use it next year
27:59
Go check out homeschool planet. I will leave a link in the description and you can get a 30 day free trial to play around with it
28:05
set things up and see how you like it. Make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on future content
28:10
and leave a comment below with any questions. See you next time. βͺ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh β
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