Homeschool Planning Techniques

Homeschool Planning Techniques A little bit of planning makes homeschooling much easier. For example, initially, you should prepare a list of the chief goals and individual goal lists for your children. While writing the lists, you should take care of the fact that there is one line gap between each step so that it is readable. For example, let the learning of the times table be the goal of your child. Then, the steps would involve learning the 2's, 3's and finally, up to 9's. It is advisable to write the starting date and finishing date of each step and check it off, once it has been accomplished. This should be done to encourage the child to see what he or she has achieved. One page should be dedicated to each goal. While some steps might be simple, others might be complicated and might require more steps for its completion.

Scope and Sequence

“Scope” is defined as the “area covered by a given activity” and “sequence” means “the following of one thing after another”. During the homeschool year, the things that are planned to be covered by you and the order of covering it are indicated by the scope and sequence.

In outline form, the scope and sequence can be written by you. The main headings of the outline form might consist of subjects like mathematics, language arts, health, science and social studies including geography and history. A curriculum guide like World Book's Course of Study should be viewed before starting the homeschool planning. For each grade, topics are suggested by the course of study lists.

Supposedly, in case of studying history, you must plan in such a manner that after studying the basics, the child can go into greater depth. In a school year and not necessarily grade, the child can study World history and in another, he or she can study American history or State history. After covering the basics, the child can go into greater depth and study topics like Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Middle Ages; Renaissance and Reformation; American history, including State history; pioneers to World War II and from World War II to the present.

The child can choose anything from the topics listed in the subject areas, as per his or her liking. For those moms having children in different grades, it is convenient for them to pick or combine those topics that can be learnt by all, at the same time. For nearly same aged children, the same language arts and math should be taught. In order to achieve continuity on a yearly basis, it is advisable for you to plan ahead after looking through various grades.

The Scope and Sequence should be written only after you have glanced through the study course. While writing an outline, at least two subtopics and similar topic headings should be used. For example, subtopics like “Writing” and “Reading” can be used under main heading “Language Arts”. On the other hand, “Poems” and “Themes” can also be listed under the subtopic “Writing”. Under the main topic, different language skills can also be listed equally. In fact, under the heading “Other”, subtopics like “Art” and “Music” can also be used for planning the type of art or music that needs to be covered. You can also list other such topics or subjects that you would like your children to learn.