planning – The Sensible Homeschool

How to Plan Your Homeschool Week: A Step-by-Step Guide

October 9, 2020October 10, 2020

How you plan out your homeschool week will depend on many factors. The curricula you use, your educational methods, your personality and your kids’ personalities will all affect what your weekly planner looks like (or if you use one at all).

I’ve always considered myself a planner connoisseur (yes, I’m aware I’m a nerd). But when it comes to our weekly school planner, I’ve found just using a very basic spreadsheet for each of my kids works best for us.

How to Homeschool – A Quick Start Guide for Desperate Parents

August 28, 2020August 25, 2020

It’s August…. The END of August….

If you’re being thrown into homeschooling unexpectedly (due to COVID-19 or for any other reason), this might be the moment you start to panic.

Or, it might be when the panic you’ve felt rising for months turns into full-blown freaking out.

As a friend of mine says to lighten the mood when her kids are stressed out, “don’t worry… sausages!”

Take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay.

How to Plan The Story of the World History Curriculum

July 17, 2020July 16, 2020

I’m so glad I found The Story of the World (SotW) curriculum for history! So far we’ve used and loved Volumes 1 through 3, and I just finished planning Volume 4 for the upcoming school year.

I’ve already talked about how we customize SotW in our homeschool. In this post, I’ll show you how I tackle planning it.

Top 10 Time-Saving Tips for Homeschoolers

December 13, 2019January 17, 2020

Homeschoolers have gained back a lot of time with their kids by keeping them home. But it still seems like it’s never enough! So, in the spirit of not wasting any more of this precious commodity, let’s get right to the tips!

The list below includes the top ten ways I’ve learned to save time in our homeschool. It’s organized from very general to very specific – hopefully there’s an idea for everyone!

The Most Important Question to Answer Before Homeschooling

July 26, 2019January 17, 2020

If you homeschool or are considering it, there’s one question that’s critical you answer.

It’s NOT “What curriculum should we use for math?”

It’s NOT “How will we make friends?”

And it’s definitely NOT “How can I recreate public school at home?”

The super-dee-duper, most-important, must-answer question is…

(drum roll, please)

Strategies for Buying Homeschool Curriculum: A Grocery Store Analogy

July 19, 2019January 17, 2020

Strategies for Buying Homeschool Curriculum title on grocery aisle background

Is it just me or has our society overcomplicated things that should be fairly straightforward?

Take food, for example. The overall process seems like it should be pretty simple. Grow or buy food. Cook food. Eat food. Done.

But when you get to the grocery store and spend the first 15 minutes just trying to pick a breakfast cereal from the 129 choices available, you quickly realize this might be harder than you thought.

Homeschool Planning with a Master Course of Study

July 12, 2019January 17, 2020

I’m a list person. I love lists. If there’s a problem for me to solve, the solution will probably involve a list. And, if it’s a list in the form of a spreadsheet, all the better!

Now, even if you’re not on the same page as me about lists being the answer to life’s most pressing problems, please hear me out.

There’s one list – and, yes, it’s a spreadsheet *giddy squeals* – that has helped me plan out our homeschool years more than any other resource I’ve made or bought. The best part is, it’s *EASY* and *FREE* to make and highly customizable.

Ways We Customize The Story of the World Curriculum in our Homeschool

July 5, 2019January 17, 2020

We love The Story of the World history curriculum.

(And, given that I loathed history when I was a kid, it’s no small potatoes for me to say that I love a history curriculum!)

After using Tapestry of Grace Primer for my oldest son’s first and second grade years, we started Volume 1 of The Story of the World and haven’t looked back.

Our Homeschool Summer Break – Year 5

May 17, 2019January 17, 2020

I’d like to start this post with an apology for any neck injuries you may have sustained by following this series of posts. It’s been like watching a tennis match!

Back and forth I’ve gone, trying to find the sweet spot for our summers. More academic? More relaxed? Over-scheduled? Lazy days? Seems like we’ve tried it all.

We’ve finally caught up to real time in this series – we’ll be heading into our 5th official homeschool summer in less than a month!

Our Homeschool Summer Break – Year 3

May 3, 2019January 17, 2020

In the last post, I promised you a summer on the other side of the continuum, so here it is! The summer of our mega home renovation! When all bets were off, plans were non-existent and I was living way, way outside my Type-A, Planner-Person comfort zone.

You can see more about the renovation, including before and after pictures, in this post.

I didn’t try to plan a more relaxed summer. I didn’t decide that we needed less formal school-ish work. By the time I had my head far enough above water to think about our summer homeschool plans, it was already August.