The Year of No Planner
This year I did something crazy in our homeschool.
At all.
I handed kids their school books at the beginning of the year, instructed them that each day they were to do the next lesson, and sent them on their way with the caveat that whatever they didn’t get done would need to be finished in the summer.
In the past, I have written out lesson plans, but with five kids all doing different subjects, it was stressful to keep up with it all. On top of that, if I ever got behind and didn’t write out their assignments, then despite knowing they were to move on to the next lesson, they would use it as an excuse to exempt themselves from work for the day.
It was really just a big mess of stress. I knew I needed to find something that was a better fit for our family.
However, relinquishing control and putting the responsibility on my children seemed like a recipe for disaster. But that’s what I did.
Now we’re at the end of our year. And our year without a homeschool planner went better than expected.
My oldest two created their own schedules to know what they needed to get done in order to be finished by the end of the year. They even included make up days.
My younger two started making themselves daily check lists to ensure every subject was getting done.
Each child found a method that worked for them to help them stay on task. I did, sometimes frequently, still have to remind them to do their schoolwork.
A few of them finished more than one subject at least a month ahead of schedule. All of them have at least one subject they will be continuing into the summer with.
I did, a few times during the year, check in to make sure progress was being made. One of the challenges was that since I was not using a planner, I didn’t have a good gauge of where they should be at a particular point in the year, which is something I will fix for next year.
But, overall? I think with a modification or two to help me see benchmarks, we will continue on without a homeschool planner next year.
What about you?
