Intentional Homeschool Planning with Plan Your Year
It’s time to plan another year of homeschooling. This will be round twelve.
Twelve years of homeschool planning. TWELVE.
You would think that I could do this with my eyes closed, but this process is rarely cut and paste.
I change every year. I have new commitments, new interests, and new outlooks on education and life.
My kids change every year. Probably a lot more rapidly than I do. They have new interests, new strengths and weaknesses, and new goals for their time.
Curriculum options change every year. There are new local classes, online classes, and resources being offered. Sometimes we stick with what works and other times we find something that will meet our needs in a better way.
And frankly, sometimes I am just sick of something that I have used a bajillion times even if it would be new to child number four.
This means that every year I have to step back and take inventory of the changes in myself, my kids, and the world around us so we can plan an effective routine for learning.
I received access to Put Your Year on Autopilot for free and was compensated for my time. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure.
I have used the Plan Your Year guide to help me get my homeschool ducks in a row for several years.
In fact, two years ago I combined Plan Your Year with the Happy Planner. It worked for a little while, but the Happy Planner was just too much for me. In the end, Plan Your Homeschool Year lasted, but my Happy Planner is buried in a drawer somewhere. This year I read the updated Plan Your Year guide and I am currently finishing the planning steps using the video course: Plan Your Homeschool Year 2020
Plan Your Homeschool Year: The Basics
Plan Your Year is a video course that will help you walk through the steps of planning your most effective homeschool year yet.
Nine modules are included that help you paint the big picture of your homeschool and then slowly move toward defining the details.
- Module One: Vision
- Module Two: Goals
- Module Three: Subjects and Resources
- Module Four: Annual Schedules
- Module Five: Weekly and Daily Schedules
- Module Six: Procedures
- Module Seven: The Lesson Plan List
- Module Eight: Organization
- Module Nine: Visualization and Implementation
- Module Ten: Periodic Review and Maintenance
- BONUS: The Finishers Club – Support and Coaching!
All of the worksheets required to complete each step are included with your purchase. You’ll have every type of big picture and small detail planning page that you could ever imagine!
My absolute most favorite form is the Weekly Planning form, located in the Student forms section of the downloadable planning pages. It is the form I use to plan the week for each student as we move through the year.
Put Your Homeschool Year on Autopilot: Getting Started
Each module contains several links:
- the workbook, which contains the transcript for the module (in case you prefer reading)
- the slides
- the forum
- the planning worksheets created to complete the activities in the module
- an occasional relevant link (such as information on high school credits)
Having everything in one place for each module makes it easy to find what you need. Personally, I like to print the worksheets to have on hand while listening to the video.
Plan Your Homeschool Year: My Process
I am forcing myself to being with the big picture. I much prefer diving right into the curriculum choices and scheduling options. For me, that is the fun stuff right there – the books, the curriculum, the looping options, and calendars.
It’s hard to step back and create big picture vision statements for me. I don’t enjoy thinking through specific goals as much as I enjoy picking a fun history program.
But I am working the process because I know it works.
I can make sure that the shiny new workbooks and curriculum options are going to work with my goals. Once I begin to narrow down the scheduling details (yaaaay) then I can return to these statements and make sure I did things like plan margin for my kids to explore their own interests.
And yes, I am still working through the process as well.
Plan Your Homeschool Year: The Videos
The autopilot videos have helped me work through the planning process. I have a hard time staying focused and the videos are short and effective.
Plan Your Year combines both visual and auditory learning. You can read the slides while listening to Pam’s explanations.
Best of all, you can download the slides for every module. Once I am finished listening, if I need to go back and review the information, I simply review the slides. The information on the slides is typically enough to trigger my brain without having to listen to the entire module again.
The videos are short and to the point. The majority are only 10-15 minutes in length with the longest video being 18 minutes and 44 seconds in length.
It is easy to make the time to watch the entire module in one sitting. If you are like me, this is extremely helpful so you don’t have to watch one session over several days while trying to remember where you were in the process.
Plan Your Year: Support
One of the wonderful perks of the Plan Your Year is access to Pam Barnhill’s private planning forum. You can ask questions about planning and receive answers to your questions from the Autopilot community and mentors.
The forum is a great place to bounce ideas off other moms who are working through the planning process. It’s a place where you can share your homeschool vision statements, student goals, and scheduling ideas and receive valuable feedback and comments.
Best of all – it is included with the purchase of Plan Your Homeschool Year
Plan Your Homeschool Year: Book vs. Course
I’ve already expressed my love for Plan Your Year to guide me through the planning process. I finished reading the entire book to get an overview and then began working through each section.
Plan Your Year has been a great addition to my planning process. The videos contain the most important information and examples from each chapter. This has helped me move through the steps more quickly.
Once I have finished the planning process using the videos, I expect that I’ll refine each step by using the additional information and examples that are included in Plan Your Year.
I honestly don’t know if I prefer the book or the videos more. You certainly don’t need them both, though they are complementary as you are working through the process. I am not sure which I would recommend if you were only going to purchases one.
Plan Your Year comes with everything you need to tackle the planning process. The videos walk you through the key information from each chapter of the book and the downloads and planning forum are included.
If you prefer the more detailed information in a written book, but also want access to the community forum and printable downloads, then you could grab the Plan Your Year Bundle.
Of course, simply purchasing the book and working through the process on your own is also a great option.
It can feel overwhelming to get started with a plan. Let Put Your Year on Autopilot guide you through the process this year.
—-> Purchase the course today. <—-
She believes that creativity, laughter, and fun are the backbone for engaging and inspiring homeschools. You can find her encouragement and tips on this blog, Mary Hanna Wilson.
She is an enneagram 7 and an extrovert. She enjoys traveling, tea (iced or hot), good conversations, and books. You can connect with her on Instagram and Facebook.
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