(I promise I didn't stage that photo, it's just what I was working on when I snapped a pic with my phone.) We use the My Father's World curriculum for kindergarten, which I truly LOVE. Shiloh has learned so much from its focus on Biblical principles and she's reading on an almost first grade level! I'm not a fan of the non-math and have to supplement on my own with that, but I'll make another post about that later.
For now, I keep a large planner. I go through the curriculum handbook and write down all of the activities as well as the credit hours earned. I also keep a running total of hours in an Excel spreadsheet that I update periodically. I would like to say that I update it weekly as I should, but I'm not that organized yet. Every month or so, I'll go back through the planner and update the spreadsheet so I can see if we need more hours in a certain subject or area and I try to plan accordingly.
Luckily, Shiloh's in Kindergarten. that means, that 1) I'm not even required to log my hours, even though I do because I'm paranoid and 2) she only needs half of the hours required for first grade for Kindergarten, so I know that she's getting way more than is necessary at this point. So, really, this is a try-out year where we're just beginning to get our stuff together. And that's okay, I think I'm really beginning to get a feel for how our own homeschool should work.
Next, after I write out our lesson plan, I gather all worksheets and materials needed for that week. If there are still items that I'll need, I make a list and determine to go to the store on a certain day to get said items. Now, if I were really prepared, I would do this several weeks or months in advance so I knew what items I needed and I already had them. Like I said, not quite there yet. Week by week is where we are at this point. ;o)
For example, this is our "homeschool hub" where everything school related is stored.
Our house isn't exactly large and we don't have a basement area in which to conduct school. Therefore, our school space is the kitchen table. This file cabinet sits in the corner of our kitchen area, right next to the table. That might seem frustrating or in-the-way to some people, but it works for us. I don't think it's altogether unseemly when everything is put away, if we had an actual 'decor,' the cabinet isn't so hideous as it would clash with it, and it's just so darn convenient to have everything right there. I keep file folders for all of her school work and all materials that we use on a weekly basis here and now that I'm watching a baby in my house during the day, having a different "out-of-the-way" place to do school wouldn't make much sense -- we'd just end up at the kitchen table anyway.
So, we have our folder that we look at every morning in which I've put all worksheets we'll use for the week as well as any other papers or small charts that we use consistently such as her Blend Ladder, ABC Chart, 100 Chart, etc.
I'm still getting the hang of this, but I'm enjoying it immensely and Shiloh is really doing so well.
For those readers who homeschool, how do you organize/plan your lessons? Do you have a set space where you teach every day? Do you keep your plans on the computer or in a planner? Any ideas for how to streamline lesson planning?
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