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Now that I have made our plans for homeschool next year, I made our homeschool schedule for multiple children.  I find it helpful to make a schedule for the entire family so that I don’t have 2 kids trying to use the same computer and so I’m not stretched thin.  It helps to know exactly who needs to be where during the day.  With 5 kids to balance, 1 being a toddler, I expect that this next year will hold some tremendous challenges.

I think this schedule will work for the first several months, or at least until the baby drops his morning nap.  I also schedule in time for the kids to play with the baby.  This helps him to stay out of trouble and the big kids love taking a break from school and unwind by playing for a bit.

Take a peek and maybe it will help you in your plans for the year.

How do you plan for your year?

Homeschool Plans!  I think that I’m in denial that school is about to start again!  I just realized I needed to finish ordering curriculum, but first I needed to figure out what we were using this year.

We have had a marvelous summer and stayed extremely busy – busier than I would have liked, but we have had a ton of fun.

It’s time to start buckling down and making plans for homeschool again.  Last year we did have to switch up math for my oldest.  She just wasn’t understanding pre-algebra with Horizons.  We switched to Math-U-See thanks to a review and she has been thriving!  You can see what we used in the 2015-2016 year here.

This year, I will have an 8th grader, a 4th grader, a 1st grader, a Kindergartener, and a toddler.  Below I will show you what we plan to use for the kids throughout the year.

Math:

Math, we are once again using Horizons Math, but only for my middle 3 children. We use the math books plus we supplement with the extra worksheets for more practice. For my oldest, we will continue with Math-U-See.  We are also continuing with XtraMath.org.  I can’t say enough great things about this website!  It’s a completely free way to make sure your kids understand all of their math facts.  As a mom, I can login and see how they are doing as well and what needs improvement.

Language Arts:

We are once again using Wordly Wise 3000 for my older 2 kids.  This starts in 2nd grade and helps with vocabulary, reading comprehension, and sentence writing.  We started Easy Grammar last year and have had great success, so will continue with it this year.  It only takes a couple minutes a day.

All of the middle 3 kids are also using A Reason For Handwriting, again.  My oldest has completed all of the books now so we will be working on other copywork for her.  We are also adding Building Spelling Skills for the older 3 to work on spelling.

My kindergartener and 1st grader will also be working on Explode the Code.  This is a very simple program, but can help with the fundamentals for the little kids.  Takes just a couple minutes each day and they are fun!

Big 2 will also continue working on Writer’s in Residence that we started a couple months ago.

Little 2 girls are going to continue with ReadingEggs and have just started with ABCMouse.  I’ve seen great improvement in their reading since beginning last year.

I know this sounds like a lot, but most of the workbooks mentioned only take a couple minutes.

Bible:

For Bible we are continuing to use Catechism for Kids.  We didn’t get as far along as I hoped last year, but with a new baby, things just don’t quite work out as planned.  We will finish questions 11-20 and then move along to the next set.  I’m also continuing to read through the History Lives set to the bigger kids when the littles are occupied.  Some of the stories can be fairly intense so it’s taking longer to go through them so we can digest and discuss.

All the kids will also continue with VeritasBible.com.

Social Studies:

History we will continue to pull from Allinonehomeschool.com and of course the vast variety of books at the library for my younger 2 students.  We also plan to start using Notgrass Uncle Sam and You for my older 2.

Science:

My littles will be continuing through Allinonehomeschool.com and the bigs will start on Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Astronomy.

That’s it, I think!  Going to be busy!  Always feels great to have a written plan!  Now I just have to write up a schedule and stick to it!  What are your homeschool plans?

The end of our homeschool year is coming up soon!  Per Georgia homeschool laws, I need to do an end of the year homeschool evaluation to keep for my records.  Each year, I have been typing something up and printing it for my files, but this year I decided to make something a little more organized and open-ended to chart from year to year.

How to Do a Homeschool Evaluation:

Honestly, just be honest.  In Georgia, we write a report, but no one else sees in outside of my husband and myself.  I’m sure other states are different, but this is the best way to find your child’s strengths and weaknesses.  It also helps to evaluate their curriculum to see if it was a good fit or if perhaps you might need to check out other options the following year.

Get your child involved as well.  Ask them if they liked their curriculum or not.  Ask about their favorite subjects and why they like them.  You just might be surprised on what they prefer.

Free Printable Homeschool Evaluation Form:

We have a free printable homeschool evaluation form available for you to use. I had my fabulous sister in law make this homeschool assessment form so that I could share it with you guys.  I hope you enjoy it and feel free to use it each year to keep track.  I’m very excited about using it this year!  Click to download the PDF file.

Do you write end of the year homeschool reports for your family?  What do you do or use to keep track?