Homeschool High School Planning

We are on our last day of 5 Days of Homeschool High School Planning! In sha Allah you are starting to feel confident and ready to make some final plans that will shape up exactly what will happen each day, in sha Allah.

There’s more than one way to go about this, but I’ll show you what we have done in the past, and what we are doing for this year.

1. Print a blank quarter planner

I like Donna Young’s quarter planner that you can type in so my lesson plans look nice and neat. I’ve chosen this year to put “Week of” in the label for each row to keep us more accountable. Since you’ve already figured out your schedule, this shouldn’t be a problem to put in exact dates. Like everything else, if you don’t want to do it this way and instead keep out exact dates, that’s up to you, no worries. I also type in my child’s name, the course name, and the days of the week.

2. Reference syllabus for each lesson

Since you reviewed your syllabus already and divided everything in daily chunks, simply place each chunk in the corresponding day. I added in some make up days during weeks we have off or take off most of the week. I also am making sure to write down time to actually work on assignments if there’s a few days from when an assignment is started and when it is due. I’ve noticed that if it effectively can’t be checked off a list, it doesn’t get done.

Another method people use is called “Do the Next Thing” where you know how much work needs to be done every day and each day, instead of referring to a written lesson plan, you just do the next thing.. hence the name. For many this works fine, but for myself, I found it’s too easy to skip something and not realize it until much later. If we have dates written down for our assignments, it keeps us more accountable.

3. Fill in projects

In most cases, I’ve found a curriculum doesn’t have any final project or assignment to summarize what was learned in that term. If you feel these are beneficial, add them in yourself, and sprinkle prep work for them throughout the few weeks before it’s due. Brainstorming, rough drafts, etc. can be a week or two before you actually want to receive the final product.

4. Fill in test prep

Will you be prepping for a DSST, CLEP, or AP exam? If so, make sure to assign some practice tests and focused test prep in the last month or two in order to get ready for the exam. Finishing a course and then taking a month or more to actually prep for the exam gets hard to keep a continued focus.

5. Pat yourself on the back

You now have a course planned from start to finish, and you just need to follow the plan day by day, in sha Allah. I got this planner for Care Bear (bummer it’s sold out, but they have others) and she writes down her plan for each week in there from the master plans I created by subject.

Your life will be just a bit easier because of the work you did ahead of time!