Prepare for Next School Year

Oh, this year is totally kicking me down! After the never ending winter, then a too-busy schedule that I somehow ended up committing to (again), and now we’re just trying to finish without me having a meltdown each day. Ha ha! Even though I want to spend the spring just vegging out whenever possible, I don’t want to stress very much about school over the summer! That means, it isn’t break time quite yet.

I know much of the US is warming up and people are enjoying the outdoors, but we are still under a foot of snow in most places and just happy to tip over 40 degrees. If I can just push through this funk I’m in, I can enjoy the outdoors when we’re comfortably over 60, in sha Allah. So, what’s next?

Review previous plan

Before Care Bear started high school, I made a four year plan. This way, I could make sure that all our bases are covered in terms of college entrance requirements. So, fortunate for me, I have next year’s course plan already mapped out. It doesn’t take long, but I need to review the course list and decide if there’s anything I want to change for the coming year. For instance, do I know people who want to do Psychology together, so I can make that a class during the first semester instead of second semester or summer study?

Decide on resources

This is the time suck right here. Oh, I can spend hours upon hours looking at curriculum, reviews, and prices to decide what we want to use. Much of the trouble comes from trying to line up resources with DSST and CLEP tests. Sure, I can find a good geography course that is within our budget, but does it cover the same material as a test we have planned? Geography has been a major thorn in my side for that reason alone. Since Care Bear is out of town this week, and there’s a used curriculum sale, in sha Allah I’ll have this figured out very soon.

Budget the resources

I’m sure I’m not the only one who needs to spread out the cost of homeschool supplies over the summer. Previously, Hubby got paid every two weeks, so there would be twice a year he would get three paychecks in a month, and I could normally plan to buy the majority of our homeschool stuff when he got that paycheck. Now since he gets paid on the 1st and 15th, that never happens. I just need to have a rough plan of how much I can fit into the monthly budget, and if there’s something big I need to save up for.

Keep an eye out for used resources

I wrote an entire post on The Homeschool Classroom about finding used curriculum, so check that out if you need some ideas. Finding things used requires patience and watching various websites on a regular basis. If I have my book list before the end of the school year, I can normally pick up books on eBay or Craigslist for cheap as people are cleaning out their closets at the end of the year!

For preschool: read, read, read

I’ve decided I’m not going to enroll Little Miss in the preschool at the masjid again next year. It’s been a really positive experience, she’s learned a lot, and we’re going to miss it terribly, but something’s gotta give. We are in the car almost every day going to scheduled things. I need unscheduled time. My family needs me to have it, too. I could probably write an entire post about the fact that we should make sure we have time to just be spontaneous, and not always on someone else’s schedule. Anyway, that means that preschool is coming home.

Now, I don’t mean we are going to stand in line for lunch at home, but Little Miss deserves someone to give her opportunities for playful learning. I’ll probably be scouring fellow bloggers’ websites for ideas, and sharing them in my Preschool Pinterest board, plus I have books I want to read to help me wrap my mind around keeping my child entertained and allowing opportunities to learn without turning on the TV all the time. Oak Meadow preschool, Charlotte Mason Education, Charlotte Mason Step-by-Step Guide and Before Five in a Row are on my reading list.

Okay, the reading list is for summer, but it’s definitely on my mind now. Preschool is so much less pressure, so it will wait until I at least have the resource list ready for Care Bear’s 10th grade year.