Curriculum Planning for the Next Year | Homeschool with Classical + Charlotte Mason

*edit to add, this post is relevant information on how to plan before each year, not one year specifically. Although I wrote this before the 2021-2022 school year, my methods haven't changed. This is practical and the best way for me to share my how-to-plan ideas. 

Hi friends, it's time for me to start planning!  I have had next school year on my mind for, well, a long time. I’m often thinking about years down the road, and what we want to accomplish now so that we can be at a certain point by such and such a time. I’m not at all rigid or compulsive about it, but I like to think thoroughly about every piece of work we read and study! I pray pray pray over all of this. And don't stop praying, even when things are picked out, I just keep praying God guides me through every day. He is the ONE TRUE source of light and love. He has to be my central sounding board. 

Every subject starts some where, and I like to relish each stage! All four of our kids are home all day with me, which is such a sweet and blessed gift! We spend many hours in play, a few at work, and a few more in academic work. 

We have a classical homeschool, and use the methods and ideas of Charlotte Mason too. It is beautifully and thoughtfully put together. But sometimes the books we pick, or the work we plan isn’t quite what we anticipated or doesn’t need to be continued. So I like to think through our scope and sequence for each subject and child! 

1. I started my planning with looking through what we did and didn't finish from this year. Asking questions like What did we like about that? Why didn't we finish? Do we need to keep working on that subject? Is this a good option, and we're ready for the next level? Did we need to do more or less in an area? 

2. Next, I started looking at what each child needs to accomplish in the next school year. I am also making notes at this time if there are things we need to work on over summer to prepare us for the start of the school year. I look at several sources to get my scope for the year for each child, and see what our family as a whole will be working on.

    a. The Well-Trained Mind has excellent year-by-year guides, with suggestions on how many hours / days per subject or skill for each year. I just spend a few minutes here, since I've read the book before.

    b. Ambleside Online is a free curriculum that I use like a teacher's manual so I love using the booklist from each year as a resource when planning. The pdf is my favorite way to print off the weekly schedule pages for the year. The chart on the top of the page is so helpful for that at-a-glance look at your goal for the year. I mainly use Ambleside for geography, history, literature, and science suggestions. But, even looking at what a child in that year should be doing with Language Arts for that year is a wealthy tip. The community in the forum at AO is probably the next most valuable part for me. There are some mamas with really great tips, helping you through this journey! If you want to add in just one subject, like Nature Study, or Shakespeare, you can follow Ambleside and be doing these stories on an open-and-go timeframe if you have the schedule printed out. The next step is finding the books you need from your shelf or library, and read it! I spend about an hour over several days looking through what to use and how to fit into our day/week/year. 

    c. Memoria Press curriculum. I LOVE this. We use many pieces of Memoria Press in our homeschool curriculum.  They recommend Rod & Staff Math, which we have found to be our winner for math! Again, the guides and parent-publisher forums online are an excellent place to "visit" when you need help or encouragement from others. There are moms and teachers who ask questions that you have too, and then you can read the many approaches to solving your problem, or see pictures which I really love for absorbing how something will actually look.  I buy the Curriculum Manual (teacher's schedule) for each grade, and just ignore the subjects I'm not following along with. The value to me in the guide is ten-fold! I love using the schedule loosely, so that I know they need to read approx. such and such before we do the next thing. and the back of the guide is FILLED with blank tests, discussion guides, flashcards, spelling lists, diagrams, charts, and all sorts of helps to me! And, if you're not already on the mailing list, Memoria Press book catalog is SO much more than a catalog. The Articles are GOOD. Every time! The Memoria Press website is where I spend most of my planning time! I like to pine over decisions about the books to buy. Student book? Do i need a teacher's guide? Will they write in it, or should we use a notebook so the next kid can use it too? Is used okay on this one, or do we want the new edition? Do I actually think we will need that, or can we make do with what we have?

    c. The many books, blogs, youtube channels that I follow along help me out a lot! Some great resources have helped me make decisions on all the things! Things like books to read (Mason Jar Podcast, Read Aloud Revival, and so many more), how to do notebooking (Jodi Mockabee with Schoolhouse Curiosities), when and how to use Narration (Mason Jar Podcast, Cindy Rollins, Karen Glass, Well-Trained Mind), and how to found your homeschool in the peace of the Lord (Sarah McKenzie's Teaching from Rest and *edited to add Mystie Winkler's new book "The Convivial Homeschool" and "M is for Mama" by Abbie something or another...).  

    d. I ask the kids what they liked and didn't like, and what they hope we do this year. We talk through that, why was it fun? What made it hard? Do you think _____ will make it more enjoyable/interesting/feasible? They have great suggestions and like the involvement. 

3. Then, I comb over the catalogs and used book sale sites to see where I want to buy what from. Christianbook.com, Homeschoolusedbooks.com (USED), Homeschoolclassifieds(USED), Mardel, and sometimes RainbowResources to see where the better deal is at. Did you know Christianbook has a bargain section, and an imperfect section. And there is a shop in MN (make an appointment and GO IF YOU ARE LOCAL!) called HIS Training Station. She has gazillions of homeschool books. IF I have to buy new, which tends to be the case for many consumable workbooks,  I want to order from Memoria Press. I will if it isn't too different in price, because when you buy even a small cart-full of stuff, they bundle price and discount for you, plus you get the benefit of all the free downloads and customer resources, as well as the sanity of knowing it is the correct edition. I don't buy all at once. I buy over months. When and where the prices are best. I also don't want to buy too early because many publishers come out with new editions, making used ones much easier to find or clearance out on the websites, and it pays to wait! I always look at youtube and each website to get as good of a flip-through preview of any book. A lot of times the different sources provide different previews of a book, giving me a realistic picture of what the pages actually look like. This really narrows down for me if we are going to buy something or not.  A lot of people make something seem so trendy because it has a beautiful front cover, but when you look at the actual inside content, you're unimpressed. 

4. Each Spring, I buy a planner that I do a little planning in, but primarily use it to record what we do every day. There are so many great options, I like the one I've ordered from MARDEL the last few years. It's called A Simple Plan, teacher planner. 

5. Then I actually schedule out the year ahead.  Loosely. 

    a. Physically look at each book and put a sticky note on the cover labeling who it is for and how often to schedule into the week, or other notes. Ex. "Family, for Bible: Read 1x/week, not memorizing the scriptures, since we are memorizing from AIO as a weekly Verse." or Ex. "Cody Spelling: Do on own 4 days a week, + Test with Mom on Friday" or "Jesse, Read Aloud" 

    b. I kind of implemented the idea from A Delectable Education for scheduling cards but haven't come up with an exact system yet. But, Wrote out each subject on a little piece of paper and laid them all out in a weekly timeline of sorts. So, for Cody's schedule, he will need to do spelling 5 times in a week. I wrote out "spelling" on 5 cards and put one in each day, and ordered them into the day. I wrote out Recitation on one card, and put into the top of his Weds. column since he only does recitation with me once a week. Maybe I can find a picture. 

6. Make a daily schedule for each kid to reference, print + laminate. Not here yet, but will print out a basic one, and then do a revamp a few weeks into school before laminating it. We always have to try a run for a while before we know how things will go. I don't want to waste a whole dollar fifty laminating twice! ;) The kids love these. They don't always look at it, but are learning to. It has a weekly schedule on it, so they know what they have to do in a day, on what day, but it isn't assignment-specific. It says "Math" or "Bible" or "Handwriting: Copy 24 Family Way in Journal" or "Handwriting: Cursive Copybook" or "Handwriting: Copybook" and never includes the page or anything specific, just what subjects they do on what day and which book for completing that subject! It also lists their daily or regular chores and habits in the home to remember.