I can hardly believe that our homeschool year begins in just one week! I actually started my planning very early this year. Last year I had a tiny newborn when the school year began, but I was determined not to let things sneak up on me this year.
The school books have been sitting here on a shelf for weeks, and my closet has several bags of shiny new school supplies.
But of course the biggest, most important component is: scheduling and organizing our day.
After creating a kanban board to organize the kid’s chores, it seemed perfectly logical to make one for our homeschool day.
I’m very much a visual learner, and seeing it all laid out like this had several advantages for me:
- I can see possible technology and teacher scheduling conflicts. For instance, only two kids can do Rosetta Spanish at a time because we only have it installed on two computers. And some kids and subjects need my direct involvement, such as Sadie with phonics, and Julien and Ilana with Five in a Row. These “classes” cannot happen at the same time because they require my full attention. Other things, like Sustained Silent Reading, can be done independently.
- The kids can see what they’re supposed to be doing, when – without my input. This is priceless. Nothing is more tiring as a homeschooling mom than to have to round up kids and remind them over and over of what they’re supposed to be doing. Just because I leave the room to change baby’s diaper or what have you, doesn’t mean students get to stray from their work.
- I can stay organized. The alternative is overwhelm, and I’m not interested in that.
You can’t really tell from the picture, but things like “Breakfast” and “Recess” and “Chore Time” are written on the right hand side in pencil. We do those things too during the day.
I’m excited about using this system to stay on track. The lovely thing is I can easily move the Post-Its around without re-creating the Kanban board, if adjustments need to be made.
This is the Kanban board we made for chores.
I like the idea of kanban – the visual is good for me and I might just enjoy using it this school year with my boys. I have a 5th grader and an 11th grader.
Do your children do a lot of independent work?
this year my 5th grader will have a computer oriented math and language course so I’m hoping those subjects will be his independent subjects [the math has a problem by problem solution solver].
Do your children read independently? My 5th grade hates reading and I always have to read with him or to him to get through all the reading that is required.
Sara, my kids work mostly independently except for Five in a Row, which I do with the two middle kids. My 5th grader is similar to yours when it comes to reading. He will read, but prefers for me to read aloud to him.