Evaluate your homeschool year and plan for next year (Easy 6 step process)

The year is over and everyone is cheering, “Summer”! As much as I look forward to no schedule and warm sunny days, I start to miss the routine and time with my kids schooling. Not to mention crisp autumn days with beautiful colors and the anticipation of the holidays!

The end of the year is the perfect time to begin planning for next year while everything is winding down and you aren’t consumed with dripping swimsuits and popsicles!

Check out my easy 6 step process to planning your next homeschool year! (This process will repeat and always be in place to help you throughout the year!)

1-evaluate
2-ask
3-formulate
4-ask
5-implement
6-adjust

1-EVALUATE

As the year winds down, begin thinking about what worked and what didn’t. Spend a day or two on this list:

Mom fills out the top, and the kids fill out the bottom (or mom interviews the kids)! This evaluation should be thoughtful and provoke discussion about the “why’s” of what worked and what didn’t. Dig in and go through each subject carefully.

If your kids tend towards, “nothing worked”, it is time to ask probing questions. Perhaps you aren’t teaching with their learning style in mind. This is very important. See my article Homeschool methods and learning styles- how they work together and help you pick curriculum (check out my awesome chart!)

If your child could design their perfect day of school, what would it look like? Listen for trends in their answers. Perhaps they all involve hands-on activities or reading books. Now you have some keys to planning next year. Write these things down on your evaluation list.

Tip: When the kids complain about school (and you aren’t ready to unschool) I remind them that all kids by law must be schooled or violate truancy laws (which is a criminal offense in all 50 states), and it is the parent’s job to make sure their children are properly educated.

Homeschooled kids sometimes don’t realize that every child during the day is at school or home learning! This isn’t something we homeschooled parents dreamt up to torture our kids! Ha! That usually provides a little needed perspective.

2-ASK

Read through the evaluation sharing it with the kids. Begin an open discussion on the results of the evaluation and talk through possible solutions to problems. Celebrate the things everyone agrees were wins during the school year.

Take some time to sift these answers and add new ideas to the list as the discussion progresses.

Involving the kids in the school year planning gives them buy-in to the process, so they are more likely to support it.

If there are any non-negotiable things you require in your homeschool, talk about those too, especially if the kids don’t like them. Ask yourself if they carry enough value to continue to require them.

Example:
Piano lessons

Some families feel the benefits to the brain learning piano far outweigh any pushback the kids may have in learning and practicing piano.

Other families, after careful reflection, decide they would rather allow a different instrument, or switch to a sport.

You get to decide, but this is the time to weigh the matter and decide if another year of the required activity is appropriate.

3-FORMULATE

Now you have a clear evaluation of the year, and you can begin to cross out things on the list that will be discontinued, and highlight things everyone loved.

You have probably received quite a few suggestions from the kids and have a few tricks up your sleeve you want to try in the coming year as well.

All these ideas can be jotted down on your evaluation form, or a clean sheet if you’re out of room.

This is a great time to intentionally pause and pray that the Lord guide your decision making and make very clear what direction he is taking you for the following school year.

I know prayer is probably part of your daily routine, but I want you to lift this topic up and ask others to be praying for you and the children as well.

Guidance from above is always going to head us in the right direction.

Sit with a nice big cup of coffee and your evaluation. Jump on the internet and look up any curriculums, ideas, or activities that were mentioned.

I like to sort my information by subject so I can fill in our ideas and see where any holes are:

Sketch out a plan for the next school year based on the information you have. Bear in mind learning styles, things that might be covered at a co-op, or any special circumstances. Think about the timing of your day and subjects so you have a clear picture of what a school day will look like.

4- ASK

Take this 1st draft of the schedule back to the kids and see what they think. Again, making them feel like part of the process is important. You still have the right to pull rank with decisions, but be mindful of what hills you want to die on. Giving them some real power where you can, pays off down the road.

Take a few days to consider the new plan and any feedback you receive. Make any adjustments needed until the whole thing is as fine-tuned as possible without actual implementation.

During the summer months purchase your materials and supplies. Things may change slightly as you move through the summer and see new possible additions to add to the plan, but your framework is in place.

5-IMPLEMENT

Here’s where the rubber meets the road and you get to try everything out! Make the first day of school super fun! I like to cook a big breakfast (like what you would do for Christmas or Easter morning) which the kids look forward to! Plan some surprises, like little gift bags at the breakfast table with some new goodies for the school year.

If this sounds a little extreme, I think it is worth the investment to set the tone for the school year. Your kids will remember this and it does make a difference. Maybe even celebrate the first week of school with fancy ice cream cones at the end of the week. We get so focused on doing all the stuff that we forget to make it fun for the kids!

Some families have success with a “soft start”. This means incorporating subjects slowly each day or over the first few weeks to make coming off of summer vacation less of a shock to the system.

Tip: Give the new schedule at least a month to see how it plays out. Be mindful of how it is going and jot down any notes or trends you observe if needed for memory.

6- ADJUST

Once you have given your students some time to adapt to the new school year, you can make small adjustments as needed.

Don’t over-react to some pushback and throw everything in the trash and start over. This can be costly and not solve your problem.

Carefully and prayerfully consider solutions. Perhaps it isn’t the curriculum but the time of day a subject is covered. Math typically is draining for some of my kids, and at the end of the day when they are getting tired it wouldn’t matter what program we use it would be an epic fail. Early in the day when they are fresh, it works so much better!

Maybe the implementation is slightly off. Many curriculums have a lot of “busy work” which just gets frustrating and doesn’t accomplish learning but fills time more than anything. Cutting out the busy work and all the fluff can make a curriculum more enjoyable. A few quality questions/problems/discussions are much better than loads of busywork that just frustrate the kiddos.

Sometimes we love a curriculum but need to use it as a launching pad rather than follow it verbatim. This is especially true in history and science. Maybe the read-aloud is the best part, and you can drop some of the activities that are not user-friendly and supplement with some Youtube videos and a project poster the kids can design themselves (or whatever their fancy is).

If a curriculum as a whole is not a good fit for your family, sell it off and use some of the money recouped to buy new resources. If you don’t need to recoup the money, donate it to a family that could use it, it will certainly be a blessing!

Continue any tweaks carefully, checking in with the kids for feedback and buy-in, and see how they play out in the school day. Following these six steps keep you in a cycle that is always refining your homeschool: