How I plan for the school year ahead..
Ever since I was young, September always filled me with excitement; the start of a new school year, new possibilities, new goals to be set- oh and a new pencil case. I know I’m not the only one who looked forward to a trip to WHSmith; I can still smell the new freshly sharpened pencils!
Even before I became a home-educating mother, there was always something wonderful about September and the freshness and excitement it brought each year. As we are a home educating family we can be flexible throughout the year, we can go on holiday when we like and we don’t have to fit into term time which is a great blessing. However a lot of the classes and activities we attend are aligned to term time, so naturally we have adapted to fit these rhythms but still we have flexibility.
September for myself is a chance to really seek the Lord for His guidance for the year. Not only for my daughter’s education, but for direction as a family and for myself personally. Everyone plans differently, but I thought that it would be nice to share my September vision casting with you.
First and most importantly, book in a slot of uninterrupted time and pour yourself a cup of something lovely.
This is my set up: a quiet room, with some tea, my bible, planners and resources.
Making Space for Holy Spirt and Vision Casting
Firstly, I like to ask Holy Spirit to come and join me when I plan. I don't want to make my own plans; I want to seek the Lord for the direction He wants us to go in this year. I might listen to some worship music, I open my Bible and pray. I ask Him to guide us, lead us, I repent for any wasted time over the past year, I pray for wisdom for myself and Sam as parents, I pray for wonderful encounters for this year, new friendships and strengthening continued friendships. My prayers go on.. just seeking Him with the realisation that I cannot do this without Him.
Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
Psalm 105:4
Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!
Then I ask the Lord for a word or Bible verse for this next academic year.
Last year our Bible verse for the year was, "Every word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him." Proverbs 30:5
I then take a few pages in the front of the planner to write out the verse and anything that I feel the Lord leading us in. Some of my points last year were that I desired to see 'The Word of the Lord surrounding our hearts, minds and in our home.' I then add bullet points about how practically I am going to set goals to see this come to fruition. For privacy purposes I won't share every detail; however I had other areas I felt we needed to work on such as: 'Growth in knowledge and understanding', 'Taking Responsibility of self and belongings' and 'Working together as a family' etc. I would then make bullet points under each area with scriptures, and ways we could move forward and develop ourselves.
It is amazing as I look back at the past year to see the growth and how the Lord really helped and shaped us this past year! I also would like to point out that this isn't just for points for my daughter to develop, it's all of us, as a family also. I learnt a lot!
The past year for us as a family was really about establishing solid foundations. This year Holy Spirit dropped into my spirit the word Acceleration. With the verse from Hebrews 12:1-2 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
This verse will be framed alongside our weekly plan so that we can be reminded of this throughout the year ahead. Again, I will not share specifics but I have some goals and points for us to work on as a family and things that Lord has spoken to me about.
Create a timetable/weekly/daily rhythm
Next, with those verses and goals in mind I create a weekly and daily rhythm and timetable. I quite like drawing this up; however I know many people like to make these online or use templates and resources online. Some like to write it on a whiteboard, I just enjoy writing this up on a fresh piece of card.
Here I get specific- I write everything that needs doing in the week. From activities and classes we have on, to what day we visit the library, what day I need to meal plan and to do the food shop, what day my daughter does her laundry. Be as detailed as possible with this. I find that when you write everything down, then you realise how much you have to do/what you want to achieve and then you can allocate tasks throughout the week, so that you can use your time wisely.
Now I'm not a strict planner- I might have a morning slot where it says 'Nature walk' or 'Visit National Trust Property', now I'm not going to be precious about this, we might not 'fancy a walk' when the morning arrives; we might rather work on a project or have an invite to a friends house. However in my experience with home educating, it is nice to have a plan in place to keep a rhythm and then you can change your plans on the day if you want to. Follow it as loosely or as strict as you like. Some weeks we hardly followed the plan, other weeks we followed it daily!
On this chart I also have jobs and chores for my daughter and things that I need to get done- allocated cleaning tasks, writing time, admin etc. I don't have this perfected at all; however a book that really helped me and one of the best books that I have read is Mastering Life before it's Too Late by Robert J. Morgan.
It has some brilliant advice on how to become more disciplined and some amazing stories and quotes which are super encouraging. I cannot recommend highly enough!
Transfer to Weekly Planner
Throughout the year I will then get myself a weekly planner/diary (these can be picked up very reasonably) and using my timetable I have made, I will make more detailed plans. I take 15/30 mins a week- usually on a Sunday, to plan into greater detail the specifics of curriculum/ projects/ days out. This enables us to stick to the same rhythm and timetable, but not have to plan in advance all the details. I am aware that some people plan the whole year in advance- what curriculum and lesson plans they are using; however we have a more relaxed flow and do this week by week, as plans change and interests also change.
Prepare resources and curriculums
I will then prepare resources that I will need for the first few weeks so I am slightly ahead of myself. I will print off any lesson plans I would like to use, get books and files ready. Also I stock up on any library books that we will need for any topics that we are covering, purchase any art supplies we need. This way I am ahead of myself, and it gives us a chance to get into a rhythm before I need some time in my planning in a few weeks to get things ready weekly. Blog post to come about resources and curriculum's we currently use and follow.
Follow best as we can..
I'm human, I'm still learning and I do not have this all together. Some weeks/months have been 'write offs' for various reasons, some weeks we have amazed ourselves at all we have achieved. Some weeks we have eaten pot noodles, the laundry is piled up, we've fallen out, the table is covered with crafts and glitter that hasn't been tidied away for days.. some weeks we have roast dinners, a pristine house (for about an hour), the laundry is folded away, and a calm bedtime and I think "wow I'm winning at life!" - and then the next day it falls apart. That's life though, the beauty of Home Ed is that we can be flexible and kind to ourselves.
If we wake up not feeling great, or our hearts are heavy for various reasons, we can take a day off to 'fill up our buckets' again. We can start again, go for a walk, grab a hot chocolate and have a chat, we can ask for forgiveness, and ask the Lord to guide and direct us. I wouldn't want to do this journey without Him. I've been doing this for a few years now, and honestly taking the time to dedicate the academic year to the Lord has been a huge blessing to me, I have seen how the Lord has answered prayers, guided us and blessed us in so many ways!
Be blessed and have a wonderful September friends!
Hannah
