Planning an Efficient Homeschool : 5 Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents

This week marks the kick off for 5 Days of Tips for Homeschooling Parents. The homeschoolers of the Schoolhouse Review Crew have banded together to offer up tips, ideas, and advice to help you based on our own numerous homeschooling experiences.

I tell you I still feel like a homeschooling novice myself but I will share with you some of my experiences and ideas for successful homeschooling.

There is no homeschool alike. We are all different with tweaks and nudges unique to our family life.

I would like start off with being efficient in our homeschool. Considering the name of my blog is Homemaking Organized it only makes sense that I should start my mini Homeschooling series with how organizing can be your best friend when it comes to schooling at home.

A Few Tips for an Efficient Homeschool

I like to run my homeschool like a well oiled machine. Or so I think. This idea works well in my little family. We like to think we are efficient and we like to check off boxes and (try to) keep things in order.

My husband manages the family finances and does a great job with spreadsheets, lists, and tips for stretching our dollar.

My daughter keeps me on task with her great memory and is a born organizer who keeps list and schedules. She also  requests her Student Logbook (click to read our review) each year so she can keep track too.

A Flexible Lesson Plan: I start off each homeschool year with a lesson plan (comes in my big box of curriculum) that I then tweek to meet our family schedule. This is easy for me because I just read the syllabus that comes with our curriculum and yup! Done! But just because it’s written down that the AB and C are done on such and such day doesn’t mean it happens that way in our homeschool. In fact it rarely does. Some days I have to shorten the school day or move a lesson until we have supplies. Some lessons are option and some are extra add ons. What does matter is that I move things around to accommodate our home and life.

A Posted Schedule: Next up is our posted schedule. It lists what subject is done when and how all our daily lessons are organize. ? Do you cover all subjects every day? What time works best for your homeschool (don’t be too rigid).

We picked up a simple Dry Erase wall Class Schedule at the dollar store several years ago and use it each year to post our daily schedule. We start off with good intentions in September by by January of the next year things are drastically different. We veer from it quite often but it keeps us on task to know what to do each day.

A Weekly Breather: This is a must for us. My husband works Saturdays so in order to spend quality time with him we take a break mid-week from school and run errands, play, relax and enjoy just being a family. We also try to avoid any meetings or such. It’s a nice hiccup in our week that we look forward to. It lets us regroup and refresh.

So those are just a few of the things we do to keep our homeschool running efficiently.

I’m not the only one one with tips to share. Here’s today’s list of fellow Schoolhouse Review Crew members sharing their tips for Homeschooling Parents.

Annette @ A Net In Time
Brandy @ Kingdom Academy Homeschool
Brenda @ Counting Pinecones
Carol @ Home Sweet Life
Cassandra @ A Glimpse of Normal
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses
Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm
Crystal @ Crystal Starr
DaLynn @ Biblical Womanhood
Danielle @ Sensible Whimsy