Originally published on Get In, Hang On

I initally wrote this post for a discussion list that I’m on. It was
a response to a new homeschooler that was concerned about how to set up
a routine and structure. I’m posting it here because it clearly
explains how to be structured in what you are doing without losing the
freedoms that come with homeschooling.
Hi,

How structured or not that you want to be will develop with time
as you, your kids, and other members of your family find where they are
comfortable.

The totally unstructured, seem IMO, to not worry about a routine
at all. Some people keep a journal to keep track of what is getting
accomplished, and that will give you a feeling of accomplishment when
you can look back over it and realize that your kids are learning.

But if you have a desire for some structure, you might want to
try my method. First, come up with some ‘long-term’ goals. Where do you
want to be at the end of this school year? Since it’s your first year,
KEEP IT LOW KEY. You are in a transition period and what you are mostly
going for is the emotional growth that you are already starting to see.
Taking on too much, WILL short-circuit your success.

Long-term goals might be how many books you want to kids to read
by June (perhaps from a reading list, or not). It might be that you
want to explore a period of history or get out to a number of field
trips around the area. If also could be covering part or all of a
textbook or workbook. Goals can include a level of skill in a craft,
art, music or sport.

Once you have those goals, the next step is a plan on how to meet
them. What works for me is to figure out where (ideally) we should be
each month, that will give us the progress needed. If you use a text or
workbook, that’s just a matter of determining what page you need to be
on. If you are exploring a topic on your own, that means finding a
reference for yourself and laying out an order of topics to cover and
then dividing them up over the total time period. You now have progress
points that will give you a framework.

These monthly progress points can be further broken down into
weekly goals. But keep in mind that these are ‘goals’. Depending on the
age and interests of your kids, you might find that a few hours
everyday will cover the material, but not tax their drive or limit
their other interests. Or, as they age, you might find that a couple
highly focused days will free up other days. My kids (middle and high
school) do about 3 very intensive days, and one light one. It gives
them time to socialize with friends and work in a drama workshop
program.

What I’m trying to say is that, what we do on any day is very
flexible. But because I have monthly goals, I know what we need to
cover. And I know that by the end of the year we will have accomplished
our goals. I also know that on a particular day we might stop and spend
extra time (because they want to explore something further or because
they need more time to learn something.), but I can adjust for it.

That all said, I can add that after 7 years; we’ve never had a year
go exactly as planned. There is always something that will totally
throw any plans out the window. This year has been one of the more
extreme examples of that. Boy’s allergies have been terrible here and
while we should have been finished with seatwork weeks ago, we are
still finishing things up. The beauty of setting monthly goals has been
that he’s been free to judge what he’s been up to doing and we’ve
adjusted monthly goals to reflect that. (Taking breaks when the
allergies were at their worst.)

Editor’s pick from Tracy at The Inspired Family. If there’s one thing that we’ve had a lot of trouble with in these, our early stages homeschooling, it’s structure.  Because, dad-gummit, we are just not a very structured bunch!  I loved this post by Meg at Get In, Hang On because it’s straight forward and seemingly easy to implement… meaning, it looks as though it could work for a pair of structure-phobes like us. It inspired me! And so we shall try….  Go on and take a read over at Get In, Hang On and see what other homeschool tips she might have in store.