My Plans for the Next School Year

I have been deep in planning mode for the last many weeks. I started out mostly thinking I was going to follow the Year 2 plans from CharlotteMasonHelp, but in the end, I tweaked them rather significantly. I felt the need to see the plans in a different format to help me see how I was spacing things over the whole year and where different things would fit in best, so I borrowed the spreadsheet format from AmblesideOnline and then modified it to make it work for my plans.

I know there is some interest in how my plans are laid out for the year, so I will attach them here. A few explanations first though...

1) These plans include many but not all of the subjects we do together as a group. Other subjects like math, reading, phonics, spelling, and handwriting (many of those covered through copywork, and dictation) are not listed out for the year because the children are each at different places in these subjects and proceed at their own pace through the year. I include them on my weekly plans and adjust them daily really to meet the needs of the kids. Other subjects like nature study and recitation (Bible and poetry) also are more pace and/or weather dependent as a group, so they don't make sense to plan out for the year in my opinion. 

2) I will still make weekly lesson plans before each school week begins in order to have daily plans available. Many details will get further fleshed out there (like how I cover Spanish each week with Salsa). This year-long spreadsheet just gives me the opportunity to have a week at a glance and a big picture view. I expect it to save me quite a bit of time in doing my weekly lesson plans though!

3) We use a largely Charlotte Mason style of schooling, so most of the lessons are covered through literature. I will also be asking the children to narrate and/or notebook their lessons this year.

4) I combine the children for as many subjects as possible. This is not recommended by many CM curricula. However, the 4 children I'm teaching were all born within a 31 month time-frame. I'm using resources that are recommended for a broad age span anyways, and frankly different CM style curricula use these books for different years/grades anyways. I expect different things from them at different ages, but really, let me be blunt here. I think it's ridiculous to say that a certain book is appropriate for a child who turns 7 in August but not for the child who turns 7 in September. I'm teaching children, not grade levels.

5) I, of course, have many reasons for why I chose certain subjects and/or resources. If I went into depth here with each subject this would be way too long of a post though. I may type more about individual subjects in future posts. I also use abbreviations for many things and don't spell out which resources I'm using for everything because it wouldn't fit well on the spreadsheet, and I already know what I'm planning on using! If you want more details about any of my resources, subjects, or reasons for choosing them, feel free to ask.

6) The formatting makes more sense as a Word Document (than as a Google Doc) as it prints neatly with one page front and back representing each term. The formatting got a little odd in Google Docs with uneven margins and such, but the info and the overall idea of the format are still there. Click the link below to see it.

My 2015-2016 School Year Plan Spreadsheet