Homeschool Journey Thoughts - part 4

We are half way through our second quarter here at Knotty Pines Academy, and things have become very very busy for us. This posting has been waiting in my draft box for almost three weeks, and I have promised a couple homeschool friends that I would post about our improved lesson plans!

In Catherine Levison's book 'More Charlotte Mason Education' she has a chapter on 'segment planning' where she suggested different ways of using a planning book. I found myself resonating with one particular suggestion where she mentions not dating your entries.

Over the years I have learned that our family does not function under structured schedules that have deadlines set in stone, like many curricula require. These deadlines were too stifling. I have also learned that as I have more age levels entering into our homeschooling I needed a better accountability system to keep me on track with what everyone was doing. I have always been intrigued with how Valerie Bendt structured her school year around their unit studies in five week segments, but that wouldn't work for our family because we don't school year round with just unit studies. Our ages range from upper elementary to preschool right now and subjects like math vary greatly in ability. I needed lesson plans that allowed us to have the freedom of planning rabbit trails as they arouse in certain subjects or flex for life's unexpected interruptions, but also provide a steady routine to get subjects completed.

Soooo last year I set up our school year on a 'Year at a Glance - 40 Week Plan'. I assigned each student a general check-off list with certain books that needed to be read or subject matters that needed to be completed. I did not date these entries which enabled me the flexibility I desired. Our 40 week plan also allowed me greater flexibility in how long we wanted to spend on certain subjects. I can split my Language arts between Bravewriter and Language of God using 4 or 5 week segments. Our learning center rabbit trails (unit studies) are divided into 4 or 5 week increments, we can cover at least 3 science subjects in 10 week increments with ten weeks of nature studies interspersed. We can divide our history and geography studies into alternating 4 or 5 week unit studies that allow for a variety throughout the year. I can place certain subjects on a two year rotation schedule. For example we will be studying 'The Ancients' in history and 'The Continents' in geography for two years instead of one. We can study at least three artists per year with interspersed specific art instructions. The 40 week plan was set up to meet our 180 days mandated by our State's educational laws while balancing our year with vacations and holidays around the other twelve weeks. Our 40 week plan allowed me to put certain subjects on the back burner to make room for planned or unplanned rabbit trails like you will see in my 'second quarter plans' posting.


I have really really liked this new system. It has allowed me to slow down and plan in bite size pieces while providing the necessary routines and I'm kept accountable. Along with our new and improved learning rooms this new 40 week lesson planning system has worked out perfectly for us here at Knotty Pines Academy.