My mom told me not long ago that she spoke with a friend who says that my unit study curriculum, Daily Bread, is all they use.  (She didn’t literally mean they don’t have anything else — math, for instance — but that they use it as their primary, overall curriculum.)  This is exactly how it was designed to be used, but I didn’t think anyone was using it that way.  Not even us, ironically.  Why?  My husband’s response made that very clear.  “It’s a great plan!  If you were as good at implementing the plan as you are at coming up with it, we’d be in great shape!”

He’s right.  I often fall apart somewhat at the implementation stage.  (We do use Daily Bread, just not “whole hog” the way I intended it.  Yet.)  But when I sat down to figure out what interferes, I realized that preparation is the biggie.  If I’ve planned to do activity ABC when we get to unit XYZ, but unit XYZ rolls around, activity ABC isn’t ready to go, and we’re busy, I’m likely to just wing it, because it’s hard to come up with the time to complete the preparations.  So I decided that for next year I was going to do as much of my prep as is reasonable well ahead of time.

That means if it needs to be printed or copied, it’s already printed or copied.  If we need to do experiments or projects, I have materials lists ahead of time and don’t have to be scrambling the week of the project to scrounge things together.  I don’t have to take the time to search the library catalog to see what to check out.  Obviously, I can’t vouch for this entirely yet, as it isn’t next year yet!  But I already have a lot ready to go, so there’s nothing holding us back from doing it when the time comes, and I wanted to share the “system” I’m creating in case it’s helpful for someone else.

1. Start early.  Many folks are just tying up this year’s schoolwork, but I’m prepping next year’s.  Why?  Because I want to be sure to have time to budget for things like buying books that we don’t have, Mom doesn’t have, the library doesn’t have, and we still really want to use.  (For the most part, we just use what’s available, but there are always a few very specific materials we’d just really like to have.  This is especially true for units like “Creation,” where the library may not have a good selection.)

2. Plan which units you’re going to do, and how long they’ll take/when they’ll fall.  (This was already decided for us by Daily Bread.  The only question was which year to jump in with, since we’ve been sort of piece-mealing it for a while.)

3. Be sure you have a school planner on hand, and pencil in your units, as well as holidays.  I do recommend using pencil, specifically, to allow for adjustments during the coming school year.  As far as holidays, these can be “fun” holidays you want to be sure to celebrate with your children, or holidays you plan to take a break from school (or both).  Also make note of any dates you know you will need to be out of town or otherwise adjust your regular school routine.

4. For each unit, go through the book lists and see what’s available at the library or can be borrowed.  Make note of any books to purchase (and how early you will need them).  Search the library catalog for each unit and make yourself a list of books to request when the time comes.  (Our library’s website allows us to create a list, which can then be emailed.  I emailed myself a list for each unit, which has actual links in it to the books.)

5. Go through any resources you have available – websites, files on your computer, books, etc. and make printouts/copies of anything you need to have copies of.  Also create any worksheets, copywork, etc. that you need to have on hand, and print this out.

6. Organize your materials.  I have a 12-pocket accordian folder that I put month names on for the school year.  For each month, I write the names of the units that will start that month on a sticky note and stick it on below the tab.  Any magazine articles, printouts, etc. that go with those units go into that file.  I have a similar folder on my computer, with individual unit names for the year, and anything digital that doesn’t need to be printed or otherwise prepared ahead of time goes in there.

Meanwhile, any specific ideas I come across for other things (poetry, for instance) I want us to read, activities I want to be sure we do, etc. I jot down on a unit planning worksheet.

Done all at once like this, it’s actually not as much work as it sounds like.  It is time-consuming, but it isn’t difficult.  And I can work around what’s already on the schedule much more conveniently than I can when it’s the middle of the school year and we need to get school started for the week.

What I’m not doing ahead of time:

I’m not writing in actual assignments.  I find it best to do that on a week-by-week basis, as it allows me to make adjustments and not just get to feeling really behind really fast (and having to do lots of erasing or crossing out).  I know this about myself, which is why we’ve been so hit-or-miss on the plan in the past – we do it week by week, or at least unit by unit.  But having everything ready ahead of time will allow me to write assignments in unit by unit and still include everything I want to include without spending hours every week.  The time-consuming stuff will already be done.

(Much of this is actually not quite ready, as our printer is out of ink, so it’s all sitting in a “to print” folder on my desktop.  But that’s another great reason to do this ahead of time!  I have plenty of time to get ink and get things printed, without the delay interfering with our schoolwork!)

So far, this seems to be working for me.  What helps you keep your homeschool running smoothly?