Prep Time

[VisionaryMom]

I'm curious to know how others handle preparation for school work. Today was Day 1 of our official homeschool adventure. I did spend time prepping, but I still felt we were disorganized and that prepping may take enormous amounts of time.

[Lisa1970]

I only use things that don't have prep time, or have very little. Anything that calls for a lot of prep time on my behalf is just not done.

For things you need, it helps if you can buy a kit. Like, with many science programs, you can buy a kit with the supplies listed. Otherwise, it is good to get a list ahead of time for the year and buy it all at once, as opposed to preparing each day. If anything requires a bunch of supplies, but does not list them so I can gather them all up, I do not do it.

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by Lisa1970

I only use things that don't have prep time, or have very little. Anything that calls for a lot of prep time on my behalf is just not done.

What do you do that requires nothing in terms of prep? I am doing our curriculum myself piecemeal, so I know that some work will be required from me. That's fine since we didn't find any box curriculum that we liked enough to purchase.

So, for example, we talked about patterns today. I have some manipulatives that work well for patterns, so I got those and then determined what desk work I would have DS do. It's not that it took a lot in and of itself, but I can see that over time, it will take a good bit of time just to fit together all of the pieces. I'm wondering if others spend, say, one afternoon a week or one day a month, working on planning everything out.

I'm also not exactly clear on where we should begin with most subjects, so I'm still feeling things out.

[zjande]

Coincidentally, this topic is exactly what I've been pondering lately. I too put our schoolwork together piece by piece, & I too spend too much time each morning figuring out what we're doing that day & gathering the needed books, supplies, etc. , and feeling disorganized. Back when I was homeschooling just one kid, that didn't bother me. I laugh now when I remember how for years I just went to the library & leisurely perused the books to decide what I'd be reading & teaching my son in the upcoming weeks. lol Now, with my whole gaggle of kids, I barely set foot in the library except to pick up all our books that I put on hold online & go pick up!

I do always have a general schedule. Like, we do science M, Tu & Thurs, logic on Fri., etc. But I don't like the amount of time I spend deciding exactly what we're doing for science that day, & making the copies for it. And every year I'll be adding to my homeschooled brood, since I have a 7th grader & a 4yo, 2yo, & 9 month old as well. So I've got to get more organized or someday I'll be spending 3 hours every morning just planning out what each kid is doing that day!

Anyway, just this very weekend I decided to try something different. I've jumped into some real planning ahead. I'm going to start slow just to make sure this works for me, so I've started with the 1st 4 weeks of school.

I got started with my 7th grader. I got 4 folders & labeled them weeks one thru 4. Then I got out my simple, cheapy teacher's planner book. I started with language arts. I figured out exactly what we'll do each day, wrote it down in my teacher planner book, made all the copies we'll need & put those copies in the folder for that week. For history & science I spent some time looking up good corresponding educational videos online. I LovE adding good videos to our schooling but hate wasting the time in the morning searching for them! Now I already know where they are & have them written in my planner.

I'll put together a much simpler thing for my 4 & 2 yos as well (who will be 5 & 3 soon after school starts in the fall). I have a zillion little preschool idea books & workbooks that I can easily get sucked into/overwhelmed by every morning when I want to give them some schooly stuff, coloring sheets, etc. So if I plan ahead & make all the copies now, I won't have to do it on our busy school mornings. yay!

So, I hope this works for me. If all goes well, I'll try to plan our 6 weeks ahead next time, or maybe more eventually. But, this is definitely taking many hours to do. I spent allllll day long yesterday, but got at least half way done with my 7th grader's stuff. But I figure I get it all out of the way now, or I try to do it every morning of the school year. I'm kinda tired of the latter.

I am alllll about thinking about planning right so any questions you have or anything you want to share about your own planning thoughts, I'm all ears for!

[frugalmama]

We prep ahead of time - normally on the weekend I copy out any needed coloring pages, worksheets, and assemble any crafts we're doing into labeled ziploc bags.

[elus0814]

With a preschooler and a first grader I would say my total prep time amounts to one hour per week at the most. By 'prep' I mean deciding what we are going to do that week, pulling out worksheets and putting them in a folder, writing it out in my teacher's planner, thinking about how it will all fit into the rest of the year, and so on. We keep all the books on a single bookshelf, all the schooly kind of supplies in one spot in the pantry, and all the arts and crafts materials in a cupboard so gathering up things we need for a lesson never takes more than a minute or two.

We live in a state without regular reporting requirements, just a standardized test every few years, so that may make a difference. In the middle of the school year we are moving to a state with a requirement that involves reporting attendance every month (like the kids are going to be absent from home ) so I can see that adding a bit to my prep time between writing up the report and taking it to the post office to be sent certified.

If by 'prep' you are also including online research into field trips, books, curriculum, supplies, etc. then it's likely more along the lines of 3-4 hours per week total. I don't count this as prep time because I enjoy it and it's just something I do while relaxing on my computer. I'm also not counting time spent purchasing supplies, we live a ways from anything so most things are purchased online which takes very little time.

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by elus0814

We live in a state without regular reporting requirements, just a standardized test every few years, so that may make a difference. In the middle of the school year we are moving to a state with a requirement that involves reporting attendance every month (like the kids are going to be absent from home ) so I can see that adding a bit to my prep time between writing up the report and taking it to the post office to be sent certified.

Our state is somewhere in the middle. The state statutes require 6 hours of instructional time for at least 180 days, but...no one ever checks. They do "retain the right" to ask for attendance records and portfolios at any time, and I feel more comfortable keeping that on-hand just in case rather than not doing it and then hoping it doesn't become an issue.

[ohiomommy1122]

Well now that I am homeschooling my 5th grader and now my 4, and 2 yr old and have 1 yr old in tow as wellI find myself very unorganized I am trying to work through getting things in order, printing out and having all worsheets and supplies ready for each week instead of trying to do it daily.