Tip #1
Basic Lesson Planning
If you use different books from different publishers, it can get a little confusing trying to figure out and remember how many lessons (or pages) per day (or week) you need to complete to finish each book by the end of the year.
First, take your teacher's manual and see how many lessons there are. Then, divide this by the total number of school days you have in the year. Let's say, for example, that your literature book has 122 lessons. If there are 180 days in the school year, you need to do three lessons per week to finish the book, with a few weeks needing four lessons. If your history book has 112 lessons, you will do three per week and will able to finish a little earlier than the end of the year.
Once you established this, write it down in your lesson plan book in a prominent place to serve as a reminder.
Tip #2
Calculate Percentage of Book Finished
To determine if you are "on track" to finish a book by the end of the school year, first find out how far along you are in the school calendar. For example, if you have just finished school day number 36 and you have 180 school days in the year, you have completed 20% of the school year (36 divided by 180 = 20%).
Next, determine how far you have come in each subject. To do this, take the lessons completed and divide them by the total lessons. For example, if you just finished lesson 35 in your English textbook and there are 160 lessons, you are 22% finished. If you just finished lesson six in science and there are 64 lessons, you are about 9% finished. If you've completed 20% of your school year, you are slightly ahead in English, but significantly behind in science.
Tip #3
Avoid Burnout
Tip #1 and Tip #2 are only guides. Becoming a slave to them will lead to homeschool burnout. Life will interfere with homeschool plans. This is part of what makes homeschooling so great--you will have many opportunities to turn real life into real lessons. Get creative: taking your neighbor to the hospital become a social studies lesson for your forth grader. Getting the oil changed in your car becomes a auto shop lesson for your teenage son. Grocery shopping becomes a math and home economics lesson for your junior high student. Setting the table is a sorting activity for your pre-schooler.
Think on your feet, and remember that learning occurs in many forms, a few of which are from textbooks.
Jennifer Thieme began homeschooling her three children in 1996. She's the administrator for a small, private ISP she established for herself and a few friends. Her articles have appeared in Practical Homeschooling and the Intuit ProConnection Newsletter. She operates a bookkeeping and tax service out of her home. Visit her business website: http://www.jenniferthieme.com.