Firstly work out what subjects you plan on teaching. For example, the basic subjects for primary  are:

• English/ Language Arts
• Mathematics
• Science and Technology
• Social Studies or Human Society and its Environment (includes history, geography and civics)
• Creative and Practical Arts (includes visual arts, drama, dancing and music)
• Personal Development, Health and Physical Education – PDHPE (includes health information and sport).
• Foreign Languages

In Year 7 to 10 English, Science, Maths, History and Geography are compulsory but other subjects are electives:

• Creative and Practical Arts
• Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE)
• Foreign Language (LOTE)
• Design and Technology

You can rotate these subjects around during the year but you need to be doing three extra subjects each year. You may have other subjects you want to include like Bible lessons, add these to your list.

List your subjects and then begin filling in the resources that you plan on using for these subjects. Put all the children under one subject during this phase. Why? I think it helps you find crossover resources and books that can be used for multiple aged children.

Maths is probably the only subject that needs a separate curriculum for each child. In the early years science can often be grouped together.

English can have some crossover content (especially with read alouds) but the mechanics of writing will vary depending on the age and skills of your children.

I have found that the best way for me to do this is to write out a Term Plan at the beginning of each term with homeschool subjects and goals. It shows what we are hoping to achieve for each child. Although this is quite specific there is still ‘room to move’.

I try to estimate how long it will take for me to complete a resource and then I break down the resource into sections whilst considering my time frame. One resource may take a term, another may take a year, or longer.

I put this information into table so I can review it at the end of term. I reuse this document as the basis for my end of term report.

The term planner is the reference for planning our lessons for the week. We have a basic routine that the kids become familiar with and they are expected to accomplish their set work. Here are some tips on how many hours it usually takes to homeschool.

I have found that workboxes helped me greatly with scheduling work.

Here are some tips for helping you write up a Charlotte Mason Schedule.

Here are some ideas for using loop scheduling for homeschooling.

This is completed at the end of each term. The electronic version of the term planner that was commenced at the beginning of the term is resurrected and filled in with what has actually been achieved.

Page numbers, chapters, specific book narrations, field trips and unit studies are added. A short assessment is added plus progress notes on specific key learning areas that may need attention or of interest.

At My Homeschool we’ve prefilled your end of term reports and given them to you as a word doc. All you need to do is adjust them to your requirements.

1. Look at curriculum planning as a whole. Let all your subjects meld. Tie in your literature studies with all your subject.
2. Use a teaching philosophy as your base for preparing your course of study rather than the newest curriculum out. This will tend to make your plans a lot more cohesive. For me it was always the Charlotte Mason Method.
3. When I surveyed a group of homeschool mums nearly all of us said we only homeschooled four days per week. Day 5 was for all those out of home events that still were ‘educational’ but not necessarily academic. Plan for 3 days a week for Kindergarten to Year 2 and 4 days a week for Year 3 to Year 6. In high school many of us moved to a five day week because our teens were becoming more independent. Here is a realistic guide to homeschooling hours.
4. Make it simple. Detailed lesson plans and specific time slots often make you feel stressed because you feel like you didn’t complete the lesson or you are running behind. And they are not required when applying for registration.
5. Go with your heart. This may sound like a funny thing to say but it is actually quite an intuitive method. So often we have a gut feeling about how we want to teach and this can be right on target. But it may also be challenging but ultimately it will give you a greater sense of purpose and motivation when you believe in the way you are teaching
6. Don’t try to do too much in your academic year. With so many good options it is tempting to try to squeeze too much into your curriculum. That usually leads to burnout. Be realistic with what you can actually achieve.
7. Don’t attempt curriculum before your children are ready. I’ve made this mistake many times when my kids were little. I bought a history and science curriculum that was really high school level for my kids to use in primary. Consequently the content was mostly inappropriate for my children and I wasted my money.
8. Don’t buy too much. My weakness is books. I have many that I bought to read to my children that are still sitting on the bookshelf. Over the past two years I’ve been going to my bookshelf FIRST for my read-alouds instead of the bookshops.
9. Don’t be tempted to throw out something that works just because something else is newer or prettier. No curriculum is a perfect fit and you will always find that certain aspects don’t work. However, chopping and changing all the time can slow down progress in a subject. With one child I wasted a year changing math programs three times whilst looking for a good fit. In the end I went back to my original resource realising that the reason she was struggling was more about her and not the curriculum.
10. Don’t ignore the failures that happened before. If you are finding aspects of your homeschool aren’t working such as: routine, time allocation, a particular curriculum, or your homeschool set up –examine them closely and see what improvements you can make. Remember the famous quote, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”