5 Days of Scheduling Your Entire Homeschool Year {Day 4}

Woo-hoo!  You're in the homestretch.

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Over the last few days, you have learned WHY you might want to consider scheduling your homeschool year, and HOW to prepare a school-year calendar. You may have already begun plugging in your traditional-style curriculum plans to your Brave Homeschool Planner, or the planner of your choice.

But all that was just a warm-up! Now you're ready to tackle some of the more difficult curriculum types to schedule...unit studies and living literature-style lessons. Let's face it, although these forms of learning provide an excellent opportunity for delight-directed learning, they can be a bit of a challenge to write in PEN.

(My sincerest apologies for the poor lighting and sound quality of the following videos.  I think we will be hosting a funeral for my video equipment very soon.)

If you are having trouble viewing this video, click here.

As I mentioned in the video, I schedule the main unit themes for the entire year. This keeps me accountable to stay on target...moving in a forward motion. I only schedule/plan the details of each main theme 4 to 6 weeks in advance. The unit study and living-literature study styles are rooted in learning through natural curiosities and exhausting a topic for all its detail. When beginning a topic of study, I don't always know how long we will want to "camp" on that topic. While I want forward motion, I also don't want to spoil the natural love of a topic by moving on just because the black and white page dictates that I must. By only detailing 4 to 6 weeks' worth of plans, I can choose to extend the learning if I deem necessary, knowing that the lesson planner is a blank slate beyond the six weeks.

Since the primary focus of this 5-Day series is SCHEDULING, I have not gone into intense detail about PLANNING unit studies. I realize, however, that the two go hand-in-hand. So, here are a few great links to help inspire you as you create enriching unit study lessons for your year.

How To Plan a Unit Study by Our Journey Westward
Planning a Unit Study Step By Step by To Be Busy at Home

In addition, be sure to check out these planning forms to help you organize all your thoughts AND my Pinterest account to get inspired!


Day 1: WHY I Schedule My Entire Year?
Day 2: Creating a Year-Long Homeschool Calendar
Day 3: Scheduling Traditional Curriculum
Day 4: Scheduling Non-Traditional Curriculum
Day 5: FAQs of Scheduling

If you're still in need of help for putting a plan into place, here's how you can put your entire homeschool day on autopilot>>>