Creating a Big Picture Plan for Your Homeschool
First of all, I want to start by saying that, in the scheme of things, I’m a newbie homeschooler. I have some additional experience because I was homeschooled myself, but my actual homeschool momming experience is somewhat limited. With that being said, I’m nothing if not a planner. I love to create plans, so, yes, I have a plan for my children’s education from now through 12th grade, and I think you should too. Want to know more? Then read on to learn about how I’ve created a big picture plan for my homeschool and how you can too.
Why to Create a Big Picture Plan
As I began to think about homeschooling, I knew I wanted to create a rough outline of what home education could look like for my children throughout the years. Why? Because I wanted to be sure I wasn’t unintentionally leaving any gaps in their education.
I know there’s much discussion about education “gaps” and whether they should be of concern, and I generally believe that teaching a child how to learn is much more important than what to learn. No education is ever truly complete, and once a child can read and learn on their own, they’ll have the rest of their lives to fill in any inevitable gaps.
However. (Yes, that is a full sentence.) I would hate to get to the end of my child’s education to suddenly realize we never studied biology. Probable? No. Possible? In theory. Creating a big picture plan allows me to ensure that the broad topics I want to be covered in my child’s education actually get covered.
It also allows me to rest at ease knowing that I don’t need to teach EVERYTHING. RIGHT. NOW. Because that’s also the kind of homeschool mom I am.
There is so much to learn and it’s all so exciting and fun and I want to do it all with my son right now, this year, it cannot wait. But, as most homeschool moms know, there is such a thing as too much. And having this big picture plan is a reminder to me that just because it doesn’t fit into our schedule this year, doesn’t mean it won’t fit into our schedule next year or the year after.
Where I Started with Creating a Big Picture Plan
So I knew I wanted to create a plan, but where to start? Well, I Googled it. (Of course, what else would you do?) And I came up surprisingly short. I was searching for “homeschool long-term plan” and “homeschool complete education plan” and all sorts of other terms and just couldn’t find what I was looking for. Until I happened upon this post by Elizabeth Clare. This is where I was introduced to the term “Scope and Sequence”.
What is a Scope & Sequence?
The term itself basically means “what’s covered and when”, but it’s used in several different contexts. For example, a curriculum company might have a scope and sequence showing what’s covered in their curriculum and when. In this context, I’m going to use scope and sequence to refer to a long-term plan for your child’s education – a plan for each year of their study from now until they graduate high school.
There are also different ways to create a scope and sequence. A scope and sequence document can be extremely detailed, listing exactly what skills a child should learn in each subject each year. That is not what I’m going for here.
What I’m going for here is a birds eye view of the subjects that will be taught in each year, and possibly which curriculums I’ll use to cover them. So let’s get started.
Creating a Scope & Sequence Chart
The first thing I did was to create a chart. This can be done in an Excel document or I used a table in my Notion planning system.
To make your chart, fill the top row with grade levels K-12. Then fill the first column with all of the subjects you’ll want your child to learn throughout their education. Make these broad subjects – for example, “science” instead of “biology”.
Here’s a snapshot of what a portion of mine looks like:
Filling in Your Scope & Sequence
To fill in my scope and sequence chart, I start by marking which years I want to teach each subject. You can do this by just putting an “x” in the boxes that you think should be filled. For example, if you want to teach a foreign language starting in 2nd grade, you would put an “x” in the foreign language box for 2nd grade and any other years you want to have your child learn a foreign language.
Now that you have you have a general idea of what years you want general subjects to be included in your child’s education, you can begin to fill in the specifics. Continuing with the above example, you might know that you want to teach Spanish in 2nd-4th grade then you might want to switch to Latin for 5th-7th grade. You would erase the “x” and put the appropriate language in its place.
If there’s a year or subject that you’re unsure about, you can always leave the “x” and come back to it later. And if there’s a specific curriculum you plan to use and you want to add that, you could list that, as well.
Here’s a look at a simplified version of my scope and sequence:
I’ve also gone ahead and complicated things by creating a version that shows what my children will be learning alongside one another each year. But, of course, if this doesn’t make sense for you or your family, just stop at the above.
Making Changes
This post wouldn’t be complete without this important disclaimer: This is a flexible overview of what your child’s education could look like. It will change. And your child’s education will not follow this plan exactly.
As each year approaches, you will have a better understanding of what your child needs and of what is appropriate for their personal level of development. This is not meant to be a rigid plan that you follow to a T.
This is simply a tool that can help you get a big picture understanding of what you will cover over the years and help you rest as ease knowing your child will receive a full and rich education.
I highly recommend filling this out and then making a copy. You’ll have one copy of your originally idea and then another copy to write on and change up as the years go by.
One Last Note
I pray that this post is helpful to you as you think about the remaining years in your child’s education and that it gives you some peace in knowing that you have a plan and that your child will receive a full and rich education. If you create a scope and sequence or another big picture plan for your homeschool in some way, I’d love to know!
