When you are ready to sit down and ponder and map out your home school schedule for the upcoming academic year. A good calendar is an ingredient not to be forgotten as part of your overall homeschool schedule and homeschool lesson plan.

Since you will be homeschooling your child, careful thought needs to be given not only to your home school schedule, but your family schedule will need to be integrated into the mix as well. Also make sure that your lesson plan coincides well with your educational calendar. After taking a high level look at your home school calendar integrated with your family calendar, you may decide that the traditional school year calendar of end of summer through early spring may not be the most advantageous.

Also the homeschool day does not necessarily need to start say at 8am. There is no stringent time schedule that you must adhere to as is the case in public schools.

As with your home school lesson planning, your scheduling should take into careful consideration your child's learning style and determine what will work best. As a homeschooling family, you have the option of planning trips at other times of the year when for example, air fare is cheaper and the lines are shorter! If vacations aren't a part of your plans, there are probably other reasons (such as birthdays) for tailor making your own home school calendar.   While mapping a home school yearly schedule is an excellent idea, remember to allow for flexibility in the schedule. Any school year, especially since the school year is taking place also centered around your home and your family, will have the need for unforeseen breaks and absences. Not to worry, just as there are unforeseen missed hours and even days in public school so will there be with your at home education.   Just remember it may take a while to sand off the rough edges of your home school schedule to where you feel you have best optimized it. As the year goes by, if you have kept good records and used your lesson plan as your guide you will see that your child is indeed learning all along the way.

Mary Joyce

Mary Joyce is a former educator, successful homeschool parent, and the primary contributor to the Homeschool-Curriculum-4u website. Please visit Homeschool-Curriculum-4u for a complete list of Mary's articles, resources on homeschool, ideas, and curriculum information. Also tips guides and how-to's to help you successfully teach your child at home.