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Plan Your Year: Homeschool Planning for Purpose and Peace
Homeschool planning is about more than wishful thinking. Do you worry that you won't cover the subjects that your children need? Or maybe you create elaborate plans but never seem to be able to follow through with them. Do your lesson plans end up being a mishmash of crossed-off dates, arrows, and erasures? You need a new way to look at homeschool planning. Plan Your Year is a practical approach to homeschool planning that breaks free of grids and unrealistic expectations, focusing instead on the needs of the students, the teacher (yes, you!), and the busy life you lead. Inside you will discover: Plan Your Year is the homeschool planning guide you have been waiting for. Get the direction you need without the guilt.
152 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
63 people are currently reading
623 people want to read
About the author
Pam Barnhill
18 books229 followersPAM BARNHILL believes that you don’t have to sacrifice relationships to homeschool strong.
An award-winning educator and former journalist, she has a knack for breaking down big tasks into small, manageable steps and getting to the heart of the stories her listeners want to hear.
Pam is a homeschool speaker, the host of the Homeschool Solutions Show podcast, and the author of Better Together: Simplify Your Homeschool, Strengthen Your Family, and Savor the Subjects That Matter Most, a book about Morning Time.
Pam lives in the Deep South with her husband, three (mostly) awesome kids,
and a passel of family dogs.
Connect with Pam by emailing her at pam@pambarnhill.com or joining her mailing list at pambarnhill.com.
An award-winning educator and former journalist, she has a knack for breaking down big tasks into small, manageable steps and getting to the heart of the stories her listeners want to hear.
Pam is a homeschool speaker, the host of the Homeschool Solutions Show podcast, and the author of Better Together: Simplify Your Homeschool, Strengthen Your Family, and Savor the Subjects That Matter Most, a book about Morning Time.
Pam lives in the Deep South with her husband, three (mostly) awesome kids,
and a passel of family dogs.
Connect with Pam by emailing her at pam@pambarnhill.com or joining her mailing list at pambarnhill.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
June 6, 2022
The blogosphere (in Barnhill's case, blogs and podcasts and YouTube channel and online courses) has promulgated an interesting category of book: compiling what I've published elsewhere.
For some audiences, this is great. All in one place, a quickly accessible reference, etc. Or, for fast readers who are intrigued, a more efficient way to internalize the information.
So I admit this is a Me Problem. I need to adjust my expectations when it comes to books by bloggers... every time, I expect the book to be much more in-depth than what's available in cyberspace, but it rarely is.
No hard feelings in this particular case. Pam Barnhill's put a lot of free help out there, and I've used my fair share of it over the years. Hope she gets a decent cut from the sale, because she absolutely has earned this money from me... even if not exactly *here*.
For some audiences, this is great. All in one place, a quickly accessible reference, etc. Or, for fast readers who are intrigued, a more efficient way to internalize the information.
So I admit this is a Me Problem. I need to adjust my expectations when it comes to books by bloggers... every time, I expect the book to be much more in-depth than what's available in cyberspace, but it rarely is.
No hard feelings in this particular case. Pam Barnhill's put a lot of free help out there, and I've used my fair share of it over the years. Hope she gets a decent cut from the sale, because she absolutely has earned this money from me... even if not exactly *here*.
June 10, 2019
This book was (and will most likely be in the future when I inevitably return back to this during my planning stages) an immense help in getting my thoughts together for homeschool planning. I think this could benefit every home-school mother no matter her course of study preferences (classical, traditional, unschooling, etc.).
The author has home-schooled for years and runs her own home-school support business. She includes in the book testimonials from other homes-school mom experts about the principles she's teaching. Those examples of how other moms put into practice organizational skills, teaching ideas, etc. was extremely poignant and helpful.
There are worksheets at the end of each chapter that facilitates understanding of the concept and planning your year out. These can be copied for future and repeated use.
Some of the topics covered in the book: creating your home-school vision, crafting effective goals, determining a course of study, practical planning, creating actual lesson plans, organizing materials.
Having been an elementary teacher for 5 years where everything you teach is planned out for you (no critical thinking involved), this was a necessary resource for me. It helped me to think outside the box of what was possible and acceptable for schooling kids at home. Unless a 2nd or 3rd generation home-schooler, mothers don't often know that the bounds to schooling at home are almost nonexistent! And for me (rule follower, ISTJ, enneagram 1), it was difficult to come to a peaceful resolution within myself about this. This book helped guide me through that uncertainty.
The author has home-schooled for years and runs her own home-school support business. She includes in the book testimonials from other homes-school mom experts about the principles she's teaching. Those examples of how other moms put into practice organizational skills, teaching ideas, etc. was extremely poignant and helpful.
There are worksheets at the end of each chapter that facilitates understanding of the concept and planning your year out. These can be copied for future and repeated use.
Some of the topics covered in the book: creating your home-school vision, crafting effective goals, determining a course of study, practical planning, creating actual lesson plans, organizing materials.
Having been an elementary teacher for 5 years where everything you teach is planned out for you (no critical thinking involved), this was a necessary resource for me. It helped me to think outside the box of what was possible and acceptable for schooling kids at home. Unless a 2nd or 3rd generation home-schooler, mothers don't often know that the bounds to schooling at home are almost nonexistent! And for me (rule follower, ISTJ, enneagram 1), it was difficult to come to a peaceful resolution within myself about this. This book helped guide me through that uncertainty.
May 14, 2019
I've Read Plan Your Year the old version as a PDF I have also done her Autopilot course.
By Far this is my favorite format a real book in my hands and easily accessible for future use. Best book on planning out your school year and I do love her planner pages as it just makes it easy!
By Far this is my favorite format a real book in my hands and easily accessible for future use. Best book on planning out your school year and I do love her planner pages as it just makes it easy!
June 17, 2019
I love this book!
This is the book I have used to plan our entire homeschool year for the past 3 years. This updated and printed version is AMAZING! Yes, you get all the forms you need to plan your year but it's so much more than that! Pam gives you the tools to figure out what you need for your best homeschool year before you ever pick up a resource or choose a curriculum. This is the #1 resource I use before planning our homeschool year and I look forward to using it well into our middle and high school years!
This is the book I have used to plan our entire homeschool year for the past 3 years. This updated and printed version is AMAZING! Yes, you get all the forms you need to plan your year but it's so much more than that! Pam gives you the tools to figure out what you need for your best homeschool year before you ever pick up a resource or choose a curriculum. This is the #1 resource I use before planning our homeschool year and I look forward to using it well into our middle and high school years!
July 5, 2024
A wonderful resource to help you plan your year, starting with the big picture and thinking through your goals. It really helped me start with the right perspective. I will read this one again.
April 19, 2019
This is a homeschool tool you will use year after year. I’m a planner and what I love about this is that it’s planning, with flexibility and ease. You create a plan with your life, your kids, and you at the forefront.
Chapter by chapter Pam guides you through creating your personal plan with tons of useful information and worksheets for you to use at each step.
Chapter by chapter Pam guides you through creating your personal plan with tons of useful information and worksheets for you to use at each step.
May 1, 2022
My favorite thing I learned from this book is how to write my own unit study! I had no idea you could do that, but she outlined it step by step. Because of her advice, I already wrote a little unit study on safety (stranger safety, fire safety, water safety, etc.), that I’m planning on using this coming year! It was super easy and only took me a few hours to put together!
March 10, 2018
Helpful overview to plan your school year.
August 9, 2022
Really helpful nuts and bolts information. I especially found the chapters on scheduling and organization to be super helpful.
September 5, 2024
Very helpful for planning productively. Reread
September 15, 2019
I have a college degree and some experience teaching and assisting in a classroom, but homeschooling is one that I just have to jump in and experience. I don’t like to be naive and think I can do it all on my own, but there are so many opinions and methods that seem far too complicated for our family. This book presents very simple but helpful ways to focus and organize ahead of time, something I know I have to do. I will definitely be referencing this a lot.
April 23, 2019
I can't say enough good things about Plan Your Year. I have used it since we began homeschooling and I STILL find new ways to help me get organized. I absolutely love how flexible it is.
May 1, 2019
Plan Your Year Review
I have 8 kids and have been homeschooling for 15 years. Before Plan Your Year I was a chronic over-purchaser and over-scheduler. I jumped from boxed curriculum to boxed curriculum. I tweaked and rewrote and added and dropped from every product I purchased. For years I pulled together my own resources and spent hours upon hours creating the perfect plans, yet the perfect solution eluded me.
Plan Your Year flipped my planning process on its head. I cast a vision and crafted effective goals prior to hunting for the resources and curricula that would assist me along the way. Pam’s systematic planning guide helped me to keep my priorities focused as I created a homeschool plan that would meet the needs of my family and decrease my frustration as I implemented it. Plan Your Year revolutionized my homeschool. The plans I created using this book resulted in better organization and a clear roadmap of where we were headed each year. That roadmap provided more consistency and precious peace in our homeschool days.
I have 8 kids and have been homeschooling for 15 years. Before Plan Your Year I was a chronic over-purchaser and over-scheduler. I jumped from boxed curriculum to boxed curriculum. I tweaked and rewrote and added and dropped from every product I purchased. For years I pulled together my own resources and spent hours upon hours creating the perfect plans, yet the perfect solution eluded me.
Plan Your Year flipped my planning process on its head. I cast a vision and crafted effective goals prior to hunting for the resources and curricula that would assist me along the way. Pam’s systematic planning guide helped me to keep my priorities focused as I created a homeschool plan that would meet the needs of my family and decrease my frustration as I implemented it. Plan Your Year revolutionized my homeschool. The plans I created using this book resulted in better organization and a clear roadmap of where we were headed each year. That roadmap provided more consistency and precious peace in our homeschool days.
April 30, 2019
I've used Plan Your Year for several years in digital format. I'm so excited that there's now a printed copy to hold, highlight, and add to my bookshelf!
I love Pam Barnhill's homeschool materials because they're practical, and Plan Your Year is one of my favorites. It works with any curriculum, any homeschool philosophy, any household schedule. The beauty is that she gives principles and methods to plan YOUR unique homeschool year, starting with writing a homeschool vision and moving step-by-step through goals, course of study, yearly/monthly/weekly schedules, and more.
Highly recommended!
I love Pam Barnhill's homeschool materials because they're practical, and Plan Your Year is one of my favorites. It works with any curriculum, any homeschool philosophy, any household schedule. The beauty is that she gives principles and methods to plan YOUR unique homeschool year, starting with writing a homeschool vision and moving step-by-step through goals, course of study, yearly/monthly/weekly schedules, and more.
Highly recommended!
April 20, 2019
This book has been at my side since the first days of our homeschool journey, and it's been an invaluable resource every year. I love how Pam first helps you set the vision for your homeschool, then create goals, and only after that, choose a materials to achieve those goals and fulfill your homeschool vision. There are so many resources and ideas that really help a homeschool mom tailor her homeschool plan to her children rather than force everyone into a preformed idea of what works. I can't imagine planning our year without this fantastic book!
April 20, 2021
Excellent resource for new homeschoolors (or those contemplating). I would definitely recommend to a friend. I borrowed this from the library, but I do think it would be worth investing in your own copy as it is something I'm sure you'll want to reference again & again. This time around, I didn't photo copy any of her planning pages, but I did appreciate seeing the simple templates. My only complaint would be the size of the book (8 1/2 x 11) - it felt quite large while holding & reading through, but I'm assuming it was more designed to be on the table while you're planning.
July 10, 2023
This book would have been a valuable resource to me when I first started homeschooling. This is why I gave 4 stars. I already do some of what what she recommends, but it took years of trial and error to get to the point where I feel confident and comfortable here. I was hoping for more insight on high school in particular, but there is not much about that in this book. One thing I do think I will take from this book to use in my homeschool is the spiral notebook method of helping the kids see what they need to do each day.
April 23, 2019
I'm new to homeschooling this year, but not new to planning. (I'm a former wedding planner). However, when I started this journey, I was completely overwhelmed with all of the resources out there. I had no idea where to start and spent hours trying to reinvent the homeschool planning wheel. Until I came across Pam's Plan Your Year plan. This was a Godsend! Pam's plan made complete sense to me and helped me to pull everything I was doing together into a plan that WORKED!
July 9, 2019
This book is a great resource for any homeschooling parent. I liked the layout of the book. The chapter starts with the topic. Once it goes over it, it ends the chapter with action items which is an overview what you just read, after that you will find the forms to fill out on the next page to help plan for that given section. I'll definitely be coming back to this every year and I'm glad I read it before I started my first year of homeschooling.
August 24, 2019
Great overview of all the options you can choose from. I loved her approach of laying it all out there. Even if something hadn't worked well for her, she told you the method, steps so you could try it if you wanted.
One of the benefits of homeschooling is finding what works for your family and modifying it. Barnhill covers schooling methods, curriculum, schedules. And she gives worksheets you can copy. Great resource.
One of the benefits of homeschooling is finding what works for your family and modifying it. Barnhill covers schooling methods, curriculum, schedules. And she gives worksheets you can copy. Great resource.
August 7, 2020
This book is amazing! It gave me the knowledge, resources, confidence, structure, and positive mindset to become a homeschooling mom for the first time during the crazy 2020 pandemic. Instead of being terrified, I am now super excited for this new adventure! A must-read for new homeschooling parents! And one I will revisit for all the awesome printable planning tools!
August 24, 2021
This tool was extremely helpful in planning out this school year of homeschooling. Her descriptions for the different methods and scheduling techniques of homeschooling were wonderful and easy to follow.
This will be a book I keep on my desk throughout the years as I make my plans and schedules for homeschooling my kids.
This will be a book I keep on my desk throughout the years as I make my plans and schedules for homeschooling my kids.
April 25, 2019
This book has options for all homeschoolers no matter your homeschool method, teaching style, yearly schedule .... It's an in depth look at planning your homeschool year by breaking it up into doable steps. Recommend to all homeschoolers!
June 7, 2022
Super helpful planning book as I start getting ready for next year. I read through it quickly to get the overall picture of her planning process and picked up a lot of helpful tips. Now I will go back and more fully complete some of the planning exercises.
July 7, 2019
Great planning tool for any homeschool mom.
July 31, 2019
Wonderful resource for homeschool families! Whether a new homeschooler or someone needing focus or a refreshment for their school year I highly recommend it.
August 9, 2019
Easy read and step-by-step planner for this first year of homeschool planning.
October 17, 2019
It was a really good linear, and achievable guide to planning out your homeschool year. I’m planning to come back to this every year and maybe every term.
December 28, 2019
Very helpful, I'll come back to this one periodically in our homeschooling journey.
August 10, 2020
Some really helpful ideas!
Prepping for a new school year can be really overwhelming and Pam gives some great guidance and I feel like I have a game plan now.
Prepping for a new school year can be really overwhelming and Pam gives some great guidance and I feel like I have a game plan now.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews