How early in advance should I begin home-schooling preparedness?

The biggest part of being prepared is choosing the curriculum and materials. July through September are the busiest time for curriculum and materials suppliers so order as soon as possible if you haven't already. I try to do my ordering in June so I have everything when I'm ready to begin in August. Otherwise, I sometimes have to wait on things to ship or backordered items.

After that, you just do what you feel would best supplement whatever you are studying that's practical at the time. A lot of it depends upon what grades you will be teaching. Younger students like a lot of hands-on and games. Older students spend more time with their books because they have longer attention spans and tougher work in general.

Some curriculum is already planned with daily schedule recommendations and lesson plans/teacher guidebooks. This is especially true when ordering all subjects from the same company. Examples would be Sonlight (literature based with some textbooks), Calvert (mostly traditional textbooks and workbooks), and Christian Light (this is what I use mostly, they are workbook based and very inexpensive). If you are just starting out, I'd urge you to consider one of these companies. However, you can often mix and match different companies to fit what you want to teach and learning style, especially after you become comfortable homeschooling like your second year.

Most homeschool families I know, do not stress about schedules and planning too much. This is the great freedom of homeschooling. You can spend as much or as little time on subjects as you need. If your student is struggling, spend more time. If he excels, you might try increasing the workload or shortening time spent.

If you've chosen curriculum to use, or at least a method of homeschooling to use, then you should be set.

Homeschoolers don't need schedules like schools do; after all, homeschoolers aren't trying to keep hundreds or even thousands of kids all on the same schedule. Usually, instead of a rigid schedule, a lot of homeschoolers set goals--such as "do 4 math lessons a week," "finish a chapter in history every two weeks," or "work on improving writing skills at least a couple of hours a week." I've known a few homeschoolers to start off with rigid schedules, such as schools have, but most seem to eventually settle into something less rigid; they might work on math first each day, and then make sure that science is done twice a week, English four or five times a week, etc. Some will work on academics four days a week and save one day a week for field trips, errands, homeschool support group meetings, etc. Some will work very hard for four weeks and then take a week off; there are a lot of options that you might want to think through as you are planning.

If you want to start planning field trips now, feel free to do so. Researching the options can give you a lot of ideas for things to fit with your curriculum (or things that *ought* to be in the curriculum and so you are going to do them anyway). And some trips may require advanced planning, if a reservation or appointment is needed. But it is okay to plan field trips on the spur of the moment, too--sometimes great field trip opportunities come to your attention at the last moment, but homeschoolers can take advantage of them anyway.

Some people plan out a lot of their homeschool lessons in advance, but a lot of homeschoolers just set some goals and then work towards those goals without a detailed plan in advance.

Basically, there is no *right* way to plan homeschooling. Do it the way that makes sense to you. You'll likely do it a bit differently next year as you figure out what planning was totally unnecessary and what things would have worked better if planned another way. As homeschoolers, you (any your family) decide what works best for you, rather than doing it the way that some bureaucrat wants it done. (As long as you keep any paperwork required by the bureaucrats where you live, you'll be just fine.)

Good luck.

If this is your first year homeschooling your kids, I would not worry about making detailed schedules... this is something that will sort itself out as you feel your way into it.

Likewise with plans-- have some ideas of things to do, but give yourselves time to adapt.

A lot of people who get too detailed either abandon them or drive themselves crazy trying to adhere to them.