My family is a year round home school as well. Because we go year round, and our state only mandates 4 hours of school per week, we have little rush situations. Our subjects never have a clear start and stop. My children explore what they want for as long as they want. I simply mark their progress. The only rules I have are, reading and math everday and writing once a week. The reading is easier to get in for the older one, she loves reading. I've had to direct it to more educational items though. The little ones do a page of hooked on phonics everyday for reading. It's small bites and in a very logical order. The math we use rays arithmetic. Yes, just one page a day is required. My eldest usually does 4 to 5 without me asking. (It gets her out of chores) My younger ones must be pushed a little as Ray's is not written for the youngest in mind. We typically have board work with math, or practice problems on their slates, from one of two general math books I have. We only cover basic operations, not new math, as I haven't found new math to be helpful even in my college career.
Other subjects are tackled through reading or "chores". We garden every year, so they learn a lot about agriculture techniques. We raise animals, so animal husbandry is covered. We have a forest, so forest management is covered as well. They also observe every living creature which has the misfortune of ending up in their paws, including an ancient praying mantis, wild birds of prey, snakes, toads, lizards, skinks, salamanders, sweat bees, and more. We use Google to identify the creatures, and document what we found with drawings and sometimes pictures. Other times we keep the creatures and observe them for a day or two. We did this last year with a King snake that found it's way into our house. We use the moments that teach, so our children will learn... not create moments to teach. The difference is vast.
So a plan really wouldn't work in our home school. My children recieve magazines on photography for free from the industry. (Someone told them we home school) They read these and take our little DXG camera out to photograph their surroundings. When my children want to "do something" with their pictures, they ask me or their father. We tell them all the options we know. Selling them on shutter stock, printing them out from Walmart.com making them gifts etc... So even art is covered in a very general way. Our school is about doing more than anything. Do something and keep doing it until you get it right. If you mess up reallly bad and want to do better, read a book or two on the subject, and try again.
But do they have a full education? We don't cover spelling, mechanics, or structured grammar. However my daughter tested in the 98% for these three on her benchmark tests. I simply taught her how to write by having her write in her journal, to her grandma, and now soon on a blog. (That way grandma can see pictures easier) Not surprising, in math she didn't do as well, because I don't cover what I consider non-essentials. We cover only basic operations, until the child is ready to progress. She was not ready to progress beyond this. (Basics mean; addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, fractions, measurements, time (militray and standard), etc...) So no, we didn't cover polygons, hexograms, and generally math terms which do not help in these basic perations. However, she did pass.
The only subject she lacked enough to concern me was science. We have a science book, which she is now required to read for reading. However, we did not have the equipment for most labs. Plus, I was doing science with her based on what I was doing in college. As you know, anyone beyond a freshman is getting into a specific field. Because of this, I think she has an indepth knowledge of things which I taught her, but not a very broad knowledge. According to the test, this isn't good. But again, it is something we can work on in time. She is still young enough that it can be "fixed". I think science is one of the "funnest" fields, so we "do" more and study less. This might have something to do with her test results as well. Finally, we follow the scientific method, but do so without naming the steps... so this might have been against her as well.
So no rush, just enjoy this time to explore life with your kids. Books can only teach so much. Experience is life's greatest teacher.
Mom of six wonderful kids...
