Brainstorming and Planning for the New Year

But maybe you’re done with looking backward and you’re ready to look FORWARD to this new unconventional approach.

Dare I say it: You Want A Plan!?

There are ways to do this that don’t look like school or don’t try to sneak in subjects.
As you keep learning more about unschooling, you’ll see that those subjects?
They’re there. Always. Weaving in and out as needed. They don’t need you to focus on them.

Focusing on the topics that the kids are curious about or where their interests lie - that’s part of this unschooling approach. 

And no, unschooling parents are not passively sitting around waiting for their kids to come rushing into the room with a new idea to explore. I mean, the kids WILL do that from time to time - but the passive parent part? No. Far from it.
I’ll help you break that down here in this podcast too. We’ll figure out how to make a plan, what to do and what not to do.

But let’s get back to planning!

One Week at a Time

I want to share one of the things we do in my coaching group...we plan together - one week at a time.

We get together on Mondays and look at the various ways we can increase our confidence, our connection with the kids and what activities are possible for this week - one week at a time. One of the problems with those big semester style planning is it doesn’t allow for much flexibility. But week to week- you can do that. 

• You can look at the weather.
• You can factor in appointments or library days.
• You can think about family rhythms
• Did you come off a busy weekend and need to recover? That's ok!
• Could you schedule in some fun things happening in your community this week?
• Maybe bowling or skating or a hike? - something the kids enjoy. 

When you talk to the kids ahead of time about what this week's calendar looks like, they have an opportunity to have input. And doing this only one week at a time makes it easier to look back a week from today and see what worked and what didn’t. That’s good data to plan the next week - one week at a time.

Think Seasonally

The other way i like to make plans is to think seasonally. What are some things happening this month that you don’t want to miss? Maybe it’s time to brainstorm with the kids about some of these things - restaurants to try, road trips to go on, movies to watch together. You can make a Real Life plan instead of an academic plan. 

And if you’re looking for ideas, I have a Brainstorming Guide that will help you do this with the kids - 20 different possibilities to think about exploring. This will give you insight into what interests your kids these days. But because they liked something 6 months ago doesn’t mean they do now. Plus, different seasons tend to spur different activities. Sometimes it can be more of an active time - sometimes more hibernating!

One of the cool things about BEING an unschooling family is having the time and flexibility to broaden our kids’ worlds, to show them how many cool things are out there!

This Brainstorming Guide can help!

Sometimes we get overwhelmed and can’t see the forest for the trees right?

WE grew up having everything planned for us, so we fall back to curriculum and familiarity - but you are soooo close to being able to create this totally individualized experience for yourseelf WITH your family! It’s really empowering for the kids to see how they get to chart their own path - with you, with siblings, with others who matter in their lives.