Introduction
At some point during the homeschool year, almost every family looks at the calendar and realizes the same thing:
We are behind.
Maybe you planned to be on Lesson 72 and you are on Lesson 64. Maybe sickness took out an entire week. Maybe math suddenly became harder and what used to take 30 minutes now takes an hour.
Or maybe life just happened.
Falling behind in your homeschool curriculum can feel stressful, especially if you love checking boxes and staying on schedule.
But before you start squeezing extra lessons into every day, remember something important.
The schedule is supposed to help you teach your child. Finishing the schedule is not the goal.
Figure Out How Far Behind You Actually Are
Do not rely on the feeling that you are behind.
Look at the numbers.
What lesson did you expect to be on? What lesson are you actually on? How many lessons remain? How many school days remain?
Sometimes the situation is not nearly as bad as it feels.
Being six lessons behind with four months left in the school year is very different from being 30 lessons behind with three weeks remaining.
Decide What Actually Needs to Be Made Up
Not every missed assignment needs to be rescheduled.
This was a hard lesson for me.
Look carefully at what was missed. Was it essential instruction? Was it review your child already understands? Was it an optional activity? Could two related lessons be combined?
Homeschooling gives us the ability to make these decisions based on our children instead of blindly following a calendar.
Use that flexibility.
Recalculate Your Homeschool Schedule
If the work needs to be completed, spread it across the remaining school year.
This sounds simple until you have multiple children, multiple subjects, and hundreds of scheduled assignments.
You move Monday's assignment to Tuesday. Then Tuesday to Wednesday. Then Wednesday to Thursday.
Before you know it, you are spending your evening editing a schedule instead of preparing to homeschool.
This frustration was a big part of the inspiration behind HomeschoolOS. When plans change, HomeschoolOS can help recalculate your schedule instead of making you manually move dozens of assignments one at a time.
Getting behind should not create hours of additional work for the parent.
Give Yourself More Time
Sometimes the simplest solution is adding a catch-up day.
If you normally homeschool Monday through Thursday, use an occasional Friday morning to catch up.
You can also look at your planned end date.
If you expected to finish May 15 and finishing May 22 would make the next two months dramatically less stressful, ask yourself whether that extra week really matters.
Sometimes the easiest way to catch up is simply giving yourself more time.
Ask Why You Fell Behind
Getting behind can tell you something useful about your homeschool plan.
If everyone had the flu, there may be nothing to change.
But if you are consistently falling behind, look deeper.
Are you scheduling too much? Is the curriculum taking longer than expected? Does one child need a different pace? Is your school year too short for the amount of curriculum you selected?
Your homeschool schedule should reflect your actual family, not an imaginary family that never has appointments, difficult lessons, or bad days.
Give Yourself Permission to Change the Plan
One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling is that we can meet our children where they are.
Sometimes that means moving faster.
Sometimes it means slowing down.
And sometimes it means looking at the beautifully organized homeschool plan we created in August and changing it completely in February.
That is okay.
A homeschool schedule is a tool. Use it when it helps you. Change it when it doesn't.
And if you are a little behind today, you are in very good company.
