8 Ways to Improve Your Homeschool Structure with Kanban

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to change how we live our daily lives, the concept of schooling our children has totally changed. As we try to find ways to continue the kids’ education, many of us have turned to the concept of homeschooling. But setting up and running a homeschool is not as easy as it sounds. There are many things to keep in mind, not to mention that you will need to juggle house chores and work with your homeschooling sessions. If you want to create a more organized homeschool structure, here are some ways Kanban can help you.

1. Create a structured homeschool schedule

The most important step to take to make sure that your whole homeschool structure is in order is to set up your daily schedule. Depending on your learner’s grade level and the number of subjects you are teaching, you will need to organize a schedule that will work for you and your child. This can become a bit tricky if you are homeschooling multiple children. If you want your kids to be more involved in creating their homeschool schedule, you can create individual Kanban boards for each of your students, then sit down together and discuss how you will schedule your daily lessons. 

To create a more structured schedule, it’s important that you count the number of school days you will be setting up and divide the number of lessons for each subject throughout those days. Whether you are working with a homeschool provider or handling the homeschooling on your own, it’s better to have a more structured schedule for your lessons, as this will also help you make time for your other tasks and chores at home or at work. See to it that you don’t monopolize their whole day and give them some time to do things that they enjoy. This way, they don’t feel burned out by reading and studying too much on a daily basis.

2. Make a list of your daily lessons

Another important aspect of organizing your homeschool structure is creating a daily schedule of the subjects you will be teaching. Personally, since I’m also homeschooling my eldest daughter who is in her fourth grade, we stick to an MWF-TTh schedule for her subjects. During Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I teach her three subjects and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, two subjects. Her weekly schedule are as follows:

I’ve based the scheduling on the number of lessons available for the quarter. We would change the schedule every now and then to give room to some important stuff at home, but as much as possible, we stick to the schedule we have planned together. We regularly start our classes at 8 or 9 in the morning and finish up before lunch. She then has the whole afternoon as her free time. I’ve created the table on a spreadsheet and added the link to her homeschool Kanban board to make it easier for us to access it so that we can go through the schedule anytime we need to.

3. Teach your child the value of organization and productivity

As part of your role as your child’s primary educator and as a homeschooler, you can get your child started with some valuable skills that they can make use of even until they grow old. By using a Kanban board and teaching them how to use it, you can get them started with learning how to be more organized and productive. A Kanban board can be a very good sample of organizational tools, as it will give your kids a more visual representation of how productive they have been on a daily basis, and give you visualize the whole homeschool structure. 

You can create in advance a weekly schedule of their lessons on their homeschool Kanban board. Provide all the links and resources needed for each lesson by creating individual cards for each subject and you can both go through the cards on the board daily. Organize all subjects in order under the To-Do column. Then let your kid move the cards from one column to another, until all cards you have prepared for the week have been completed and transferred to the Done column. You can even incorporate their other daily tasks, such as house chores and others.

4. Save resource links on Kanban cards

As your child’s educator, it’s important for you to look for fun and unique ways to teach your child. You can check out different resources online to create a more interactive homeschool structure. You can also get some ideas from your child to find out what they think is fun and helpful for them to learn better. My child enjoys watching YouTube videos, so when there are lessons where she seems to have a hard time understanding, we try to look for videos on YouTube and save their links, so that we can access them anytime she needs to check them out. This has helped her have a better grasp of some of the lessons she’s had a hard time with, such as the concept of long division.

You can also think of some useful activities that your kids can do on their own, even without your supervision. You can also create Kanban cards for activities that you need to do, such as update your child’s grading sheets, attend a virtual learning conference, or watch a homeschooling video that can help you improve your teaching methods.

5. Use columns to monitor which lessons are done

One good thing about using Kanban is the way it makes it easier to visualize your whole homeschool structure and easily see how many tasks you have pending when it comes to managing your kid’s homeschooling sessions . You can easily move cards from one column to another to help you keep track of how many tasks you have pending and how much progress you have made so far. These columns will help you visualize your workflow and understand what lessons you have waiting for you. You should also let your child check the board frequently so that he will have a better understanding of how much he has learned so far and how many more lessons he has left for the day, the week or the rest of the quarter. 

6. Add notes to cards to keep track of child’s progress

To optimize the use of your Kanban board, see to it that you incorporate notes on each card and provide details on how your child did during each lesson. An online Kanban board can be a good addition to your homeschool tools as it will make it easier for you to keep track of your child’s progress and consolidate his records once it’s time for him to move up to the next grade level.

7. Build a list of fun activities to do with your kid

Apart from providing your kids with a steady stream of educational activities, your homeschool structure should also include activities that they enjoy doing. Spend a day in the park or at the beach, or even just spend an evening camping in your backyard to look up at the stars and roast some marshmallows. You can also play some games with them or create some arts and crafts with them. This will help relieve the stress homeschooling may bring for you and your kids both. This is also a great idea to explore their creativity and interest for other things, apart from their lessons. One way to incorporate this on your homeschool Kanban board is by inserting at least one or two fun activities for every week of your homeschool scheduling. This way, your kids will have something fun to look forward to every week.

8. Create a list of rewards that your kid can look forward to

Another good way to motivate your kids to be more productive and to be more focused on their lessons is by giving them rewards. To let them see what is up for grabs everyday or every week, add in some list of things that they love getting or doing. It can be some cookies, additional hours for gadgets or gaming, a toy they’ve always wanted to get, or an activity that they have always wanted to do. Include this in your homeschool structure and on your Kanban board so that every time you go through the list of their activities for the day or the week, they’ll know what rewards they can look forward to once they complete their lessons.

Kanban Your Way to a Better Homeschool Structure

I understand firsthand how challenging it can be to homeschool your kids. But with the right homeschool structure and by using some handy organization tools, you and your kids will be able to accomplish your homeschool lessons and still have enough time to complete your other chores. A visual structure like Kanban can help make it easier for you to understand all the lessons and tasks you have ahead. For an easier implementation of Kanban for homeschoolers, check out Kanban Zone and pave the way towards a stress-free and organized homeschool structure.