I've wondered about this for a long time. I started homeschooling about 14 years ago and never made lessons plans (I heard those words all the time from other homeschoolers though). I remember a fellow homeschooler visiting us once and asking about my lesson plans. When I said I didn't have any....she looked at me in surprise and said, "Well then how do you know what to do each day??" To me it was like, "Well...um, you just do the next thing (next chapter, next page, whatever)". I was thinking...why do I need a plan for that?? Well last year, since enrolling in our districts homebased educational program, I made sort of a lesson plan. This wasn't required, I thought it might just help us stay on track (since we were having to answer to someone). Basically the extent of this lesson plan was that each kid had a little planner. I figured out what subjects I wanted to do each day of the week (some subjects like math and reading are every day...some, like science and history are only two days a week, etc). Then I had to figure in how many days for the school year that subject would take (math I suppose would be 180, science would be less, etc). Then I divided up each book/curriculum by that to know how many pages each day. This was written on their daily planner, which they checked off each day. So, it basically said: Math pages 33 - 36, or whatever. I had the entire year planned out and I was so proud. :lol: Things went well, until we started missing days here and there because of sickness.....or when not everything that particular day got crossed off so I was having to manuever everything around. What a pain. So, this year I'm thinking that in their planner it will says something like: Monday: Math, Science, Grammar, Handwriting, Art......(or whatever)....BUT I won't be putting specifically what lessons or pages for each thing. That will be put in a binder for ME. I'm going to go through each thing, divide it like I did before, but type this up by subject, print it off, and keep everything in a binder for me. So, when it's science I just go to my binder and the next one on the list is what we do; it will tell me what pages/chapters, etc. This binder won't have dates, so I just do one after another. OK....have I completely lost you?? I know what I'm trying to say...but I don't know if it's understandable. Is this crazy?? Is this what everyone else does? I have no idea if this is what a "lesson plan" is. Maybe I am crazy to do it this way and there is a much simplier way to do this. If so, please tell me. What does a "lesson plan" mean to you? How do you do it?
I think everyone should do what works for them. If you think it will work for you go for it! We do planners, but it's after they finish the assignment. It helps me look back to see what was accomplished through the year and in case there's ever the question what/if we're doing.
My lesson plans are very basic and I do them weekly. (I do figure out at the beginning of the year there are x number of lessons so we need to x number per week to finish.) My dc are 4th, 5K, and a 3 year old. I have a form in Word with the date of the week at the top and a table with the days across the top and subjects across the left side then I fill it in weekly. I don't keep them when we finish. I normally do a quick little summary at the end of each month of what we accomplished that month and days of attendance. Not sure if that helps or not. No plans for the 3 year old btw I fly by the seat of pants with her.
I've been homeschooling a while, too. I used to put dates to everything but when things went awry, I'd have to rewrite the schedule. Now I just know that we need to cover 1 chapter a week. A chapter might have 3 to 5 sections (between 3 to 5 days then), so I keep that in mind. On Sundays I go through everyone's curriculum and see where I can add a DVD or an art project, or what I can elliminate. It may seem like it would take a long time, but it doesn't. Some subjects like math won't have anything changed. The older kids' work is pretty set this year, too, so that will cut down on my prep time. Every morning, I get a workplan for the day ready. It's a sticky note with their assignments on them. I don't use a weekly assignment sheet because it overwhelms them. Daily assignments work much better. At the end of the day, I write down what they did in a Teacher's Assignment Book (one book for each kid). FYI Target has a great one for 1.00. Get 2 per child because they're small and won't last the whole year. I like to look over what we've done in an assignment book. It helps clam me down when I panic thinking that we haven't been doing anything I hope I answered your question
I do things more like you. I have rough draft of what needs to be done for the year but there arent any setnlessons on set dates. We just move to the next chapter, unit, page etc. Sometimes we finish the year earlier than I had planned and sometimes we end a lot later. I do have the basics written down, such as what subjects are covered on what days. Each Sunday I sit down and do a weekly assignment sheets for each kid so we know what they have to do for the week.
When we started, we were doing a boxed kit with tons of workbooks. I pulled out all the pages, hole-punched them, and put them in a binder by week. At the top of each page, I penciled in the day of the week that we'd do that page. Now we're not using a workbook approach anymore (except a subject or two). I look at how much we'll do for the year, break it down by week, and put it in a spreadsheet. Each Sunday night, I write out what we're doing for that particular week so that we have time to get it all done around our "real lives" rather than waiting until Friday and freaking out because we didn't do anything that week. My kids like having a list of what they'll do that day, but I never schedule times to do it. Whatever doesn't get finished is considered homework. Homework very rarely happens (like... maybe 3 times in the past 3 years).
I plan a week at a time (sometimes 2 if I know we are going to be busy over a weekend). I write down pages to be read or worked as well as any art or projects need to be done. I understood your idea, and if I were the type to plan ahead a whole year, that would be how I did it. I once tried to write out an entire year of plans and it drove me crazy when we got off schedule due to life events.
My "lesson plans" usually consist of notes like "Lesson 4 Quiz" which means do lesson 4 today, the quiz is tomorrow. Then tomorrow "Quiz Cor" means the quiz is today, then afterwards, correct anything you got wrong. Or it might say simply "pp 24-28" or "worksheets". "DISCUSS" means TODAY! with me! without fail! Or it might say "Ch 5 Read, voc" which of course is read the chapter (or L lesson or SEC section, whatever), copy and define the vocabulary in your notebook. After a quiz or test, I put the score in red in a circle in that grid square. If something is to be homework, I put H in green and circle it. Next day, if it's not done, I put H in red in a circle with a slash mark through it, and the student loses a point on the Work Habits chart. If it is done, I go to yesterday's circle and put a checkmark on it. If the student is absent, I put a big pink A next to their name at the top of their column, and a wavy pink line all the way down the column. If they're late, I put the time they arrived in red at the top next to their name. If they leave early, I cross out whatever didn't get done, and make a note in the Notes row "Picked up by mom at 130" or whatever applies. So I have my attendance, lesson plans, grade book, and notes all on one page, or depending on number of students, on a two-page spread.
When I use curriculum where we just go through a book chronologically I don't make any lesson plans. To me lesson plans are lists of what you plan to do. Sometimes I mesh several different things together for one subject and those lesson plans have everything listed in the order I plan to do them. Sometimes I put my own plans together for a subject and I list everything we plan to do over the year in the order we will do them. As for daily scheduling I've tried many different things. As long as I have everything listed in the order I plan to do them I'm set.
Tweak what you're doing until it works for you! I make my own planner, too. I have a general one for me...broad brush. Kids planner is very detailed, but I only do theirs every 4 weeks....that way, if we get off a little, I can fix it. But your idea sounds good!
We do the next thing too. The only exception really is social studies and science. This we do in an interest led way. I kinda fly by the seat of my pants on that. Last week we started studying Egypt/Ancient Egypt. For science the first day of school I had my oldest bake cookies. This week he will mummify apple slices. For reading practice last week he read passages on the plagues out of his bible. Those things weren't planned out. The first day we decided to learn more about Egypt I went on pinterest, found some great links and pages with resources, printed off some stuff for a lapbook, and we just kinda went with it. Each day we do what we have time for. There won't be any lesson plan for anyone to look back on but we are going to lapbook the "content" stuff so at the end of the year there will be visuals to look back on.
I do not do "lesson plans" more like to do lists. I went to school for teaching so to me a lesson plan is alot more involved than what I do. A lesson plan would have an objective, a starter, lesson(input/modeling), a check/review, guided practice and then closure. I was taught the Hunter format and it just sticks with me that is how you do a lesson plan. I just list the pages we are going over so it is nothing like a lesson plan.
Thanks everyone! It's helpful to see how other people plan things out. I don't feel like how I'm doing this is totally off track now.
Oh goodness, I could never get detailed like that if that's what a true lesson plan is. :lol: Listing the pages is pretty much what I'm doing too....it's not much more involved than that.
I've been "trained" to write lesson plans, and I simply don't. I'm pretty much an "open the book, do the next thing in it" kind of person. I have an idea in mind, such as having a video for science, or something like that, but rarely is it written down. I had trouble keeping plans when I was in a formal classroom (because after the first half-hour on Monday, everything would be all messed up, and I found it to be a waste of time). I would keep a rough outline for my sub, and that would be about it!
BatmansWife, I do mine just like you(when I do them). Since I'm the only one who needs to know what's going on, I never see the point of "lesson plans". But this year, my dd wants to be more independent and wants to be able to see at a glance what is next, plus she loves to "check stuff off" as she gets through, so for her, I'm making her a weekly planner that just tells her what chapter/page/lesson is on each day.
I have to have a plan set out for my own sake, so we don't get behind. We are doing a 3-4 weeks on, one week off schedule, so I write out the pages DS is supposed to read in each subject, along with any additional activities he needs to do, and then which worksheet numbers he needs to do. I have a planner book, and I have all of this written down for every day, for the whole 3-4 weeks. We just started, but it seems to work so far. I'm just worried about getting behind.
i am a flake this year have it ready but injured my hand and am stuck lol lesson plan is guide no alwayed used but good to have in case you break ur arm lol
If I'm not super organized than I get overwhelmed and nothing gets done. I do a detailed lesson plan for 4 weeks. At the end of the 4 weeks I look at where we should be vs where we are and we spend a day or two catching up before we start our next month's lesson plan. My anxiety level goes way down when I can look at my book and see exactly what we are doing that day. Amy
Right now my lesson plan is more of a rough guide. I know how much school I want in a day, and I know how many subjects I want to cover, a little math and I have 5 50min blocks. After that its very open to Sam's (my son) moods. If he is feeling the math then we do more math and make up time in other courses later. I have a calendar that lists each subject and each time and I try to stick to that but since its still preschool for us, I also treat my plans and times as preschool or rather he and I are both beginning to learn what works for us. Right now I'm using google docs to track what we're doing and notes on what I'd like to do, but nothing that is a true plan. If flashcards are still working well with Sam, then I note that I'd like to keep going that route. When something seems to not work, I note that, as well as any designs I may have for that ie, "try again", or "try and talk through this differently". In my state, Sam wouldn't be in kindergarten this fall, he'd wait till next one, so I'm taking this whole next year to refine the system. Works well so far and with a toddler in the house, having a little room for adjustment is good thing.
