Forgive my ignorance

[Mandy4]

But I have to ask... Coming from a planned curriculum (K12) I have never had to plan anything (the plan is online and very well laid out to parent and child.) I will really miss that, and honestly I may stay with it for that reason. We use it as an independent homeschooler.

 

I started looking for a different science curriculum a couple months ago. We weren't happy with K12 and I found Apologia after looking online a bit. Well.... that opened Pandoras box and now I'm looking at changing everything!

 

What I can't figure out is, how to plan the year. Am I completely off base in thinking that you can buy curriculum for xyz subjects and pick them up everyday and do the next lesson? Do you have to write out a M-F plan?

 

Am I going to be totally shocked if I go it alone this year?

 

Thanks!!!

 

ETA - my kids will be PreK, 3, and 8

Edited April 30, 2010 by Mandy4

[BatmansWife]

Am I completely off base in thinking that you can buy curriculum for xyz subjects and pick them up everyday and do the next lesson? Do you have to write out a M-F plan?

 

Well, I feel like I've been homeschooling forever (but I'm still always learning). We have never used a planned-out packaged curriculum. I've really never made lessons plans, although I do know that a lot of people do. I made a basic schedule of what I wanted to accomplish each day. Every day includes Reading/Phonics, Math. Usually 2 days a week are Science, a different 2 days are History, etc. I guess it is a M-F plan. I basically just get the books scheduled for that day and just do the next lesson. It's been working fine so far. Maybe others will give you suggestions on writing a more detailed lesson plan, if that's what you think you need. I will add that now that we have started workboxes I am more detailed in my planning for my K'er.

Edited April 30, 2010 by ~AprilMay~

[JoyfulMama]

What worked well for you before? Did you have the weeks written out for you, or was each subject on it's own do-the-next-thing progression? I would build on what worked well for you before. If that means writing yourself out a weekly plan (you can do this all at one time, or once a week as you go, or in between), then do so. If you didn't like that, then try something different.

I would venture to say that most people do not do ALL subjects every day. Did you do that in K12? Did you do some subjects once or twice a week?

Some folks prefer to have a general plan, but nothing specific written out, and write down what they do AFTER it's done.

 

Take what worked well for you up until now, and build on that.

[texasmama]

We use a packaged "open and go" curriculum for readers, history and literature read alouds so that is scheduled for us...and I take advantage of that schedule and use it, modifying it slightly to meet our needs. With math and handwriting, my boys have workbooks and do a lesson on most days. I am more relaxed about handwriting and if they skip a day or two a week, I don't worry about it. We hit the other subjects rather haphazardly now that it is the end of the year but they are not planned out. I am facing the spring slump at this point (as many are) so am kind of limping towards the finish line with my basic goals clutched in my hand and letting the rest fall off as I go.:tongue_smilie:

[5LittleMonkeys]

Most of the curriculum we use has lesson plans already written out for you. You just follow the plan and "do the next lesson" once you have completed the previous one. I write out a master schedule organizing who needs to do what when and so I can schedule one on one time. I transfer all of my curriculum's lesson plans per week onto a calendar so I can see what's coming up for the sake of making sure I have supplies\books.

 

Even curriculum that doesn't come with a lesson plan written for you probably has one out there somewhere that someone has written. A lot of those programs will have yahoo groups that you can join and get copies of those lesson plans or schedules. I needed one for Apologia Astronomy so I joined the yahoo group and found a lesson plan written that scheduled the book for half a year and one that scheduled it for a whole year. If you can't find a lesson plan you can ask here and someone will either have one or tell you where you can find one.

 

I don't know if I answered your question exactly but I hope something in what I wrote was of some help to you.:D

[Shelly in the Country]

Am I completely off base in thinking that you can buy curriculum for xyz subjects and pick them up everyday and do the next lesson? Do you have to write out a M-F plan?

 

Try it and see if it works for your family. I plan because I have to, or it just won't get done.

[mcconnellboys]

You can pick up the books and do the next lesson. The problem I've run into is that not every book is written in a standard way such as something like Spelling Workout. It's laid out so that there's a workpage to do each day with a test on Fridays. For something like Singapore math, however, I have to decide how much we will cover each day, work in the extra practice sets and reviews (which I use for testing), etc. so that I have something to do for math each day of my school year.

 

Now, if I didn't care about finishing early, or perhaps not finishing at all before the school year ends, then I could just wing it. But I'm sorta anal about finishing the books by the end of the school year (or very close to it), so that we're ready to move on the next year. We take summers off. If we didn't do this, it wouldn't really matter.

[....]

Geez...not sure if I'm helping, either...

 

I pick curriculum for each subject based on what we're interested in and what my kids seem compatible with per Cathy Duffy's learning style-compatibility-chart-thingie (OK, we're total dorks). Anyway, her chart hasn't failed us yet. Then, I divide up the lessons to stretch it out over a certain period of time...for instance...I bought Prima Latina and I want it to last until January of next year...so I broke it down by weeks and by lesson and found out if I do one lesson a week, then we would be finished in January.

 

I just go down the list by subject...Reading, Language Arts, Spelling, Math, Social Studies and Science. Some of our stuff is scripted, like WWE...and some of the stuff seems real abstract, like Sonlight Readers.

 

Sometimes the really vague, abstract curricula are the ones that have the most impact on my kids.

 

Does that make any sense to anyone? :tongue_smilie:

 

I do write out a lesson plan every Sunday that I follow throughout the week. This keeps us on track. I also write out a vague lesson plan for the year...this helps me figure out how long things will take us.

 

We use a wide range of curricula and I think it's a good thing. It shows the students several approaches to learning and I think that really expands their thinking skills.

[mom4him]

I use CLE for Math, LA, Bible. They are pretty much open and go, one lesson a day. We take two days per lesson for Bible. Science we will be using Exploring Creation with Astronomy and at this point I plan on doing it 2 days a wk and MOH v. 1 for History but the book hasn't come yet so not real sure but think we will do it 4 days a week.

I keep a record book and record one week at a time for everything that I plan on us getting done that week. This helps me keep on track more than anything.

I have never used a completely open and go in everything. Even when I had one I never really used it that way as there was always something different, math for instance, than what they recommended.

The open and go sounds nice but just never works for our family.

[Maisy]

The best thing I did (at the beginning of the year) was make a one-page table for each kid with all the subjects across the top and 36 weeks (with dates for each week) down the side. I left blank rows (also dated) that were vacation weeks. Then under each subject, if it was a "do the next thing" subject (FLL, WWE, AAS, Science), I simply listed what lesson(s) or chapters were to be done that week), etc. (e.g., FLL Lessons 8-10).

 

For more fluid subjects (reading, Singapore math), I made "target goals." (e.g., Singapore Unit 1, complete by 10/1; Unit 2 by 11/20, etc.). This helped keep us on track throughout the year--so we could avoid the, "Surprise! It's May and you have three more units in math to finish!" I cross off the completed lessons as we go.

 

Beyond that, I make and print out weekly checklists for the kids that list specific subject work. Each kid has his own colored folder with a page protector. A new checklist goes in the page protector at the beginning of the week. I file completed checklists as a record of our accomplishments.

 

I, too, started with K12. It's so easy to get spoiled when someone else does the heavy lifting! :001_smile: But this is the first year I've felt we had a really good system. It lets the olders be independent and gives me focused direction with the younger one. And with the 36-week schedule, I can see at a glance our yearly progress (or lack thereof! :tongue_smilie:)

 

HTH. Good luck!

Lisa

[Just Robyn]

Am I completely off base in thinking that you can buy curriculum for xyz subjects and pick them up everyday and do the next lesson? Do you have to write out a M-F plan?

 

Some things require some planning. Some science curricula may require that you have some things for an experiment, so you need to look ahead to find out what you'll be needing soon. I have to purchase things for crafts to go with the history curriculum we are using. Most of the stuff we do, however, is just like you said it. We turn to the next lesson and do it. There is no need for me to write out a lesson plan because the lessons are already in order. The plan: do the next lesson in the book.

[Sue G in PA]

We used K12 with a virtual academy and I totally miss that online school schedule. It really kept me accountable and was so easy to just wake up each morning, turn on the computer and wala! There's my schedule for the day. It might help you to go to a curriculum such as MFW or HOD which has most subjects scheduled for you in either a grid (MFW) or box (HOD) format. Both are pretty open and go with minimal planning required from you...except for gathering the books, materials for history projects or science experiments. I'm assuming the numbers you gave for your dc are grades? If you went with MFW, you could combine the 3rd and 8th grader. With HOD, you would need 2 different guides, possibly 3 if you wanted to have something planned out for the PreKer. Another option is to choose programs that lend themselves to the "do the next lesson" type of schedule. MANY programs are like that and your 8th grader would be almost entirely independent. Some examples that come to mind: Saxon Math (most math programs for that matter), CKE series for Science, MOH, R&S grammar, GWG, PLL or ILL, SWO for spelling, Apologia science to some extent (esp. upper levels like General or Physical, etc.), Lightning Literature for your 8th grader, and many, many more that don't come to mind immediately. I liked K12, but there is a whole 'nother world out there! :D

[Cindyg]

I use a packaged curriculum, and I do make a weekly lesson plan. It's a simple grid (table). For instance, for Science it might say

 

Monday

Read pages xx-xx

Do workbook page xx

 

Tuesday

Watch video xx

 

Wednesday

Audio tracks xx

Experiment xyz

 

Thursday

Write _____

Read ______

 

And so on. I usually have one cell on my table for each subject, each day. My plan for the week will typically fit on a single page. For the most part, my plan is to "do the next thing." I just write it down.

 

Having prepared this, my son can work fairly independently if I'm not available. (That doesn't mean he DOES work independently; it means he CAN.)

 

It also gives us a specific goal so we're not inclined to skip classes or days or topics.

[thowell]

For this year I have made the girls their own schedule on a weekly basis. This is very simple with the days of the week across the top and the subjects down the left side. I will list the book they are using for that subject then leave a place for them to write what lesson they complete. In the beginning I was making detailed plans including page numbers and lessons listed ahead of time and it drove me nuts. If something came up (maybe math took longer than I expected, or they were really interested in the history lesson) I felt like we were always behind. I was always having to mark out things we may not have gotten to and the lesson plans were a mess. This way they know by looking at their schedules what subjects they have for the day and we just do whatever is next in that subject. For things like history and science we simply write down what we have done after we are finished.

[G5052]

Other than two years of TOG and one year of mom-planned science, I've always used do-the-next-lesson materials. So I'd just check at the end of the month to see if we were on track to finish the school year, and that was that.

 

Now with two in the logic stage, I write out their weeks in an assignment book so that they have to check off what they've done including notes like "Mom check." They do mostly separate, independent work, and having the subjects all lined up in one place works better than just telling them to do the next thing. I also require them to check with me at the end of the day before declaring their work done. In August my oldest will start writing out his own schedule.

[LisaKinVA]

I'm a current K12 user, but started out doing everything on my own. We switched to K12, because I was working and the planning time to do everything was simply too much for me to keep up with.

 

In answer to your question, no, there is no computer program or other "easy" means to plan out all of the curriculum. Whether you use a computerized system like edu-track or write it all down in a lesson plan -- you will have to figure it out on your own.

 

Now, some curriculums do come with instructor guides (Abeka, Sonlight are a couple), and companies like edu-track have paid customers for their lesson plans which you can upload to your system and save some time -- but these things are not comprehensive, nor do they "automatically" move missed lessons to the next day (oh, that they would!)

 

The act of creating a lesson plan, in and of itself, is not difficult.

 

The most basic way is to take the number of pages in the course material and divide by the number of school days for that subject.

 

For example, most school years are 180 days. If you plan on doing math every day you divide the total work pages (an estimate is fine) by the total number of days and you get the estimate of pages to complete each day for that subject.

 

When you go to actually schedule the book, you will go lesson-by-lesson. Write down the Lesson #, page #'s, and work to be completed. This is where you will need to evaluate how many problems need to be completed, if you think your child will find this an easy or difficult assignment, etc.

 

I always planned out math and LA first, because I did those every day (or a component of those). For example, with penmanship, we did 1 page a day in the work book. In spelling, we also had a "formulaic" assignment -- Day 1, introduce new words, Day 2, Do exercise #1 in the book, Day 3 Review words & copy words 2x, Day 4 Do exercise #2 in book, take oral pre-test, Day 5 Spelling Test (depending upon your child you may need more or less review, copying, etc. )

 

From there, I plugged in history, science/health, art, music, Latin, etc. I tried to balance things like amount of work, difficulty of work, etc.

 

It can be done -- it isn't difficult, but it is time consuming. Other lessons I've learned is to *always* build review days, "optional" days into your lesson plans. Every couple of weeks schedule a review -- because things almost never go as planned.

 

My mother *loved* making lesson plans. I don't mind it -- and wouldn't mind at all if they automatically bumped what was planned today (that we didn't get to) to tomorrow or next week like K12's planner works. That would be a breeze!

[sewpeaceful]

Mandy,

 

this is one of the subjects many HSers struggle with most. I am uber organized and without a laid out plan to keep me accountable, I fall apart, nothing gets done and I get super lazy about HSing. So, now that you know MY weaknesses, here is what I do:

 

I sit down before the "school year" and schedule out our stuff for the whole year, subject by subject. I use a program called Homeschool Tracker Plus to automate the easier stuff, put dates on the lessons, etc. If there are 72 lessons / 36 weeks equals 2 lessons a week. If there are 180 lessons / 36 weeks = 5 lessons a week. Okay, so some things don't calculate as smoothly.

 

Overall, I do:

 

• science 2 days a week
  
• history 2 days a week
  
• handwriting/copywork 4 days
  
• reading, math, and spelling 5 days a week
  

We try to only do school 1/2 day on Friday leaving the rest of the day for cleaning, errands, appointments, field trips, etc.

 

If you NEED a schedule, take a teacher in service and schedule out your curriculum ahead of time.

 

I hope this helps. I do love Homeschool Tracker Plus - it makes scheduling (and rescheduling when life happens during the school year) very easy.

 

Good luck!

[MerryAtHope]

Nope, you don't have to write out a m-f plan. Many subjects do well with just a general plan. I have used a scheduled curriculum for several years, but the last few I've not followed the schedule--I read the next book & read as much of it at a sitting as we want. I do the next assignment in math, LA, writing, spelling (no need to schedule that)--really unless I want to make sure that we read X page in Y book on the same exact day that we read A page in B book, there's not a need for a schedule that detailed.

 

I like a general daily routine--how much time we'll spend per subject--and then we just go as far as we get, or until we're "done." I keep a log where I write what we actually did, instead of making a schedule ahead of time.

 

Merry :-)