Lesson plans

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I'm working on my first lesson plans and I'm wondering how detailed to get. Right now I'm just taking each subject and writing a brief line about what I want to cover and corresponding pages in books, workbooks, activities, etc.

 

How do you handle lesson plans? How far in advance do you plan? How do you change your lesson plans to accommodate for not enough or too much work?

 

Thanks for any input!

[melissel]

I make pretty detailed plans, but I only plan 8-9 weeks at a time. For things like RightStart Math, I don't write down every manipulative I'll need for each lesson, but I look through each lesson as I plan and determine whether I think it will take more than a day. If some kind of go-along (game, complementary lesson) occurs to me as I look through, I'll note it with that lesson.

 

For things like SOTW, I indicate the section to be read, note to do the narration and questions, include the go-along history encyclopedia pages, include the go-along readalouds I want to read, paste the links to any Discovery Streaming videos that I want them to watch and/or any Netflix videos that go along, and note any activities I want to do (and this is over the course of a week, not one lesson!). If I don't include all of this, I'll never remember what I wanted to do, and I'll never find the time to look all the right resources up on the fly.

 

I also have a section in my lesson plans for notes to order the library books/Netflix videos that I'll want in the upcoming weeks, field trips to research, etc.

 

Does that help? :D

 

ETA: We do year-round schooling, and while I haven't done it this way so far, I'm going to be organizing the coming "school year" into six- to eight-week increments with scheduled one-week breaks in between. There have been a couple of really great threads about the philosophy of this if you think you like the idea of year-round schooling. I also asked a similar question last year--I'll see if I can find the link for you so you can benefit from the added wisdom :)

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123475

 

Oh, and one last thing. I don't plan on paper because the erasing and reworking would kill me. I use a very simple Excel spreadsheet so I can bump things over easily and type in exactly what I want in whatever format I want. I've tried other online planners (except HST+) and they just don't work for me. Others love them though!

Edited July 16, 2010 by melissel

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Thanks for the info and the link. Very helpful!

[2cents]

I make my detailed plan the week before. I put in things like: text pages to cover, worksheets (make copies of worksheets, maps etc. ahead too), Unitedstreaming videos to watch, field trips, crafts and labs, lit tie-ins, unit studies.