How do I? WTM Lesson plan

[simka2]

Okay... so I'm pretty much putting this together on my own. I keep looking at different curriculum packages with TM and am envious, but I really cannot find one that fits our family. So, I'm pulling together a bunch of stuff from different sources. Last year I did this and was fine, but I want to be more organized this year. I want to have some idea what we will be doing week to week, but I don't know how to do it? Any ideas?

 

Please help!

[noashmam]

Bump.:bigear::bigear:

[JennW in SoCal]

11 years of homeschooling and I've never used a curriculum package. You'll be fine! It isn't that hard to organize things, you just have to find what works best for you.

 

For math and workbook material (logic, grammar, spelling,vocabulary), I didn't plan what would be done when. Instead it was just do the next thing, and don't work on any subject longer than the kid's attention span. If we finished something before the year was done we'd move onto the next level. If we didn't finish, we'd pick up where we left off, or depending on the subject and materials, we'd go ahead and move on.

 

For literature and history, I simply made lists of books I'd like to read aloud over the course of a year and the books I'd like my kids to read. I also made lists of places to visit and documentaries to watch. A list of craft projects. As soon as we finished one book, we'd move onto the next. I never used a writing program, but instead followed SWB's advice of copywork, dictation and narrations, and picked writing topics from whatever we were reading. (In the early grades I used handwriting workbooks.)

 

For science, I'd pick a topic and we'd do projects, sometimes from kits, sometimes from activities I'd find in books or on the internet. My kids loved science, so were reading about it all the time and we watched many a NOVA episode or watched the Discovery or Science channel. We also observed nature all the time, either on walks, guided walks, or just the birds at our backyard feeders.

 

I found having lists and a general idea of how much I wanted done in a week was all I needed. For instance, math and reading would be daily, science or a craft project might be the bulk of an afternoon, while everything else might be 2 to 3 times a week. That way I wouldn't stress over what wasn't done, but focus happily on just moving forward.

 

For the last several years (though I have high school students, so it is somewhat different) I've given each kid a weekly planner book, and I keep daily checklists in there.

 

Does that help? Donna Young's site has lots of great forms for creating your own schedule. Lots of moms use spread sheets, too, but I've been happy with my lists. Sort of the college syllabus style of homeschool planning.

[patchfire]

I have no idea if this will be helpful to you, but I'll throw it out there. :)

 

It is possible to create tables in word or other document programs that look like WP, Sonlight, etc. Once you have your plans, you could easily input each week's plans into a document like that and print. How to get there...

 

I take each subject on its own, including breaking language arts into all its constituent parts (spelling, grammar, etc.). For my K guy, this is pretty easy - almost everything is broken down into lessons, so it's just do the next number, and handwriting I plan week by week, because I know it will probably change rapidly at some point during the year. The only thing I planned out in any detail for him was SOTW.

 

For my dd, though, I make either a spreadsheet or a table for every* subject/sub-area. I number it 1-32/1-34 (I like to leave a little wiggle room), or 1-170/1-165/1-175 (same idea). Then I block it out. This gives me more flexibility than just using dates.

 

So, then you could compile it all into a document that lists everything on one page. I admit, I don't. I transcribe it weekly into either dd's planner (for almost all of her stuff) or my lesson plan book (for ds's stuff & dd's MCT).

 

HTH a bit

[simka2]

Thanks! for the ideas...they do help :) I guess I was just feeling bad for my self and wanted some sort of short cut to an organized lesson plan :)

[simka2]

http://stores.lulu.com/classicalexplorations

 

This was exactly what I was looking for! Just wanted to share :)