Lesson Plans

[snipsnsnailsx5]

Okay trying to post again (like my fifth time trying to post this since last night!)

 

How many of you do a daily lesson plan for the whole year? Or maybe quarterly? How do you do lesson plans if not?

And any tips or even examples you can give me?

 

The biggest draw to Sonlight I had was the lesson guides and what to do each day. I feel like this first year of homeschooling for us had been pretty disorganized. We started out good but fizzled out somewhere throughout this year. Now I use Homeschool Tracker and just have their assignments (very general) to do each day and print it out for them to check off. However its just like "do circled pages in Explode the Code" or "do a spelling lesson" its not specific. Because of this I feel like we aren't getting as much done, and are missing some of the fun activities I wanted to do because I'm not prepared.

 

I'm just curious how you all do lesson plans.

 

Thanks!

[regentrude]

I do not do any lesson plans at all. We start our books/materials form the beginning. The kids work each day for a set amount of time on whichever subjects they choose (math daily). We resume the next time where we left off.

[Mynyel]

I have an excel file that I use. I have also used HST+. It is a really good program but (isn't there always one?) it was too comprehensive. It had way to much. I just wanted to plug in my assignments and go. You can't just do that.

 

SO, I went to homeschoolclassifeds (they have a lesson plan/calendar generator) and generated a sheet and put it in excel and tweaked it to my liking.

 

I can copy and paste if I need to shift. Simple as pie for me! :)

[Mrs Mungo]

Okay trying to post again (like my fifth time trying to post this since last night!)

 

I did once. It was the worst idea ever. Pretty much every long-term hs mom I know has the same story. I do my lesson plans a week at a time (on the weekend). That way I can shop for food or craft items we might need for projects. The vast majority of the hsers I know do the same.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I do my lesson plans about 4 weeks at a time. It takes me several hours to do that. I gather all the materials, or make notes of what to gather, while I'm making the lesson plans. That helps with the daily flow.

[Plucky]

I did once. It was the worst idea ever. Pretty much every long-term hs mom I know has the same story. I do my lesson plans a week at a time (on the weekend). That way I can shop for food or craft items we might need for projects. The vast majority of the hsers I know do the same.

 

Yep, this is what I do, too. Sometimes things don't get done that week or someone is sick. I can just move it to the next week. I would go crazy if I had a set plan and was behind. :willy_nilly:

[Mrs Mungo]

Yep, this is what I do, too. Sometimes things don't get done that week or someone is sick. I can just move it to the next week. I would go crazy if I had a set plan and was behind. :willy_nilly:

 

I know! I can't move everything constantly. Much easier to take it a week at a time. Oh! Also, do all lesson plans in pencil!

[Mynyel]

I know! I can't move everything constantly. Much easier to take it a week at a time. Oh! Also, do all lesson plans in pencil!

 

 

ROFL, funny you should say that. I print mine out but you should see the arrows and white out! :)

 

I like excel because I can drag the cell and it will auto fill for me, takes a lot let time... well to me.. but then I am an excel junkie. I do everything (well almost) in excel.

 

 

Hmmm maybe we should just laminate a master sheet and use a dry erase marker! :D

[Wheres Toto]

I do a week at a time using a modification of a planner page from Donna Young. It lists each thing we do and has 4 columns since we're kind of doing a loop schedule where we work 3 whole days and 2 half days to do 4 full days worth of work. I list what comes next for each subject, a game break where we do educational games and any special projects.

 

We are off track way more than we are on track so doing more than a week at a time is just discouraging.

[4wildberrys]

If there weren't programs out there, like SL and MFW, with a Daily Lesson Plan all drawn up for me----I'm not sure I would even want to homeschool! I like to teach and learn with my kids----not make the lesson plans, so I rely on programs that have done that work for me, or at least have EASILY scheduled lessons in the book. ;)

[Mrs Mungo]

ROFL, funny you should say that. I print mine out but you should see the arrows and white out! :)

 

I like excel because I can drag the cell and it will auto fill for me, takes a lot let time... well to me.. but then I am an excel junkie. I do everything (well almost) in excel.

 

 

Hmmm maybe we should just laminate a master sheet and use a dry erase marker! :D

 

I love excel too (I was working on my master list of meal plans earlier today), but not for that. I have my plain old lesson planner that I write in with pencil.

 

My kids do have laminated sheets with their generic subjects listed for each day so that they can check them off.

[myfunnybunch]

I tried that once.

 

I drove myself crazy because I spent almost as much time (or more!) adjusting the plan as I would have spent doing weekly planning. I just couldn't plan for sick days, unexpected great opportunities and resources, the roof guys, days when we needed to get outside and garden or hike instead of beating our heads against our books, the days when we were so captured by science (or history or reading or music) that we wanted to explore more, the days when my ds lost his books and his brains....I was *constantly* tweaking. Even worse I always felt Off-Schedule. Horror! ;)

 

Cat

[ELaurie]

for all of the reasons listed above :tongue_smilie:

 

However, this year I used the filing system for the first time. And I wrote out specific lesson plans for ds 11. As a 5th grader, he's working more independently this year. He likes to see exactly what's expected of him each day; he likes to check off all of those little boxes on his planner page. He likes to have a sense of control over his time.

 

At his stage, I also have a better sense of how long things will take him to complete than I did when he was younger, which makes planning easier.

 

With ds 8, the plans are somewhat more fluid. I use a check list to keep myself on target for the year, but how much he actually gets done from day to day is more variable :D

[momofkhm]

I hardly plan at all. Grammar, math, spelling, handwriting, similar subjects are all just do the next lesson. Then I use TOG which is planned out by weeks. I used to copy the weekly pages and hand them to my olders and they'd figure out what they wanted to read/do each day. Now I've shown them where to find it in my notebook and then they plan their own days.

 

My youngest now does the same thing. But I worked him into it. The first year on TOG, I think he was 7 and I planned everything for him. The second year, I let him write out the "next lesson" stuff and I planned out the rest. Then the third year, he planned it out and I checked it. Now at 10, he does all his planning. He gets it all done so I have no complaints.

 

I do know that I have wonderful, self starting kids. My oldest is the best and she sets a great example.

[Crafty Mathy Mom]

I make a general overview of what I want each child to accomplish and the materials needed for the year. Then I detail plan only a few days in advance. That way I don't beat myself up when only math gets done.:tongue_smilie:

[myfunnybunch]

Just re-read and realized you also asked how we lesson plan if we don't do yearly.

 

I am definitely a do-the-next-thing homeschooler. We have a schedule for each day, but we follow it loosely. For the basic subjects (math, writing, grammar, logic), each child does the next lesson in his book. Sometimes the boys want to do 2 or 3 lessons at a go, so I let them as long as there's time. The daily schedule allows time for me to teach a lesson if needed. Usually, if a kiddo finishes a book mid-year, we start the new one; if they finish a subject a few weeks before the end of the year, I fill the time with what I'd consider to be enrichment activities related to that subject.

 

For the subjects they all do together (science, history, music, art), I choose or plan(ish) the subject by term. I sit down and plan ahead about once a month--check to see we're on track and covering everything, request books from the library, check to make sure we have materials for projects and experiments, make copies. For example, for science we're exploring chemistry. I hit the library and brought home a bunch of books, did some internet research, found a great internet resource posted on this board, and read some chemistry materials myself. We're working our way through a library book of concepts and experiments, reading chemistry websites for kids, and if I run across something that looks interesting, I throw that in too. (FWIW, my sister homeschools too, and she gets the heebie-jeebies when I describe our science schedule. But she laughs and admits that both our kids are getting the same good basic science education in the end. :D)

 

Cat

 

Cat

[Princess Peach]

I am going to do a whole year at a time for next year. I am using homeschoolskedtrack.com so it will be easy to change the next weeks schedule at the end of the current week, if needed. I will just print as needed. But at least this way the bulk of the work will be done ahead of time. This will be my summer project. :001_smile:

 

I have been doing it a week at a time this year and it's too difficult to get it done before the next Monday rolls around.

[Gailmegan]

A few weeks before school starts I sit down with everything we are using and a calendar. I figure out the best way (based on holidays etc.) to get our required 180 days scheduled (usually over the course of 37 scheduled weeks) then I take everything we are covering and split it up into appropriate chunks. I use MS Word to create a big chart and I enter what will be covered EACH day. Not in great detail, just lesson numbers or page numbers.

 

During the school year, every Friday I look at the coming week and prepare more specifically for how the assigned sections will be completed, and at the next week, so that I can request library books (takes about a week for the library system to get the books ready for pick-up). And of course, I have to admit that we have fallen behind in some things and gotten ahead in others, so there is always some revising. But using Word makes that easy.

[GnomeyNewt]

I plan everything out before the year starts, but we take it one lesson at a time so we don't have dates on our lesson plans. I just have a master plan which is a guideline as to when to do certain subjects and place it in a plastic sheet protector so I won't have to print it out a lot and/or can update it easily. I co-homeschool with my DH so we need something to let us know who did what and also by preparing he isn't asking me where something is! Next school year I will also have an assignment sheet for my DD for her to check off things she has to get done.

 

To prepare, I have weekly folders (which is approximately 5 days worth of work organized) where I will put in all the loose papers for the week, I do not cut up my workbooks at this time but I am going to spiral bound all of them. The only subject I have a guide sheet for next year is History (from WP), so the guide sheet, notebooking, timelines, and other paper activities are in the weekly folder. I will also include our Japanese worksheets, science labs, and anything I find that we might want to do that week. During the week I pull my weekly folder and place it into a Multi Pocket Folder which I did get this idea on one of these posts here (so thanks to whoever suggested this). The main schedule goes in the first pocket, and than each subject goes into its own pocket. I have been doing the multi pocket folder for a few weeks, previously I just had the weekly folder with my papers all mixed, but with this folder it has been easier to find the subject papers I need (right now I have language arts wp guide/papers, history wp guide/papers, loose math worksheets, japanese worksheets, science labs, basically everything this year was loose papers!).

 

I linked a few screenshots of my current working schedules for next year, which is bound to change by the time we start. I just use OpenOffice (similar to Word but free) and they have table for mating options that I use to make these grids. Basically I like lists, but not so keen on actually creating "lesson plans".

 

http://gnomeynewt.com/st01.png

http://gnomeynewt.com/st02.png

Edited April 21, 2011 by GnomeyNewt
Add full-size screenshots and more info

[snipsnsnailsx5]

Thanks for the ideas! My concern is that I won't get everything covered that I wanted to if I don't have a lesson plan. With the math, English, spelling, etc. I can just do the next lesson. I like the examples the previous poster gave of a general lesson plan such as "do next lesson" or "15 minutes of piano" and so on. That's similar to what I have now, but I use Homeschool Tracker and its TOO much. lol

But I also want to stay on track with projects, and be able to plan ahead with what books to read to introduce a new subject (specifically like doing SOTW..I feel we could do so much better at that). Also, I could include field trips certain times of the year to make sure they get done.

 

So I think the lesson here is to NOT do daily lesson plans. lol But I do like the idea of keeping it general. I also like the idea of keeping an annual plan of certain projects I want to do, the scope and sequence of what I want to cover that year. Also, doing the more specific plans (such as book schedule for SOTW and so on..) perhaps a month at a time in advance.

 

Thanks!

[goldberry]

I make a list of all the supplies I will need for each lesson, as well as any additional resources I am adding on my own for each lesson, such as internet resources, extra books, etc. I come up with all that in the summer. We live rural and I can't just run out for supplies if we need something. Having the list ahead of time really helps.

[meggie]

I just did a blog post about what I do. Keep in mind I only homeschool my five year old and so far, it's worked out great the past two weeks! :lol: I like the weekly lesson planning, because even then, I know I won't get to everything on it. And heaven help me if I tried doing it daily, I might shoot myself in the foot if I ever do that.

[Mommyfaithe]

I subject plan....for 170 days worth of assignments. They usually take 250 days to complete, but I don't care.

 

Each week I transfer what we finished into my plan book...and check it off my list....works for me...

Faithe

[CalicoKat]

Yes, the whole year.

 

Each kid has their own planner with the weekly schedule. This year I dated everything and numbered it (1-180). The dates confused the kids though so next year I'll just use the numbers. When the 180 days are done, school'll be out for the summer. Some kids are on day 130 and 1 is back in the early 100's.

[PentecostalMom]

If there weren't programs out there, like SL and MFW, with a Daily Lesson Plan all drawn up for me----I'm not sure I would even want to homeschool! I like to teach and learn with my kids----not make the lesson plans, so I rely on programs that have done that work for me, or at least have EASILY scheduled lessons in the book. ;)

 

:iagree:

 

BTDT making my own with ds. Learned from experience to let someone else do the planning!

[Chelli]

I guess I'm one of the few people who plan it all down to what we will do each day before the year even starts. :001_smile: I do this so that I will know what books/materials I need in advance, make sure all subjects end on the same day (I'm anal about this one), etc. I find my system is really easy and keeps me on track. Here is how it works: I school for 180 days each year (not required in Texas, but I do it this way because most curric is planned out on this time table). I use these forms from Donna Young's site to plan each subject for the entire year: http://donnayoung.org/f11/planner-f/f-school-pdf/quarter_v1.pdf

 

Four of these forms equals one year (180 days) worth of assignments for one subject. I fill these out for each subject usually as my books arrive in the mail for the next year. Once you have a set of these filled out for each subject then the easy part comes. I created my own spreadsheet in Excel based off of Sonlight's TM. Here is what it looks like:

 

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en&hl=en&key=0AuIl6qCFCseJdGpVR2p2QUI5cUhKUkxTZFphRzh3Umc&output=html

I don't date my plans or plan them by day of the week. It is just week 1, 2, 3, etc. and day 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. I did this so that when (not if) we get off schedule it doesn't stress me out or cause me to have to change my plans. We just keep plugging away at our weeks and days until all of the year is finished. We also do loop scheduling so if everything isn't finished on a certain day, then we just start with it on the next day. It can also double as your student's planner as well as your own.

 

Hopefully this helps and all my links work!

Edited April 22, 2011 by pw23kids
fix link