Lesson Planning....

[Mynyel]

Do you do it or fly by the seat of your pants?

 

I don't think I have ever "planned" the lessons. I know what lesson we need to do but never read ahead to find out what to do. I read it as we go.

 

However I am wondering if I spend an hour (or two) planning if the week might go smoother?

 

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

If you plan, please share!

[WishboneDawn]

Whenever I see lesson planning I get confused. I think of incomprehensible things I see on websites with "objectives' and "rubrics". If you mean that kind of thing, no. I don't do that.

 

If you mean that I might jot down a note about going to a museum or plan to make Borax crystals on a certain day of the week armed with instructions I printed off the internet, then yeah, I do lesson plans. :)

 

ETA: I do also do up a sheet where I break down what pages we'll be doing and when we might do things like the field trip or Borax crystals for each kids. That's as complicated as my planning gets though.

[twoforjoy]

I plan our schedule (what pages/chapters/projects we're going to do when), but I don't plan out the lessons (what we'll be doing, specifically, during each lesson). At this point, I don't think it's necessary, and most of the stuff we use is straightforward and provides the structure. Plus, since it's just the two of us working, I'm able to assess what we might need to cover in more depth and what we can move through quickly, or what we should spend more time on because it really interests him, and that seems like a better use of our time.

 

I do lesson plan for the writing classes I teach, though. When I make up plans, I generally come up with 1-3 objectives for that class session, and then come up with some introductory/lecture material, and then some combination of large-group discussion questions, small group activities, and individual writing exercises. I don't do anything nearly that structured for homeschooling, because it just doesn't seem necessary, at least at this point.

[MindyD]

At the beginning of each year, I thought hard about where we wanted to be by the end of the year. Then i found the materials that would get us there. Then I took the materials and divided them into 6ths. Then I planned 6 six-week sessions. Each session got divided into 5ths, so the 6th week we had "slop" time to catch up. Between each session was a week OFFFFFFF. The 4th week of any session, I gathered what I needed for the upcoming session. This was the very best planning I ever did, and it worked super well for keeping us on track, and for MY feeling that we had indeed accomplished something. That saved my son from getting totally piled on because I was a worry wart.

 

Eg. If a history book had 36 chapters, we had to cover 6 chapters per session. I'd divide those into 5 parts, with a week for slop so we could catch up.

 

If a math book had 120 lessons (pretty typical), in six weeks, I had to cover 20 lessons. That meant 4 lessons a week (because I divided by 5 to allow the 6th week for slop).

 

Slop covered things like dental appointments, stubbornness, laziness, playdate opportunities, and so on.

 

That is so clear! I know it seems so obvious, but I need things spelled out for me sometimes.

[Elohcin]

Fly by the seat of my pants, but it is changing soon. Need to have more routine and boxes to check off.....

[Dawn in OH]

Whenever I see lesson planning I get confused. I think of incomprehensible things I see on websites with "objectives' and "rubrics". If you mean that kind of thing, no. I don't do that.

 

If you mean that I might jot down a note about going to a museum or plan to make Borax crystals on a certain day of the week armed with instructions I printed off the internet, then yeah, I do lesson plans. :)

 

 

 

I do something in between the two descriptions quoted. BTW Whisbone Dawn, LOVE the descriptions, especially the first one.

 

Our first year we had a newborn in the home, it was Kindergarten, and it almost seemed like an after-thought most days. It was very fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, and I HATED it.

 

The next year I did a weekly plan. Much better. I did find though that it wasn't always enough time to get the library books I needed or other crafting/experiment items from the store.

 

So the next year I looked ahead a little further. I tried to always be working on lesson plans 3-4 weeks ahead. Much better for my sanity. I've also learned to have any material I need from my computer or the Internet printed out a few weeks in advance. You never know when your motherboard is going to die:glare: or your Internet service interrupted, or printer decides to be a PITA. And yes, I know all 3 of these from unpleasant first hand experience.

 

So yes, I lesson plan. But no rubrics, state standards, benchmarks, or educationalese.

[Susan in KY]

Do you do it or fly by the seat of your pants?

 

...

 

If you plan, please share!

 

I used to fly by the seat of my pants and now I plan.

 

This is the first time I am planning the entire year before we start. Last year I did a semester at a time, but that made the week after Christmas hectic, so I decided to do it all this summer.

 

I rip up workbooks, do all my photocopying, and put the sheets into weekly folders. I enter my plans into a 36-week spread sheet I created. Then I print it out and spiral bind it.

 

During the year, I move things around with a pencil and arrows, and sometimes I put things on hold. I don't have a problem mucking with it if I need to. Doing this saved my sanity and our school year this year. It is nice to be able to "Open and Go," but with my choice of books and what curric to do when. PM me if you want a sample page.

 

Susan

ETA: I just read what Patty Joanna does, and I think her way is simple and brills!

Edited June 11, 2011 by Susan in KY

[Satori]

I'm a scheduler, it keeps me more on track. I can see what we'll be learning half a year from now and see if we'll be able to take any interesting vacations.

 

I am planning out a difficult schedule at this very moment in fact. It's taken me a few days of research plus a few days of actually laying it all out. But once it's done, I'll enjoy the benefits of just pulling out and go! Yet I'll still have an idea of when to order the next series.

[july19]

Patty Joanna...I think I drooled a little. :drool5:

 

I do plan, though. All the workbook pages are pre-torn out and set into folders. I do our daily reading lists the night before so both he and I know what books we're going to read the next day. I pencil in when library books are due back, what museum we're going to go to next, when daddy is taking a school shift, and so on.

 

Officially starting "kindergarten" this fall (we school all year, but I plan on 'officially' starting things when the norm is) even though he's already doing kindergarten stuff now, so I have a feeling more planning will be in order, and soon. Fine by me...I love good organizing!

[Pink Fairy]

I'm a planner. :-) I use a computer program like HST+, and I lesson plan everything in the summer. The way my program works, I set up lessons for a particular subject, i.e., IEW World History I. Then I can assign the subject to a particular child, including which days I want them to work on it. I put in a start date, and then I can see what they'll be working on any day of the year. I can manipulate the assignment dates for absences, or if something takes longer than expected, and I can make sure we're on track to finish at the end of the year and slow things down or speed things up. I print out two copies of each child's weekly assignments, one for them and one for me. When I check their work I write down the grade for the assignment on the sheet. My favorite thing is that once I have that subject planned out I'm done except for tweaking. Any curriculum that I use for more than one child doesn't need to be replanned, just reassigned. I try to minimize lesson planning during the school year.

 

Sometimes I'd like to be more relaxed with lessons, but it never works out for me. Whenever I try to fly by the seat of my pants it's a train wreck, lol.

[lovemyboys]

At the beginning of each year, I thought hard about where we wanted to be by the end of the year. Then i found the materials that would get us there. Then I took the materials and divided them into 6ths. Then I planned 6 six-week sessions. Each session got divided into 5ths, so the 6th week we had "slop" time to catch up. Between each session was a week OFFFFFFF. The 4th week of any session, I gathered what I needed for the upcoming session. This was the very best planning I ever did, and it worked super well for keeping us on track, and for MY feeling that we had indeed accomplished something. That saved my son from getting totally piled on because I was a worry wart.

 

Eg. If a history book had 36 chapters, we had to cover 6 chapters per session. I'd divide those into 5 parts, with a week for slop so we could catch up.

 

If a math book had 120 lessons (pretty typical), in six weeks, I had to cover 20 lessons. That meant 4 lessons a week (because I divided by 5 to allow the 6th week for slop).

 

Slop covered things like dental appointments, stubbornness, laziness, playdate opportunities, and so on.

 

This is exactly like what my dsil did when she was homeschooling and for the same reasons as you list here.

 

Thanks for reminding me of this, I'm going to start some pre-planning soon and this will give me a framework.

 

I'm definitely finding that as they get older, the planning has to be more purposeful to actually finish at the end of the year.

[Mimm]

For this year, I'm doing a kind of weekly plan. I'm putting down everything we are studying that week even if it's a very easy, do-the-next-thing type curriculum, just so I can see at a glance everything we'll be covering. That way if I want to plug something else in at some point, but I'm not sure where it would best fit (like a book to read or an art project) then I can see easily where it should go. :) I didn't do that this year so I don't know how well this will work.

 

I don't do detailed lesson planning for each lesson for each day... :p That seems overwhelming and unnecessary.

[Kirch]

I'm not quite fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, but I'm close. We school year-round with a very flexible schedule, so it would make me nuts to make detailed schedules out in advance only to be constantly revising. I get familiar enough with all the curricula we're using to know where we're going and if I want to leave anything out, change something, or add something. In history and science, I'm constantly thinking ahead so that I can get any library books or supplies we need for projects (which I do plan ahead for a bit more). Beyond that, I mostly plan the night before for what we're doing the next day. I look over the math lessons, spelling lessons, grammar lesson, etc., write down which lesson for each subject (adding any details as necessary) on the planning sheet I use and put the supplies into workboxes.

 

There have been a couple of times that I've ended up planning for several days to a week in advance, and that has worked well and I liked having it taken care of, but I haven't been disciplined enough to get it done that way regularly.

 

The only time I create anything remotely like the lesson plans I had to make in college is when I'm coming up with my own stuff, like for the science unit about plants we're doing right now. Even then, though, I don't go into the education-ese details (objectives, formal structure, etc.). Most of that is mental, tbh--I know what I want my kids to get from it and tailor what we're doing to meet that. I'll write out the main points of the lesson, what books or materials we're using, what activities or experiments we're going to do, etc.

[merry gardens]

Do you do it or fly by the seat of your pants?

 

I don't think I have ever "planned" the lessons. I know what lesson we need to do but never read ahead to find out what to do. I read it as we go.

 

However I am wondering if I spend an hour (or two) planning if the week might go smoother?

 

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

If you plan, please share!

I plan, but not like some of the ladies I read here. I kept a planner for a while and it mostly looked like this,

"Monday: do page one. Tuesday: do page two..."

 

I like materials that work well by simply turning the page. :D I take an extra day or two with any concept that someone doesn't understand without throwing everything off schedule. Many educational materials are designed to fit into a typical school year.

 

It's not exactly flying by the seat of my pants. It's more like I plan for flexibility. We work on our educational materials until we finish them. My plan is that we will finish the material eventually.

[Elizabeth in WA]

For this year, I'm doing a kind of weekly plan. I'm putting down everything we are studying that week even if it's a very easy, do-the-next-thing type curriculum, just so I can see at a glance everything we'll be covering. That way if I want to plug something else in at some point, but I'm not sure where it would best fit (like a book to read or an art project) then I can see easily where it should go. :) I didn't do that this year so I don't know how well this will work.

 

I don't do detailed lesson planning for each lesson for each day... :p That seems overwhelming and unnecessary.

 

I do something similar to this. I figure out the pacing needed to get what I want accomplished and lay out weekly plans during the summer. We do math, Latin, and writing year round, but summer schedules at gymnastics make it impossible to have a full year round schedule, so science and history need to be accomplished on a set time frame. Latin I also plan out carefully because summer is for solidifying skills/catching up/reviewing. Some things are easier to pace out than others, depending on whether we are using trade books for history or textbooks with 36 chapters for example. I do not plan out days, and insist that each week be finished, over the weekend if necessary. Appointments and such during the week are managed by shifting the workload to the less busy days of that week, or by using Saturday as a make up day.

 

I find that knowing the pace we need to keep to get where we want to be the following June keeps us from slacking as much during the dark and cold months of January and February. Also, the kids know at the beginning of each week what needs to be accomplished to have the weekend free, so (especially for my teens) I feel no guilt about making them use the weekend to finish if they don't get done in a more timely fashion.

[littlebug42]

I have to do lesson plans. If I don't, nothing ever gets done. I have to have that box to check off and a plan to follow. You would think I would do well with something like Sonlight but no, it has to be my own plans. I am currently working on planning out all of next year so it is done. My youngest is doing virtual school next year so I don't have to worry about her much although she will continue doing SOTW with her sister.

[usetoschool]

I don't do lessoning planning a la public school. I have a friend who just graduated from Ed. School and is confused that I don't have lesson plans for everything.

 

I do schedule the work using HST+ and about 2 1/2 weeks worth of files with all the papers etc. in them.

 

I do read ahead and know what I am going to be teaching in the next week so I can have supplies ready, ideas for discussions, know what I need to cover lightly and what needs more time, see rabbit trails that I might want to follow, find connections between subjects and connections with past information, and to let it cogitate in my brain as far as the best way to teach it.

 

Actual learning happens more often for us when I am on top of things and not letting the books do the teaching.