Any tips on how to organize lesson plans for several children?

[Time for Chocolate]

For example, I read my oldest child's science chapter and the topic is cells, I want to teach all of the children together, so I need to figure out what they can do together and what each individual is responsible for. They will all listen to the chapter being read aloud, watch a video about cells and make the edible cell activity I found online. The 6th and 7th graders will define the vocab. words, label a diagram of a cell, and answer the questions at the end of the chapter. The 3rd grader will read a library book about cells, fill in the blanks of a vocab. sheet, and label a simple diagram of a cell. The 1st grader and Kindergartener will do some copywork on cells and color a picture of a cell.

 

Now, what is the best way to organize information like this while planning this summer? I tend to make things more complicated than they need to be. So any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Judy

[edeemarie]

When I am making plans for my kids I use a different color of ink for each child, and then usually use plain old black for the things we are doing together. Thankfully I don't have enough children yet that I have run out of colors! I typically just make a chart with days of the week across the top and subjects down the side and fill in what each child is doing in their color.

[jcross222]

I have 5 out of my 6 kids (the 6th is only 2yrs old) doing history and science together whenever possible. I divide my week into 4 days by dividing apiece of paper into 4ths. The things we do together get written across the top of each section then I just list each child's individual activity labeled with their intials.

[FairProspects]

I make spreadsheets for each child, but I only have 2 so I don't know how much work that would be for many.

[ErinE]

I create an Excel spreadsheet with the following column headers:

• Chapter Number: In case I need to look something up in the spine.
  
• Topic: So I don't have to scramble for the book when I'm pulling together the curriculum
  
• Family: Activities done together. I'd also break this out into subheaders like:
  
  • Video
    
  • Project
    

  [*]Child 1: Specific-assignments

  [*]Child 2: Specific-assignments

  [*]Child 3: Specific-assignments, etc.

  [*]Next Week: Supplies needed for the following week

Each row would be one subject or chapter.

 

If I grouped children together, I would enter the assignments into one child's column and then link the other children in the group to the first child's assignment. That way if I make any changes, the spreadsheet automatically updates the group.

 

Here's a picture of our history curriculum map for next year:

Edited June 13, 2012 by ErinE

[4kids13971]

There are tons of free planners online that you can use with multiple kids. Google "free homeschool planners" and you will get hundreds of links. There is also a website called Scholaric.com that is a planning software. It is a great tool and very simple to use.

[Time for Chocolate]

Thanks for all of the great ideas!

 

I bought Homeschool Tracker and will spend some time soon learning how to use it. I'm just not a big computer person when it comes to lesson plans. I like having everything on paper in front of me. I know I can print stuff, but - well - we'll see how it goes.

 

Thanks,

Judy