Lesson planning

[Celia]

Apart from having a general idea of what you’ll accomplish for a year, how do you do your lesson planning? Do you plan your days down to the minute, or do you play each day by ear?

And how has your style of planning changed over the years?

 

Poll to follow (if I get it right this time!)

[Nakia]

I try to plan in 6 or 9 week chunks. I am pretty detailed with the history and science planning. Other things like math, LA, and workbook stuff (logic for example), I plan as we go. I am also one of those people who write everything in pencil. ;)

 

I do not plan each day down to the minute. We just go from one thing to the next. Anna (my oldest) is going into 7th grade this year, and she will have her own planner so she can have more control over what she does and the order she does it each day.

[Melissa in Australia]

Not really any of the above.

What I do is at the beginning of the year I re-read TWTM and make a very brief note on what I will be doing for the whole year. We have a very well defined schedule ( developed years ago when I started homeschooling) of what happened on each day. for example: every child does one lesson in their math book each day one page of their grammar, one lesson in their writing program etc.etc etc. If they finish their math book, they get one week off that subject and then start on the next book. The only subject that goes from the beginning of the school year to the end is history ( and corresponding reading lists).

[Closeacademy]

I figure out how many days we will do school and when are days off will be. I then figure out what we are going to use and order curriculum. Once it comes in, I make a syllabus of what we would do every day and plug it into a schedule. This year I used Skedtrack.

 

I also figure out a day to day schedule that is posted so I know how everything will balance out.

 

Then I just sort of start with the plan but by the end of the year we are just doing the next thing and flying along because some things get cut. Some get changed, some fall behind, some get ahead and life just happens.

 

Over the years, I have learned to just let things go and not stress over it. I put in a plan and let it all fall in place naturally rather than forcing it like I used to do when we were first starting out. :001_smile:

[JessReplanted]

We use HOD, so technically I have a schedule ready for me at all times. But, I usually figure out what we're going to do each day as the day goes on. :lol:

[*Lulu*]

I plan in reverse. First I write my objectives for the year for each child. Then I create a curriculum master plan that is my broad plan for the year. Things like art centers, sensory tubs, themed weeks, science centers, and group unit studies I plan out in advance in enough detail that I do not have to think too hard about it when the time comes. Indvivdualized curriculum gets planned out in 5 week chunks and I write out assignments for my logic staged child a week at a time.

 

I have enough flexibility that things can be moved from one day or week to the next without a hiccup. I have several curricular choices that are open and go, but a great number are mom-created and require more planning on my part. I have found the better prepped I am, the more we accomplish and the less stressful the process is for me.

[Parrothead]

None of the above fit. I am more relaxed about planning than I was 8 years ago.

 

1. Plan out holidays and vacation

2. Grab a book. Divide the number of lessons/chapters by the number of days of school and we do X amount of work out of that book each school day.

3. Grab next book and repeat.

 

Since I do the lesson planning on the computer planning takes less than 5 minutes per subject. I'm generally done planning the year by the time the last book comes in. If they were to all show up at once I could be done in an hour.

[Mom22ns]

The first year I homeschooled I was only schooling one and I flew completely by the seat of my pants. It had good and bad points.

 

The next year, I was schooling 2 and felt like I needed a schedule. I made a daily schedule and planned (meticulously) 1 week in advance.

 

The next year, I used summer and planned out 1 or 2 subjects until Christmas, the rest I continued to plan weekly. Over Christmas I planned those same subject until the end of the year!

 

I LOVED having things pre-planned. So the next year I planned 2 subjects all the way through the school year and continued my weekly planning on the others.

 

This will be our 5th year of homeschooling. I will have nearly everything planned for the year before we start. I plan on the computer and adjustments are easy. I double check the schedule weekly and adjust as necessary. The only thing I'm not planning is math were we use MUS and I can't predict how long anything will take. We just do the next thing each day.

[Meriwether]

Each child has a weekly file. We do six subjects each day where we just do the next thing. The other subjects get done when we get to them each week. This year I'll have to run a tighter ship because there is a jump in expectations for each child. I'll still file weekly for the most part, but I'll have to have a daily assignment sheet to make sure everything gets done. I will also have to plan on doubling my direct instruction time.

[regentrude]

I voted none of the above. I do not lesson plan at all, but I also do not "fly by the seat of my pants".

I carefully select the curriculum we are going to use. Then, the kids just use it, work on whatever subject they want for how long they want and resume work where they stopped the last time. We get everything done that was planned, but not according to a schedule.

My kids work best if they can stay on a subject once they are "on a roll". They work in binges: weeks with lots of history, or lots of math. Some topics are harder than others, so scheduling math makes no sense to me- it takes whatever time it takes until the concept is mastered, and I can not know beforehand.

[2cents]

I'm a big planner. The girls are in high school and dual enrollment now so keeping on track and record keeping is especially important now. We've done a lot of unit studies and interest-led type studies but always with a plan. None of us relate to flying by the seat of our pants. :D

[marbel]

Last year I did meticulous planning, then my son was sick for 3 months and it all fell apart, so we ended up flying by the seat of our pants. :001_huh: During most of his sickness he just wasn't up for the level of work required by the materials we chose, and even after he was well we discovered several things just weren't a good fit. The entire year felt off, even though he was pretty much healthy by Christmas.

 

This has happened to us before. One of my kids just gets sick a lot. So, I'm not going to spend the time to meticulously plan everything this year. But, I'm spending more time planning our materials and having my kids preview things as much as possible to ensure a good fit.

 

My goal is for my homeschool to look like Regentrude's:

 

I carefully select the curriculum we are going to use. Then, the kids just use it, work on whatever subject they want for how long they want and resume work where they stopped the last time. We get everything done that was planned, but not according to a schedule.

My kids work best if they can stay on a subject once they are "on a roll". They work in binges: weeks with lots of history, or lots of math. Some topics are harder than others, so scheduling math makes no sense to me- it takes whatever time it takes until the concept is mastered, and I can not know beforehand.

 

We are not there yet, but working on it.

Edited July 1, 2012 by marbel

[MamaT]

I plan by weeks instead of days. I divide the work for the year into 36 weeks, so the kids know what has to be accomplished that week. The older they get, the more freedom they have in when they do it. I have gotten more meticulous in planning as the years have gone by. It just makes everything run smoother, and I am not a fly by the seat of your pants person.

[higginszoo]

I used to plan meticulously, but things never worked out. Some things, the dc already knew and we'd end up skipping. Other things, they'd get stuck on and we'd need to slow down. Eventually, the loss of weeks' worth of work I'd put into planning became frustrating, so I stopped. Now, we just look at 'what's next' and go.

[KristenR]

I'm just finding my feet on the planning front but wanted to share this link up over on Real Mom Resources. If you blog and have a post about your planning practices you can link it up for people to easily find relevant posts. I haven't linked to the planning one myself but have been inspired by some of the posts link on there.

[Jenny in Florida]

I voted that I've become more organized as I've homeschooled longer. I also voted that none of the descriptions fit, but when I looked again, I decided that I'm actually pretty close to the "Plan by the week and then open and go" option.

 

I plan the entire school year during the preceeding summer. I set specific assignments for each week of the year for each subject. I make notes for each week of any documentaries to watch, field trips to plan, websites to visit, etc.

 

This year, I'm also writing large portions of the curricula we'll use. And I'm creating study guides and review sheets for some subjects and planning his labs for chemistry. Some of that requires adapting ideas I'm finding online and in books from my shelves, and some of it is just researching and writing stuff. I'm trying to get it all done and consistently formatted before we start in September.

 

At the beginning of each week, I go over the goals with my son. This past year, I was still helping him to create a daily planner. This coming year, he's asked to take over that responsibility.

 

Inevitably, there are things I forget to do in advance or run out of energy to finish. And we always get off track at some point, which requires me to juggle and revise the schedule for the rest of the year. However, I've found that we get much more done and I'm more confident and relaxed if I have the whole year planned. And adjusting for rabbit trails or illness or unexpected travel still takes me less time in a given week than having to plan from scratch.

[Night Elf]

I had to choose the second option, that I have daily plans written out a couple of weeks in advance, but really I do about 6 weeks at a time. I couldn't choose the first one though because I don't think the word 'meticulous' applies. It takes me a while to sort out the subjects into daily lessons but I write them with the understand that they are subject to change on a daily basis. I love the days that go exactly as I plan, but there are days when we don't get to everything in which case I have to move everything in that subject down a day. This is why I use Excel to do my daily plans. Paper writing was too rigid.

 

I've homeschooled 11 years. I tried many times to go by a schedule, but I just always did better by playing it by ear. And the subjects we had that were 'open and go' were lovely. However, as my kids hit high school, I couldn't just be willy nilly. They have needed detailed daily lessons because it's so hard to just do the next thing. The entire subject just sits there waiting to be doled out. It feels so much more official and formal than our previous school years.

[momto2Cs]

None of the above fit. I am more relaxed about planning than I was 8 years ago.

 

1. Plan out holidays and vacation

2. Grab a book. Divide the number of lessons/chapters by the number of days of school and we do X amount of work out of that book each school day.

3. Grab next book and repeat.

 

Since I do the lesson planning on the computer planning takes less than 5 minutes per subject. I'm generally done planning the year by the time the last book comes in. If they were to all show up at once I could be done in an hour.

 

This is the closest to how I do it!

 

I have a general plan for each day, and goals to reach, but I don't sit down and plan everything. Figuring out the amount we need to cover in certain books is done the way Parrothead does it - for example, we'll be reading an American history book once a week. I need to look at the TOC and divide by about 36-38 (flexible on the exact length of our school year). For math, I simply have them work each lesson until it is done, then we move on to the next one.

[lynn]

I take time to look through all curriculum as it comes in to get an idea of layout and what our goal might be. I write out the weekly plan, in pencil and go from there. Sometimes a new topic needs more time and will push everything else back and I'll change to a daily plan until we are ready to move on. I don't panic, we catch up eventually. I also spend extra to get the preplanned curriculum if it's available.

Edited July 1, 2012 by lynn

[elegantlion]

I plan a course of study for each subject prior to the beginning of the year. Then I print a weekly schedule 1-2 weeks at a time. That way I can tweak where we might be in the yearly schedule. I've gotten more meticulous as the years have gone by. I fret less when we get off track, but my plans are more detailed.

[justLisa]

Funny thing about school is, I am totally OCD about time, but I am not a big planner. I think I'd go crazy trying to. I just make sure we can finish in a year. I sort of plan from start until Christmas, and then the new year until summer.

[ScoutTN]

I use subject planners from Donna Young to plan out subjects which need some thought to schedule and/or supplies gathered - for us this year that means history, science, grammar (b/c I have the old FLL and we skip everything except the straight grammar lessons) and composer/artist study.

These are planned all the way out - to the end of the book.

 

Everything else is open and go;just do the next lesson or section.

 

I plan a couple of weeks ahead, in pencil, in a basic weekly planner. Copying things from the subject planner onto the weekly pages. Once a week I update the planner adding another week, reserve library books, gather supplies, make lists etc. Takes about an hour and a half.

 

I plan a out a schedule for M-F and change it up as needed. I don't get tied up in knots if we're not on it exactly, but we do better with a structure to work within. I find that things like nature study and composer study and poetry teas do not happen if I don't schedule them ahead of time, even if I've actually thought about the details and done some preparation. Chaos expands to fill the time available!

 

hth :)

[kalanamak]

Not really any of the above.

What I do is at the beginning of the year I re-read TWTM and make a very brief note on what I will be doing for the whole year.

 

I figure out how many hours of the various subjects in a year, divide that time by 12, write the desired times on a grid for record keeping (e.g. 15 sessions of 15 minutes per month of spelling, 18 sessions of 20 minutes per month of writing, 12-15 hours per month of math). Then I number across the top 1-30 or 31, and just put a tick under the day for each subject we do. I add it up at the end of the month and carry over any time due. The last week of the month is often intense math or music or writing or whatever.

 

I then plot out what we'll be trying to get through in a year. Say SM. I divide the total number of pages by 12 and make pencil marks in the bottom of the work book to let me know if we are ahead or behind every month. I'm not a slave to markings (e.g. we took a two month detour in math to do Key to Fractions and drill when kiddo seemed to flounder a bit), but I keep them in mind.

 

Then, if a program is important for me to get through in a year (e.g. GWG) I add extra time if he needs it. If he gets through it sooner, I start the next year or add enrichment. This means we do the minimum amount of time per each subject suggested in TWTM, but we may do more.

 

As to the day to day, this varies depending on the weather, outside activities, my level of fatigue (I school after a full day at work), and kiddo's focus. He has off days just as I do! I just open up the book and resume where we were.

 

That said, I realize that school is getting tougher. More time, more info, more important! So I am beginning to map out things, pre-buy, plot out a bit more. I'm also shifting a few more things onto kiddo, to do while I'm not home, and that I must plot out (e.g. Xtramath on line drills, or Atelier art, which involves making sure I have all the supplies out and that hubby is tuned into what should happen). I'm actually in a bit of a panic about this, and have done a big clean and moderate declutter, just so I can know exactly what I do and do not have, and where it is!

[PeacefulChaos]

I voted none of them are a close description.

 

I plan the year in advance. I have all the daily plans made out, what lessons are which day, etc, for our 2012-2013 school year. I don't know exactly what date each day will fall on... they are labeled Week 1, Week 2, etc, and then Monday-Friday. I'm not sure yet when we'll be taking our breaks this year.

I wrote a blog post about it all a couple of weeks ago.

[Farrar]

I mostly fly by the seat of my pants happily, but that's not how I would really describe it either... I make the big initial plans. I mostly have everything done by routine or open and go, do the next thing kind of curricula. Then, for some things - science lessons, history projects, occasional special lessons I see a need for, I plan things out really specifically with lots of detail.

 

My planning hasn't really changed. It waxes and wanes through the seasons, but it's not more or less.

[Audrey]

 

Apart from having a general idea of what you’ll accomplish for a year, how do you do your lesson planning? Do you plan your days down to the minute, or do you play each day by ear?

 

And how has your style of planning changed over the years?

 

 

Poll to follow (if I get it right this time!)

 

 

As the material has become more involved over the years, my planning has become more meticulous, however, we are transitioning into high school and I want ds to take more responsibility for his education, so while I am still meticulous, it is very different that it was 3 or 5 years ago.

 

That said, I follow this outline for planning:

General year overview - I plan what curriculum will be used and break it down to determine how many lessons/chapters/units there are so that I can figure out how to schedule them in order to be done by the end of the school year.

 

Quarterly plan - After I have the year overview in place, I add in things that are not specifically curriculum (like literature, extra readings, etc.) and I correspond those things accordingly to the curriculum where appropriate.

 

Weekly plan - Every Sunday, I sit down and write out the actual details of each lesson for each subject for the upcoming week. I will also look ahead at lessons for the following week and make a list of what I may need to get supplies/books/etc.

[shanvan]

Some topics are harder than others, so scheduling math makes no sense to me- it takes whatever time it takes until the concept is mastered, and I can not know beforehand.

 

:iagree:Don't see this mentioned enough. I think in the early years there is quite a temptation to fly through math without working to mastery.

[Halcyon]

Up until this coming year, I have had a general idea of what I want to cover (mostly "do the next thing" curriculum) and where I want to be by the end. We schooled about 220 days so we have never had trouble completing our work. After each day, I would pencil in what we had completed that day. I would "eyeball" the calendar and make sure we did Spelling 3x a week, Math 5x a week, Science 2x a week and so on, but I didn't always do them on the same day.

 

This year, partly because older will be doing more involved curriculum with more components, I am planning out the entire year in Excel. I will "transfer" a month's work of work onto the main printable page each month, making adjustments as needed (if we've slowed down or speeded up). I am hoping this will work, but the way I've set it up, I can move things around so I am not absolutely wedded to the calendar. I need some flexibility.

[Halcyon]

:iagree:Don't see this mentioned enough. I think in the early years there is quite a temptation to fly through math without working to mastery.

 

 

I agree. In general, some sections of math come very easily, and others take more time, and it's hard to predict which will be which. So having a general guide ("I want to complete Singapore 3A by Christmas") works better for us. That said, this coming year I will do a bit more math schedulgin only becaue I want to incorporate more resources. Same with my other subjects.

[jewellsmommy]

Not really any of the above, but the longer I hs, the more meticulously I plan.

 

 

I plan out 36 weeks of work and space out some break weeks. I create a spreadsheet that shows what each child is doing in each subject in each week. I put one week's worth (about 4 days worth of work), into a folder. One for dd, one for ds and one that has stuff that I use as I teach that week. These three folders are labeled a week # and put together in a hanger. I put 9 weeks worth of folders together at a time, each week in its own hanger.

 

If it takes 10 weeks to do the 9 weeks of folders, then so be it. That has happened before. :D If dd is working slower and has something left when ds is done with his week of work, then I will advance her remaining work out of week 3 and into week 4. She will finish it first before starting on week 4's work. Ds will go ahead with week 4. This only seems to happen if I fail to anticipate how quickly a concept will be grasped. If I need to, I declare an 'all stop' and we will halt folder work and spend time in review. Then we pick up where we left off.

 

I never try to pin down what date a certain topic will be done. Just on what week. For instance, multiplying fractions will be covered in week 30 for dd. Now week 30 may actually come 34 weeks from when we start :D. Does that make sense? But it will come after folder 29 and before folder 31. I have found that this is the best way to remain fluid and responsive to their needs and fulfill my need to plan/schedule without feeling trapped or stressed out. For the most part, we stayed on the schedule. There was a week of work, here and there, that actually took 2 weeks to finish due to other scheduling conflicts, but overall not bad.

Edited July 1, 2012 by jewellsmommy

[TammyinTN]

I usually make sure I have everything ready for 9 weeks periods...this year is the only year I haven't .....and it will never happen again...I hope. ;)

[Oakblossoms]

I change it up every year. We have been total unschoolers, public schooled, used a virtual academy, and a local public school program where we attended classes. It just keeps things fresh.

 

We had felt like we were pretty much done with three kids. Two of those kids have special needs and it has been difficult to parent the oldest and challenging to himeschool our third child. Throwing in two little ones at the end has made me develop mommy ADD. I could always juggle before. But, this is nuts.

 

I am going to do a schedule for each child by day like this.

 

day 1

Reading

Math lesson....

Spelling practice...

History

 

Day 2

Subject

Subject

Blah

Blah

 

I am going to tell them I have so many days planned and they can have a break if they can finish:tongue_smilie: so, if I do 45 days, if they finish that we can take a week off to catch up on chores and play lots of video games.

 

We will see how it goes.

 

One thing I am sticking to is quarter plans. 3-4 subjects per quarter. Just more focus on those subjects.

[chepyl]

I put It all in the computer at the begining of the year, what lesson/pgs will be done each day in each subject. Then....I use the bump button....A LOT!! If we do more math pages than planned, I bump forward, less, I bump back. I check things off as they are.completed and I just go down the list. With Edu track, I could just look at lesson plans by subkect and ignore dates then readjust every week or two. I am trying the well planned day online system this year...we will see if it works for me.

 

So I plan, to be sire we can complete everything, then we move at a pace that works.

[cin]

I have done something completely different this year. I schedule us for 4 days a week (the kids have 24 weeks of co-op one day a week) and I have downloaded this semester planner from Donna Young. I printed it out on color coded paper (green for Pip, orange for Zip), for each subject. Then I went through each work/textbook and wrote down the assignments for each day for the next year. Yes, we are going through this summer and next. We are a bit behind because of some medical/psychological issues and treatments. It took a full afternoon, probably the better part of 4 of 5 hours. BUT it has been So Much easier to write up their weekly schedule.

[raceNzanesmom]

No planning here, other than to know what I'm using for the upcoming year. We use HOD so I open and the book and go each morning. For math, I do the next lesson. For spelling, I work 20'ish minutes and close the book. That's it. It's a beautiful thing!