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Angel
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| Posted: March 17 2010 at 6:02pm | IP Logged
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I think I'm going to have to create some lesson plans for my 13 yo for next year -- not for everything, because we will be using some of Kolbe's lesson plans -- but I think it would help if I gave him some sort of all inclusive weekly or daily set of lesson plans, where he could see everything he was working on that week.
I was wondering, if you make your own lesson plans, how do you go about doing that? How much time does it take? Do you use Word or Excel or put them on a blog or... something else?
I was looking at Maryan's plans, which are gorgeous, but I'm not sure I'm up to anything like that.  On the other hand, something similarly well-laid out and uncluttered would be a help to both of us (my 13 yo and me, I mean).
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Angela
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: March 17 2010 at 6:16pm | IP Logged
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I, too, was looking at Maryan's lovely plans, and I keep coming back to how easy to follow Maria Rioux's plans are with the checkboxes here at St. Thomas
I don't know how well it would transfer to high school, but I think this format (with a touch of Maryan's "pretty") is the direction I'm headed.
However, this is not the voice of experience talking. I do know, though, that checklists are one of the more successful methods I found for myself.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 17 2010 at 9:23pm | IP Logged
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Angela,
Please bear with me!!!!!! You have asked about my absolute favorite topic of all time!!!!
I do plans in all sorts of formats. I like working with iCal a lot, but I also do plans in Word (or the mac version of Pages) and do some overviews in Excel. I hope Maryan will comment, but her plans are SUPER easy to do...at least, I think they are. I make them in Microsoft Word, using a 3 column format or dropping in tables, using borders, adding art. The check boxes are easy to add as well...they're just a different style of bullet.
Lesson plans definitely evolve, and the more you do them yourself, the more likely they are to evolve to fit your family and needs, I think. I can see a format I really love...try it, live it...and then change it to fit us better. There is a definite growth that has developed as I write our own plans - I really have learned *who we are* in writing plans out and living them.
Angel wrote:
| I was wondering, if you make your own lesson plans, how do you go about doing that? How much time does it take? |
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A lot of this depends a bit on your home ed philosophy. The closer you are on the spectrum to unschooling, whether entirely or for specific subjects, the more your plans will be more of a template, a guide in which you can fill in details as you go. Journaling and blogging work well here...you can link rabbit trails, record your thoughts, set goals, offer encouragement...and your child can comment and post as well. It's an interesting way to dialogue about work expected and accomplished, but it has worked well for S. and I for one particular subject. I've found it a very good format for recording some work.
With project based work your plans might reflect more ideas and goals than page numbers and assignments. Does that make sense?
I know you know a lot of this...but I couldn't figure out how to explain how I get to the daily plan/weekly overview and let you know I feel free to tweak it regularly without first explaining the process of the vision and how I got there.
Start with a vision of the year
I invest a lot of time brainstorming on the front end, looking at MA and other sites to get an idea of a basic skeleton. Then I work my way inward. By the time I've got a vision for the year that is connected and cohesive, I divide up into 4 terms and from there I'm ready to build my basic plan. I have no idea how long I spend on this. I work on it until it seems realistic with a lot of margin built into the day. Plans with no margin either set up a mom up for burnout, or fail to convey any idea with a sense of consistency because mom always has to scratch *something*! Margin. Margin. Margin.
So...how much time does all that take?
I don't know. It's a lifestyle for me. I'm always considering, brainstorming, and attentive. I couldn't say that in a month I've built the skeleton, and then we live it for a month and we're set. Life is fluid, and because I love the beauty and flexibility and directness with which a set of detailed, considered, thoughtful, and organized set of plans can offer, I never stop living the planning. It's not a lack of contentment; I just try to be open and malleable to meeting changing needs and being humble enough to adjust expectations. I do get to a point after about a month into the year that the plans really start singing on their own. And, until life changes directions, those plans work! But as we all know, life does change directions!!
I definitely want to be clear though - adjusting plans is VERY different from changing course or changing vision - I don't adjust or change vision or big picture without a lot of prayer! Plans are the vehicle for that vision though! Those plans are a tool to help me live my days and to assist my children. Those plans/tools are definitely something I spend time considering and making sure they fit us well!
So...there's a vision for the year, a general outline at least, and you've broken it down into term/chunks...or some kind of manageable chunk...themes to cover for the year...projects for the year...something like that.
What will it look like?
Hard to say. It will be unique, which is to me the great thing about building my own plans. The person who knows my family, our strengths and weaknesses, our time out of the home, children's talents, our home ed philosophy, our unique circumstances and the season of life we face - that person is writing the plans!!!   So, don't copy someone else's style if you KNOW IT WON'T WORK for you or your son. Do take ideas that might work in your family, but consider:
** what is your *planning* default setting? how do you make lists? what do they look like? how do you manage them? your lesson plans won't work too well if they're very far from your natural default setting. Does that make sense?
** when you journal your home ed work/days - what does it look like?
** what just makes sense to you?
** are you going to have to exercise heroic self-discipline to do this? make sure you build plans that seem intuitive to you and with lots of realism - or you'll avoid it and it won't grow and bend with your days.
** do you *think* in outlines?
** do you *think* paragraphs or blurbs of thought?
** are you visual needing items to be attractive or you likely won't go to them? (that would be me  )
** do you prefer straightforward and practical?
** what about your 13yo? will he be using these plans? what would cause him to self-destruct with a set of plans?
** too much detail?
** lots of extra stuff on a page?
** does he need a visually intuitive set of plans?
** what causes him to lose focus or hyperventilate during a regular day?
** too little detail/direction? build very detailed plans.
** too much detail which seems rigid and impossible to explore within? outlines, goal dates, and mom meetings (regular meetings to communicate where he is...where he's headed next) work well for this
** somewhere in the middle? find a way to break down details into manageable chunks on the plans based on mom meetings in which he takes ownership of the plans -- he helps direct the plans by understanding THE vision/big picture, taking ownership of that vision, and indicating where he's headed next along with your input. Then, when he goes to those plans he'll know that he said he was ready to tackle and complete x reading and y and z of his project.
I question my way through brainstorming because it helps me isolate and build. Hope that was ok.
Getting it done - Adding details a week at a time
In the end, I've found that a mix of great details that are thoughtfully built around booklists and projects work well for me. That's my skeleton. I built a template that moves and breathes with our days. I build in details on a weekly basis because that allows me to consider:
** the way the plans worked for us last week
** how much we accomplished last week
** any remediation/special work I want to fall back and work on
** any big projects that might be upcoming therefore necessitating lightening up in other areas so there's more time and room to explore
** and I REALLY enjoy meeting with the children and assessing WEEKLY. If I find a big problem or challenge, it's so much easier to start brainstorming before it becomes a gigantic *this-has-been-going-on-for-how-long?* problem. Another benefit...sometimes challenges are just questions at first...building detailed plans on a weekly basis reminds me to be attentive to specific areas I have a question about and am watching carefully.
If something is working I DON'T FIX IT!!!!
If something isn't working...I start asking questions and brainstorming.
 WHAT FUN!!!!!!! Chatting about plans and checklists!!!!  Does it get any better???? I CAN'T WAIT to hear how others do this and glean more ideas!!!!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Becky Parker
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Jennifer, your postings are always so thorough (did I spell that right?). I think you should author a book on this sort of thing! I, for one, would buy it!
I agree that we tend to fall into our own lesson planning style based on our needs and how we homeschool. I currently have a style that fits for us right now, but I wish they were more attractive.
Maryans plans are so beautiful! Mine are sort of just "boxy" . I was inspired by Maria Rioux's checkboxes and use something like that because it seems to be what my son needs. My dd has different needs. For her, and for my own plans, I add seasonal stickers to jazz them up a little. It's nice to open up my plan book and see spring flowers!
What do you use to add that attractive touch to your plans? Is there a program or is it just a matter of using Works or Word and knowing how to add the shading, fonts, boxes, etc.?
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Becky
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 6:32am | IP Logged
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That leads to another question I have. (Hope I'm not hi-jacking here .) When you make plans, do you have one planner for everyone? Does everyone have their own seperate planner? I have my own planner and in it I put the assignments and plans for my younger kids. For my older two (independent readers) I use a checklist style like I mentioned above. I print it off the computer each week and each of them carries it, along with the other items they will need for the week on a clip board. (I LOVE clipboards!)
I'm just curious about how others do it. This is working for us, so I probably will continue, but I love new ideas to jazz things up a bit.
And when/how often do you plan? Once at the beginning of the year? Quarterly? Monthly? Weekly? Daily?
I do ours weekly, but I was thinking I would like to try more of a quarterly, or 6 week system and cover a different unit, or project for each section... but I'm still trying to think this all out.
I love this topic!
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Becky
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RyaneM
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 6:44am | IP Logged
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Becky Parker wrote:
| Jennifer, your postings are always so thorough (did I spell that right?). I think you should author a book on this sort of thing! I, for one, would buy it! |
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I was just thinking the same thing!!
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Maryan
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 8:30am | IP Logged
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Do whatever she says.
Mackfam wrote:
| I do plans in all sorts of formats. I like working with iCal a lot, but I also do plans in Word (or the mac version of Pages) and do some overviews in Excel. I hope Maryan will comment, but her plans are SUPER easy to do...at least, I think they are. I make them in Microsoft Word, using a 3 column format or dropping in tables, using borders, adding art. The check boxes are easy to add as well...they're just a different style of bullet. |
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Exactly like she said... except I don't use Word. I'm a Word Perfect dinosaur, ever since highschool -- WP 5.1. Figuring out how I liked the page to look took awhile (I'm just picky), but making it is easy.
As I mentioned before, Jennifer's blog or 4real post was totally the inspiration! (I thought I had it bookmarked, but I can't find it!) But Jennifer had an awesome post about planning and linked to some of her favorite planning pages and I looked at all of them for inspiration. One in particular was a week that Willa had done. So between Jennifer's recommendations, Winterpromise's set-up and Willa's fancy week, I made my plans.
I had a vision in mind for our year that was basically a unit study each month. I made a month page based on our theme that included all the resources for each subject (but no details). Then I copied that page four times to use it to make our detailed weeks.
I like columns with little boxes (like Jenn said -- just a fancy bullet) so I can check them off. I also made a copy with little boxes for my oldest with everyone else's stuff deleted. Tables are efficient too... but sometimes one day has way more information and that square gets really big unless I shrink that box's font... hmm... I think I'm getting too detailed.
Also, I liked our week plans Angela; they were "daily" friendly but also flexible -- so if one day was a wash because of illness or whatever, my plans didn't have to be completey reinvented.
However, I've learned that my lesson plans *have* to be done in the summer for me. I tried to do them as I was going along in February and it flopped. We are just too busy for me to do them during the school year. We just end up limping along -- which is fine, but not ideal.
I'm glad you posted this question because I was just asking Erin why she likes to plan in Excel. I'm not familiar with Excel and haven't been able to utilize it like I can a word processing program... yet.  But since so many people do it, I'm wondering what I'm missing.
Oh and Lindsay, I like Maria Rioux's plans too!!
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Maryan
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 8:52am | IP Logged
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Maryan wrote:
I had a vision in mind for our year that was basically a unit study each month. I made a month page based on our theme that included all the resources for each subject (but no details). Then I copied that page four times to use it to make our detailed weeks.
However, I've learned that my lesson plans *have* to be done in the summer for me. I tried to do them as I was going along in February and it flopped. We are just too busy for me to do them during the school year. We just end up limping along -- which is fine, but not ideal.
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I like the way you plan by the month and I'm thinking about trying that for next year. I've also been thinking about getting everything planned during the summer. But, what happens if you get behind in something? How do you make adjustments for that?
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Becky
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Maryan
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 9:08am | IP Logged
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Hmm... behind? Us? This year has actually been pretty good, but the year we got the flu twice and chicken pox...  . That year I started dropping certain subjects and stuck to the basics.
Pare down: my essentials are: read daily, do some kind of math, do handwriting, do religion, and get outside...which by default always includes nature study. (I'm sure other people have other essentials). I'll drop formal plans for art/music, geography, history (or make that what we're reading), map skills, spelling, grammar as needed. Mostly because I feel like we can get these subjects in the other subjects OR they can get them as they get older and more independent about their work.
Workbooks: if I feel like we're getting behind in a major subject, I buy a workbook in that subject to help us out. So if I'm behind in Right Start (holding sick kids sometimes hampers presentations!!), I'll buy a workbook of addition, subtraction, or multiplication drills just to make sure they're getting their memorization of their math facts done.
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Maryan
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Maryan
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 9:14am | IP Logged
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Whoops! So in other words, as regards to my planning, I just ignore the boxes for certain subjects if we're playing catch up.
This year, I planned to do Latin with my oldest two. That.did.not.happen.at.all. Okay... maybe twice. So I just ignore that box and I don't have any guilt about it either.
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Maryan
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 9:28am | IP Logged
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The reason I love Maria's plans is because you are never playing catch-up. There is a checkbox for the next lesson (or even skipping around should we decide to read a Bible story or chapter out of order). So, the daily/weekly/monthly plan could include "math lesson" but not necessarily "math lesson #42" Math lesson 42 will get checked off when we do it. You might get behind, but being behind doesn't make your daily lesson plan inaccurate.
This is what I like about the Simply Charlotte Mason online planner as well, which I might switch to when I have lots of older ones. Right now, I *think* I could just manage an overview of all the lessons.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Angel
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 9:47am | IP Logged
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Printing out this conversation so I can read it more thoroughly... then I might have more questions.
About Word vs. Excel, though... I find I have a really hard time working with tables in Word. For some reason I spend all my time fighting with the formatting. My dh has been helping me get going in Excel, which does seem to be easier as far as making tables (for me). But so far all I can do is standard tables/charts.
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Angela
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Maryan
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 9:57am | IP Logged
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CrunchyMom wrote:
The reason I love Maria's plans is because you are never playing catch-up. There is a checkbox for the next lesson (or even skipping around should we decide to read a Bible story or chapter out of order). So, the daily/weekly/monthly plan could include "math lesson" but not necessarily "math lesson #42" Math lesson 42 will get checked off when we do it. You might get behind, but being behind doesn't make your daily lesson plan inaccurate.
This is what I like about the Simply Charlotte Mason online planner as well, which I might switch to when I have lots of older ones. Right now, I *think* I could just manage an overview of all the lessons. |
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Very true!! That is the appeal with her set-up. I did this with our Montessori Presentations because they happen as they happen and it's been effective. I've never tried it with everything else though. Hmm...
And I haven't really looked at Simply CM's online planner.
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Maryan
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 10:09am | IP Logged
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Maryan wrote:
| And I haven't really looked at Simply CM's online planner. |
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You can use it for a month for free to try it out. It isn't cheap, but it does seem ideal for using living books with multiple ages. It allows you to assign the same thing to multiple children, so when you check it off, it goes to all the children's records. Each child can have individual assignments, too, though, and all of it would be included in a print out of his assignments for the week/day/whatever. For the time you would spend making pretty lesson plans all summer, it might be worth the cost. Then, you can just buy some pretty paper or stickers on which to print it out on
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Angel
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Does anybody make lesson plans using Homeschool Tracker Plus? Right now I'm just using it to keep track of already done work for my ds because it will tabulate hours per subject, and to keep our attendence. But it occurred to me it has a lesson planning feature, too.
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Angela
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SuzanneG
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 11:51am | IP Logged
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Here is another good one: help - step by step planning
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Suzanne in ID
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Angel
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 12:11pm | IP Logged
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That was a question from me, too. Do you sense a theme here?
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Angela
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Becky Parker
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I noticed that Angela .
I think alot of us have our "themes". I remember posting about something and someone did a search, posting the link from the previous year. I had started that one too!
Don't feel bad though. I know I really enjoy talking about planning! I love new ideas!
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Becky
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Becky Parker
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I just thought I should include a link here to Donna Young's site She has lots of planner forms, ideas, and how to's.
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Becky
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Maryan
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| Posted: March 18 2010 at 1:47pm | IP Logged
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Suzanne!
Here's the post by Willa with all her various forms for planning. In particular, the week that struck me: pretty plans
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Maryan
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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: creating assignments/lesson plans
