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~Rachel~
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I was just wondering how people do this... how often, what do you use etc.
I always *aim* to plan, and never seem to do it... I'd like tips please 
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Mare
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Rachel,
Let me preface this with the fact that I am a chronic planner.  I need plans/goals to keep me on track. I actually start planning for the next year in February and March. 
I like to use a scope and sequence. From there, I break it down into what I want to teach each quarter. I break it even further down into weeks. I have 9 week quarters. 8 weeks are for teaching. The 9th week is for catching up with whatever didn't get covered the other 8 weeks. If we are all caught up, then we take a more relaxed approach to the school week.
I don't have a daily lesson plan that I go by. At the end of the day, I just keep track of what we did for that day.
HTH,
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Willa
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~Rachel~ wrote:
I was just wondering how people do this... how often, what do you use etc.
I always *aim* to plan, and never seem to do it... I'd like tips please |
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When you say lesson plan do you mean: an actual lesson flow procedure for an individual lesson or day? or more like a scope and sequence breakdown, where you take a textbook and then decide how much to do per day? or choosing a spine book or topic and then bringing in literature resources?
Or all of the above? or none?
I love lesson planning, all the kinds I listed above. But I have to acknowledge that my lesson plans have NEVER turned out in real life as they looked when they are written. They are almost completely two separate things, in my household!
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Tina P.
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Oh, Willa. I tried that. I made these cool little day-to-day sheets. When we were in Germany and had only two kids homeschooling and limited resources (we were living in a hotel for several months and then in a house where most of our things were in storage), it worked like a charm. But now, I get so behind my plans that I get really frustrated. So, I completely fly by the seat of my ... shall we say skirt?
I have a vague idea of what I want to do for history and science for the year. My day-to-day lesson-planning consists of "What did we do today?" I go for the backward approach. Using this approach, I learn how much of *life* is a learning experience.
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~Rachel~
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WJFR wrote:
When you say lesson plan do you mean: an actual lesson flow procedure for an individual lesson or day? or more like a scope and sequence breakdown, where you take a textbook and then decide how much to do per day? or choosing a spine book or topic and then bringing in literature resources?
Or all of the above? or none?
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Oh... ALL of the above I was really wondering because of DAWN'S bulletin board and plans... I'd love to have the broad outline of 'what' we were going to study, but someone here always upsets the mix...
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Theresa
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With our curriculum some of the planning is already done for me. I do make a table on Microsoft Word though and list out each subject and then have 5 columns for Monday through Friday. In there I have what we are going to do each day. This all goes into our homeschool planner and then after we complete each item we put an X through it.
I have some pictures so maybe I'll work on putting them into a post on my blog this week.
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cathhomeschool
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WJFR wrote:
| I love lesson planning, all the kinds I listed above. But I have to acknowledge that my lesson plans have NEVER turned out in real life as they looked when they are written. They are almost completely two separate things, in my household! |
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That's me to a T!
I even have the daily schedule (ha) posted on the schoolroom door. It's nothing more than a decorative accent, though. 
The plans that have worked best (ie. the only plans that have actually been used and followed in the last 4 years) have been the unit study plans. For those, I've started with a book or theme and then listed by subject (history, science, etc) all the books and activities that we'll do. We generally complete everything on "the plan," but it takes twice as long as my plan allows.
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Theresa
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I put together an entry on our homeschool planner which talks about our lesson planning. You can see ithere.
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ALmom
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I also do not have lesson plans that look like what we really do. I am addicted to lesson planning but have come up with a system that helps me avoid the "oh my gosh, we're so behind routine." I am not saying that my kind of planning fanaticism is necessary for everyone - for me it is a very, very productive exercise provided I remember that they are flexible and that I always overplan!
First planning for us is simply overall goal setting and prioritizing - what is it that we want to accomplish with each child (not just academics). Whenever we are not on our lessons because we are on a tangent or because we seem behind, I can always come here and it inevitably relieves most panic as I have prioritized my academic goals as well as other goals. If we are hitting the most important goals and not totally overlooking minor goals, it really doesn't matter whether my current mode of operation matches my original plan or not. Yet, this keeps me from becoming the hot potato - running after every new fangled idea without thinking about it.
Then I think about how we might achieve these goals (knowing this may be a bit more fluid since a new baby or illness or a difficulty I didn't know about yet, will inevitably crop up in real life). I think about things that have worked, textbooks we may want to use, lesson plans that might be tweaked to help me, etc. as well as any free wheeling things we want to do and the resources I will need to have on hand. (I have limited library resources, and am an idiot on the internet so it helps me to order everything for the year - or at least divide into what to order for the first half and what to order later for the second half). Invariably some of these resources don't get used that year, but they are all worthy books, so my dc do generally end up reading them eventually so I do not look at this as a waste.
When all the supplies begin to come in - lesson plans, textbooks, etc., I always do what many would find a waste of time. I plan in detail exactly per day what I think we should accomplish. Now, for me this is an essential step - but not because the children use these plans. Usually it shows me how unrealistic I am - and we tweak some more, etc. If I want to study ancient civilizations, then I generally have 3 different curriculum sources I'm pulling from - and somehow it all seems so neat that I want to do it all - so I try to line it all up in sequence, etc. I've learned to look at these plans as somewhat like classroom teacher plans in that you always overplan and never expect to get to it all. I remind myself that we will NOT get to it all and as we actually begin our first month, the child and I generally have a better idea of what is really grabbing the interest in this right now and then we prioritize, modify, etc.
I also try to look at a plan for daily routine (not so much when we do math - but what someone else referred to as pegs - wake times, prayer times, eating times, school times and free play times and any outside classes/lessons that must be accounted for. This helps me know something is unrealistic again - if there is only 5 min on the schedule for free time after we fit in prayer, academics and chores - then something is way out of balance and we tweak some more.
During the school year, my big plans are for me - I then hand the children plans for 1 week at a time which are drawn from my plans in discussion with the children. They hold these plans - a day per page which is dated - in the outside clear cover of their binder, and simply check off work as it is done. When I have discussed it, it is filed in the front of their binder as attendance proof for the state. If they don't get to something, it won't be checked off and we can either do it orally during our discussion period (and then check it off), decide to skip it(in which case I simply cross it out and write in whatever I think achieved the same thing) or I simply start there for next weeks plans in that subject (crossing it out on that day, writing it down on my new plans for the new week). The children don't see endless stuff they are getting "behind in".
I'm not good at group teaching, so I actually plan for each of 6 children, but it finally dawned on me (yes I am slow on the reality check) that I could not discuss with each and every child, have my own quiet time, clean and cook dinner every single day like this. Now I work daily with those who I am teaching to read or who are not really good readers yet (this doesn't take more than a little bit as that age my academic goals really are limited to the 3 Rs and very short lessons). Everyone else gets a staggered once per week meeting. As we go over the child's work for the week - what they are struggling with, what they need supplemental assistance with, etc, etc., I actually jot down what we want them to do for the next week. There is some built in flexibility so that if one child seems really out of sorts, I do the week review with them early and we adjust plans then. These plans incorporate things the children want to do - and I will eliminate something on the master plan that covers the same thing. It also allows me to freely substitute something if what we are doing is simply not working. (Ie RC history worked great for the high schooler but my younger dc just floundered - so I substituted either a textbook (for one child who loves textbooks) and simply asked the 10 yo to select a history book for his reading from now on since he is "finished with the CHC reading and dropped formal history for him."
When we hit about now and realize we are no where near halfway through my master plan, I remind myself of 2 things - 1)we are making progress and achieving main goals and some of this stuff does not have to be done and 2) teachers in schools do not finish textbooks or everything on their plan either. We just know it is better to be overplanned than to be wasting children's time stammering around for something to do. By overplanning, I have lots of resources so that my dc are free to go on any number of tangents within a certain framework. I also begin to look at what the child has already accomplished and ferreting out stuff that he has already learned with the work done so far - a child who you were worried needed tons of writing practice may actually take off after a month and you no longer need to worry about assigning so much practice on this so we do delete some of that work from the program. If they are doing an intensive grammar review in Latin, then I may decide to skip English grammar this year or for a while and if we need to drop that in order to have a free summer, we do. If I have a child that is a super strong writer and they've already written several papers and done well, I don't have to insist on a paper for every book they read for English Lit., etc.
So I guess what I say is that I plan in great detail for myself - but do not expect the actual lessons to really look like this in the end. I'd simply rather have the experiment supplies on hand at the beginning of the year and it is hard to tell which ones the child is going to run with and which will be a cursory looking at the concepts - but the child has more choice if I've done enough planning to have a variety of equally acceptable alternatives. Since it helps me to put a sequence to the stuff so I know where the concepts might be explained, I plan it as if we are doing everything in an orderly sequence - but I really know that we are going to weed out and diverge from time to time. With the plans, I have a readily available set of notes to let me know if the new plan is a reasonable one - or at least pg # in references to look up when the experiment brings up questions. It helps me not to be a ditz and my dc are happier not waiting around for my guidance or second guessing what I might consider sufficient work. The most important thing is that we keep communicating so that we DO change our plans as we need to.
Janet
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Dawn
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Rachel, I'm sorry my PM box was full! I will post here soon (maybe at my blog too) about lesson planning.
I do have a routine, usually done Friday through Sunday, to prepare for the week. If I have a bigger-picture in view ahead of time it is extremely helpful. For example, I like to work around seasons - winter being January and February. That gives my planning a track to run on. Then I have certain things like Story of the World, Saxon etc. that we just take a lesson at a time.
OK, so by Friday I sit down and look at what we didn't accomplish. I pull those items out of my folder and insert them in a new weekly folder. My weekly folder is a regular file folder - I have 52 of them in my file crate, each labeled with their week and sorted into seasonal folders:
Winter: January-February
Lent/Easter: March-April
Spring: May-June
Summer: July-August
Autumn: September-October
Holidays: November-December
Inside these folders go any materials having to do with that particular season as well as the 8 or 9 weekly file folders that fall within that time frame.
I use one folder a week - I tape a week-at-a-glance schedule to the outside of it and fill that in. Inside the folder I start filing any papers we need for the week - work, emails about coop, print outs of ideas, church bulletin, CCD reminders, etc. I also transfer in any papers - unfinished matters - from last week.
I have a crate that holds our basic curriculum materials, another with liturgical books, and each boy has a tote bag with his specific materials. For instance, the Story of the World is in the master crate, but Saxon 7/6 is in my 11 yo's bag.
I begin a list for the week - what we will be working on within each subject: religion, math, language arts, hisory, science, nature study, art, music, other (including activities). Then I set about compiling the materials - sometimes photocopying things.
I have enjoyed putting together the bulletin board as a visual reminder of our week. It kind of gives the week a flavor and theme. I tend to update that every other week or so.
On Mondays we "meet" and discuss what I expect and what is coming up this week. We look at the board. We talk about the liturgical season, any feasts, the calendar, any activities we will be attending.
I also have a schedule in place that makes the planning easier - history is M-W-F, science is T-TH, that kind of thing. It doesn't always stay as neat as that, but it gives me a place to start. I am actually revamping the whole thing as I just ordered Latin and new Language arts materials. Actually, all the subjects got their mid-year review recently so there's lots of tweaking being done.
Ah, I fear this post is scatter-shot, but I have to leave it at this. I will try to post more (organized) thoughts, soon!
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Theresa
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Janet, thank you for taking the time to type all that out. I enjoyed reading it.
Dawn what did you order for Language Arts? I just ordered Learning Language Arts through Literature for my 2nd grader. He finished his current book (which was from 1st grade) and I thought this looked fun and very hands on rather than to just finish a page and put the book away.
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Rachel,
I'm with you! Usually I'd love to poke my nose around in other homeschool moms' lesson plans and then talk with each of them about how much of those plans they actually accomplish. I always feel like I have SO MUCH to learn!! ...To me it seems so necessary to put everything down on paper, but I can never get it all done and I'm just beginning to realize that it's okay. I'm a little obsessive-compulsive about lesson planning but I'm trying to relax !
With that in mind...I do a curriculum guide (year-at-a-glance) on Microsoft Word, with columns across for subject areas and rows down for the months. I plug in my units and when I'm done, a copy goes into the kids' notebooks as well as my plan book. I refer to it a lot throughout the year and I do tweak it some as we go. It helps me stay on track. I'm more than happy to share what our Curriculum Guide looks like, but without a blog site I wouldn't know how. 
I also do daily lesson plans but this is where my hang-ups are most of the time. Sometimes I think I'd be better off without them, but I'm not ready to completely let them go just yet. I do a week at a time, filling in a weekly grid and every year we've pared down to less and less "formal" lessons since I have so many little ones. Everything takes so much more time than I thought it would! For example, yesterday I'd planned to cut paper snowflakes AND grow a snowman made of crystals from a kit we got as a gift. After realizing that ALL of the children needed more help & guidance in cutting their snowflakes than I thought (not just the little ones), I scratched through the crystal snowman plans and figured we'd just do it next year. Thank goodness there's always next year...(at least for now!!)
Happy Planning!
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Dawn
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I just put up a post about our lesson planning. By the end of the weekend I hope to have another post up with our actual lesson plan for the week.
I'm still tweaking the weekly routine, but I will also be posting what we try to do every day (i.e. history on MWF, science on TTH, that kind of thing).
Theresa in MN wrote:
| Dawn what did you order for Language Arts? |
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Theresa, I'm sorry I didn't see your question earlier. We are using Lingua Mater for my 11yo (we'll use it through next year) and Language of God Level A for my 7yo. We are also using Little Stories for Little Folks for 7yo, who is still learning to read. My 5yo likes Little Folks Letter Practice.
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Becky Parker
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I loved reading your lesson planning blog Dawn. Your school room is so bright and cheery! I also love to plan and feel it gives us a fresh start on things - especially if the previous week didn't go so well! I like your ideas of dividing the year into seasons and having file folders for each. I might steal that if you don't mind? I have file folders too but mine are by month. It seems it would organize things and help with planning to categorize by season. Anyway, thanks for posting!
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Theresa
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No worries Dawn. I had actually forgotten that I had asked the question. 
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marianne
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I start thinking about what I'm going to teach and use for the next year in January. I try to make decisions by the time our HS conference rolls around at the beginning of April. I spend the summer planning out the year - filling in my lesson planners for each week and each kid. It's really fun!
I do change things around throughout the year, but at least I have a framework and I know by looking at my planner if we have time for another lapbook or something. Sometimes I ax entire chunks - my 6yo started the year with MFW K, but it has gotten too easy and repetitive for him, so I'm seriously altering his plan. Oh well!
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lapazfarm
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This is so interesting! I love reading about how others plan, though I have to say it does sometimes make me feel like a slacker!
Though I usually have a "big picture" kind of plan in my head, which is determined by discussion between ds and myself,my planning of late (since I set up our learning stations) has been to walk around with a stack of 3X5 cards and a pen in my pocket. That way when ds or I get an idea about what we want to do, I can jot it down and file it at the appropriate station. When ds finishes a project or activity on the current card, I pin up the next one.
For dd (5) I have her Montessori-like shelves set up and each weekend I assess which materials she will keep longer, and which need to be rotated out. Then I do it and have it set up for her for the next week.
I keep lesson planning fairly simple around here, but I am able to do so only because I have worked very hard ahead of time to set things up to work that way. For those with little daily or weekly planning time, I highly recommend setting up centers. 
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Theresa
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Marianne, We use MFW also and we too felt that by halfway through the K year we had it down. We did stick it out though and added in other things like some lapbooks and unit studies with the older children.
We have used MFW K, 1st, Exploring Countries and Cultures and this year we are doing Creation to Greeks.
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Angel
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lapazfarm wrote:
I keep lesson planning fairly simple around here, but I am able to do so only because I have worked very hard ahead of time to set things up to work that way. For those with little daily or weekly planning time, I highly recommend setting up centers. |
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Theresa, I know you have your grandbabies running around... I've tried to set up shelving/centers, but they get demolished before I'm even done with them. Do you spend a lot of time maintaining the centers?
How much time do you spend setting up/maintaining your centers every week? For that matter, how much time do others spend on lesson planning in general?
--Angela
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lapazfarm
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Angel wrote:
lapazfarm wrote:
I keep lesson planning fairly simple around here, but I am able to do so only because I have worked very hard ahead of time to set things up to work that way. For those with little daily or weekly planning time, I highly recommend setting up centers. |
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Theresa, I know you have your grandbabies running around... I've tried to set up shelving/centers, but they get demolished before I'm even done with them. Do you spend a lot of time maintaining the centers?
How much time do you spend setting up/maintaining your centers every week? For that matter, how much time do others spend on lesson planning in general?
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Ok, if you saw the centers on my blog (here) this might make more sense, but here goes.
The 11 year old's geocenter, math lab and history corner are in a room that can be gated off from the toddler, so no problem there. The language lab and science lab are high enough that the little dear can't reach yet.
My 5 year old's montessori shelves are like cubbies, and I just make sure that the lower ones have things on them that the toddler can't hurt. He actually doesn't seem all that interested because I set up little bins of toys in each room for him to access at his level and that helps keep him out of other people's business. The 3 yo can use some of the 5yo materials but knows to ask first (because I have to show him how to use them properly or redirect him to more age-appropriate materials), plus I have a low table in the living room with baskets underneath of blocks, cars, etc to keep him busy.
It honestly does not take much time to set it all up each week. I have a couple of cabinets crammed full of stuff to rotate out.
Clean-up isn't a big deal as I "peg" it to lunch, snack, nap, etc and everyone pitches in.
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Theresa
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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: Lesson Planning
