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Becky Parker
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| Posted: Nov 05 2012 at 6:46am | IP Logged
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I have really enjoyed reading through this thread on the prepared lesson. I don't know where I was when it was first posted because I don't recall seeing it, but the timing is perfect for me to read it now!
The other day, I read this blog post at Bravewriter and felt that it was also perfect for me to read at this time.
I've been feeling the need to get more serious with how we educate our children here. I think I go through stages, depending on life, where I get too loose with things and I don't see a lot of learning taking place. I've been in one of those stages for a while and needed a jolt to get me out of it. The two links above are just the medicine for me. I see where the planning is so beneficial and, with the planning the "follow through" is more bound to happen. I'm struggling with when to do all this planning though. I have thought about taking a Saturday each month, leaving dh with the kids, and focusing on planning, but I'm not sure that could ever happen. Our Saturdays are usually very busy. When do you do your planning?
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Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Nov 05 2012 at 7:51am | IP Logged
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I do different layers of planning, Becky, and each of these layers gets more detailed, working from a big picture inward. A big investment of time on the front end of planning yields more time to live the plan, be flexible, and have time for mini-chunks (15 - 30 min) of planning during the year.
:: Summer planning - this is my longest and biggest investment of planning time and includes choosing books for each student for the upcoming year, building a booklist, and considering the year overall.
:: Term planning and Weekly planning - These actually culminate into one formatted weekly lesson plan sheet that repeats each week throughout the term and lay out the details of the term's work. So the term plans are formatted into a week's worth of work that just repeat each week of the term. I do this before each new term.The time it takes me to build these weekly plans which repeat each week of the term varies, but we usually take a week off between terms and that's my time to plan and build these.
I am able to print a fresh set of weekly plans on Thursday or Friday. With the age/grade span in our home (11th grade, 7th, 3rd, preschool) each child has their own lesson plans. After I print, I put the child's lesson plans on their clipboard which stays on the shelf with their books.
This system is SO helpful to me because we don't have the Monday morning freak-out anymore! And no "stay-up-insanely-late-on-Sunday-night-building-the-week's-l esson-plans" anymore.
Build a generic plan/list that repeats weekly, check off the work as it is completed and make notes on it during the week, print a fresh plan/list at the end of the week - lather, rinse, repeat.
:: Mini-chunks of planning time - Once I have a good set of detailed weekly plans built, my investment of time goes into our prepared lessons, listening to narrations, and working with my littles.I may grab 15 - 20 minutes here or there during the day to work, prepare and plan something. This is a reasonable and realistic chunk of time for me - I can usually find this kind of time somewhere in my day whether the kids are outdoors playing, working independently, playing on their own somewhere, or I'm grabbing a few minutes in the evening after they go to bed (but I don't like to do that!!!! That's my time to spend with my dh or reading something I enjoy and I guard that time!)
The chunks of time I may have for planning *during* the term are limited because I need time to be attentive to the kids in *living* the plan, so I intentionally invest my time heavily in the beginning (summer and between terms).
That's the system that I've worked into over the years - it's comfortable for us and works, and it's allowed me to be flexible when survival times present themselves. Since you work more with workboxes than I do, Becky, you might find a different system that's more intuitive for you and your family in planning.
If I found that I really needed to do or re-do some significant planning during the middle of a year, I'd just declare a week's break from school, line up some good educational DVD's and older child babysitting time (if you have an older child) and get some focused work done!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Nov 05 2012 at 8:09am | IP Logged
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Oh, I thought of a couple of other types of planning I do...which I guess is less planning and more strewing. 
I like to freshen things seasonally - both with the liturgical season and natural season.
Each month, I set out picture books and reading for the liturgical year in a basket. I also have a monthly file folder for the liturgical year that I collect scraps of ideas and articles in and I set that out with my liturgical year books. Sometimes, what we do is very sparse, and other times I have more time to plan...or an older child likes to look in our liturgical year file and plan something. It varies. But, I do try to strew things out each month so that ideas are out there.When do I do this strewing? I try to anticipate the month upcoming and change out our reading basket at the end of the month. Sometimes I manage to do that, and sometimes I don't. And I have always, always loved changing up picture books and our home atmosphere to coordinate with the natural seasons. We've always loved reading seasonally as well as reading along with pertinent current events. When? This kind of strewing is easy enough for me to do in little chunks of time at the end of a day when lessons are winding down so I just tend to plan, strew and set things about as inspiration strikes.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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violingirl
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I see this in two parts- the advance planning that serves the entire year, and then the daily or weekly planning that needs to take place.
My advance planning:
I set up our plan for the next year in March so that I can purchase anything we need by the end of May. While we technically school year round, we take June off from everything but reading and math and I sit down and invest my time into setting up a plan for the next school year- first by the quarter, then by the month, then down to the week. So the time we would usually school each day I plan- I have no idea what my boys do all day on those days.  Lots of fort building and legos and adventuring, I'm sure.
We officially start our school year in July, and from there it's easy for us to continue because I have our year mapped out (complete with time for rabbit trails  ).
On a daily or weekly level, I try to do some of the administrative type work during schooling time. For example, after I've taught my 7yo's math lesson he starts work on his workbook page and I take a few minutes to write in assignments for the next week. I'm still right there with him if he needs help or has a question, but I can use that 10 minutes to set up some of his work for the next few days. I can type in the copywork for the next week or two and get that printed, or I can take a moment to hole punch and file the notebooking pages we did from the last few days... whatever it is that needs done.
I don't write out assignments more than a week or two ahead because I hate to have to re-do weeks worth of plans because we all got the flu or something.
Otherwise, my husband has a game night with my brothers and some other guys twice a month where they get together to play Settlers of Cattan and those sorts of things, so I use those nights to do any extra digging around for school extras after the kids are in bed.
I hesitate to mention this because I know it can be such a time-waster for some folks, but Pinterest has been such a great tool for me to quickly pin school ideas that I can reserve for later- since I have a general timeline of our year's history and science topics in my head I pin things as I come across them and then they're right there waiting for me when it comes time to really plan those units. :) I can pin booklists I come across, projects other homeschoolers have done that I thought were interesting, notebooking pages, etc. Of course, you have to actually get around to DOING them and not just pinning them, but for me being the visual creature I am it really helps me to have those ideas in one place.
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Erin
DS (2005) DS (2007) DD (2012)
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AmandaV
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| Posted: Nov 07 2012 at 12:00am | IP Logged
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Becky Parker wrote:
I have really enjoyed reading through this thread on the prepared lesson. I don't know where I was when it was first posted because I don't recall seeing it, but the timing is perfect for me to read it now!
The other day, I read this blog post at Bravewriter and felt that it was also perfect for me to read at this time. |
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Excellent post on brave writer, Becky! A friend posted it today too. What a kick in the pants. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the prepared lesson thread too. I'm still mulling over and trying to apply the great wisdom shared!
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Amanda
wife since 6/03, Mom to son 7/04, daughter 2/06, twin sons 6/08 and son 7/11, son 1/2014
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: Nov 07 2012 at 7:29pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for the help. I know planning is discussed here on a regular basis and it probably gets a little old! Please bare with me.
Like you, Jen and Erin, I do my big picture planning over the summer. We do not school year round so I start my planning in early March (because I need something that picks me up a bit) and it takes until mid June to get it all done. (Then I buy all the new school books on my birthday in June!  )
I did that this year, I even planned things out per term but we had a rough start (actually a great start but just too busy to get to some of the school work) so my term plans had to be revamped.
So, feeling a little out of sorts (but not completely because I still have the big plan), I read the great post by Amanda, highlighting Caroline's blog post about the Prepared Lesson and now I'm feeling way behind in my planning, and completely inadequate! 
Soooo, I feel like I need to get my year straightened out and do more in the way of preparation, like reading ahead and preparing discussion topics. I am so inspired by your thread on Caroline's Prepared Lesson post and all the replies it's getting, Amanda!
I discussed my need for some time to prepare and plan with my dh just this evening and he graciously said he would take the boys on a hike this weekend. That will give me a few hours to work, so I'm thankful, and wondering why I didn't just ask him to do that earlier. Now I'm thinking I should have a game plan so I don't waste time rattling around trying to decide where to start!
If you were going to create a planning/lesson preparing checklist, what are some of the things you would put on it? I am such a list person. I'm thinking that if I have a checklist I will be able to use my time more productively. I already have my big picture, and I have everything broken down so that I know what page in the grammar, math, science ... book we will do. But I feel like I'm just assigning, not really preparing and then following through as the Bravewriter blog emphasizes.
So now, after that long ramble, if you're still with me...I'd love to hear how, when given an hour or two of peace and quiet, you use your planning time. Does anyone actually have a checklist?
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Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: Nov 08 2012 at 5:22am | IP Logged
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Mackfam wrote:
Build a generic plan/list that repeats weekly, check off the work as it is completed and make notes on it during the week, print a fresh plan/list at the end of the week - lather, rinse, repeat.
.................................
The chunks of time I may have for planning *during* the term are limited because I need time to be attentive to the kids in *living* the plan
.................................
If I found that I really needed to do or re-do some significant planning during the middle of a year, I'd just declare a week's break from school, line up some good educational DVD's and older child babysitting time (if you have an older child) and get some focused work done! |
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Thanks Jenn, I found these points to be very helpful. My struggle right now is the need to "live the plan" when the plan is in need of repair. I love the idea of taking a week but I feel like we lost so much time at the start of the year (we were traveling a lot through the months of Aug/Sept) that we can't afford it. Schooling year round makes so much sense to me. I wish we could just put that into action. It's like pulling teeth around here though.
As I mentioned above in my rather rambly post, I do have at least a few hours of uninterupted time this weekend so I'm hoping to get a good start on getting things back in order.
Regarding the generic plan you mention above, do you have an example on your blog that I could see? Is this like your table for a "Year With Knights and Explorers"? I had it bookmarked but for some reason I can't access it now.
I'm still waiting for you to write that book, by the way! 
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Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: Nov 08 2012 at 5:33am | IP Logged
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violingirl wrote:
On a daily or weekly level, I try to do some of the administrative type work during schooling time. For example, after I've taught my 7yo's math lesson he starts work on his workbook page and I take a few minutes to write in assignments for the next week.
.......................
I hesitate to mention this because I know it can be such a time-waster for some folks, but Pinterest has been such a great tool for me to quickly pin school ideas that I can reserve for later- |
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It sounds like your planning is a lot like mine, Erin. I have always done some of the administrative things during the day when I grab a few minutes. I just realized part of my issue lately is my toddler. He's like none I've ever had! Into everything and wreaking havoc where ever he goes. So, when I would normally be correcting a math page or jotting a few notes, I am now usually cleaning up spills, wiping marker off the walls, or putting the tupperware back into the cupboard for the umpteenth time. I have to remember our dynamics change with each child and I can't expect to keep doing everything the same.
I love the pinterest board idea. I actually started one for that very purpose. I just haven't taken much time to get it organized!
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Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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JuliaT
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I am doing my planning a bit different this year. I am doing all of my planning in 6 week chunks. Every 6 weeks we take a week off and this is when I do the planning for the next 6 weeks. We are on week 12 and, so far, this system is working well for us.
During that week off, I plan for history and literature. I make a list of the books that I want for that 6 week chunk before the week off and then I order them from the library so that their arrival is timed for when I need them (this has taken alot of trial and error but I am getting pretty good at it now )
I then write for each day of each week what I want to cover this includes discussion topics, actvities, projects, books to read, etc.)
Then I plan out each week for each child. Each child has their own color coded file folder. I write on a sheet of paper what I want them to cover for that 6 week chunk for each subject. I also write out any copywork that is expected for that week, as well as what they are to read.
This sounds like a lot of planning but it seems to work very well for us. In planning every 6 weeks, I can change things around if they are not working without messing up the whole year. I think we will be doing this next year as well.
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Julia
mom of 3(14,13 & 11 yrs.old)
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Making time for prep and follow through
