Homeschool: lesson & curriculum planning

One of the things I most look forward to for homeschool is the planning – both curriculum and lesson planning.

Each year, I spend quite a bit of time creating new lesson plans. Since I haven’t homeschooled my oldest in all grades, I don’t have lesson plans established for each grade. For example, I never homeschooled Lego Man for third grade, and that means that I don’t already have lesson plans for Wonder Woman to use this year for third grade. I’ve also never taught sixth grade or kindergarten, so this year I had to create all new lesson plans.

Next year, I have a full first grade curriculum complete with lesson plans for Super-Spider-PowerRanger Man ready to go; however, I will be starting fresh with Wonder Woman for fourth grade and Lego Man for seventh grade.

(I can’t believe I almost have a seventh grader.)

Each year in January I start with a blank spiral notebook and add some tabs to the side for subjects. Then I start taking notes on ideas I have for the next year. These ideas might be curriculum or other stuff. They might be specific lesson ideas or thoughts on daily work. I love the brainstorming part.

Last year as I brainstormed for what I would do this year, one thing I noticed is that the kids like having a lesson plan in front of them for the day. Perhaps you might call it a syllabus, but really it’s just an outline of the work they have to accomplish for the day.

I also realized that I needed to have a separate copy for myself. Here’s what I came up with for each of them to use. Each child has their name and grade in the spaces marked here.

And here’s the one I use for me. This one specifically only has the subjects we do as a group. I also have a separate one similar to this for each child covering each subject they have. It also has their name and grade on it. Because I'm working with different ages, I have two boxes for Bible, two boxes for science and two boxes for history. In one box I put what the oldest will do, and in the other box I put what the younger two will do. Sometimes it's the same, and sometimes the older one has more or different work. 

For the most part, I love what I came up with. As always after using it for a few months, I figured some things out that I would do differently next year.

Next year, I will have one sheet for the entire week for the two older kids. If this becomes an issue or overwhelms one of them (which it might), I can always go back to one sheet per day.

Also next year, I will do the complete lesson plans for each child and then make a copy of it instead of having to recopy by hand each one once I have the lesson plans ready. I definitely didn’t think this one through all the way.

Soon I will be picking their science for the 2013-14. Until then – happy homeschooling!