I used  a journal format as my means of record keeping when I was teaching kindergarten. This was helpful with keeping track of the school year and traditional lesson plans weren’t the best way of recording our year. I had a yearly overview and curriculum that I used, but didn’t write out any formal plans as I discussed in my previous posts. There are a wide variety of journals and I picked a style that was most comfortable for me.  Here is an example of what I did:

Monday, August 22

Reading– Today Malcolm and I worked on singing the ABC’s. I had him write the letters in rice. (Note: This is done by having a plastic, resealable container of rice that little hands and fingers can write  their letters instead of paper and pencil.) I read aloud Ten Terrible Dinosaurs, by Paul Strickland

Writing– He wrote his name and the word policeman when he drew his picture for Social Studies. We are starting to make a book of community helpers.

Math-Sorting/ Counting/Graphing- Malcolm sorted M&M’s into colors and we counted how many of each color were in the bag.We made a graph for each of the colors and as a treat ate ALL of them! 🙂

Social Studies- Community Helpers We read People at Work, by Bobbie Kalman and Malcolm drew a picture of what he might like to do when he grows up.

Art-He drew a picture of a policeman.

Science/Health– We read My Five Senses, by Aliki  Malcolm had to guess five different items by smell only. I put them in plastic snack bags and had him close his eyes and guess what the items were. cinnamon, cotton ball with vinegar, cotton ball with cologne, a stick of spearmint  chewing gum, a fresh lemon slice. We discussed colds and how you can prevent them such as, eat healthy foods, get plenty of rest, wash your hands, sneeze into a tissue or the crook over your arm, etc.

Junior/Senior High

You can also have your junior and senior  high students keep a journal or blog of their studies. You can check progress this way and  be independent, while still having your input and guidance. One of my sons visited coffee shops since he is interested in having his own one day. He kept a blog about where he had been, likes/dislikes, what he had to drink, house specialties, and photographs of the shop.

I hope this series has helped you with your lesson planning. I pray your school will be filled with many days of laughter and awe-filled days as you teach your child(ren).

Planning with Other Types of Curriculum

It’s just as easy to write out plans for other types of curriculum as it is with textbooks. The resources I have used in years past have been primarily library books and DVD’s. I have also used online courses, co-ops and educational programs where I dropped off my sons for a class, and have  had family,friends, and local parks teach classes to my sons as well.

Planning for  the Year

The first thing I do is decide what topics we are studying.  I then look for resources that go along them. For example, when we were studying Ancient Rome and Greece I had my son take a month-long online class on the Emperors of Rome.  At other  times I had my sons take online writing courses. Here I didn’t have a say as to when we were going to do it, I just worked my other plans around those classes. I would plug them into the schedule so I didn’t plan other things in that time slot.

I have written out an overview using multiple resources that you can view here Overview of Year Other Curriculum Note that all of the books and resources I have listed can be found at the library or online.

Planning for the Week

After I have made a tentative yearly schedule I believe the month is filled out well enough to give me a general idea of what should be covered so I don’t make a monthly schedule. I believe in less is best when it comes to paperwork.  I plan one week at a time, perhaps two if I am fairly certain things are going to be “normal” around my house. Here is a weekly lesson plan based upon the yearly overview listed in the above paragraph. Weekly Lesson Plan

Remember, do one thing at a time. Planning provides huge dividends and provides you with direction, a sense of accomplishment, and will give you more free time in the long run.

Part 4  Journal Entries The last in the series about lesson plans.

Nuts and Bolts

Now that you have gathered your curriculum and have given some thought to your academic year you are ready to begin the actual lesson planning.  Each of you is unique and what I have found to work when I am planning for the school year may not be helpful to you, but it can give you an idea of how it can be done. I will give you a few examples of lesson planning based upon whether you are using textbooks or using other modalities to teach your students. Most of the planning is the same, but each is a bit different when it comes to organizing your year. This article deals specifically about planning with textbooks.This is going to take some time so don’t be overwhelmed and take it in small portions. One thing at a time….

Set up an area, if at all possible, that you can spread out all of your books and resources. Perhaps find a place that won’t be disturbed (study, dining room table, my house- I am renting out space this year, gotta help pay for my missionary son’s living expenses somehow! Just teasing about my house.)

Before I even open up a book or unit study I stop and pray. I can use all the help I can get, right? 🙂 I dedicate the year to the Lord and ask for His guidance.

The first thing I do in planning the year is write down some character issues my husband and I have seen that need addressing and see how I can incorporate training in these areas while we are doing school. I also look at the academic goals I have set for the year and make a tentative month-by-month outline of what I want to accomplish so that we can meet those goals by the end of the year. I stick to this as much as possible, but things happen and I readjust as necessary.

Lesson Plans with Textbooks

When I use textbooks the first thing I do is see how many chapters or lessons there are in the book. I then adjust my overview of the year so that I am half-way through the book by Christmas since I am planning on finishing in May. I have a sample of what that looks like with two subject areas, click Overview of Year to view the document. As you can see, December is light so that I do not feel overwhelmed with trying to complete a lot with all of the extra curricular activities and vacation that occurs that month. I have only shown you 2 subjects, but I do this with all of the areas that I teach in one year.

Your months are basically mapped out at this point so you can begin to plan each week. I only plan a week at a time, but keep in mind what has to be accomplished in order to complete the monthly plan.

Look at your textbook and see how many pages are in each chapter. This will determine how much your student will do each day. For instance, if your spelling lesson has 4 pages, you can do a pre-test and overview of the lesson on Monday and assign a workbook page for Tuesday- Thursday and have Friday as a test day. Do that for each subject and write this in your lesson plan book or make a lesson plan that you create on your computer.

I chose to do my weekly overview on the computer since it made it so easy to update each week (or as needed if something unexpected came up). I also printed off each week’s assignments and placed them in a binder. I referred to this daily so I knew what we were doing and if I needed to gather supplies for science, art, etc. Here are some other ways to organize: Month at a Glance- Elem (getting more specific as you create a weekly plan), Adventure Log (a weekly plan). Notice the name, corny I know, but it made it more fun for me and hopefully the kids!

Things to Consider when Planning for the Year:

• Allow time off when things are hectic (Christmas, a new baby) or are not a part of your curriculum. (park program, field trip)
• Incorporate outside activities into your daily plans. (co-ops, community classes, sports, etc.) Frustration will set in if you don’t plan for this- I know from experience! 🙂
• Will you do school 4 or 5 days a week? If you do a 4 day school week be sure that you will finish your textbook by the time frame you have planned. Most textbooks are arranged for a 5 day school program.

Part 3: Planning with Other Curricula/ Modalities

One of the biggest areas that I have found my teaching experience has helped me with home schooling is lesson planning. In my perfect world I wouldn’t necessarily bother with a schedule, but we wouldn’t get much done either! I believe making lesson plans helps to give you a framework for your school day. This can be done either with a structured format such a lesson plan or a less structured format such as a journal. You can plan for each day, week, month, and before you know it, the whole year is done! I will be addressing the “how-to” of lesson plans for several posts since the explanation is fairly lengthy.

Do I sit down and plan out the whole year at one time? No, I think that it would be an overwhelming task, and besides I don’t have the stamina or time to do that- neither do you!  Set aside a few hours one week to lay out an overview of your year. (See part 2) After that has been accomplished, set aside one day a week to plan for the upcoming week. I usually spent 1-2 hours on Saturday morning writing out lessons and figuring out what materials were needed (science, art supplies).

Things to Consider before Diving into the Planning:

• In what direction do you want to go for the school year? Take some time to pray for wisdom and guidance.
• Have you discussed the upcoming school year with your husband? Have you considered receiving suggestions from your children? I have asked my children before what topics they would be interested in studying and have added units and/or resources accordingly (if the ideas were legitimate). I just discovered a resource about having a planning weekend with your whole family. If if doen’t work out for all of you to be involved, perhaps just you and your hubby can go. I think that sounds like a wonderful idea!
• Do you have all your curriculum and/or resources ready so you can start to plan? Have your supplies and materials (textbooks, library books and movies, etc.) available for easy reference. Don’t begin if you are missing the majority of your resources or are going to be using a certain curriculum  based on hearsay. One time I bought a curriculum via the internet and website recommendations that I planned on using for the entire year. I had already loosely organized my year around that curriculum, but didn’t like it once it arrived. That was hours of wasted time! 😦
• How long are you planning on being in session? Will you go year-round and take several breaks (school for 6 weeks- off for 2 weeks) or do something more traditional like begin in August and finish in May?
• Plan for breaks, holidays, vacations and the unexpected. How can you plan for the unexpected? Have a few “free” days throughout the year and if something would come up (winning an all-expense paid vacation to Tahiti) you won’t be stressed out if you have to send your children to grandma’s without schoolwork. If nothing occurs, you can either finish early or take the days off! 🙂
• Are you going to be utilizing other classes or programs outside your school for some of the coursework? Be sure to have those dates and times handy so you can plug those into your schedule.
• Don’t over commit! Do not plan on doing a great amount of extra curricular activities. While there are plenty of wonderful opportunities for you and your family, consider what you want to achieve by participating. Too many activities can lead to stress and not accomplishing what you set out to do. After all, it is called home schooling for a reason. 🙂
• Time of Day- When are you planning on being in school? Do you have toddlers, teens, aging parents or a lot of  orthodontist visits that you need to consider when setting your schedule? Plan for that as it will alleviate the stress of not planning and feeling like you are behind on what you had in mind for the school year.

Part 2 will be about writing lesson plans for textbooks and more traditional curriculum.