It’s been a long time since I have answered some of your homeschool questions! Today I wanted to talk about lesson planning. One of you asked me, “When do you find the time to plan lessons?”
The quick answer is that you can do as much or as little lesson planning as you want. Different curriculum requires different amounts of teacher preparation. If you enjoy lesson planning or even creating your own lessons from scratch then go for it! Just know that you will be investing a lot of time in preparing the weekly lessons for your homeschool. Some of you may dread the idea of lesson planning or perhaps you just don’t have the extra time to spend prepping for next week’s work. That’s okay! There are curriculum choices out there that do all the lesson planning for you!
When I just had two children and was homeschooling only one of them, I purchased a teacher intensive curriculum that had me spending all Sunday afternoon (and into the evening) prepping for the week ahead. Now I have six children (five that are old enough to homeschool) so my time is very limited and I prefer curriculum that I can just open up that morning and follow along (or make changes at the last minute).
I usually dedicate a few weeks in the summer to getting things all organized and mapped out for the year with general goal markers for each child. Then once school starts I try to find a half hour during the weekday to jot down a general plan for the next week, taking in to consideration outside activities that might conflict with our normal school hours.
I like to do my lesson planning while the kids are working independently on school work. Since the teacher manuals and school books are already out on the table and I have my lesson plan notebook right in front of me, it is easy to schedule next week’s work during this time.
The school days seem to run smoother when I invest a few minutes to lesson planning each week but I rarely spend more than a half hour a week planning lessons for my five school age kids. Part of the reason I don’t need to do too much lesson planning is that my kids already know what is expected of them each week using their My Student Logbook.
I know some of you probably enjoy having everything all planned out and organized. If that’s you then check out the links at the bottom of this post.
But some of you may need to hear the refreshing news that YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO ANY LESSON PLANNING AT ALL! Check out this excellent post by Misty over at Finding Joy in the Journey, where she shares how she keeps track of what her children are doing without planning ahead!
Need a little more help with lesson planning?
Lesson Plans from HSLDA
Creating Lesson Plans from Confessions of a Homeschooler
Structure or Flexibility? from Embark on the Journey
Organizing Your Homeschool Schedule by Teach Beside Me
P is for (Lesson) Plans by Homeschool Coffee Break
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