Do you follow lesson plans?

[Handsomesmomma]

This is our fourth (YIKES and WOW) year of homeschooling and every year around this time I drive myself crazy trying to make sure that I am making the right choices for the upcoming year. I swear by the time the boys are in college I will have perfected all of this

The first year when oldest ds was in K I used a purchased curriculum complete with lesson plans (which I loosely followed).

Year two I did the same with good results, but, did not enjoy all of the reporting test taking aspect of it.

This past year I had two boys to teach...one in second and one in K and did stay with most of the same text books, but opted not to purchase the lesson plans. I supplemented with lots of other things since I had the extra money available from not purchasing the lesson plans. For the most part, things went well, but I did not do as much work expanding on the lessons as I was hoping. I also have a toddler too who was keeping us busy

So...now I have been thinking and thinking some more about what to do this coming year and had come to the conclusion of enrolling again, but had decided to purchase some of the materials elsewhere since I did not care for everything.

Still with me?

I just wanted to get an idea of how many of you are not going by pre paid lesson plans? I used to consider myself classical, but, I am thinking I am becoming more eclectic and it kind of scares me a little since I am not as organized as I would like to be, kwim?

I really appreciate your thoughts

Ann-Marie

[One_Girl]

I printed off our districit standards for dd's grade and one grade up and used that to plan what I was going to teach her this year. Once we were started I just went off of where she was at and extended her in the areas she had interest in while also introducing other things that kids her age learn. I usually just plan what I am going to do with her that morning or the night before for a few minutes and do it because we are mostly going in depth into areas she loves to explore. I wouldn't don't pay for much for homeschooling except some math workbooks that came very cheap. We used her legos for manipulatives and I used a pen and paper to make up a place value mat when we did regrouping. I think it worked better than school did because she made a lot more progress this way than she did in school.

[caefi]

we are starting our 11th year this fall and I *still* do that "freaking out" as I plan for the next school year. To make it even better, this year the plan was set, then there was a wrench thrown in it. I adusted, made the new plan and felt content. until.... another wrench was thrown in it and everything changed once again!!!! lol

We do not follow a daily lesson plan. We use AO and their weekly schedule. The kids are given the list of what needs to be read that week and they check it off as they do it. Narrations just happen through our daily life. I have two daughters that this doesn't work well for, though. They break their weekly schedule down into a daily schedule and follow that. One of those is also not doing AO.

I dunno, the going crazy making sure everything is just right is so much part of the cycle I dunno how to avoid it, calm it or anything else. lol I just use it to make sure that i am confident I labored over the year's work so when doubts crop up later I can go, "hey now! I didn't make these decisions lightly!"

Good luck and enjoy!!!

[Momma Aimee]

subbing

[Lillian J]

I started out with some lessons - activities designed to teach certain things - but I came to realize that my son learned things quite easily without the extra fuss of lessons to convey the information or skills. That shouldn't have been so surprising - adults don't tend to need lessons designed by someone else in order to learn a whole lot of things - but I had teacher training behind me, so I started out with the idea that children' learning needed to be more orchestrated...

I'd also been observing the wonderfully impressive things they did in the Waldorf school he'd attended when he was in kindergarten, and I had some really good books on how to formulate lessons like those - so I was overdoing it, even though we spent very little time at it and it was actually pleasant enough stuff. It was still busy work in many ways, I finally realized. What changed my way of thinking was seeing the way he absorbed so many things that weren't being taught - it seemed as if he was learning things out of the clear air.

So I kept backing off until it got to the point where I wasn't introducing lessons any longer - I was merely providing lots of natural input from my own enthusiasm, as well as lots of rich experiences and materials he could use in a more straightforward way that suited the way he learned best, and, of course, helping him pursue whatever special interests came along. He occasionally used various math texts and computer software along the way, for instance, but they were used lightly rather than as regular parts of everyday activities. We didn't "do nothing" - it was a home in which learning, reading, and talking about interesting things was always modeled and pursued. And both his dad and I had the standard anxiety attacks along the way, only to turn around each time and realize we'd been worrying quite unnecessarily.

He was more than adequately prepared for successfully entering college classes in his teens, and he grew up with an enthusiastic love of learning and a sense of confidence that he could easily learn whatever it was he needed. He continued with the confidence through college - I was surprised to hear fellow students were coming to him to help him with chemistry, even though he'd never formally studied science or math and they had done so all through school. I'm not suggesting anyone do things exactly like we did - everyone is different - but I'm just offering a perspective that might help when it seems as if a more traditional route needs to be taken in order to succeed. Lillian

[DaughterOfKali]

I referred to the school districts website. It's not exactly a lesson plan but it states what that grade will be learning about. I kind of used it as a check list.

[zjande]

Like caefi, this fall we're starting our 11th yr of homeschooling, too.

I'm a dork who is confused by what you mean by "lesson plan". Do you mean a plan written out by someone other than you for every subject? Like if you bought a boxed curriculum for a whole year? Or do you mean the lesson plan you write yourself to follow for the year? If it's the former, we did that one year when my son was with Connections Academy for 4th grade. Otherwise, nope, never. If you mean the latter, I write out a very generalized lesson plan for our year (which is more like a goals list), but write out the "real plan for exactly what we're going to do today" each morning.

[elizawill]

i'm not exactly sure what you mean either. i guess i do follow "lesson plans", meaning we purchase curricula and use it. i don't create our agenda from scratch and don't aspire too. i've tried that and honestly, i felt like i was reinventing the wheel. there is enough out there that i already like & works well with my children, so there isn't a reason for me to make more work for myself. i buy from various publishers and pick & choose for different subjects. i like redshift and other living books site to complement topics we're covering. with some subjects, i will follow the curriculum pretty closely (not much we need to change with math, ykwim?). but for most subjects, i'll tend to use something merely as a "spine" and then we'll tailor it to suit our interests & add in movies, books, field trips, crafts, etc. this is true especially for history, geography, art, science, etc. anyway - that's how i prefer to do things. hth.

ETA - i also like rebecca rupp's book as a point of reference

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by elizawill

i'm not exactly sure what you mean either. i guess i do follow "lesson plans", meaning we purchase curricula and use it. i don't create our agenda from scratch and don't aspire too. i've tried that and honestly, i felt like i was reinventing the wheel. there is enough out there that i already like & works well with my children, so there isn't a reason for me to make more work for myself. i buy from various publishers and pick & choose for different subjects. i like redshift and other living books site to complement topics we're covering. with some subjects, i will follow the curriculum pretty closely (not much we need to change with math, ykwim?). but for most subjects, i'll tend to use something merely as a "spine" and then we'll tailor it to suit our interests & add in movies, books, field trips, crafts, etc. this is true especially for history, geography, art, science, etc. anyway - that's how i prefer to do things. hth.

ETA - i also like rebecca rupp's book as a point of reference

I can't find that site (redshift) and what other sites do you mean -- i am alwyas looking for more resources to find books to tie into things (now and espcailly for later).

Thanks

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

I can't find that site (redshift) and what other sites do you mean -- i am alwyas looking for more resources to find books to tie into things (now and espcailly for later).

Thanks

http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/LITmenu.htm

i also use sonlight, heart of dakota, living books curriculum, truthquest, ambleside, guest hollow, winter promise, etc. for lots of book ideas. Additionally, google books, project gutenberg, and main lesson are wonderful for free downloads. hth.

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by elizawill

http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/LITmenu.htm

i also use sonlight, heart of dakota, living books curriculum, truthquest, ambleside, guest hollow, winter promise, etc. for lots of book ideas. Additionally, google books, project gutenberg, and main lesson are wonderful for free downloads. hth.

THANKS -- I have pulled books lists off some of theose sites -- i'll look for the rest.

[PGTlatte]

I do not use any sort of lesson plans. I use checklists very loosely. I cannot stand to follow anything that feels scripted to me. It also seems to be an instant turn-off for my son when I try to follow any sort of script or plan.

[ohiomommy1122]

i set goala ever month or so and loosly follow our own lesson pla that I write but its never concrete ad changes often to gear toward interests I tried boxed curricula biyt it never really worked for us I started out very classical myself and have found myself become a mis of unschooly, ccharlote mason, eclectic... well basically we just do our own thing!