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lesson plans

1K views 10 replies 10 participants last post by  Magali 
#1 ·
Does anyone NOT use formal lesson plans? I just follow along with a curriculum and keep appropriate benchmarks in mind and mostly work to my child's needs rather than maintaining a rigid schedule. I feel like we have a very appropriate level of structure and things are going well for both of us.
 
#2 ·
Are there many people who do use formal lesson plans for homeschooling? I can't imagine doing that myself. I usually have several specific ideas about things I want my kids to learn in the near future. For instance, soon I'd like to start teaching DD about multiplying and dividing fractions, while also continuing to give her practice on decimals and percentages. And I'd like to teach DS about doubling consonants and dropping silent e's when adding "ing" or "ed" to words. But I don't have any specific methods or schedule planned for teaching. We have some workbooks that probably have pages I can use; I'll have a look at them and see. If I can't find what I want, I'll just come up with my own explanations and practice work. I don't normally plan out a whole sequence of lessons all at once; I'll just decide a day at a time what the next step should be. I don't decide ahead of time how long to spend on one subject, because it depends on how fast my kid picks up the concepts. Sometimes I'll make a list of things I want to do or have the kids do in the near future and sometimes I just have ideas in my head but don't bother to write them down. At the start of each school year, I generally have some ideas about things we might do that year and I let other ideas develop as the year goes along.
 
#3 ·
No formal lesson plans for us.

However, this year, I am writing down my weekly/monthly expectations of progress. The girls like to be able to check off a list. It will remain very fluid as I like to adjust for their individual pace and to carve out time to dive into an interest.

Also this year we are doing US history (haven't done this in a few years). Since I have three distinct levels to aim for, I am creating a timeline with resources for myself. Hopefully, it will keep my attempt at multi level history sane. :) I want my youngest to explore it, my oldest to dig deep, and my middle to fall somewhere in the middle. We still plan on using stories, videos, field trips, and hands on learning for each level.

Amy
 
#4 ·
I don't know any body, on line or in person, using "formal lesson plans" or keeping a "rigid schedule". Not any homeschooling family I have ever met, even those that have a far different style than we do (we are unschoolers). I know some folks who work with online "schools", who expect some sort of lesson plans, neither is very "formal" (usually it's just a phone conversation) nor rigid (neither in scheduling, or sticking to the plans. They sounded very flexible the way it was described).
 
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#5 ·
I know a few people who use a lesson plan, but they are all "planner" type personalities, KWIM?
The only planning we really do is the kids making a list of what they are interested in doing, mostly so we can remember to follow up on ideas. Because I am NOT a planner by nature! ;) The only subject I try to do in any sort of order is math, and that only because it tends to flow better that way. For my oldest, anyway, the youngest isn't into math other than counting her money so far.
 
#6 ·
I don't even do as much as you do. No formal curriculum, except in math which is done fairly sparingly and in a child-led way. I honestly don't know of anyone in real life who follows a lesson plan, though I know a few who do as you do, using a curriculum loosely, picking and choosing, keeping an eye on the program but not following it day to day. I think that when you look around on the internet you sometimes see intimidating examples of people's lesson plans and organizational approaches, but I think this is a tiny minority of homeschoolers. The small handful of hyper-planners are the same small handful who like to write down exactly what they're doing every day on blogs or websites, so it's easy to get a skewed view of things. In the trenches you'll find the vast majority of people doing various styles of Muddling Along quite happily.

Miranda
 
#7 ·
Depends on what you mean by formal lesson plans. I skipped Kindergarten and started with 1st grade. I use a weekly planner (started with teacher's planner from the office supply store, now use my own and photo copy every school year). In the beginning, I only planned 3 months, then took a month off to plan the next 3 months. And everything is written in pencil so it can be erased if we decide to change something or need more time on anything. That was back when we home schooled on our own. Now that we are home schooling high school (11th grade this coming fall) through a charter school, I plan for an entire year to get through each subjects/textbooks on time. I plan for a 9 month school year; the charter school uses a 10 month school year. That gives us an additional 4 weeks to cover any slow downs during the school year. Then break it down into subjects where I can write down in greater detail. I use a 3 ring binder with dividers for every subject taken that year. The first divider is the over view of the entire year. All the rest are by month within each subject. The last divider is for blank photocopy orginials. We have a monthly conference with the school. I take the binder with me. It has what he has done, sample papers and tests to turn in, grades on all work he has done, etc. He also does speeches, oral reporting, brings in projects finished (or a record of it in photos, videos, etc.), etc. at that time as well.

But I'm a planner. I also have written production charts for work and a weekly dinner menus on the fridge. When we had multiple children at home, I had a weekly chore chart so everyone knew who did what when. My calendar is my diary, everything is on it.
 
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#10 ·
Every Sunday night I sit down and plan the school week. I use a notebook as a lesson planner and look at each subject and plan out what we will be doing each day. It wouldn't work well for me just getting up in the morning and thinking "ok, well today we will do this and that..." I must be one of those planner types. You should see at Christmas when I plan out the feasts I will cook. I have a huge schedule of all the prep/cooking I need to do. Lol, I never really thought people don't make lesson plans.
 
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