Our lesson plan: {sample page}

Someone asked to see my lesson plan, so here is a sample of one of our weekly plans:

[I truly hope you can see that.  It took me about 30 minutes to even figure out how to add that onto the blog!]


Let's see if any explanation is required on this:

*This is week 8 of our 36-week schedule.  Basically, I just took a thorough look at each of the kids' books ahead of time, and divvied up the lessons I wanted to cover over the 36 weeks we'll be doing school.

*The symbols represent each of the school-aged kids- it was just easier and took less space this way.  [Ella is the flower; Isaac, the star; and Isaias, the diamond-thing.] Anything that does not have a symbol is something we all do together.

*The reason I chose this format is simply because my goal was to get each week onto one page.  (Success!)

*This is a really full week of school for us.  Most weeks Mark has a day off, and on those days the only school subjects we tackle are Nature Study and English (he wanted to continue the kids' one-on-one English time and have the opportunity to do it with them.)  So, usually we truly only have a 4-day school week with Saturdays being the "catch-up" day.

I don't think having everything planned out so completely is necessary for every homeschooling family.  But it helps ME; and it has benefitted our family.  I have found that the more organized I am upfront, there's less of the frenzied decision-making I have to do throughout our days-- (Ella sitting at the table waiting for me to tell her what she's supposed to do next, but I'm changing a diaper and then I have to deal with a correction issue and aack!... there Ella (or Isaac or Isaias) sits, waiting on me.)  This solves that connundrum for us.  Our weekly schedule will be available for the kids to see and they will know what needs to be accomplished that day and will be able to roll with our school schedule if I'm not available at any given moment because I'm tending to the little girls.

It's also helpful in that I know that planning it all out this way means that we will get through all that I want to get through in our school year.  Instead of the other alternative- one I'm all too familiar with- of... getting to the end of the year but only being 1/3 of the way through a book!  ;)

If you have any questions about anything you see on the schedule, feel free to ask in the comments and I'll respond.  :)

In addition to this schedule, I have a chore chart posted up on the fridge for the kids, a "master binder" for the year, and an "order/flow of our school day" listed for my own brain that I'll consult for the first couple of weeks until we get into a good routine and it's second-nature to me and I won't need the list anymore.  :)  If anyone is interested in seeing any of those things, let me know and I'll post pictures or the list. 





8 comments:

  1. We decided to do a school store this year also! Very fun to see what you all will be up to. :) I would enjoy seeing the flow of your days as well!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing this. Color me impressed-- I can't even get my oldest's assignments transfered from the spreadsheet on which I wrote them, onto his assignment sheet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Stacy, you are the queen of organization! Love it. I would like to see your chore chart.....if getting the actual chart up is too hard, I really just would like to see what kinds of chores your kids do (since our kiddos are about the same ages.....give or take). I'm always looking for new ways/things for my children to do to learn responsibility.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You really are a wonder. I know all the work it took to plan the year, and then to get it onto the one-page-a-week schedule. Well done!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. ok I love that format. how did you get that format?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jodi~
    Hooray! I'll post soon on the flow of our days. :)


    Annie~
    ;) Well, you're ahead of me. My kids don't even have assignment sheets! I considered doing a daily checklist for Ella but decided that she could check hers off of my list if she wanted. Less work for me. :)


    Sarah~
    Not really. You should see my house. ;)
    I'll snap a picture of our chore chart and post it soon.


    Mark~
    Thank you, Kind Husband. (Who freed up lots of time for me to get this accomplished!) Thank YOU!


    Andrea~
    It's a really basic word processing blank document, and I just used made a "Table", filled it in with info, then cut and pasted it on down and changed the info as I went along. (Does that help? I am VERY technically challenged; even spreadsheets stress me out. This was the simplest way for me to achieve a basic daily checklist.)


    Blessings to you all!
    ~Stacy

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amazing!!! :)
    I want to see it ALL....the flow. the chores. the master binder. the lunch menu. I love, love, love knowing what you and your kids are up to!! :) Hope your day at the zoo was super fun! Love you!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I know that this is an old post, but I love the actual file on here. I am having the hardest time figuring out how to make one of my own that I can plug in what we need to read and the lessons we want to cover each week. Do you have a template you could email that I could edit or could you tell me how you made this file?

    :) Thanks

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting! I love hearing from you, and I will do
my best to reply back to you in the comment section.