Our Homeschool Lesson Plan System

We have a very fluid lesson plan system that has evolved over time.  I have to say that I got a lot of ideas from Donna Young's website.  She has many good ideas about planning and setting yourself and your kids up for success. 

I once attended a conference session on homeschool organization run by a very nice lady who kept a very organized homeschool for her three daughters.  Before each school year starts, she plans the year in detail down to the assignment and the day, and they apparently stick to that plans until the school year is finished.  This conference session helped me not at all.  That is just not how we homeschool. 

I have general goals for the year for each boy.  I want them to be in a certain place in All About Spelling by the end of the school year, for instance.  There are certain things I'd like them to get through.  Mostly, I just want them progressing in their basic subjects at their own pace.  It is my belief that I could never predict accurately what that pace might be and do an entire year's worth of planning, down to each daily assignment.  They would be working instead at a pace that I had in mind for them. 

Our plans are constantly in flux.  They change depending on the weather, what activities are available, if a friend needs help, illness, mood, the children's interests, my interests, and the random things that pop up in life.  For instance, I had planned to be outdoors most of Monday, but we had torrential rains.  So, we did much more school work than I had originally planned. 

For me, a weekly plan is a general idea of what we will probably do that week.  I don't plan specific assignments.  I just write the book title down, and the kids do an assignment in it.  Bee generally goes in order with his books.  Bug is younger and so tends to skip around a lot more.  For his math books, I generally let him pick a page, and for handwriting he picks from printouts that I've put in a folder. The boys have to do a chore each morning, but they can pick from several things (take out trash or recycling, empty dishwasher, vacuum a room, tidy the entry hall). 

So, my planning system for the year, based on what has worked and not worked for me in the past, is to make a form with just about everything I might ask them to do in a day, jot down any activities or field trips we have, and circle the things I think we will have time to do.  In the morning, while I have my coffee, I use the planner as a guideline and give each boy a sticky note.  When they have everything crossed off, they can have their screen time privileges.  (Right now, we also have a prize bag in place, and they get a little treat when they finish school.)  I try to make sure that everything on the list is manageable for them--it's important that they not be overwhelmed.  It's important that they be able to get everything crossed off and that we all feel productive. 

Here is my weekly page: 

 

Obviously, the categories on it wouldn't really make sense to anyone but us.  There is enough room for me to jot down notes.  As I go through and circle what we will be doing that day, I can also print things or gather supplies for any craft or project I have planned.  I normally leave things pretty open though.  I may have planned a "Spanish Time" for us, but exactly what we do with that time will depend on what we all feel like doing at that particular time.  For instance, today Bug had a particular book that he wanted me to read to him (in Spanish) for Spanish time.  

It's pretty easy to make a table like this in any word processing program.  I didn't print off too many sheets at once, because I know I'll constantly be tweaking it, adding things and deleting things, maybe putting a little color in, etc.  

So that's what works for us!

Productivity and Organization Systems for Our Homeschool

I spent much of last weekend (in between folding laundry), trying to figure out what productivity tools I would use for the school year.  I had very much wanted to switch to a completely paperless system on my iTouch, but there are times when paper is still a lot more convenient, mostly because you can see more things at once. 

Here is my organizational plan so far. Some of these things have worked for me in the past, others are very similar to things that have worked for me in the past, and others are new. 

Non-electronic tools:

• I have a binder with my lesson plans and daily to-do list  for myself.  I will make a separate post explaining that system. 
• I can also put any papers or worksheets that we'll use that week in the binder.  (Our homeschool isn't worksheet heavy, but we do sometimes print fun pages off the Internet to do.)
• Right now, I am storing my binder and all of their school books in a reusable grocery bag.  (Obviously, we don't have a lot of school books!)  This proved to be convenient last week when we needed to do some work out of the house. 
• I need to buy a small composition book or journal to keep in my purse for random notes while I am out.  

Electronic tools on my iTouch:

• Sunrise Calendar:  I have started using this free app on my iTouch to keep track of our appointments.  It syncs with Google calendar, and my husband can view it too.  The only thing I don't like about it is that I can't make changes to all events in a series.  I set it to remind me of all events 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 15 minutes in advance.  Very useful  for someone who loses track of time easily. 
• Lesson Tracker:  I love this app and have really been keeping up with it in more detail than I had before.  It's so cool because it can easily convert my daily data entry into an attractive report than I can keep in my files.  I think the kids will feel proud of (and surprised by) all the hours that they spent on school at the end of the year.  I wrote a more extensive review of it several days ago.  
• RE.minder:  This is a cool app that I can set to go off every minute to remind me to get ready for something.  I use it as an alarm clock, and it's especially good for any event that I think I might forget.  I especially like it for our Skype Spanish lessons because it's easy to get sidetracked and lose track of time at home.  
• HomeRoutines:  I really like this app for keeping track of my daily and weekly routines, but I've not been too good about using it lately.  Hopefully, after we move, I'll find it easier to focus on the house.  
• OurGroceries:  This is a great app.  My husband and I can sync it across our devices (it is compatible with Android and iOS), and it helps us to make shopping lists.  I much prefer it to a paper list.  
• Paperless:  Another to-do list app.  I use it sometimes.  

If you have a recommendation for a productivity tool, be it electronic or not, feel free to post it in the comments!