A new homeschooling parent recently asked me, "How do you plan?" Interesting question for a person who enjoys having a plan but refuses to have a lesson plan book. I gave up lesson planning years ago. As a teacher in a public school, we had to turn in our lesson plan books bi-weekly to have them checked with objectives, activities, and standards that were to be met. So I stopped doing that when I stopped teaching in the classroom. But I do have a plan: to complete our school plan.
I like to make a plan of what to use each school year. Last year, I planned to intertwine our English and history to some degree. I wanted to teach government to my middle school aged children and introduce it to my 4th grader. I could find government for younger children and high school, but not much for middle school level. So I ended up piecing together my own which worked fine. I also wanted to study literature that had man vs. society conflicts. So I chose several novels that we would study in our class. I chose our math curriculum, science, and spelling. Then I look at the materials to see if all of these would be completed during the school year. Everything looked promising.
Then on the first day of our "schooling" for the school year, after my children have ooohed an aaaahhed over their new books and school supplies, we sit down to discuss our goals for the year. Each child looks through their materials to see how many chapters, or pages, or modules, or sections it has. They write a plan for themselves. For example: By Christmas I want to be half way through this science book. Besides writing plans about their actual work, we also write goals for our family and spiritual goals too. I really like goal-setting because you can always come back to it to see how you are doing. Goals aren't written in stone; they can be adjusted is needed.
Then we get down to the day-to-day plan. This varies by day! Mondays I teach a class in our home. Tuesdays we spend out of the home: car schooling! Wednesdays, I go to Bible study for an hour. Thursdays are for field trips but we don't do that every week. I like Fridays to be wrap-it-up days but that doesn't always happen. Since we've started school this year, we have only one computer in the house. All my kids take math on the computer; two of them are taking Spanish online; plus we have all our other "computer" things that need/want to be done. We are flexible. When we have a full day at home, I expect that we will cover something in each subject except art (which is often hit or miss). When we are not, we figure out what is most important to be covered that day.
When my children were younger, I did not feel the need to finish any books in order to call it a school year. If they had made progress and learned sufficiently, I would decide when we were done for the year. As my students have gotten older and started working on high school credits, I see more of a need to complete more material in its entirety to call it a credit. I am creating our own transcripts and need to be sure that subjects are covered so that we are meeting the criteria of the colleges they will want to attend in the future.
This year, I bought a sticky-poster that resembles a huge ledger pad; you can use dry-erase markers on it. I stuck it to the side of my refrigerator. Each school day, I plan to write items that my students need to accomplish. This is helping me to stay organized and them to be responsible in getting their work done. They copy what they need to do into their individual blank calendars and check it off as it is accomplished. (This keeps up with our state's requirement of keeping a dated record of educational activities too.)
I have found that using a curriculum with a built in lesson plan can be helpful. I just don't like it when they are binding. I don't want to be trapped into a lesson plan. If we need to take a day or two off from school or from a subject, I want to be at ease to do so.
My advice though is to plan in a way that makes you and your family's home education flow for you. Do make some kind of plan or goal. You will be happier in the end when you see what you have accomplished.
