Creating Lesson Plans for the Homeschool
You can buy the lesson plan books from teacher stores, office depot, or any place like that. The lesson plan books will run from $10 to $100. Yes, they can get very expensive. You can also print out your lesson plans if you like. I printed all my lesson plan sheets out instead of buying the books. I use the inkjet refill kit so ink was not a problem. The kit I bought for $13 will allow me to refill my printer about 12 times.�¯�¿�½ So if you are planning on printing off worksheets too, that is the best way to go.
Before you start writing your lesson plans, let me give you one tip� Use a pencil or have a big bottle of white out. I have revised my lesson plans about 10 times in the last few weeks. The first couple of times I used a pen. That is a big NO NO.. So be sure to use a pencil to keep your self from having to white out or print out more lesson plans.
If you have more than one child you will need to make lesson plans for each child. Unless they are the same age. If they are the same age then you can create one lesson plan since they will be learning the same thing.
So how do you even start to create a lesson plan?Ã?¯Ã?¿Ã?½ You take it step by step. The first thing you need to do is create a calendar. You will need to figure out what days you are going to homeschool and what days you are going to have out. You must plan 180 days of homeschool for a school year. Don’t forget to throw some make up days in there. You never know when something may come up. You will not get that calendar right the first couple of times. It will take a few revises to get the 180 days in.
Once you have your calendar planned out you will need to get what books you plan on using. Once you have decided on what books you will be using to homeschool, decide what worksheets or other materials you are going to use. Now you can start writing the lesson plans.
You will need to break each book down. For example, my math book consist of 8 units. So I took one unit per month. Then I broke it down to one chapter per week. On the first day of the week I will introduce the new chapter, show my child how to do it, and do a little practice work. Then the next day I will do the practice work in the book. On the third day I will give him a couple of worksheets to try on his own. The fourth day I will review with him, cover anything he doesn’t understand, and then test him on the next day. Not a major test like in school but just a few problems to make sure he is understanding. Then at the end of the Unit I will give him a unit test.
You would do that for each subject. I also give mine spelling test. My youngest is just starting to learn spelling so he will have a spelling test each week. I also use vocabulary words from Math, Science, and Social Studies. So if you’re planning to do that, you will need to work that in to your lesson plans. It is a lot of work and thinking. Like I said before, it will take you a little while to get it completed. Don’t try to do it all in a few days.
As for the worksheets.. If you don’t won’t to print them out all at one time, find the ones you want to use trough out the year and save them in organized folders. Then burn them to a disc to save them. That way you can print them out as you need them. I recommend you burn a couple of disc, so if one gets scratched up, you will have a back up.
Just take your time with these lesson plans and take breaks from them. If you get frustrated just walk away and come back later. I realized too, that you don’t need to write every single thing down. You can write every single thing down in your journal once you start teaching.
