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"Hi, I just wanted to say that I think adding
Todd to the newsletter has been a great addition.
Hearing his point of view and Godly advice as a father and
husband has helped me to better understand where my wonderful
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The Old Schoolhouse
Magazine
Home Where They
Belong
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July 18, 2007
|
 My
lesson plans have evolved over the years. Originally my
lesson plans were very formal. I just had a killer time making
everything I wanted to write fit in the boxes.
After
that, I started just writing the lesson plans in notebooks for
the boys. It was simple and effective, but yet was easily
misplaced and wasn't quite as official looking as I would have
liked.
But then I saw something I loved at a conference
from The Notgrass Company - A Record of the Learning
Lifestyle. It has all the nifty boxes, places to record
books read and some other lists, and even has space to give
your child appropriate credit for all of his daily activities,
not just his "school work."
I think it always takes a
while to figure out what works best for each family. While I
treasure simplicity and flexibility, I know others thrive on
detailed structured systems. Some people plan for the whole
year, others for a semester or month at a time, and some
of us are week-by-week or even day-by-day folks. Just don't
get discouraged. You'll know the right system when you find
it.
Enjoy every minute!
THM Editor
| |
 Mercy in the Morning
Deborah Wuehler, TOS Senior Editor
Lesson Planning. Our
first thoughts may be "How do I do that?" or even, "I can't
think that far ahead." My first thought when I saw this week's
theme was, "Is it that time already?"
Actually, the old
saying, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail" rings with
some wisdom. Yet we are all so different in how we go about
it. Some of you know years in advance what you will be
studying and the curriculum you will use. Some of you plan
during the summer the next year's curriculum. Some of you are
very detailed and some of you are NOT. Some of you plan each
morning what you will be doing, and some of you don't know
what the day will bring, but you know you will be learning
something and you plan to make that happen!
God can use all these
methods as they are yielded to His input first. Seek Him
FIRST, and God will give you wisdom for each child.
How do I plan
personally? Well, right about now, in the middle of summer, I
look through each child's work from last year in math and
language arts and see what they need for next year. I also
look at what Bible, science topics and time in history I want
to study and plan that in as well on a master plan. The last
thing I do is ask each of the kids what one thing they want to
study (example, my daughter wants to study horses). After
gathering all the information, I then gather the curriculum.
Lastly, I create a chore and school chart for each child
covering each day of the week. Every Monday I give a new chart
to each child. I do not have time to keep detailed logs of
individual lessons, but have found this overall daily chart to
work well for my family.
Whatever you do
(whether detailed or not) as you plan your lessons, plan to
give God's Word and prayer preeminence and He will bless your
efforts.
"A man's heart
deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his
steps." Proverbs
16:9
-
Deborah
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Schoolhouse Spotlight
Dena Wood, Schoolhouse Store Manager
To be honest, planning is one of the
aspects of homeschooling I enjoy most.
But then maybe I'm a bit odd in that
respect.
When setting up
lesson plans for the coming year it always helps to have the
right tools and a bit of inspiration. The CLASS Lesson
Planner from
Christian Liberty Press is a great tool to add to your
arsenal. This planner is packed
with suggestions for developing lesson plans, organizational
techniques, and forms that permit the homeschooler to be more
efficient in school administration and the creation of
permanent records.
For additional inspiration, be sure and
check out Everything You Need to
Know About Unit Studies
by Jennifer Steward. Most people believe you have to be
creative, have loads of energy, and spend lots of time
planning in order to do unit studies - NOT with Jennifer
Steward's method! And If you've been curious about notebooking
you'll want to see Jennifer's Everything You Need to
Build a Unit Study Notebook.
If you desire to teach and wish to keep
the Bible as the center of your school day, Robin Sampson
offers all the help you'll need in The Heart of Wisdom
Teaching Approach. Over
500 pages of helps and encouragement!
Happy planning!
-
Dena |
It's Just Common
Sense
Ruth Beechick, Curriculum
Specialist
Lesson plans? Out here I see two kinds.
The first is when you know little about something, but want to
learn for some reason. Say you want to learn more about using
herbs and spices in cooking. You may get a book or two, try
out some flavors, get feedback from your family. When you have
specific questions you may do a Google search. You talk with
an experienced friend, and you explain some matters to your
oldest daughter.
Now, having gone through the details,
you can write lesson plans for your younger children. That is
the second kind I see. You can list objectives now, lay out
information and assignments in a sensible order (with no
gaps?), write test questions and, if you wish, publish for
other homeschoolers. I think we view this plan as a
legitimate, schooling style, while the first worries us. We
might leave gaps. Our state might not approve. What will our
friends think?
Even children can do that first style. I
had third graders all choose their own topic and proceed to
learn and share. They became eager to help each other perform
their plays or make more dinosaur models. Recently a grown
student, now a mom, found my email address and wrote to thank
me for the year that changed her life. To me that is startling
to say about age 8. But she said it was the year she learned
that she could learn on her own.
Homeschoolers more
than anybody can make good use of the first kind of lesson
plan while still throwing in a few selected courses planned
the second way.
-
Ruth
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The Familyman
Todd Wilson, Familyman Ministries
Lesson
planning? You want me to give advice on lesson planning? You
might as well ask me to share my favorite recipes or all my
advice on manicures. I just don't do lesson plans. If I
prepared a lesson plan, it would include subjects
like:
-Power
Napping
-Spitting for Distance
-An Introduction to Body
Noises
You know, all the
important stuff.
Thankfully, my wife
does the lesson planning at our house.
However, with all teasing aside, I actually do have
some advice when you're planning for the upcoming
year.
First of all, make
time for the most important stuff like baking cookies, reading
aloud good books on the couch with the kids, playing board
games, taking a nap, and hiding love notes in your husband's
underwear drawer.
Second of all, refuse
to let the "not-as-important stuff" keep you from doing the
most important stuff. Sometimes lesson plans do that. Often,
the lesson plan becomes everything. You write it out, get
frustrated when you get off-track, make everyone miserable
trying to finish it, and eventually feel defeated by failing
to complete it.
So here's my advice:
plan time for the important stuff, don't sweat the other
stuff, and make your lesson plan a flexible guide not a
god.
Be
Real,
Todd
PS - If you need some
other guidance on power napping or spitting, let me
know. |
 Homeschool Freebies
Julie Nott, TOS Marketing Manager
Lesson planning? Ha! I'm so NOT the planner! I'm
about as spontaneous as they come. My first year (read: month)
of homescholing I did a unit study. It took me almost all of
August just to find all the books in our library (or request
and wait for them to arrive from other libraries) and gather
all the "stuff" and make all the "plans"...and that was just
for the first WEEK! Ack!
I think I'm just allergic to
planning. Could that be? Even though I desire to be more
organized and have things "planned out", my personality at
times does not match that desire. I have ideas of what we're
going to do, I jot them down and we do it (usually). For me it
just takes more time and mental energy to formulate a lesson
plan on paper all nice and pretty than to just DO IT with the
kids!
And why re-invent the wheel? Take a look at over
3000 lesson plans at www.lessonplanspage.com. Or write
your own with these printable templates: www.donnayoung.org/forms/planners/planner.htm.
Better
yet, keep all your plans online and at your fingertips! Even
Dad can get in on the fun! [grin] Our friends over at www.Home-School-Inc.com
have a FREE way to get your plans all in one place...check
them out!
-Julie
P.S. In response to Todd's article -
it may be my anemia, but I'm an expert afternoon napper.
[grin]
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