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How long do you spend lesson planning every week
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I just finished making out assignments for next week for my 3 dc – it took me 1 1/2 hours on a Friday afternoon. I think that is too long,but I don’t know what to do about it. Each child does different books and other things, so I have to do each seperately. My dc are 5th, 6th and 7th grades.
How long does it take you to do this? or do you not do it that way? Am I wasting my time? What is a shorter way to do it? Any ideas.
Do you use the Organizer? I just did my planning for my 3 dc, all in different books, and it took me about half an hour. Mostly making copies and checking for correct supplies for experiments and projects. How are you doing your basic planning? Do you use a planner or organizer?
It doesn’t take me that long, but what do you mean by they each have different books? Are they together for anything at all? The only way we survive is to combine where we can here.
History takes me just a few minutes to make sure I have some printables for the little ones ready. We use the SCM Family Handbook to coordinate what each grade group is reading so we’re on teh same general topic. It’s laid out for me and we have the books mostly sitting on a shelf waiting to be grabbed.
Math for each group is “do the next lesson and then practice until you’ve mastered it”. I read the next lesson for each group and teach the groups their new lesson for the week on different days. Prep takes 10 minutes total.
Spelling is do the next lesson and practice – no prep at all, we use All About Spelling and it’s laid out for us.
Writing is generally writing a narration, no prep needed.
Science is where my biggest prep is, and once a month I spend an hour to an hour and a half writing out which book pages/activities to do for each lesson day (science is 3 days per week here). I print things then too. The rest of the month there is no science prep, we just grab what is needed. My kids are grouped into two groups for science some months, one group on others.
Art is picture study – no real prep needed other than gathering pictures once a term. Composer study is the same.
Phonics for my beginning readers currently involved no planning other than finding a book for them to read to me each week.
Not sure if that helps you with ideas?
I planned the whole year so I do not spend much time preparing for the next week. I skimm through some things like NS to get an idea of what to do or were to go. But the planing for the whole year took me forever (it seemed
). Maybe because it is the first year I home school and I rewrote my plans so many times. I use the CM organizer and it keeps track for me on everything and I see the upcoming assignments.I plan the whole year at once as well. We have most subjects combined. Sunday nights I spend a little time gathering the books and printing things off but I know exactly what they are and where to find them. I do the planning in the summer months a little at a time while my kids are playing in the backyard I just sit on the porch in the shade. It takes about two months, but like I said, I only do a little at a time. But I also really enjoy the planning and scheduling and seeing things come together. Not having it planned out before school starts would make me very anxious. I do think different personality types can survive well both pre-planning a year at a time or planning out by the week.
I would agree with the posts above. I had to really focus on planning out my year, and then terms, and I print out a spread sheet on Sunday that has subjects I must do daily and just add the books or whatever changes (artist studied, composers, poetry etc…) I take about 30 minutes as well.
Similar to above…I make a master plan a the beg. of the year and then hardly plan at all during the school year. I have my books organized, schedule for me to follow, schedule for the kids to follow….we just keep doing the next thing on the list. HTH some:) Gina
I do similarly to what Gina does – basically make a general master plan at the beginning of the year (what resources/actvities we will use for each subject), a general schedule to follow for the week (meaning what subjects we will cover on what days/times), and then we just sort of go down the list of whatever’s “next” in each subject. I also do all of my printing for an entire term or so at a time so I have all my printable items in a file ready to grab as needed. (This includes activities to keep my tag-a-long preschooler busy.) I’ve heard of people who print everything for the entire YEAR at once, but I like to keep a little more flexibility to tweak things as we go along if need be. Takes a big time investment up front (which I don’t mind, I’m a planning geek
), but then keeps things rolling along fairly smoothly without a lot of weekly prep time once we get going. That doesn’t mean we don’t have some ‘tweaks” here and there if we find we need to change things up, but better than reinventing the wheel week by week. Jen
I know what we need to accomplish throughout the year (we are year round schoolers) and I write that down when I do our “Notice of Intent.” And I know what books/materials we need, and I make sure we have them (usually through our Library or Amazon). BUT I don’t make a daily/weekly schedule…we just keep going and going and going (especially with Math and Language Arts).
Right now, though, for History, I copied and pasted and tweaked AO’s SOTW 4/This Country of Ours/Carry A Big Stick/Number The Stars schedule to use and (hopefully) complete before February when Baby is due. I also *hope* to complete a lot of SCM’s Module 6s (Arttist/Music/Hymn/Scripture) by then.
I *like* to plan…but usually when I do, things start to seem a little too ‘school-y’ for us…and I also find I’m a major book/curriculum tweaker (if something is OBVIOUSLY not a good fit for our family, I will not continue to use it, just because I had planned to).
I do as the above and have the year laid out and typed up, but each week I go over what lessons we are on and what books I need or copies need made for the upcoming week. I handwrite in my planner the basic readings or activities we are doing so it is in my mind and I can glance and see what we need for that day. It takes me depending on how many books I get from the library that week about 30 mins to an hour to plan out our week.
Tara
I’m using a planner book for each child from Queen Homeschool. My oldest is doing totally seperate things since he has learning challenges. My younger 2 are doing different things – except we all do history together (Queen’s). I’m thinking I should be doing the same thing in science for everyone – much simpler. I think some of the curriculum I’ve picked has made it more complicated than it needs to be.
Love the ideas. Thanks.
). Maybe because it is the first year I home school and I rewrote my plans so many times.
), but then keeps things rolling along fairly smoothly without a lot of weekly prep time once we get going. That doesn’t mean we don’t have some ‘tweaks” here and there if we find we need to change things up, but better than reinventing the wheel week by week. 
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