I have to admit. Lesson planning is not my strength. In the past 6 years that we have been homeschooling, I just go along with the book we have chosen for the school year and prepare the materials as needed everyday. I check the teacher’s guide and use that as a reference. Sometimes, we do a bit of unit study – so I research and download what we need and print them out. And we continue on and the cycle repeats itself. We just create projects to culminate the lessons we have learned and keep them as part of our portfolio for the school year.

This year, as my daughter is in 7th grade, I think I should be more intentional in planning for record keeping purposes.

Here are some tips on scheduling and lesson planning that I have learned over the years:

1. Scheduling and lesson planning is different for each family. What works for me may not work for you. Some parents like to use digital planners while some prefer written planners. Some might want to schedule their day according to time  while others want a more relaxed schedule and schedule it according to subject.

   I have reviewed some digital homeschool planners you can use, and you can go ahead and browse through them. Personally though, I am a pen and paper planner so I would go for those that I can print and write on.

   I have shared our homeschool schedule when my daughter was just in 3rd grade and my son was in preschool, now that they are in higher grades, this schedule is a bit more full and may take a few hours more.

2. I read some homeschool mom blogs that help me plan the year ahead of us and see if it will help me get more organized. Then I try to implement it and see if it fits our family’s homeschool.

   Here are some sites that were really helpful for us this school year:

   Donna Young – she shares  free printable planners and how to plan.

   Free Homeschool Deals – list of free homeschool planners, lists and forms.

   Donna Simpao – she shares how she plans the topics she will teach and how to do blending learning across subjects. She does unit studies.

   Kim Sorgius – she shares 10 steps for planning your homeschool year.

3. The learning style of your children and your teaching style will be a factor in creating your schedule and lesson plans.

   My daughter is very visual and she likes words too so she enjoys reading a lot. I ask her to use blank-paged notebooks to write her notes on as she usually uses drawings to record her learnings. We usually look for chapter books or picture books that complements her lessons, especially in world history.

   My son is visual and auditory but I am not very auditory at all. I would need to do some more research this school year so that he can get to watch videos for his Science or Social Studies, and we can also use songs to enhance memory work in Bible.

   I realized that I could have done more than just breeze through our lessons for the past years, especially for my son. Hopefully, I will be able to implement these lessons that I have learned consistently in this school year.