Our Weekly Lesson Plans

I always love seeing how other homeschool moms organize and plan out their lessons, so, I thought I'd share with you what has worked for our family for the past few years.  Maybe something here will spark an idea for you that will help you just as reading about others helped me develop the best plan for our family.

First of all, I'm not going to lie and tell you that this way is neccesarily quick.  I do have to put some time into it each week.  But compared to the years I tried to get by without having a plan down for the week, the time invested in laying out our weekly plans is SO worth it!

When sitting down to plan out this school year the very first thing I did was take each subject and see where I wanted us to be by the end of the year then backtracked to see what we needed to cover each month in order to reach that goal.  Each month was then broken down into what needed to be covered each week.

The result is what I have sitting before me each school day:

I made this form myself using Mircrosoft Word, tweaking it here and there until I felt it was what would work best for me and our schooling.  Each subject we cover through the week is listed down the left side with the days of the week going across the top.  I have a section on the right side to list what books the kids are currently reading along with a place to write down about our week, a sort of easy-access journal of our school days.

Once I have this filled out for the week I transfer the kid's assignments to their own weekly checklists that they keep in their box with all their curriculum books.

I fill in as much as I can before the beginning of the week, but there are some things I have to fill in as the week goes on depending on what they do each day.  For example, how they do on their daily typing determines what they will do the next day.  Also, if more practice or help is needed in math, that also determines what the next day's assignment will be.  Again, like my planner, subjects are listed down the left side with the days of the week going across the top.  Each box has a place for them to check off each assignment as they complete it.  I also put their weekly scripture verse they are to memorize at the bottom so they have a visual reminder several times throughout the day and week.  (This has worked wonders in the success of them memorizing them!)

Having their own personal checklist has brought so much peace to our days and took so much frustration off of me.  No longer do I have to continuously hear, "What else do I need to do mom?" or "What's next mom?".  Along with having all of their books in their own boxes so they can find what they need at any time, these weekly assignment sheets have allowed my children to take some control of their own education, which is the ultimate goal as they grow into responsible young men and women.

So, there ya' go.  That's how our homeschool weeks are planned.  Hope this may help inspire someone to come up with a planner that fits their family.  As my very wise hubby always says, "Proper prior planning prevents poor performance." 

(Pssst... there are tons of planning forms here!  This is where I get most of the ones I use.)

One Busy Momma

Has it REALLY been nearly four months since I promised to give you all my best Disney tips!  Wow!  Time sure does fly when you're a busy momma. 

I truly am so sorry.  I do still intend to type up everything I can to help you have a wonderful Disney vacation.  When we got back from Florida I had two weeks as the VBS Director at our church to finalize everything for this summer's VBS fun.  Then it was on to getting our home back in order (because as anyone who has ever directed a VBS knows, it's either VBS or a clean house, but it's impossible to have both at the same time!), buying and setting up a new swimming pool, planning for a yard sale, and all the million other things summertime brings.  Thus, the Disney blog posts got put on the back burner.

However!  With one of our dear friends planning a trip for her family in November and excitedly telling me all about it, I am really, REALLY wanting to start planning our next trip as well!  So all the pictures and memories are flooding back into my mind lately and I desperately want to document everything, so I promise, it's coming.