*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Updated 8/31/2018

Some folks are still holding on to the last remnants of summer.  We are wrapping up a family vacation and get ready to begin our school schedule and fall is on my mind. I truly love each season. Fall brings the return to a familiar routine, pumpkins, camping, cooler temperatures after a hot humid summer and we look forward to all it has to offer.

We have the state fair coming up next month which we always look forward to participating in and enjoying all of the wonderful opportunities it has to offer. There are also camping trips as a family and with our AHG and Trail Life troops, apple picking, and lots of baking.

We start our official school year on Tuesday and I have found that including a bit of seasonal fun in our school time can be a great way to keep things fun and interesting.  Hiking in the woods and drawing pictures in our nature journals, candy corn math, and pumpkin day are all ways we have incorporated fall into our schooling. We also enjoy hot apple cider with our read alouds and pumpkin bread for breakfast.

If you are looking to add some easy art to fit the season try Fall art lessons which are great for all ages or if you just have preschool children this preschool course. These are great easy lessons to teach a bit of art while keeping the seasonal theme. These fall courses are actually on sale 25% off through September 4th.  Last year we also did the q-tip fall leaves paintings above. The children used a paint brush to do the trunk (we helped the toddler with that part) and then used a q-tip and fall colors to make the leaves on the tree. They had so much fun with that project.

If you want to incorporate some fall into your math and science check out some of the resources below for lots of free printables and ideas.

Fun Fall Math Freebies:

Candy Corn Math

Candy Corn Activity Book

Candy Corn Decimals

Pumpkin Measurement

More Pumpkin Math (including things for upper elementary/middle grades)

This is a great list of Pumpkin and Fall STEM activities.

Finally, if you are looking a way to incorporate various holidays and special days this September resource is inexpensive and has a wealth of information.

In addition to school activities we try to have a fun ‘bucket list’ of activities to enjoy each season. Some of those things stay the same from year to year and some change. We try to keep it low key and don’t stress out if we miss something. Some things we  included this year are drinking apple cider, going to the pumpkin patch, making an apple pie, and taking a family hike. Feel free to change things around to fit your families interests. This is available now in our Free Resource Library!

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

Sally Clarkson just launched her newest book, a devotional for moms! You can purchase it at Amazon now .

We have been listening to Alice in Wonderland on audiobook to prepare to watch a live version of the play last week. I had forgotten just how ‘crazy’ the book feels. If you are interested in listening to it, it is only .66 on audio right now.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Just popping in with a quick note, if you have not liked our Facebook page yet, you may want to check it out. We have a giveaway going on this week for a free copy of our History Through Flags Curriculum.  This curriculum shares bits of US History and connects with with period appropriate flags. I will be giving away one free copy on Tuesday, September 4th through the post on the Facebook page.

Check us Out on Facebook at Dawn Peluso, Schoolin Swag

We look forward to connecting with you on Facebook as well as here on the blog.

When I talk to folks about 4H it isn’t uncommon for people to say, “we don’t do animals” or “I don’t have room to raise show animals.”  There is a misconception that 4-H is all about animals and agriculture. Those are certainly parts of 4-H and my son has enjoyed entering chickens in the county fair, showing a pig, and is currently raising turkeys. However, that is only the tiny tip of the 4-H iceberg. You can spend years actively involved in 4-H and never deal with animals if that is your preference. So if 4-H isn’t just animals, what is it?

4-H is groups of children getting together and working on a large variety of topics. We couldn’t participate in all of them if did nothing but 4-H and skipped all of the rest of our schooling. There truly is something for everyone: animals, STEM, leadership, citizenship, healthy living, public speaking and so much more.  In the practical day to day that can look like cooking, Lego robotics, making slime, bug collecting, plant identification, state fair projects, history presentations, horse riding, painting, healthy eating classes, exercising and more. Some clubs focus on one aspect of 4H (such as livestock or horses) while others try to give more of a variety and overview.

My children were blessed to find a club that gave them an opportunity to learn about something different each month.  They had opportunities to serve in their community through teaching a science lesson, making cards for veterans, serving at a banquet, and much more. They learned about engineering through Legos, they planted different plants, made cupcakes, test gliders for aerodynamics and learn about geocaching.  Their experiences in 4-H have truly grown them into stronger leaders and speakers as well as enriching other areas of their education.

This past year my son did jump into the world of livestock showing by raising and showing his first pig. It was a challenge but a wonderful and growing experience for him. He hopes to continue this for many years. In many counties there are farms that will keep the animals on site and allow children to come care for them so that even those who do not live in a place where they can raise their own can get this unique experience.

Now that you have a general idea of some of the variety of opportunities that 4-H has to offer, how does that translate into our homeschooling? Public speaking and leadership are one of the areas that were important to us as a family but can be a little more difficult to cultivate. 4-H presentations have been a huge asset in that area. One of the big programs that 4-H offers participants is the presentation program. Each participant can choose a topic from a huge variety of subjects (we have done everything from fishing to bread making to flags of the American Revolution). The child then prepares a presentation on that topic. The length varies based on the age of the child with the youngest being from  3-5 minutes. The participant can have visuals to accompany the presentation as well. (The picture at the top of the post is my daughter practicing her first aid presentation this year.) The child practices and then has an opportunity to present it at the county level. If they do well, they can advance to district and for participants nine and over they can compete to move on to state presentations.  I have seen my children, as well as the others in our club, grow so much in their speaking, poise, and confidence through this process.

Another area where 4-H can be used in homeschooling is the 4-H project record book. These are records the students do to highlight their work on a particular project. It involves planning, documenting, writing skills, and more. These have been an asset to our writing curriculum as I find my children work harder on writing when they feel like it is something ‘real’ as opposed to just a random writing prompt.

4-H also offers lots of different curriculum books that can be completed to help with different subjects you may be learning about particularly related to science and health. Right now my son is doing one related to pigs to complement his raising and showing of the pig and my daughter is working through a first aid curriculum because that was an area of interest for her.

I truly feel that 4-H has something to offer every child and is an under-utilized resource. I highly recommend talking to the 4-H folks at your local cooperative extension to see what programs they offer that may benefit your family.  If you are in NC you can find out more about NC 4-H here.

The 4H pledge

“I pledge
My Head to clearer thinking
My Heart to greater loyalty
My Hands to larger service
My Health to better living
For my club, my community, my country and my world.”

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Sally Clarkson just launched her newest book, a devotional for moms! You can purchase it at Amazon now .

We have been listening to Alice in Wonderland on audiobook to prepare to watch a live version of the play this week. I had forgotten just how ‘crazy’ the book feels. If you are interested in listening to it, it is only .66 on audio right now.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Do you ever hear that phrase or some variation of that phrase? As my children get older there are things I want them to complete independently and with a toddler I can’t always focus all of my attention on the school age children.  We found that they would finish up one small task and if I wasn’t focused on them they would start playing or doing something non-school related.  Then when asked they would say ” I thought I was finished”. They knew they had other subjects but without a clear guide to what was next they moved onto the things that wanted to do and not what needed to be finished.

So, I created a weekly contract. We typically do school four days a week (thus allowing a day for field trips, events, appointments, house cleaning, etc). Their contracts help keep them focused and lay out what needs to be done each day as well as a section for things that should be done by the end of the week. They know that if I am not available when they finish a task they are to work on their contract work until I can be with them.

We have found that the contract gives us the right combination of flexibility and accountability to keep things on track without added stress. I also only print a few weeks worth at a time so that if our needs change I can edit the contract.

Our contract will obviously be different than yours depending on the needs of your family. However, I have included a copy of the template that I use in our free resource library so that you can have a starting point if this is something you would like to include a contract in your home school. You are welcome to download it and adjust it to fit your family. If you wish to share it with those outside of your family, we ask that you share a link to this blog post and have them download a copy for themselves.

When you sign up for our free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library  

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Deals and Freebies

So many folks looking for homeschool options at a reasonable price during this unusual time. SchoolhouseTeachers.com is having an amazing sale. For less than $200 you get 2 years access to over 400 courses that you can use with as many students as you have in your home! We use this for several courses and I am always happy to answer questions. Just click on this link and use code: SHARK20

Evan-Moor Learning at Home Skill Sharpeners Bundle is 20% off with Code : LAH20

This great writing program is 20% off through July 21st with code SUMMER20!

If you are looking for a fun way to encourage reading this summer, check out the FREE summer reading materials from Your Morning Basket with Pam Barnhill. The passport and reading bucket list are a great way to encourage reading!

Homeschool Complete is offering a special 10% off discount to my readers! Just use code: SWAG

Get a FREE Literature Kit from LitWits using Code 11READ4FUN. We are currently enjoying the Heidi kit but have also previously loved the My Side of the Mountain kit.

IEW is offering some great free resources right now.

I don’t often have (or maybe take) the time to read books just for fun. It isn’t that I don’t read. I read aloud to and preview books for the children, my devotionals, my Bible, parenting, and other Christian resource books. However, books just for my pleasure are few and far between.

This summer, I found a series that I fell in love with. I read the first book in a single day. Before small children, this would not have been an unusual occurrence, but it is quite rare these days.  Two things were at play, the book was really good, and we were at the beach with family, so the children were otherwise engaged.

I enjoyed the first book so much that I promptly ordered and devoured the second book of the series. I’ve actually ordered books three through six though I don’t expect I’ll read them as fast once we are back to the day-to-day.

The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter

The series is  The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter by Susan Wittig Albert. They are funny and engaging, include bits of Victorian English culture and charm, and are loosely based on the life of Beatrix Potter. The stories tell some real facts about her life but add lots of extra people and adventures from the author’s imagination. They are charming books written for adults but with fun and whimsy (and a few talking animals) included.

While there is a touch of romance here and there, they are mostly mystery and adventure stories set in early 20th Century England.  It would not be an inappropriate book for children as it does not contain any inappropriate material, but the language and writing level would be difficult for many children.  She also uses some dialects and British spelling.

The Value in Reading for Pleasure

As mothers, we often don’t take the time to refill ourselves. We pour out to our families and our communities but forget that we need a full cup from which to pour. Taking a bit of time to read or pursue something that is relaxing and refilling is good for us from time to time. Do not misunderstand, we get our strength from the Lord, but our minds still benefit from a bit of rest and engagement in activities that are fun.  I highly recommend this series if you are looking for a great read that is fun without being twaddle.

The first book in the series is the Tale of Hilltop Farm.

What book/s are you reading right now that are just for fun? Let me know in the comments.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

I don’t know about your house but mornings in our house can be a bit crazy. Everyone getting up, getting dressed, chores, taking care of animals, breakfast, entertaining the toddler, and getting started on school all take time and sometimes seem to leave us feeling a little out of sorts or behind. However, I try to remind myself that our schedule is there to help us but not rule over us. We need to put  effort into keep things on track but still be flexible to the needs around us.

Sometimes by the time we get finished with all of that it feels like we need to dive right into our ‘core’ subjects and skip the extras. Especially if I think about the house cleaning, activities, and other things that need to happen that afternoon. Not to mention all the people in this house seem to think we should eat at least three meals a day (not counting 2nd breakfast, snack, etc).

As tempting as it is to skip all the extras, those ‘extras’ are often the things that enrich and set apart our education. They are things we enjoy studying together and they add life and dimension to our school days. That doesn’t mean I never skip them or that we need to do them everyday. Rather it is important to me to find a way to make sure we were including them in our studies.  Thus I began our version of morning basket. Morning basket is not a new term or idea but I’d like to tell you how we use ours, what we are including this year, and how it enriches our family.

Loop scheduling has really helped us ‘fit it all in’ without being overwhelmed and without being a slave to our schedule. Some days the extras just don’t happen because life happens. Whether that is a sick child, a busy schedule, an unexpected need, or any of the other day to day things that throw off our schedule I don’t want our plans to be wrecked. Learning about loop scheduling and how to use it really changed things for us because it gave us the flexibility to roll with those things without letting others slip through the cracks. Instead of scheduling each of our ‘extras’ for a certain time or day we simply have them on the list and when we have time we do the next thing or two on the list. If we miss a day we don’t miss something on the list it simply gets done the next day. Tauna Meyer at Proverbial Homemaker has some great blog posts and even a course that is only $10 this month that teaches how to use a loop schedule.

So, how do I use loop scheduling and a morning basket to fit in our ‘extras’ and still keep everything mostly sane? In our morning basket we keep our composer, artist, hymn, missionary, and poet study. I aim to go in depth into at least one person from each category each year. If we finish our study of that person with enough time we may do a second one.  In this way we cover a variety and give them enough exposure to know some of the classics and to be able to enjoy and research others on their own as their interests dictate.  We also include our Bible and our prayer cards in our morning basket but those are done each day not on our loop schedule. The book we are currently reading is also in the basket to be read aloud as time permits. This is often three or 4four days a week although, we would prefer every day.

For our missionary study we are starting this year with Mary Slessor.  We use the Christian Hero’s Then and Now series as well as the To Every Nation Missionary Study from Not Consumed. Last year we only used the book and the children loved it, but I’m looking forward to adding the study to our reading.

For our Composer and Artist studies we use the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers and Artists series respectively.  We also adapt Composer and Artist studies from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  This year we are excited to study John Philip Sousa and Georgia O’Keefe. If time allows I am hoping to spend some time on Duke Ellington during our spring semester. During our time of studying them, we will listen to their music often, sometimes even in the background while we work. For our artist, we will hang examples of their work around our school area so that we become familiar with their work. In this way what we learn seems to last in our minds and we are able to recognize the works when we see or hear them as we go through life. We supplement our composer studies with the wonderful series of symphonies that our North Carolina Symphony does each year for children. Three events that all incorporate both a musical and visual element (actors, ballet, etc). In the picture above taken at one performance Darth Vader took over the symphony and began conducting.   I highly recommend looking in your area for similar programs or even free local concerts to encourage a love of music. If you live near a college they often hold free or really inexpensive concerts preformed by music students who are very talented.

We enjoy the Poetry for Young People series for our poetry studies. To supplement those books I can often find other information on-line about the poet or further examples of their works.  This year we are studying Robert Frost. We will read through his biographical information and some of his works throughout the year. We will also have at least a couple of ‘poetry tea times’ where we bring a favorite poem to the table and enjoy reading to one another while we enjoy snacks and drinks from our tea cups.

This year we are trying something new for hymn studies, instead of going in depth into a few hymns we are going to go through the Thomas Kincade book “Glorious Refrains”. This book has a collection of hymns with their stories.  My goal is to do one or two each month. We will listen to and sing the hymn as well as learn about the story behind the hymn.  Not Consumed also has some wonderful hymn study resources that we have used in the past.

The American Story is a collection of history stories that are included chronologically. I intend to use this book to read aloud in conjunction with our history lessons as time allows.

Our Bible is included as we try to spend time each day as a family in Bible study. Sometimes going through a specific devotional, sometimes reading on a topic that we are dealing with as a family, and sometimes just reading the Proverb of the day.

Finally, in the picture of our morning basket,  you saw a plastic sorted folder. In this we keep all of our Christmas Cards that we received from the previous year. Each Day we choose a couple of cards and we pray over those families during our prayer time in addition to any other needs that are on our hearts.  This has been a great way to keep the children engaged and remember our friends and family in a specific but not overwhelming way.

Each morning (typically morning but it could be afternoon depending on our schedule) we will take out the basket. We start with Bible and prayer as our priorities and then we will look on our loop schedule and see what is next and cover that for the day. We can repeat this each day and not worry that anything is being neglected if we have to skip a day because we will simply pick up where we left off on the next day. This is a time we can work together as a family, the children enjoy listening to me read aloud, they learn a lot about a variety of subjects, and it helps get our day off to a better start. If you are looking for a way to include those ‘extras’ or simplify your morning I hope you will give this idea a try.

I’d love to hear what ‘extra’ you have a hard time including or what ideas you have for getting it all done. Leave me your thoughts in the comments.

I’d also love to have you sign up for access to our free Resource Library and bi-weekly newsletter. Simply click on the link and sign-up and you will receive an e-mail with the link and password to our library of free resources. I am adding new resources each month.

This post may contain affiliate or referral links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog

Colonial history in America spans exploration, conquest, and European expansion into the New World.  From the earliest English settlement in Roanoke (1585) thru the end of the French and Indian War (1763) the East Coast of North America experienced profound change in nearly every way.  European farming techniques married with Native crops and worked in many cases by imported slave labor blossomed agriculture in the south.  New England traders and shipwrights expanded the English maritime tradition.  Trade and wealth built cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charles Town.  Expansionist wars like King Philip’s, War of Jenkins’ Ear, and the French and Indian War set the stage for the colonial uprising and revolution.

During September we will be studying through this period, starting with the explorers and first colonies (everyone loves a good mystery and the story of the “Lost Colony” is certainly a mystery).  We will spend some time reading about the period in a variety of trade books and Master Book’s America’s Story Vol. 1. Then we will enjoy a field trip or two, some great colonial receipts (the old English word for recipes), and hands-on projects.  My son is excited about a colonial Lego project which he also hopes to enter into the state fair (for an example see the picture of one from last year of North Carolina’s first permanent capital Tryon Palace) and my daughter wants to learn basket making.

Even with a month focused just on this period we can’t cover everything but hope to include some important parts of our history as well as the opportunity for the children to dive deeper into the parts that are most interesting to them.  For example, we will skim over the Pilgrims and Mayflower, because while important they are also very familiar.  However, in your family that may be something you want to spend more time on. The beauty of this journey is that we can share ideas but each family gets to make their own journey.

Art is not my strong suit but the children love it, and their favorite are art pastel lessons. I love them because they are reasonably priced, don’t require tons of stuff, and a short and simple. The children can do them without assistance from me and it is very low stress for everyone. I was thrilled to find the new American History Chalk Pastel Lessons from You are an Artist and they are on sale right now.

If you are interested in joining us on this Journey through US History and have not yet received access to our Resource Library please click the link below and sign-up. You will receive access to the library which includes a list of all of the resources, project and field trip ideas, etc that we are using for colonial history (with a new time period being released each month) as well as several other resources and more to come.  You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter with new information from the blog.

Resource Library Access

Tune in each week in September for an update on what we did that week in Colonial American history.

If you are still searching for curriculum for next year or need to fill in a few spaces other than history there is a great sale going on right now at School House Teachers.

This post may contain affiliate or referral links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Many of the book reviews that I do will be specifically books for home school moms. However, I’m going to be reviewing several this fall that deal with hospitality in our homes.  This is an area that I love, but that due to many life circumstances I feel like it is an area that I need to focus some attention on in my own life.

This first book, A Life That Says Welcome, by Karen Ehman was one I just finished reading and really enjoyed.  It did a great job of giving the big picture but also the nitty gritty details. She combined ideals and broad ideas with actual recipes and specific ideas.  She also gave many biblical examples of hospitality. She covered everything from getting your house ready, providing food, overnight guests, and even ways you could be hospitable outside of your own home. She shared how it wasn’t about how much money you spent or the size of your home.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Often, when we think of hospitality we think of those people outside of our homes. We think of the new family at church, or our neighbors, or friends. We think of co-workers, extended family, even strangers but we forget our own family. This book talks about all of those people but first she talks about using hospitality to serve our own family. It is so important to remember that we need to show that love and care not only to those outside of our home but to those God placed in our home. Our husbands and children deserve to have their favorite meals cooked and time taken to show them love and appreciation as well. Then together we can serve others.  This was a powerful reminder to me.

From this book, I was able to come up with several easy ideas to show hospitality to those around us, both inside and outside of our home. I renewed my commitment to spend quality time with the kids in the kitchen while baking cookies that we could share with other outside of our home.  We are also working on ways to invite people into our home. There are so many that are very dear to us, but in today’s world of hurry up and go, hustle and bustle it can be so easy to forget to take time to spend with those around us.  There are singles, college kids, widows/widowers, young parents, and many more that could be blessed by a simple meal around the table in our homes.  Hospitality is a Biblical mandate that takes our time and attention to provide. When we make our selves available and begin to notice the needs God will provide us with the opportunity to by hospitable in His name.

I’m looking forward to trying some of the yummy sounding recipes provided in this book as well as meeting with my husband and our children to determine how we can do better as a family at inviting people into our homes. I highly recommend this book whether you are new to hospitality or just want a refresher and reminders. I think there is something to be learned even by those that are more experienced in the area of hospitality.

If you are interested in reading this book I have included the link below and if you have read it I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’d also love for you to share ways your family is showing hospitality in this season of life.

A Life That Says Welcome

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Ben Franklin said, “Failure to plan is planning to fail.”

Over the years, I have tried several different planning methods. Prior to becoming a home school mom I worked in the public schools. When I decided to home school my son I went with what I knew. I bought a fresh clean lesson planning book and I planned out my lessons. I thought that I would make things go smoothly and easily by planning far in advance; so, I planned basically our entire first semester using traditional written out lesson plans.  The first week went great, but by the second week we had problems. I had neglected to account for any field trips, appointments, etc. I found that there were many beneficial activities that were not in the plans.  We went anyway but then I felt behind and was struggling to keep up.  I also found a few weeks into our school year that some of the curriculum I had chosen just wasn’t right. This meant I had to switch all of that up on our plans.  This all meant that I had spent a lot of time on detailed lesson plans that weren’t really working for us.

The next thing I tried was not really planning; we would just do whatever was next. This may work really well for some folks. However, by not being prepared I didn’t have the materials I needed to do what was next (the supplies for the art project or science experiment or the books or copies to go with history). This meant we really were not as productive as we should have been and we wasted a lot of time waiting for supplies or hunting down the right books. We also skipped experiments that would have been beneficial.

We tried several variations of planning before finally finding what has been working for us for the last several years.  Each summer I make a plan for each subject by breaking it up into weekly chunks.  This allows me to see the topics and note any unusual supplies I might need. Then I gather and organize the books and resources we already have to go along with those topics.  Some subjects like science and history I go into more depth because those subjects tend to need more. Our spelling curriculum is very ‘open and go’, so I just write down the lesson numbers.

Once the annual plan is complete, I use that information to make the first 3 or 4 weeks lesson plans for the year using my lesson plan template.  After those weeks I try to stay about a week or two ahead of myself, though sometimes I’m planning on Sunday night. However, because I’ve done the work of splitting it up and gathering resources the planning doesn’t take very long at all. It is also still very easy to adjust. This means that pacing in one subject doesn’t hinder the plans of any other subjects.

Another big change we made was to only schedule four days of school each week.  This gave us room in the schedule for field trips, doctor’s appointments, diving deeper into topics, review, and those days where you need to take a ‘home-ec’ day and get everything put back in order.

The right way to plan is the way that works for you not the one that works for someone else. If you have something that is working for you, I encourage you to continue doing it. However, if you are looking for something different you may want to give this method of an overall annual plan with more detailed weekly plans that are done along the way a try. I do think it is important to note that we have been using most of our curriculum for awhile and are comfortable that it is working for our family. If you are not sure about your curriculum you may want to only plan out the first quarter or semester and then plan a day or two to reevaluate and plan for the next quarter.

I am offering my lesson plan template as a free download below. Please feel free to use it and adapt it as you see fit, changing subjects, frequency, etc.  If you use it you will see a spot of preschool activities. I have a three year old and while I don’t use a formal curriculum I do like to plan a couple activities to do with him each week that are fun and work on developmental skills.

If you have a planning style or plan that works for you, let me know in the comments.

Lesson Planner 2018-19 (Word)

Lesson Planner 2018-19 (PDF)

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