Dear Friends,

Happy Plan and Play day! Every Tuesday, we spend a few minutes planning. This can be lesson planning, menu planning, paying bills, or any other kind of planning you need to do. My son is getting married in June, and I am helping with wedding planning. As you can see, some planning is a lot of fun. Some of it requires thinking and contemplation. In the end, planning ahead helps you later on with whatever you are doing.

In May, I am speaking at a homeschool conference in Lansing, Michigan. For the past several weeks, I have worked on planning for my talks and for having my books ready to sell. I have been planning the road trip portion of the week. Each thing that I work on for this conference is noted in my handy dandy composition book.

Many of you have asked me about my lesson planning for our homeschool. It has changed over the years as I have had up to six students of varying ages. This year seems to be one of the easiest years I have had with lesson planning. Maybe it is the age of my children, or maybe it is the fact that I have fewer children in my homeschool.

We start our school year in August each year. I will spend a few weeks in July looking at their books and getting a feel for how they are laid out. Some books are based on doing a specific lesson a day. Some are divided into chapters. Some books are divided into modules.

I will write down in pencil an idea of how many pages or lessons to do per subject in MY teacher planner. I do not write out in individual student planbooks, and I do not require my students to copy down their lesson plans. We all use my teacher planner for daily reference.

My lesson plans are not done very far in advance. I find that doing them weekly is sufficient for me. That way, I can factor in illness, if we have to take a sick day. I am also able to work in appointments or field trips without messing up my lesson plans.

When I do a unit study with my children, I will have an idea of the topic we are studying each month. I will do more detailed planning a week ahead of time for my unit studies as well. There have been times when I taught a co-op class that I outlined an entire semester at one time. This was to help the others in the co-op to know what we would cover each week.

Planning a whole school year or even a whole semester is a lot to do, and so many things can interrupt your plans. It’s also easier to spend 15 minutes planning a week’s worth of lesson plans versus hours spent planning for weeks or months at a time.

If you struggle with lesson planning, ask me questions.

Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.

Your Zone Mission for today is to put away all of your clothes.

My menu plan for Tuesday is tacos and baked potatoes.
Veggies and salad for me.

Have a blessed day!