Creating a Home School Lesson Plan for Your Child

Students can be taught in many different ways, but the public schools follow the textbook teaching pattern only. When you decide that this is not enough and home schooling is better for your children you have many things that you need to consider. After proper research, you can decide the right curriculum for your child. One you are through with this, an important exercise you have to follow is making a home school lesson plan. There cannot be one specific plan that one can prescribe.

Some states may or may not allow you to make a home schooling plan. Check if you can make the plan and then go ahead. With the curriculum in hand some of you may prefer to make a plan for the year first and break it down to the weekly plan. You may well involve your child in preparing the plan. As home schooling is different from the traditional schooling way, you have the flexibility to set the timings and not follow the regular school pattern. The plan should be comfortable for you and the child. You need not wake up very early for the lessons. However, remember that discipline is necessary.

While planning, you should have an idea of the subject you would be teaching through the week. This is useful, as you have to make a report about the progress of the child. You can have an outdoor activity planned. Such activities help break the monotony of textbook learning. When it comes to historical or geographical topics you can make them interesting to understand and remember by visiting these places or museums and so on.

If you want to teach about plants you may take them to the parks or some other places of natural beauty. It will help enrich the child's knowledge and provide good food for imagination. Kids will ask questions about the things they observe. This is surely a good way to learn new things; one leading to another. If your child is inquisitive about anything, encourage him to develop an understanding by observation and reading and put it down in words. In a way you are developing the reading and writing skills.

There are some lesson plan books available at the stores and even online. You can buy them or print them to plan the activities. Take a pencil and put down the plan on paper, you may revise it any number of times trough the week as the week progresses. Initially, it may not go perfectly to the plan, but as you move ahead systematically things will start falling in place. You can have worksheets planned, printed or online; whichever you and the child find easier and simpler.

There are various methods followed by various people like Unschooling, Montessori and Unit Study and so on. Parents who believe in the philosophy of unschooling believe that learning should come from everyday life. Kids learn from observing around. These are useful in areas like cooking, nature walks etc; you never know, you may teach to count measure while cooking or when you go shopping- teach the concept of cost comparison and other things.

Many parents combine all these different methodologies to develop a style of their own. There can be no one way to suggest and you will grow into the methods as things progress, to fit the child's needs. Planning is very relevant in any activity you do, including home schooling.

Kris Koonar