My Lesson Planner

Okay, I went back and forth about whether or not I should make a lesson plan binder. It was something I always did when I was teaching public school... but was it really necessary?

I decided in the end to do it, and I LOVE the way it turned out! I used several forms from one of my all time favorite websites - www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com - she has tons of amazing free printables. The planner cover page, year at a glance calendar, household rules chart and field trip planning form I got from purchasing her Homeschooling 101 ebook. I highly recommend it!

I then created my own lesson plan page. I found one at mamajenn.com that I really liked, but I wanted to change the formatting and add a bit more text so in Microsoft word I simply created a table and added in the headings (Bible, Reading, Math, Thematic Unit, Specials). Then I printed off a ton of copies and started adding in the dates! I figure this will be a good reference for me and if I ever needed to, I could use it as a tool for documenting hours we spend learning. Since my little guy J is just beginning Kindergarten I don't have to worry about doing that yet - - but I know it's coming!

Here's our plan for week 1! We're going to learn about Bears :0

Speaking of themes, I made a unit planning page in much the same way as I did my lesson planner... simply a bunch of empty boxes where I jot notes about all the fun things I want to do with a theme. For the bears planning page I referenced several workbook pages I have on hand, a unit in one of my mailbox learning magazines, a craft I found on deepspacesparkle.com, pinterest ideas, and a few field trip notes. That way I can plan out my thematic units in advance and keep a record of where I get the idea - so I don't forget all the fun things I find!! I also went through the page and made sure I had a fairly balanced number of math, reading, writing and science activities mixed into the unit. Now, even though I don't have months and months of lesson plan pages filled out I can work ahead on thematic units - making it easy to add them in when I do fill out the lesson plan pages.

Finally, at the back of the planning notebook I printed out several different versions of the Kindergarten Common Core Standards.

Voila! Now... I'll actually have to use it!! ;)