Every now and then I have to change the way I prepare the weekly lesson plan for my children. It often depends on their interests at the moment and of course on their age.
With the eldest daughter I didn't really need to have a weekly plan as she always knew what she wanted to learn. Her way of learning was to spend a whole day on one subject. So if she was in the mood for math, she would do math whole day. If she wanted to do more English, she would spend whole day on English. There were also times that she would spend a few days in a row working on a project or simply reading.
With our son it was a completely different situation. He always had to have everything planned, all lessons layed out for him. He wanted to know what subjects he was supposed to learn every day. That's why I used to create a weekly lessons plan for him, just like in school.
For our youngest one, who is in third grade now, on Sunday evenings I used to write up the lessons for the whole week. This way she knew exactly what she needed to do.
This way she has created her own lesson plan:
With the eldest daughter I didn't really need to have a weekly plan as she always knew what she wanted to learn. Her way of learning was to spend a whole day on one subject. So if she was in the mood for math, she would do math whole day. If she wanted to do more English, she would spend whole day on English. There were also times that she would spend a few days in a row working on a project or simply reading.
With our son it was a completely different situation. He always had to have everything planned, all lessons layed out for him. He wanted to know what subjects he was supposed to learn every day. That's why I used to create a weekly lessons plan for him, just like in school.
For our youngest one, who is in third grade now, on Sunday evenings I used to write up the lessons for the whole week. This way she knew exactly what she needed to do.
This semester I decided to take a different approach, I wanted to get Ania more involved in lesson planning. Unfortunately she is one of those children who can not decide what to do. Without being told what needs to be done, she would just stare at whatever I would be doing and would be trying to help me. As I do want her to take more responsibilities for her studies, I made a special lesson plan which hopefully is going to work for her.
First I wrote all the subjects on small pieces of card stock:
Then I asked Ania to assign them to days of the week:
This way she has created her own lesson plan:
After creating the above weekly plan, we placed all the cards in a small cup with a label TO DO. There is also another cup with DONE written on it. After completing a lesson, Ania is supposed to move the card from the 'to do' cup to the 'done' cup. This way by the end of the week she will know how much she has done. The objective is to move all the cards to the 'done' cup. The weekly lessons plan is there to help her choose the lessons, but she doesn't need to stick to it all the way. It's up to her.
We have just started this kind of planning so it's too early to say if it really works for Ania. We'll see in a few weeks or months.
You may ask how does she know what she is supposed to do in math, English or Chinese. Well ... last semester I have written down all the lessons from textbooks and workbooks on a notebook. At first it was supposed to be for me to track what was done and what still needs to be worked at. Now Ania can look up at this notebook and decide by herself which lesson she wants to do. After completing the lesson she colors in the box with the lesson/page number.
You may ask how does she know what she is supposed to do in math, English or Chinese. Well ... last semester I have written down all the lessons from textbooks and workbooks on a notebook. At first it was supposed to be for me to track what was done and what still needs to be worked at. Now Ania can look up at this notebook and decide by herself which lesson she wants to do. After completing the lesson she colors in the box with the lesson/page number.
How do you plan the lessons? Or do you simply go with the flow?
You can read how my planning has been changing through the years in a few different posts on this blog:
June 2017 - planning for Ania (po polsku)
Wow amazing job! We go with the flow, we don’t do much structure work right now, most of the studies are by project, workshop or simply travelling
ReplyDeleteWe are pretty flexible with our lessons, but I do like to have a plan for when we are at home. Outings and travel always take priority :-)
Deletethanks for sharing ! everyone are different so do the learning process!
ReplyDelete