# Lesson Planners?



## KyMama (Jun 15, 2011)

I've spent hours googling lesson planners and there are a lot of them out there, I just have no idea how they use them. I have all the subjects planned for the year, and even entered them into a weekly spreadsheet for the first couple of weeks. The problem I run into is the changes that we make. After just one week I've already made several changes including the whole science curriculum. I've crossed out and rewrote so much stuff that the page is a mess.

I'd love it if y'all could take the time to explain what works for you.


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## Ed Mashburn (Jun 24, 2013)

Ky Mom- Welcome to my world. For nearly 40 years I fought the battle of lessons plans in my daily work. The biggest problem- as you've discovered- with lesson plans is that they don't always work for very long. Kids need more time on a subject- or they master it faster- I never really made specific plans for much over a week in the future. 
What I'd suggest is that you plan out your units- the material that MUST BE COVERED- whatever it is- and then teach it as hard as you can so that the kiddos get a good coverage. Then move on to the next MUST BE COVERED unit. Look at your yearly or semester plan of units to be covered. If you've got 10 units in a semester, and the first unit takes a week, you can figure most of the other units will take about a week, too.
The biggest key to any educational plan is flexibility. Don't try to stay on schedule. Just make sure the kids learn what they need to learn.
The advantage I had, of course, was that after teaching the same subject for two or three years, I knew pretty much how long each unit would take. If you're teaching just one or two kiddos at home, you, too, will find out how long each particular unit takes, but you probably won't have anyone else coming up to teach it to!
Hope this helps- just cover the material well and don't fret the scheduling.
Ed Mashburn


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I have two different sets of plans, just like when I'm in a classroom. 

One is my scope and sequence chart which is basically each course divided into 36 weeks. Ie, to finish Saxon Algebra I know we need to average a little over 3 lessons per week. So I'll put that in my chart. I have 27(?) sections in science, so I have a little less than one section per week. And so on. 
That way I can pace myself by quarters. A little slower here, a little quicker there...


THEN I have a weekly plan that I do every Friday afternoon (well, Saturday morning this week, since that's what I'm doing on the computer right now. lol)
That plan is the detailed one with page numbers, materials needed, etc. There is no way I'd _ever_ be able to stick to it if I wrote my weekly one out for weeks in advance...


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## KyMama (Jun 15, 2011)

Thank you. I have his work divided into 36 weeks so I'm on the right track.  I was thinking of just penciling in the coming week, but wasn't sure. I think I'll give it a try and see if it works for me. My OCD kicks in a lot and I think I have to have everything done right now. 

Thanks again.


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