A lesson plan is an essential tool required to successfully navigate homeschooling. Creating a lesson plan will be your roadmap and provide structure and clarity for you and your child(ren) during homeschooling days. I often get asked how to effectively plan lessons and what are the key elements that should be taken into consideration when sitting down to plan your week. 

Below I share my tips on how to successfully navigate lesson planning:

1. Identify learning objectives: before you plan your lesson, you will first need to identify the learning objectives for the lesson. A learning objective describes what the learner will know or be able to do after the learning experience rather than what the learner will be exposed to during the instruction (i.e. topics). Typically, it is written in a language that is easily understood by students and clearly related to the program learning outcomes.

2. Decide on the type of tasks that should be completed. You should have a clear idea of how many sections you will divide your lesson into. This is normally somewhere between 3-4 and should include a clear task, for example – a timeline, comprehension question, essay plan, graph work, etc.

3. Think about how you will be assessing the work completed. Sometimes you may assess and mark the work but other times it may be suitable to create a self-assessment worksheet that your child can use to mark their work themselves.

4. Make sure you have the right resources to hand. Avoid wasting time during your lessons by making sure you have everything you need before starting each homeschooling day. For example, if like us, you are working on the tale of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe then make sure you have your book to hand so that as soon as the lesson starts you can begin reading. 

5. Homework. If you’ve been following me on social media, I recently did a post about the importance of homework in the homeschool. Although it sounds ironic (because you are already at home), homework does offer alot of benefits, including: 

– It teaches your child to work independently and develop self-discipline.
– It encourages them to take initiative and responsibility for completing a task.

So for each lesson, decide whether you will be setting homework and set a timeline for completion.  Everyone will have their own way of preparing lesson plans and most families find a format that work for them. However, if you feel you need assistance with your lesson planning then I can help you. I provide an editable template for lesson plans and examples in my Homeschooling Happiness Haul and also I have created an editable lesson plan with each of my lessons from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series.

To purchase one of the above, click here. Homeschooling doesn’t have to be stressful, you just need to equip yourself with the right tools.