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You are here: Home / homeschool / how to get started / Homeschool Mom Life Hack: I don’t lesson plan (and you shouldn’t either)

Homeschool Mom Life Hack: I don’t lesson plan (and you shouldn’t either)

Do you feel overwhelmed and stressed out when you see pictures on Pinterest of big organization files or planner books for homeschool moms?  I do too!

Because the fact is (even though I’m a former classroom teacher), I don’t lesson plan, and you shouldn’t either.

There, I said it.

Probably a bit controversial in homeschool circles.  But why on earth should mom invest hours upon hours of time to meticulously write down daily plans and create folders of material for each day in the year? Sounds like you might be working harder than the kids.  And that’s a problem.  (See Secret #2 here).

If you feel energized by organizing in this way and creating amazing lesson plans, then please continue! This post is not for you.

This post is for the rest of us who don’t need more expectations on our shoulders.  Here is permission (not that you need it) to enjoy homeschooling, enjoy your kids, and throw that big filing crate and teacher planner away.

Do you think that "successful" homeschool moms have big lesson plan notebooks filled with detailed plans for the entire year? Can I let you in on a little secret? I don't lesson plan (and you shouldn't either). It's a homeschool mom life hack and sanity saver! Check it out @4onemore.com

This post contains affiliate links, which means at no extra cost to you, I will receive a commission if you make a purchase from these links.  Thank you for the support.

So, if you’re not supposed to lesson plan, how do you know what to do each year?  Each month?  Each day?

Glad you asked 🙂

Enter the flexible and eclectic homeschool planning groove.

Contents hide
1 Yearly Plans
2 Choose open and go curriculum
3 Choose curriculum that requires the kids to work harder than mom
4 Organize Curriculum
5 Organize Schedules
6 Weekly Upkeep

Yearly Plans

Once a year, schedule time to consult your goals, your state requirements, the upcoming grade levels of your kids, and your family’s priorities.  Then create a yearly plan, which will include the subjects you want each child to cover.

Want to learn how to plan your homeschool year like a pro? It's actually simpler than you think. @4onemore.com #homeschool #planning

Fill in the slots with curriculum you plan to use.  Can you combine multiple kids?  Will mom need to teach or simply manage and tutor?  Things are not set in stone, but this will give you a great starting point.

Check out this post for more details about making yearly plans!

Or better yet, check out this short workshop where I teach the simple way I plan for 5 kids for the school year in less than 1 hour!  It really doesn’t have to be complicated – and I’d love to show you how I do it.

>> Yearly Lesson Planning in Less Than 1 Hour Workshop<<

Choose open and go curriculum

If you’d like to ditch the detailed lesson planning, then it would be best for you to choose “open and go curriculum.”  What I mean by this is curriculum where you just find the next page and pick up where you left off the day before.  Don’t choose curriculum where you need to read the teacher’s manual to get you through the day.  Curriculum like that was meant for traditional classrooms.

I don't make homeschool lesson plans

Choose curriculum that requires the kids to work harder than mom

If it takes you an hour to consult the teacher’s manual and make plans for each day, then you’re probably working too hard!  It’s okay to choose curriculum that requires more from your kids than from you.

Here is a list of curriculum that we’ve used that is “open and go” and some of them even script out what mom should say!

  • All About Spelling (levels 1-7)
  • First Language Lessons (grades 1-4)
  • Writing With Ease (grades 1-4)
  • Writing With Skill (middle school)
  • Mystery of History (multi-grade level)
  • God’s Design for Science Curriculum (K-8)
  • Analytical Grammar (middle school or high school)

Organize Curriculum

Make sure your space is decluttered before the school year begins and organize your curriculum and materials so that the kids know where to find things!  Nothing is more chaotic to a school day than having to find that lost book.

But if you don’t have a lesson plan book, how will you know what to do each day?

Organize Schedules

You don’t have to ring bells and change subjects by the hour when you’re homeschooling, but some flow and routines will go a long way in smoothing out your day.

Visual checklists and charts work great for young kids.  We used workboxes in elementary school and they were a hit!

Now that my kids are older, they love using Trello to arrange their school weeks and workload.  As they finish assignments, they check it off and I can see their progress online.

We love Trello because:

  • it’s free
  • it’s online (no paper clutter)
  • it’s organized ONCE at the beginning of the year
  • it takes 5 minutes or less every weekend to set it up for the coming week
  • it’s flexible (kids can move assignments around)
  • it’s techy (my older boys love this)
  • it eliminates the need for lesson planning!

Weekly Upkeep

Once you set up this kind of flexible school routine, the weekly upkeep should only take about ten minutes.

Here’s what the weekly tasks might look like:

  • clean up the school clutter on Friday
  • grade any tests or papers from the week that haven’t been checked
  • record any scores if you’re keeping grades (we don’t keep formal grades until high school)
  • archive this week’s Trello boards
  • copy new Trello boards for coming week

So if you’ve been eyeing Pinterest and think that to be a “successful” homeschool mom you need to have a detailed teacher planner, I hope this post has convinced you otherwise!  You just need a yearly plan and an organized schedule that both you and kids can follow.  Take the pressure off yourself.  You’ve got this.

>

Do you think that "successful" homeschool moms have big lesson plan notebooks filled with detailed plans for the entire year? Can I let you in on a little secret? I don't lesson plan (and you shouldn't either). It's a homeschool mom life hack and sanity saver! Check it out @4onemore.com

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By Subject, encouragement, high school 9-12, homeschool, how to get started, K-8, organization

Comments

  1. Jess ica says

    March 24, 2018 at 7:18 pm

    Well said!

  2. Emily says

    March 27, 2018 at 4:04 pm

    I had been homeschooling for five years before a friend (another homeschooling mom) suggested this approach. It changed my life! Thanks for sharing this idea along with the open-and-go curriculum options and Trello (definitely looking into that!).

    • abby says

      March 27, 2018 at 9:21 pm

      Hi Emily! Friends like that are awesome 🙂 Glad you broke free from the lesson planning stress.

  3. Brenda Johnson says

    March 30, 2018 at 6:52 pm

    That post made me feel so much better! That is how I do things. We started in October and every once in a while I think about the summer and figure I’d better block out a few weeks to plan out the year in detail. I definitely prefer our curriculum that is open and go.

    • abby says

      March 30, 2018 at 10:38 pm

      Oh good! Glad you’ve found that this works for you too. I have never spent weeks to plan. But the curriculum you choose does make all the difference.

  4. Dawn says

    April 10, 2018 at 9:11 am

    Two years ago I switched to this yearly planning method as well and it was somewhat freeing. I found I was still chained by the curriculum and this coming school year I am switching to the open & go for History & Science as those have required tooooo much prep this year. I’ve had guilt over the choice and your post relieves me of that guilt! Thank you!

    • abby says

      April 10, 2018 at 3:41 pm

      Good for you, Dawn! We’re good at heaping the guilt on thick, aren’t we? 😉

Hi! I'm Abby - a former classroom teacher turned homeschooling mom of 5. You're in the right place if you want to be inspired, encouraged, and equipped to homeschool confidently. You can do it! Read More…

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