It should go without saying that if a person is going to do monthly planning it should get done before the first day of the month. I know this, but it always seems to sneak up on me anyway. On Monday I was still dating checks for the 20th and still blissfully thinking I had a few more days. Nope, sorry, wrong again. Ugh. So, now, here I am, the morning of February 1st and I'm working out our monthly plan.
This month I got a little, well, creative and wanted to update our regular lesson plan base. I found the perfect clip art from Olivia (I just love her watercolor look) and started creating away (c: I'm sharing our February lesson plan base and calendar with you today - just download, print and personalize.
I also though I would share a bit about how it is we actually go about planning out our month - I know I wish someone would have shared this with me when I started homeschooling (c:
First, I add any and all family events and then I look up special holidays for the month - we love celebrating! Next I check out any special events going on at some of our favorite local educational venues and with Girl Scouts and add those to the mix. At this point our calendar usually looks pretty full - and this month is no different. The different colors represent different types of events and obligations - some days almost look like rainbow days on our calendar!
After I have our calendar complete I look for any ideas for unit studies to go along with what we might be doing. This month at the Wildcat Glades they are offering a program called Raptors Rock and Doodle Bug would like to go, if we can wing it (no pun intended). That same day is also Uncle Bug's basketball game with Special Olympics and if the times don't work out just right we won't be doing both. If we make it to the raptor event we might do a lap book or something to go along with it. Another educational option is the Wonders of the Night Sky program going on at the George Washington Carver National Monument. That might work into our schedule better and even though it's not animal-oriented I think Doodle Bug would still enjoy it.
I count these weekend field trips as part of our homeschooling - after all if public school kids can count a field trip to the movies as "educational" why in the world can't I count something that is actually educational? Anyhow, because of this our weekly planner has a Saturday spot too. This doesn't mean that we home school 6 days a week, it just means that I have a spot to jot down our weekend educational adventures.
After I have planned out any unit studies we are doing I fill in the rest with our regular daily work. I do unit study plans first because they cover a wide range of subjects and that way I know what subjects I actually need an assignment for on that day. Our regular daily subjects are: Spelling/Vocabulary, Math, Literature, Grammar/Composition, History, Science and Enrichment. We have a different enrichment class each day of the week - Fine Art, Domestic Art, World Cultures, Fitness and Technology. Fine art is pretty self explanatory. Domestic art could really be called Life Skills, but I've found several schools calling their special ed classes this and don't want to be confusing on transcripts. Basically, Domestic Art includes a mix of traditional home ec, tech ed and extra things like Driver's Ed. World Cultures rotates from learning Spanish to learning about other cultures. Our state requirement for this is hazy at best so we are making sure we cover all our bases. Fitness is just something to get us active and usually involves a trip to the park. Technology involves using computers or phone apps (that seems to be the wave of the future) for fun learning activities. Phone apps are a new addition to this subject so we are just testing the waters with it.
I hope today's post has been helpful. Please leave your comments if you download the lesson planner, I would love to know if anyone else is using it. (c:
I count these weekend field trips as part of our homeschooling - after all if public school kids can count a field trip to the movies as "educational" why in the world can't I count something that is actually educational? Anyhow, because of this our weekly planner has a Saturday spot too. This doesn't mean that we home school 6 days a week, it just means that I have a spot to jot down our weekend educational adventures.
After I have planned out any unit studies we are doing I fill in the rest with our regular daily work. I do unit study plans first because they cover a wide range of subjects and that way I know what subjects I actually need an assignment for on that day. Our regular daily subjects are: Spelling/Vocabulary, Math, Literature, Grammar/Composition, History, Science and Enrichment. We have a different enrichment class each day of the week - Fine Art, Domestic Art, World Cultures, Fitness and Technology. Fine art is pretty self explanatory. Domestic art could really be called Life Skills, but I've found several schools calling their special ed classes this and don't want to be confusing on transcripts. Basically, Domestic Art includes a mix of traditional home ec, tech ed and extra things like Driver's Ed. World Cultures rotates from learning Spanish to learning about other cultures. Our state requirement for this is hazy at best so we are making sure we cover all our bases. Fitness is just something to get us active and usually involves a trip to the park. Technology involves using computers or phone apps (that seems to be the wave of the future) for fun learning activities. Phone apps are a new addition to this subject so we are just testing the waters with it.
I hope today's post has been helpful. Please leave your comments if you download the lesson planner, I would love to know if anyone else is using it. (c:
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