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Real Life Homeschool Lesson Plans: Week 5

This is Week Five in a year long series, all about lesson planning in an interest-led homeschool. Each week, I share a recap of last week’s plan vs. reality and then our new easy homeschool lesson plans for the upcoming week.

easy homeschool lesson plans

Two big questions that have come up over the past month of sharing these plans are:

Both are great questions. Let’s get you some answers!

How Much Time Do These Homeschool Plans Require Each Day?

What you see in my recaps each week is the time I spent with my son, engaged in his learning. For example, I was there, sitting next to him, while he watched the YouTube video about frogs and we laughed at/talked about it. I was also there reading his Drivers Training curriculum slides out loud and discussing the concepts.

While it may seem like a ton of time when you see the totality of it in a blog post, the reality is I am usually focused on his learning for 2.5-4 hours a day, plus any drive time that includes audiobooks. The rest of the time is spent doing his own thing or hanging out with my husband and I. That being said, we do hang out together a lot. I am a total nerd and actually enjoy learning most of what he is interested in, even if I wouldn’t have selected the topic for myself.

easy homeschool lesson plans

What If I Have More Than One Child?

When I homeschooled two children at once, our weeks looked almost identical to what I do now with one.

We watched all YouTube videos together and completed science and history as a family (for the most part). The exception was when my oldest grew more and more interested in advanced history and computer science, he naturally began to do his own thing.

My children have very different learning needs in regard to math and reading (one has dyscalculia, the other is profoundly dyslexic). Because of this, these subjects have always required a one on one approach and increased time with me. In order to make this happen, very rarely did I complete math with both children and language arts with both children on the same day. I tended to rotate through each child and subject.

How Do You Keep Track When The Learning Seems All Over The Place?

This is another question that has come up a lot in the last few weeks.

I think there are actually two questions here. The first is literally, “What are the resources you use to capture the information so you have a record of your homeschool?” The second is a bit more involved and that is, “How do you account for various subject requirements when it looks like you watched 5 YouTube videos and rock climbed last week?”

Both are fair questions and require a more in depth discussion. Because of this, I dedicated an entire post to answering. You will find it here – Record Keeping For Interest-Led Homeschooling: Subject By Subject.

easy homeschool lesson plans
Affiliate links may be included below. Please know, my son is 16 years old. Any resources I share may or may not be appropriate for all ages and families.

Now, onto the recap of last week’s learning.

Last Week’s Homeschool Lesson Plans vs. Reality

Monday

The Plan

What Actually Happened

Because my son is planning to attend trade school when he graduates, I consider Dirty Jobs to be an invaluable educational resource. We watch it together, after dinner, each Monday or Tuesday night.

Tuesday

The Plan

What actually happened

Tuesdays are usually a good day for us to really focus on school work and this week, our Tuesday was one of those rare homeschool days where is all felt easy. (Gotta take ’em as they come!)

We are currently using two primary resources for our Human Body Study – Dr. Robin’s School of Pre-Med and Heron Books. (I have reviews of both coming out next week, so stay tuned if you would like more information.) I also know that The Waldock Way is working on a new Human Body study. I plan to add some of her activities as soon as they are available. We started learning about human anatomy last fall, took an interest-led detour for a bit, and are now coming back to it.

In passing, I shared with my son how often my oldest has to sign his name, now that he is an adult. He decided to practice a bit, since writing is not easy for him, and filled up a page with his signature.

easy homeschool lesson plans

Wednesday

The Plan

  • Physical Therapy – 2 hours
  • Driver’s Ed Module 10, Part 1
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Science: Human Body Study

What actually happened

I forgot it was Groundhog Day when I made the plan for last week, so I decided to use a free word search activity from my friend, Jessica, at the last minute.

If you have a dyslexic child, I highly recommend word searches. They help the brain practice tracking and isolating letters. If your child struggles with letters and words “moving around on the page,” word searches are a great way to practice with less pressure than reading aloud or spelling.

Thursday

The Plan

  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Social Time with friends – 1 hour
  • Art class – 1 hour
  • Rock Climbing with friends – 3 hours

What Actually Happened

  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Social Time with friends – 1 hour
  • Art class – 1 hour
  • Rock Climbing with friends – 3 hours

We have almost three hours in the car together on Thursdays, between driving to the private school program, then the rock climbing gym and home. We almost always listen to an audiobook during this time. This week, we discussed how the author’s use of figurative language really makes the reader feel like they are living the story along with the characters. My son said, “I lose myself completely. It’s like I’m there, in the book, instead of sitting in the car.”

I plan to use this as the basis of a figurative language activity next week.

easy homeschool lesson plans

Friday

The Plan

  • CTCMath
  • Driver’s Ed Module 10 and Quiz
  • History – read aloud
  • YouTube Video – his choice and educational
  • Creative Writing or History – his choice

What Actually Happened

Regarding our current events discussion: When I was in high school, I was on the debate team. One of the most valuable things I learned was how to see both sides of an issue. (In a debate competition, you must defend both the affirmative and the negative positions on a topic, back and forth, throughout the day.)

Because this was such a formative part of my learning, when my son and I cover a controversial topic, I ask him to think of a few talking points for each side of the issue and defend them. This has two benefits in my mind:

  1. I want to raise a critical thinker who values and respects opinions that may differ from his own.
  2. When your child struggles with rigid thinking, as many children with learning differences do, this exercise can help them become more flexible in their thinking.

After we finish the “debate” we both share our personal opinions about the topic. He is free to disagree with mine, and I with his.

easy homeschool lesson plans

Our Homeschool Lesson Plans For This Week

Monday

  • Math: Real Life Word Problems
  • YouTube Video – His choice
  • Infusion – 4 hours

Reference Notes: Every Monday, my son has subcutaneous immunoglobin infusions. Because of this, our Monday routine is very light. We do the minimum and prepare for his medical treatment in the afternoon.

Tuesday

  • Outpatient surgery
  • Wish us luck!

Reference Notes: Tuesdays are our first full school day of the week. Because my son always feels better post-Monday’s infusion, we typically do a large percentage of our more traditional homeschool work on this day. This week, because my son has a surgery scheduled for Tuesday, this is clearly not the plan.

Wednesday

  • Physical Therapy – 2 hours
  • Driver’s Ed Module
  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Science: Human Body Study
  • Figurative Language Activity

Thursday

  • Audiobook and Discussion
  • Social Time with friends – 1 hour
  • Art class – 1 hour
  • Rock Climbing with friends – 3 hours

Reference Notes: We spend Thursdays in lessons mostly outside our home.  My son attends a program on Thursday afternoons through a local private school.

Friday

homeschool lesson plans

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    Additional Resources For Strength-Based And Interest-Led Homeschooling

    Research shows that a learner allowed to spend the most time studying in areas of strength, tends to perform exponentially better in all areas including the areas of weakness.

    These resources will help you get started.

    easy homeschool lesson planning
    strength based homeschooling

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    3 Comments

      1. You are so kind! It went better than we’d hoped. Thank you so much for thinking of us.

    1. How long is your Audio Book a day? I want to start doing this at home but not sure how long I should do it.

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