Creating Your Own Homeschool Learning Plan

Creating your own learning plan may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. This is a step by step look at how to create an individualized plan for learning in your homeschool.

Individualized Learning Plans

Back when I was in college studying to be a special education teacher, I remember thinking to myself, “Every child should have an IEP (individualized education plan).” While the IEP process itself can be a nightmare for many parents, the concept was something I thought could benefit every child.

When I worked in corporate America, one of the most consistent parts of my job as a management consultant was helping businesses figure out how to best help individuals succeed, rather than taking a one size fits all approach to training, development and human resources.

Even with all of this experience however, it still took a few years for me, as a homeschool mom, to begin to customize learning for each of my children.

While it may seem daunting at first, an individualized approach to learning actually takes less time and is more effective, once you invest the time upfront to create a learning plan for your child’s needs.

Taking A Strength Based Approach To Learning In Your Homeschool

With a traditional IEP, the focus is on the areas of weakness, and creating systematic steps and goals to improve performance. In your homeschool, I recommend you do the opposite and create a learning plan that focuses primarily on your child’s strengths.

These resources will help you get started with Strength Based Learning:

• What Is Strength Based Learning?
• What Does A Strength Based Learning Plan Look Like?
• Strength Based Homeschool Planning Pages
• A Strength Based Homeschool: Why It Matters
• Strength Based Homeschooling: Your Guide To Creating A Strength Based Learning Plan

These resources are designed to walk you step by step through the process of creating your own learning plan successfully, and in a way that addresses all of your child’s learning needs.

Creating Your Own Homeschool Curriculum Options

Many of you have also asked for help in understanding how to modify or even create curriculum to more effectively meet your child’s needs.

While I have been doing this for years in my own homeschool, I have never actually published any examples of how I actually teach various subjects.

Until now.

As you know if you have been reading my weekly lesson plans, my son and I are embarking on a year long literature study all about banned books. In an effort to help you see how I incorporate his interests and learning strengths into an actual study, I basically took exactly what I am doing with him this year and formatted it into a unit study for you to use as well.

Even if you don’t cover the exact books or topic, this study is obviously different from anything else out there. You’ll see how I support my son’s reading and writing difficulties in a strength based approach as well as the stories I share with him to catch his interest.

If you would like to use it in your own homeschool, you are welcome to join us. I made it available at a promotional price that is 20% off for anyone who would like to take a look. Again, even if you don’t do the study itself, you can use this as a template for creating your own learning in your homeschool.

See Banned Books: A High School Literature Study For The Curious And Unafraid.

The combination of our overall learning plan and subsequent curriculum modifications is what you see in real time in my weekly lesson plan updates.

Our Homeschool Learning Plan In Action

Monday

THE PLAN

• Physical Therapy – 2 hours
• YouTube Video or Google Search About A Preferred Topic
• Blood Plasma Infusion – 4 hours

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

• Physical Therapy – 2 hours
• YouTube: Learning 11 Skills That I Thought Were Impossible
• Current Events Discussion
• Blood Plasma Infusion – 4 hours

Tuesday

THE PLAN

• Audiobook and Discussion
• Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
• Art class – 1 hour
• Voice class – 1 hour

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

• Audiobook and Discussion – Banned Books
• Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
• Art class – 1 hour
• Voice class – 1 hour

Wednesday

THE PLAN

• Physical Therapy – 2 hours
• CTCMath
• Banned Books Study
• Chemistry Online
• Poetry Read Aloud

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

• Physical Therapy – 2 hours
• CTCMath
• Song Lyrics Read Aloud (his choice to skip poetry and pick a song instead)
• Banned Books Study
• Chemistry Online

Thursday

THE PLAN

• Audiobook and Discussion
• Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
• Guitar Class – 1 hour
• Rock Climbing Class – 2 hours

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

• Audiobook and Discussion
• Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
• Guitar class – 1 hour
• Rock Climbing Class – 2 hours

Friday

THE PLAN

• MapWork – South America
• Rock Climbing
• Current Events Discussion
• Audiobook and discussion
• Creative Writing – Poetry

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

• Rock Climbing
• Banned Books – audiobook and discussion
• Text message spelling practice
• Music Technology Study (creating our own with YouTube and hands-on practice with mixing software)
• Creative Writing – song lyrics

Our Individualized Homeschool Lesson Plan For This Week

Looking for more homeschool support?

I created this workbook to walk you through the exact steps I use in creating my own child’s homeschool learning plan.