Homeschool Planning With My Child {week 29 lesson plans and recap}
This is week 29 in a year long series, all about lesson planning in our interest-led homeschool. I share a recap of last week’s plan vs. reality every week, and include an overview of our lesson plan for the upcoming week. This week, I am also including a snapshot of a fall planning meeting with my son.
In addition to our usual homeschool lessons, the last couple of weeks have also included a couple of planning meetings for me and my son. I shared a brief overview of how these conversations are structured in this post: How Summer Learning Helps Us Plan For Prepare For The New School Year.
This week, I want to give you more details about our developing plan for my son’s 10th grade homeschool year.
Homeschool Planning With My Child
Taking an interest-led approach in our homeschool means I need to know what my son is interested in learning before I begin to consider curriculum options. Now that he is older, this conversation has become much more straight forward, as he is actively engaged and interested in meeting the requirements for a high school diploma.
As a reminder here is an overview of the questions I asked in our first planning meeting.
WHAT ARE THE HIGH SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS YEAR?
In our state, the requirements are:
- Language Arts 10
- Integrated Math 10
- Physical Science
- Social Studies
- Electives
- Physical Education
I review these with him first, in order to help guide our conversation.
WHAT ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LEARNING THIS YEAR?
When I asked my son what he was most interested in learning this year, he and I were then able to develop this list of priorities:
- Music Technology – mixing, recording, etc.
- Chemistry
- Literature Study via Audiobooks
- Vocabulary, Spelling, and Writing (Now that he is older, he understands the value in practicing this, even though it is something that is difficult for him.)
- World Cultures and Geography (We have been focused on history this summer with his history major older brother home from college. He said he is done with history for a bit.)
- Art
- Guitar
- Rock Climbing
- Possibly French
HOW DO YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT THESE VARIOUS TOPICS?
One of the best things about homeschooling an older learner is that he is becoming more and more aware of how he learns best. He asked that we focus on online learning as much as possible this year.
Choosing Interest-Led Homeschool Curriculum
Based on this rough outline, we then took some time this past week to look at various curriculum options. At this stage, we look at all of the various resources available and try to determine what the best choices will be for fall. You’ll notice that much of our week shifted to free trials of various programs.
So far, this is what we’ve agreed upon:
- CTCMath and Beyond Personal Finance for Integrated Math
- Chemistry needs to be more hands-on and not just an online program (based on the free trial)
- I will choose every other book we listen to on Audible throughout the year to make the learning more well-rounded
- Guitar needs to be in person (the hand-eye coordination is too tough with an online program)
Over the course of the next few weeks, we will continue this process until we have a solid plan for each subject, just in time for back to school.
Here is how our week progressed including the free trials and homeschool planning.
Last Week’s Homeschool Lesson Plans vs. Reality:
Monday
THE PLAN
- YouTube Video
- Drivers Ed
- Blood Plasma Infusion – 4 hours
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
- Drivers Ed
- Chemistry – Free Trial
- 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
- Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
- Art class – 1 hour
- Voice class – 1 hour
- Read Aloud (him reading to me) – Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
Wednesday
THE PLAN
- Physical Therapy – 2 hours
- Drivers Ed
- Meeting with youngest to discuss his subject preferences for next year (10th grade!)
- Everyday Finance
- Current Events Discussion – read and discuss various news reports
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
- Physical Therapy – 2 hours
- Audiobook and Discussion
- Beyond Personal Finance
- 10th Grade Planning Meeting #2
- Current Events Discussion
- Guitar Lessons Free Trial
Thursday
THE PLAN
- Audiobook and Discussion
- Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
- Art class – 1 hour
- Rock Climbing Class – 2 hours
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
- Audiobook and Discussion
- Trip to Record Store with my oldest
- Social Time with friends – 1 hour
- Art class – 1 hour
- Rock Climbing class – 2 hours
Friday
THE PLAN
- Driver’s Ed
- History – taught by brother (maybe no more genocides for now…)
- YouTube Video – their choice and educational
- Audiobook and discussion
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
- Drivers Ed
- Audiobook and discussion
- CTCMath
- Edgar Allan Poe – Poetry Study on YouTube
Our Homeschool Lesson Plans For This Week
Monday
- YouTube Video
- Drivers Ed Lesson
- Blood Plasma Infusion – 4 hours
Reference Notes: Every Monday, my son has subcutaneous immunoglobin infusions. This means we typically keep learning to a minimum.
Tuesday
- Audiobook and Discussion
- Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
- Art class – 1 hour
- Voice class – 1 hour
Reference Notes: My son attends classes on both Tuesday and Thursday at a specialized private school.
Wednesday
- Physical Therapy – 2 hours
- Vacation Day for Mom
Thursday
- Audiobook and Discussion
- Social Time with friends at school – 1 hour
- Art class – 1 hour
- Rock Climbing Class – 2 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 and then has rock climbing practice about an hour away. We use the car time to our advantage as much as possible.
Friday
- Driver’s Ed
- Finish Ocean Study
- YouTube Video – their choice and educational
- Audiobook and discussion
New Interest-Led Homeschool Lesson Plans And Updates, Every Week
Additional Resources For Strength-Based And Interest-Led Homeschooling
Take a look at all of our past lesson plans and recaps!
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 are a great place to start!
Can you share a little more about what you and your son think of Beyond Personal Finance, specifically the video component? The peek at the workbook looks great. Thanks!
The video is straightforward and easy to follow. I would not describe it as super engaging, but the topic is interesting to him and having the workbook helps keep him on track so it works well for us.
Does that make sense?
Yes, thank you!