Homeschool Lesson Plans - 3 Easy Ways to Avoid Burnout and Still Get Everything Done

Are homeschool lesson plans as necessary as the lesson plans that public school teachers use? Lesson plans help administrators keep track of what their teachers are doing. Homeschoolers need some kind of structure to their day but their plans or checklists have a different purpose.

Here are some basic facts I have found in regard to lesson plans:

1. In my years of homeschooling I have found that people that use lesson plans tend to burn out quicker. Lesson plans take time to write and develop. Then when you have the plan you feel like you need to complete it. This can cause a lot of stress on the family if the children don't cooperate or if circumstances come up that take time away from the plan.

2. Usually a checklist or guide end up being a better fit for most homeschoolers. You can have a general plan of what you want to get done for the day or week and not feel like you are tied to a strict schedule that tends to change often.

Homeschoolers do need a basic structure to their day or everyone just wanders around playing video games or playing and not accomplishing anything. Usually homeschoolers work on table work in the morning and projects in the afternoon.

Just because children are home all day, doesn't mean they need the television to entertain them. There are plenty of interesting things that children can do with their afternoons. Sometimes they just need to get used to the idea of entertaining themselves with interesting projects. It may take a few days, but you can train them to find projects to work on if they know they will not be allowed to watch TV.

3. Once you have a guide or goals written down of what subject areas you want to cover for the year, you can start making your checklist of what you want to accomplish each day. It's basically just a matter of looking at the big picture and dividing that list of goals into smaller monthly, weekly and daily nuggets. You might enjoy making out lesson plans to accomplish your goals or you may decide to switch to a checklist instead, with a basic structure to your day.