HSLDA

Lesson Planning and Recordkeeping

1. Set goals for each child (intellectual, physical, spiritual, social—see Luke 2:52).

2. Determine what will be covered this year.

3. Order appropriate materials to accomplish goals.

4. Decide on “school” schedule.

5. Peruse materials and determine what you will cover and what you will not. Your curriculum is a tool, not a master.

6. Divide materials by number of weeks or number of days.

7. Build in some “down time.”

8. Lay out a framework (1 math lesson per day Monday-Thursday with math game Friday; 1 LLATL lesson per week, 1 A Beka literature unit per month, etc.).

9. Write out a plan to accomplish your goals. Use pencil!

10. Measure yourself...

Homeschooling one child can be challenging enough, but adding more children can make a homeschool mom feel like the juggler doing the zany plate-spinning act, rushing from pole to pole to give each a quick twirl to keep those plates in the air. Here are a few ideas for keeping the homeschooling “plates” from crashing to the floor.

1. Set goals and prioritize. Map out your year but be flexible (use pencil!). “Add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge…” (2 Peter 1:5). You’ll want to include character training and Biblical discipleship as well as academics. (It’s much easier to teach an obedient, diligent, cheerful child!)

And speaking of academics: Don’t make it complicated. In the younger years, your goal is to build relationships within your family while nurturing their relationships with God, and facilitating experiential learning—“hooks” on which they can hang his learning about God’s world. Many...

Time management is not about finding the ultimate planning notebook or a calendar with stickers or adopting yet another list of to-do’s to get you caught up. Time management is about identifying what is important to you and then ordering your days to reflect those priorities in such a way that you can accomplish what God has for you for today.

There are lots of great resources to help you develop routines and systems that will work for your individual needs; a partial list follows. I surely don’t need to re-invent the wheel; even if I did, it would be my wheel, not yours. And time management is something you have to tailor to your own unique personality and family, not fit into my cookie-cutter calendar (although that certainly won’t stop me from giving you samples throughout the site).

Our goal is to give you some practical ideas for starters and to give you encouragement that you can do this!

Margin is the distance between where you are and your personal limit (emotional, physical, financial, time, etc.). This will be different for everyone (for more on this topic, read Margin by Richard Swenson). Just as...

Organization at a Glance

• Pray about what God wants you to work on for your particular family.

• Ask your spouse for guidance as to which areas are important to him.

• Find a balance: “Our house is clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be happy.”

• Be careful not to be such a perfectionist that people are uncomfortable living in your house.

• Our goal is to glorify God with our lives and, as homemakers, with our homes. We can do that better in an orderly home because we can be more gracious to our children when we aren’t rushed or hunting for the car keys or always behind, and can be hospitable. Our home is more peaceful and calm.

• This is a spiritual work because the end result is to bring peace to our homes and to glorify our Creator.

• Look for ways to bring order to your home, but don't allow...

“Stir up the gift of God which is in you….” (2 Timothy 1:6, NKJV)

When we were first considering home education, I was unsure about my own ability to meet my children’s needs. Not only did we have a daughter born with cerebral palsy, but I had two children classified as “gifted and talented” by the local public school. Speech therapy and occupational therapy in a home environment weren’t nearly as frightening to me as the thought of challenging my “GT” kids! I was so afraid that I could not offer a motivating, stimulating environment equivalent to that of the local school program. And I was right….

Instead of producing an equivalent program (i.e., limiting our own “gifted and talented” situation to one or two half-days a week), we were able to tailor our entire program to the accelerated learning and creative development of our children! Instead of having to wait for the rest of the class to catch up in math, they could move ahead at...

Make the most of the “togetherness” inherent in homeschooling—with some fun and games designed to build family relationships while reinforcing skills. Games promote family bonding while building math, language, and thinking skills. Game play reinforces both character and curriculum by encouraging children to take turns, follow directions, think strategically, and recall information learned or skills developed.

“There are many kinds of success in life worth having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful business man, or railroad man, or farmer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.” —Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, 1913

...

A young mom writes:

 “I’m new at homeschooling – I have 2-year-old twins. I want to teach them and get them ready for preschool. Please send me info to help me start off on the right foot. “

Another mom writes:

“I have a 3½- year-old boy, a 2½- year-old girl, and a 7-month old baby boy.  I've read the preschool article on the website, listened to the sessions on beginning homeschooling from the convention, read a few books and magazines, talked to homeschooling moms...but now that I'm really looking at schooling my children, I just get overwhelmed and don't know where to start.  I can see the goal or vision that my children will love to learn, to learn about God, to learn reading, math, problem solving history, art, music, and everything in between but how do you start?  They don't seem to even want to sit still and read a book. They just want to play with toys and...

To find the MÂCHÉ Handbook Online:

• If you are a member of MÂCHÉ, make sure you are logged in
• Then click on the Membership tab at the top of the page
• Select the MÂCHÉ Handbook Online

If you are not a MÂCHÉ member, click on the Membership tab at the top of the page, and place a membership in your cart, and pay for the membership. It may take up to 24 hours for your MÂCHÉ Membership to be activated, but as soon as your membership is activated, you will be able to see the MÂCHÉ Handbook Online.

MÂCHÉ works year round to encourage all Minnesota home educators through various events, monitored legislation, and reliable information. While we currently homeschool freely, every session of the Minnesota Legislature and the U.S. Congress introduces bills that would adversely affect home educators.

MÂCHÉ was formed in 1983 to encourage Christian families in accord with biblical principles. Our vision was to assist parents in passing on to their children a godly heritage instilled through Judeo-Christian principles and to "bring them up in the discipline and instruction of...

Dear Friends,

With Christmas fast approaching, we know this is a busy time of year for you and your family. Along with family get-togethers, decorating for the holidays, and taking time to reflect on the true meaning of the season, homeschooling in December is sometimes a bit harried, isn't it? We do understand. In the midst of it all, we encourage you to remember that your time and sacrificial love for your children are the most treasured gifts you can give.

How can we make your life a little easier in the New Year? How about by sharing the whys and wherefores of recordkeeping? Although being organized and keeping records may or may not be one of your strengths, we hope these tips, resources, and ideas will give you the motivation you need to put in some effort now so you will reap the reward of saving time, energy, and tears later on. Keep in mind that your child will often need to provide accurate details of his high school coursework to prospective employers and colleges or to the military.

Recordkeeping is...

Dear Friends,

The picture of April showers refreshing our lawns and gardens reminds us of how God's showers of blessings bring refreshment to our souls. Spring is the season for planning what flowers you are going to plant for the summer to add color to your homes. Likewise, it's also a good time to begin thinking about and planning your next year of teaching.

At this point in the year, you may not be thinking at all about the next school year because you are trying to successfully finish up the current one. But taking a few hours now to look further down the road can help remove much of the stress for next year and relieve some stress that you're feeling this year.

TAKE AN OBJECTIVE LOOK at this year's garden...

Before jumping in and ordering curriculum for next year, take time to think through the past year. Evaluate how the curriculum fit your child, how easy it was to teach, and how your child responded to it. Then spend some time with each child and get his or her impressions...