Since we have started home school one of the most asked questions we get is, “how do you come up with the lessons?”
It’s a team effort. The FraLews are no strangers to family meetings. We will call a family meeting in a heartbeat. When it’s time to plan out her lessons Rod and I meet and discuss the priorities. We talk about what we want her to learn this month and field trips we want her to go on. Once we have narrowed down any themes, we start to plan out the lessons.
For Math and Reading, we have a curriculum that we are following. The curriculum allows for 1 lesson a day each, but they weren’t challenging her so we bumped them up to 3 lessons a day each. Before you freak out, the lessons are one page long with worksheets and activities. It’s not a lot.
Our state does not require her to have science or social studies lessons, but we want to introduce them to her anyway so I use Chat GPT to help me design lessons catered to our theme with her learning style in mind. She is a kinesthetic learner, so we have to keep the lessons hands on or she will get bored fast!
So far, things have been going pretty well. We’re learning what she likes and what she doesn’t like. It’s becoming apparent where public school was failing her. We are seeing sides of her personality that we would have never seen had we not withdrawn her from public school.
Most importantly, we’re learning to embrace change. I do not like change. It makes me uncomfortable. Home schooling has taught me that I cannot control everything. Home school gives us the freedom to be creative in our lessons and cater her learning to her. Although it is stressful and feels like a second job, it’s incredibly rewarding. I hope she will feel the same way.
