With one homeschool graduate in college this year and my youngest working through his freshman year of high school, one of the questions I am asked most is what our days and weeks look like, when taking an interest-led, strength-based approach to learning. To paint a picture of what this type of learning entails on a daily basis, for all of 2022 I will be sharing our interest-led weekly homeschool lesson plans. I will also be checking back each week to be completely transparent, and let you know exactly what we did and, maybe more importantly, did not do.
I have always planned week by week. I know some families plan for the entire year. I know some take it quarter by quarter, or month by month. For me and my boys, one week is about the max any of us can really commit to.
Because our homeschool plans are based on interests first, our homeschool curriculum and resources will change throughout the year.
At the beginning of the school year, I established these key resources for our learning.
Reading Practice – His Online Driver’s Education Course (my son is profoundly dyslexic but wants to get his learners permit without accommodations for reading) Spelling List and Handwriting Practice (he asked to practice both the “old fashioned way” with hand writing and spelling lists) 9th Grade Literature – mostly with audio books You ARE An Artist (adds hands-on learning)
Science Unlocked Kits Kristin Moon Science Chemistry Labs (her entire online curriculum is based on science experiments and hands-on learning) Astronomy (from The Waldock Way) Neurobiology Study (he requested this one – We are starting with a model of the brain and studying brain anatomy) You ARE An Artist
My son also participates for social emotional learning in The Learners Lab on a regular basis.
It is my hope that these weekly plans will show you how we use these curriculum choices in real time.
As the year progresses, expect changes. For example, I can already tell you that I expect to change up what we are doing to practice spelling at some point in the spring.
It’s simple. Each Monday, I will post a link at the end of this post to a post that includes a day by day plan for our lessons. Most importantly, the following week, before sharing our new weekly lesson plans, I will recap how the week went and what we were and were not able to accomplish.
Another point I feel I need to stress is that my lesson plans are not at all fancy.
Our approach to learning begins and ends with what my child is interested in and shows as an area of strength. (For more information, please take a look at my Strength Based Homeschool Planning Workbook).
These weekly lesson plans are mostly a guide for our days. In fact, I would not even consider publishing them at all, if I were not willing to come back and share how the week progressed.
The value in these lesson plans is seeing how they practically did, and did not, work in our interest-led approach to homeschooling.
These lesson plans mirror the ones I have been creating each week for the past five years or so.
When I celebrated the fact that homeschool really worked well for oldest as he completed his first year of college, the question most asked was simply, “How?”
I will be answering that question for you every week this year!
Check back here each week to see what we have planned.
Or, even better, sign-up below and I will deliver the recaps each week directly to your inbox.
See them all here. Lesson plans and recaps are added weekly!
Shawna Wingert is a former training and development professional turned education specialist, and has homeschooled her two children for the last ten years.Shawna has written four books about homeschooling unique learners and has been featured in homeschooling discussions on Today.com, The Mighty, Simple Homeschool, My Little Poppies and Raising Lifelong Leaners.
