Homeschool Lesson Planning with Assignment Sheets
With the increase in availability of homeschool planners and various forms of lesson planning, I wanted to share the system that my mom created when she began homeschooling us over thirty years ago. Homeschool planners were not that popular or plentiful back then, so my mom created her own system for us that kept us on track and kept our homeschooling organized. This is a system I still love to use and I have recreated it and now made available to you to help you in your homeschooling.
Creating Assignment Sheets
My mom knew that we needed organization in our daily work, so she created what she began to call assignment sheets. These became her lesson plans for us throughout the school year and it made it easy for her to count days of attendance. What makes these sheets so unique is that each week, the students’ schoolwork is assigned specifically by subject and lesson, and/or page numbers in the text book.
My mom had already organized and planned what books each of us would be doing in the school year, so she would have all our assignments printed and organized into notebooks by grade or subject. Then she would work on our assignment sheets in the quiet hours of one weekend evening, going through each book and assigning every page or tasks. Yes, it was a commitment! But it made life so much easier in the day-to-day.
Independent Freedom of Assignment Sheets
As most of our schoolwork became more and more independent as we got older, this kept us on track and made us see how much we were completing. I always loved checking off my list each day as I accomplished each subject. From reading to math lessons, it made us feel in control of what we had to do. Plus, we could fill in the extracurricular we did that day on the extra blanks. Extra things like baking bread or creating something fun.
We also had the freedom to do our work in whatever order best for us. So if we wanted to start with spelling that morning, we could. If we had to put our math aside because we needed some assistance, we went on to our grammar or we read our history. It was a simple way for us to take control of what we had to do, but we stayed accountable for getting it all done that day.
More Benefits of Assignment Sheets
Another great thing that we loved was the idea of working ahead. My mom would write down on each day what we needed to accomplish but we were free to work ahead for the next day if we wanted to spend time on something else the following day. For example, if there was a birthday the next day and we didn’t want to be at our desk for long, so we would do the next day’s math lesson just because we had the time. And we would encourage the birthday sibling to work ahead so we could spend the whole day together just having fun, playing outside, or doing a fun project!
We always had plenty of free time to read books, work on hand crafts, or just be outside playing. We learned together in the same room for most of our early years – some helping others with their work, others entertaining the little ones, and sometimes we all just worked on a big school project together. We also had afternoon read aloud time where my mom would read a book that we were all interested in. We got so much done and it always was wonderful to see our assignment sheets checked off at the end of the day.
Printable Assignment Sheets for Your Homeschool
This encourages independence and responsibility! These also help you as the teacher to keep track of attendance.
Now I have these assignment sheets available in my shop and I am so excited to see others use what worked so well for us!
This system is a fantastic way to encourage independence within your children or students. They get to see exactly what pages to read and what lessons to accomplish. It can make your homeschool days run smoother and you can feel good about what is being done each week.
I have loved this system so much that as I got older, I even made myself these charts throughout high school and carried it on with my younger siblings. I loved creating these assignment sheets with my mom for them and adding clip art or stamps just for fun!
I also liked using these for my youngest students when they first started school. They got to check it off and were reward with a sticker at the end of the day. I have now made these preschool versions available as well!
I have made these assignment sheets for four or five day school weeks depending on what works best for your family!
I hope you enjoy this homeschool system that has worked for us! If you love this or you have another similar homeschool organization method, be free to let me know in the comments below!
Blessings to you and your family as we begin this new homeschool year!
