How do you write your lessons?

Part of my job as an administrator of a homeschooling program is to talk to families about what really good homeschooling looks like. I often have parents ask me how to make a lesson work for their family and how I get it all done. The quick answer is that it's different every single time I sit down to plan. But there are definite strategies I try to use.

1) How much time will this take? 

It's important to be really realistic. I've over and underplanned so many times! You can get really hopeful and think something will only take 30 minutes and it ends up taking two hours. Or you have grand plans of a lesson being amazing and it's a total dud, taking up five minutes or less. Think through it start to finish and decide how much time you need to do it well, without overdoing it. Add twenty more minutes to your plan, no matter what. It'll give you time to get organized, go down a rabbit hole in the middle or for some extra free time afterwards. 

2) How much is it going to cost me?

We recently tackled a science curriculum that we were both very excited about! It was chock full of lots of experiments and hands-on opportunities to do real scientific investigations. Unfortunately, each of those experiments also had costly parts, chemicals and requirements to complete. While we were able to make some safe substitutes, I also had to eliminate several projects due to cost and time. When you need a tablespoon of ethanol and it only comes in a $20 gallon container that you have no other use for, that might rule out the experiment altogether. This happens sometimes with art and social studies projects too. If a project requires expensive, single-use equipment, I recommend you skip it altogether.

3) Are we going to like it?

This seems like common sense right? Yet, every family I know has tried to put something together that they felt like they had to do, knowing nobody would like it. If you hate mess and the kids don't like surprises, it's perfectly acceptable to read a book on volcanoes rather than make a baking soda and vinegar one. If at least one of you isn't interested, find a different way. Sometimes it's just the wrong fit and it's ok to let it go. 

4) Is it engaging?

Not everything needs to be ponies and rainbows and chocolate cake. But the luxury of homeschooling and the benefit to the kids is that we can try to make every lesson engaging in some way. We can incorporate a video into reading, an interactive simulation after the worksheet or a hands-on project instead of reading altogether. Using the project-based learning strategies in a traditional classroom, you can always ask the kids "How do you want to show me you understand this concept?" Often my son comes up with a more complex, more engaging and more challenging project than I ever could have imagined. 

Using these questions, I'm able to plan out our lessons. Some of our curriculum is from our charter school but often I either find or write my own. Whenever we use standard curriculum, I always go back to #4 and mix it up wherever possible. It's always more interesting for both of us if we can break out of the read and answer questions mode into something more challenging!

If we can't predict it, how do we prepare for it?

In my most recent post, I wrote about a future that we can't predict and the speed of technology changing life faster than we can even comprehend. As an academic homeschooler, this is terrifying! What if I'm failing my son at every turn, preparing him for a future that I'm imagining but maybe isn't going to happen. How do you find a path that is suddenly all wiggly and in 4 dimensions anyway?

First off, you just do something! This is my advice to my Math Olympiad students all the time- just do something! Any plan is better than no plan, so seize the day and make a plan for 21st century learning.

Start with making
We started hands on, because tinkering and making is always fun and inspiring! Using EEME kits, as well as simple Maker ideas like those in "Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff and Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom you can gather ideas for creating, engineering and small scale design strategies. A huge favorite in our house is also diy.org with fantastic, inspiring and inventive projects. Plus DIY has badges- who doesn't like badges!

Learn to code
It's been said in so many places I can't even find the original- coding is the new typing. Kids who understand how to code will have the basis and understanding of everything, from Arduino and Raspberry Pi to hacking their own life. Even the littlest kids can learn to code with apps like Kodable and Move the Turtle. Bigger kids and teens will enjoy options like GameStar Mechanic, Scratch, Tynker and Code.org.  There's something for everyone at Codecademy too!

Collaborate
Collaboration for homeschoolers can be a stretch for families, particularly those of you without a charter support system. It's crucial for the new future that students know how to collaborate effectively, divide labor tasks and work through the tough parts of a team. Your collaboration may come through an organized project like a scouting project,  First Lego League or an Odyssey of the Mind team. Or it may be a student-driven, authentic collaboration like a few friends working on a Minecraft adventure map, producing a neighborhood play or building a giant cardboard house in the backyard. Regardless of the age or project, all students need to collaborate to complete a task if they'll be successful in the new future.

Read, research, read
The most successful students will still be those that are readers. The format may have changed- perhaps they're reading online news, blogs, a tweetdeck, tumblr or on reddit. Maybe they're not snuggled up with a great book on the couch, but walking the neighborhood with a book on their iPod. But great thinkers are also readers, inspired by ideas and seeking out more information. Whatever they're reading, turn them loose and let them read. Go to the library, forward them links, turn them to appropriate kids' news websites like newsela.com. Stretch their genres, the way they access the material and encourage reading at every possible corner.

Take an online class
I truly believe that even if nothing else dramatically changes in the next ten years, online classes will be the major change in educational advancement. Academic homeschoolers shouldn't just want to take an online class, it's a need that must be filled. Learning to work in an online classroom, navigating the technology as a base tool rather than the end goal, working with a teacher you've never met and classmates you'll never see in real life are all crucial, life-changing skills our kids require. The kid's favorite online classes have come from Athena's Academy and Minecraft Homeschool. There are plenty of options though, in every price range. MOOC providers like Coursera, Udacity and EdX are fantastic resources for a no-risk, free option to try. However, the interaction part of an online course is difficult in a MOOC environment and we encourage you to seek out fully interactive classes with a live teacher.

Be brave!
Most importantly, know that by doing something, you're creating a path for your student that will be more fulfilling, more creative and further down the road to success than if you did nothing at all. Be brave and learn along with your kids- since we can't predict the future, we'd better prepare ourselves along with them. You never know when we'll change human life expectancy to 200 years. That's a lot of future for us homeschoolers to contend with! Better go learn to code, just in case!