Having a Lesson Plan helps the homeschool teacher save time and run the class smoothly. It may be a good idea to organize all thoughts and plan out your actions for each lesson when you start out with homeschooling so that you can cover the most ground with ease.
Standards
The first thing to consider is the standards that are relevant to the grade for that particular lesson. Understanding what the authorities expect your homeschool student to learn in the year, allows you to scale the lesson to their level.
Objectives
Once you know what the official standards are, you can set your objectives for each lesson. For instance if the standard is that the child should be able to identify, name and write the alphabet, your objective per lesson will be to teach them a single letter. So in the first lesson your objective is to show them how to read, write and identify the letter A.
Materials
Depending on how you intend to teach them the alphabet, you would require a list of materials to be available. Paper and pencils to write the letter. A pre-recorded alphabet song that can be played to sing along with, would require a music player and a speaker, or simply your smartphone. Whatever materials you need should be listed and made available.
Resources
If you are planning on using a specific book for the children to read, or have them access a website, you need to list out the resources as well. This saves time and effort at the actual time of teaching the homeschool students. They can simply be given the resources and asked to study them. For instance, have them log on to the website which you are using to help them learn the alphabet and allow them to explore the elements on it.
Activity
Should you be planning an actual activity in the classroom related to the lesson, you need to ensure that you have listed the materials required for the same. Also add the instructions of how the activity will proceed in the lesson plan. This will ensure that you are able to conduct it with ease.
Assignment
If there is an assignment that you need to set to assess the learning, have it listed in the lesson plan as well. You can create a worksheet for the homeschool students, have them recite what they have picked up, or use any other measure of generating a feedback from them as part of the assignment.
