Lesson Plans-less is more

I have accomplished something that I haven't managed in a decade. I have still held off from creating "lesson plans" for the year for my delight-directed daughter. Normally, I would have a syllabus for each subject, planned through March, only to find out in October that she was far too interested in a topic to move onto the next. When she would wander her way through the rabbit trails until she lost interest, we would often end up three weeks off track, and I'd need to rework. And this would repeat at least four other times a year. Why create so much unnecessary work for myself?

Mind you, I do have an idea file folder full of interesting projects, and mini-units that relate to her spoken areas of interest, or some on current affairs that we can work in during this election year. But all in all, we are both very committed to 'guided unschooling' approach for social studies and literature that worked so well last year. I am not feeling anxious at all about it since she is taking three academic classes at the co-op that will give her a framework around which to build her own studies.

All this free time has certainly come in handy, as I have been using it to instead lesson plan for the three academic classes I am teaching at the co-op. I have the majority of the environmental science and creative writing lessons organized, with only needing to create a few project instructions and outdoor assignment sheets.

I think, however, that my high school "Intro to Psychology" class will be my favorite. I have a great group of bright and animated teens who all think outside the box. My goal is to give the kids a more hands-on experience with the concepts. While they will be assigned readings, I will only be giving about a 15 minute discussion/lecture on the concepts. It took a while, but I found an activity for every week, lots of projects and applied psychology experiments that will make it fun. Now, all that is left are creating a few more take home tests for those lovely porfolios.

I am getting so excited about this coming year!!!