How to create a lesson plan in home education

The phrase ‘lesson plan’ can feel like a bit of a misnomer in home education, when you may be focusing on deschooling or child-led learning. Or, you may have been thrown into home education and need help with organising your days. Whatever your situation, home education planning doesn’t have to mean timetables or wholly structured learning.

A lesson plan can simply be a way of thinking about what topics, subjects or educational activities you’d like to cover with your child over one day, week or month. Having a loose plan like this can help you keep track of what your child is learning and be a welcome aid on those trickier days. It can also be useful if your local authority checks in with you.

Dr Mina Patel is Head of Research, Future of English at the British Council. She specialises in the relationship between assessment, teaching and learning and says having a lesson plan is like following a recipe when baking: “It will give you a guide to follow.”

She adds that the act of creating a lesson plan “helps you to think through the process, the flow of the lesson… what is it you want to achieve… what are the resources that we need?”

Start by thinking about a format that works for you and your child. If your child likes structure, then writing out a timetable or chart may help them. Some children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) can benefit from visual aids outlining what they’ll be doing. Others prefer verbal cues.

You could sketch out a mind map. For example, if your child loves Paddington Bear, draw or write that in the middle of a page of A4, with lines coming out for each of the topics you’ll explore as part of a weekly learning plan, such as:

• London, capital city, etc.
• Peru, continent of South America, etc.
• calculating speed, distance and time (eg between England and Peru)
• the evolution of brown bears
• making marmalade
• visual effects, CGI and live-action filming
• creating a family tree for Paddington and the Brown family
• writing a letter to Aunt Lucy

Katie Estruch is a biology teacher who offers online tips around effective lesson planning. She says: “There's no single ‘right’ format. Some parents prefer a structured written plan with timings for each section, others like a simple checklist of objectives, activities and resources, and some take a more fluid, flexible approach for the week.

The format matters less than making sure it covers what you'll teach, how you'll deliver it and how you'll check it's landed.” So, typing notes on your phone is fine if that works for you.

Whatever format you choose, Katie Estruch advises you start your lesson plan with the outcome: “What do you want your child to know, understand or be able to do by the end of the session?

A clear, simple objective keeps the plan focused, and it helps to say it out loud or write it down at the start, so your child knows what they're aiming for too.”

Next comes the ‘hook’, ie how you get your child interested. Miss Estruch uses “a short starter that either retrieves prior knowledge or hooks curiosity, for example asking ‘why can’t you cook eggs in cold water?’ before a lesson on enzymes.”

This learning can still become child-led: eg if you know your learning objective is giving change and your child loves ice cream, start the lesson talking about that and see if they suggest role playing selling ice creams.

Miss Estruch continues: “From there, I deliver new content in short chunks with regular check-ins, add a halfway checkpoint to see what's sunk in, then move to an activity where they apply what they've learned, finishing with a quick plenary [recap activity] that ties back to the original objective.”

Keeping things small and simple is helpful, especially when you first start. Make sure to build in breaks too.

Miss Estruch suggests: “Build in quick, low-pressure checks as you go, such as a mini whiteboard question halfway through, or asking your child to summarise what they've learned in one sentence at the end.”

Dr Patel says this reflection at the end of any ‘lesson’ will help you work out what your child has learned, but it will also – crucially – help you understand what worked, what didn’t and what you might do differently next time. Miss Estruch adds: “Over time, keep an eye on whether they can apply ideas independently rather than just recall them, as that's the best sign it's actually sinking in.”

Dr Patel says remember to also review what they’ve learned at the start of the next session – eg if you’re learning about giving change, use going to the shops together the next day as a way of asking your child to count your change and therefore assessing what they learned during the ice cream role play.

Download our lesson plan template to get you started. Dr Mina Patel says having a lesson template gives you boundaries to stick to that are really helpful, especially when you’re first starting out.

Miss Estruch adds: “A reusable lesson plan template is the biggest time-saver, as it means you're never starting from a blank page. Mine has built-in prompts for objectives, activities, differentiation and timings. AI can be great for quickly generating starter questions, summarising a topic or creating quiz questions to check understanding.”

As well as our lesson plan template, you may find the Year Planner for Primary and Year Planner for Secondary useful for ideas.

And finally, Dr Patel advises: “Put yourself in your child’s shoes, always see things from their perspective, not always from yours.” She says try not to put too much pressure on yourself or do too much. Consolidating what your child learns is important, as is enjoying learning together!

The BBC Bitesize home education collection is designed to support you and your child’s learning at home with free downloadable resources, advice articles and videos for children aged two-to-five years old, five-to-11 years old and 11-to-16+ years old.

Bitesize Parenting is the go-to place for the whole parenting community to find stories, expert advice and fun activities.

If your child has special educational needs or disabilities, be sure to check out the Parenting SEND collection. Bitesize has a collection of Sensory Stories, an immersive video series of unique sensory adventures for children with additional needs.

For more information about home education, this BBC News article covers the rise in families deciding to educate their children at home.