Lesson Planet

Looking for some lesson plans that are out of this world? Give Lesson Planet, www.lessonplanet.com a try. With a data base of over 225,000 teacher created lesson plans and worksheets divided over 9 subject areas plus a special teacher's resource area, Lesson Planet is bound to have a fresh idea to jumpstart your homeschool curriculum. I received a free 3 month subscription to Lesson Planet in exchange for this review. Customers interested in Lesson Planet are offered a FREE 10 day trial of the site. After the trial, a one year membership costs $39.95.

Lesson Planet offers sage advice and specialized lesson plan ideas on the teacher subject guides portion of the site. These subject guides offer insight and advice from teachers specializing in each area. Homeschool parent, Kristen Kindoll writes articles of special interest to homeschoolers. Kindoll has written numerous lesson plans for science, history, math, literature and even a helpful article about sifting through homeschool curriculum choices.

Lesson planning is paramount at Lesson Planet.com, but for those working from a curriculum who simply need a little enrichment, choosing to search through the worksheet section covering 10 content areas might be valuable. For example, while searching under the subject area of World Geography, I chose "cultures" and found 64 pages of worksheet options including an Italian culture word search for grades 4-7. I noted the word search would make a nice little addition to my 7th grade daughter's computerized Italian language curriculum to reinforce vocabulary and cultural knowledge.

There is so much information provided in the Lesson Planet database that teachers could easily become overwhelmed with too many good options. In an effort to minimize frustration, Lesson Planet has built in search engines which allow teachers to direct choices through subject, age and rating requirements.A helpful Youtube video demonstrating the search options provided on Lesson Planet can be found here.

Sometimes the best test of an idea is how well it can be implemented. Lesson Planet products are rated by the teachers who use them with 1-5 stars. When searching for lesson plans or worksheets an option of choosing only those with 3, 4, or 5 stars ratings is available.

An amazing Lesson Planning Calendar is another tremendous resource for teachers needing a little inspiration with curriculum. A monthly calendar with live links to lesson plans for topics listed on the calendar saves searching time while providing fresh ideas. For example, April 29th was Duke Ellington's birthday. If I want to capitalize on this historical fact, I could choose from 115 lesson plans, 4 worksheets, and 4 Duke Ellington websites to build an educational unit. Add in the additional suggestions for Jazz, Piano and Big Bands and within minutes an entire musical unit study for my family is planned and ready to be implemented.

If your homeschool is needing a bit of inspiration, or perhaps a tad bit of enrichment, make sure and give the 10 day FREE trial at Lesson Planet a whirl. It really is out of this world!