A lesson plan is a short, specific strategy designed to teach a specific class or concept to a child or a group of children in the span of a single block of time. A series of lesson plans on the same topic can be part of a larger unit and work together, or one can be an independent and simple concept that stands on its own. Home school lesson plans can resemble the traditional types of instruction that teachers use in classrooms, or they could be less detailed or structured, depending on the family's approach to learning.
Lesson plans may contain one or more of the following: the general aim/goal, learning objectives, reviews of previous lessons, a plan of introducing the topic, a list of activities, discussion questions, vocabulary, a summary, a list of materials and resources, assessment or evaluation criteria, and extension assignments for the student to continue working independently.
Prepackaged home schooling curricula and umbrella schools usually provide all the daily lesson plans for each subject, mapped to clearly guide the parent. All a parent needs to do is follow the instructions. Some educational websites for teachers or specifically for home-schoolers offer lesson plans. Some charge an annual subscription plan, others are free. Libraries that carry teacher resources and references will have books of lesson plans. Some parents simply prefer to write their own.
A good resource for finding free lesson plans is at the popular and comprehensive home schooling website, A to Z Home's Cool, found at http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/weblinks/lessons.htm. You also can find thousands of free lesson plans written and submitted by professional teachers at http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/index.shtml. For those who would like to try to write their own lesson plans, Eastern Michigan University offers a guideline in PDF format at http://people.emich.edu/jblock/docs/lessonplan.pdf.
If you are choosing lesson plans that have been created for a full class by educators, you can adapt them to suit your home schooling needs. Review the specifics for any group activities that require more children than you are home schooling, and search for alternatives along the same line. If you have children of different ages or grade levels, they all can enjoy the benefits of having a lesson. Give the older children more responsibilities in helping the younger ones, and after going over the basic lesson plan, give children an extension project that is suited to their grade or level of ability.