6 Easy Homeschool Sub Plan Ideas
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This week I am leaving my precious students, a.k.a. my children, in the care of their wonderful grandparents while I am in DC for a blogging conference. My husband is going to join me so he can visit a few friends. It is a fun twist that he tags along on my business trip for a change! I created a list of homeschool sub plan ideas to keep my kids learning in my absence.
My kids don’t mind doing a little schoolwork while I am gone, but I don’t want my in-laws to have to teach. It isn’t their job. They are doing me a huge favor by caring for my kids and dog and I don’t want to make it any harder than it needs to be.
These homeschool sub plan ideas are all things that my children, ages 11 and 14, can do independently.
This list works equally well for mom sick days.
Easy Homeschool Sub Plan Ideas
Free Write
Free writing is a super simple independent language arts activity that works for just about any grade level, so it is a natural addition to any homeschool sub plan.
I set my expectations before leaving in terms of how many sentences or paragraphs should be written.
During free write time my kids are welcome to write about any subject at all. Sometimes it can be hard to decide on a topic though. My kids have a few tools to help:
Read
My kids read every school day, so this isn’t really any different than a regular weekday. They are allowed to read pretty much anything and we always have books around. We own a bunch of books and go to the library every week. There are plenty of options.
I set expectations for reading too. Typically my kids have to read for a minimum of 20 minutes. My daughter tends to read longer and my son sets a timer on our Google Home to make sure he doesn’t accidentally read longer than required.
Reading can also cover other academic areas. We tend to read quite a bit for science and history. Sometimes I assign a specific chapter from a book and other times I put together a basket of themed books and tell my kids to just pick one, read it, and send me an email summary.
Related: Check out the list of young adult books I compiled for my daughter and her book club.
Curiosity Stream
Curiosity Stream is my new favorite streaming service. I signed up for it this summer as a compromise with my kids. They got screen time on super hot North Carolina days and I was okay with it as long as they were learning.
My kids are always able to find something interesting to watch on a variety of subjects:
- Science
- History
- Technology
- Nature
- Society
- Life Style
Sometimes I ask my kids to watch a specific show/movie that aligns with whatever we are studying. Other times they are free to choose something that interests them. Choosing their own videos is a fun way to explore educational rabbit trails.
Don’t have Curiosity Stream? Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime are also great homeschool sub plan additions.
Board Games
Grandparents and board games seem to go well together, so this is definitely at the top of my homeschool sub plan ideas list.
Board games can be a fun way to reinforce math skills, geography, history, problem solving, social skills, and even language arts.
Related: Check out how we teach geography without a curriculum.
We have a pretty big board game closet with a lot of choices and types of games. Forced games are not very fun, so I let my kids choose what they want to play.
Hour of Code
Our first experience with Hour of Code was a little disappointing. It was an event run by our old homeschool group. The computer room was packed full (too full) of children who were asked to complete the same Hour of Code activity as fast as possible to make room for more children. A new subject and an element of pressure and competition was a recipe for disaster for my perfectionist child.
We tried it again a few years later and were happily surprised. This time my kids loved it!
There are a ton of activities on Hour of Code that teach computer coding :
Minecraft
The Grinch
Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code
Create Animations that Talk
Code with Anna and Elsa
Create Your Own Google Logo (This was a favorite with my kids)
Duolingo
We are working on learning Spanish this year as part of my daughter’s high school course plan.
Duolingo makes it easy for the kids to learn Spanish even when I am not home to teach them. My daughter has the app on her phone and my son uses the website on his computer.
They work through a lesson with dictation, vocabulary, and grammar until they reach their daily goal.
Have you ever considered creating homeschool sub plans?
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