Homeschool Lesson Planner: AI-Powered Multi-Framework Curriculum Planning

The Problem

Our family homeschools three children (Kindergarten, Grade 2, and Grade 4) in Jakarta, simultaneously following three curriculum frameworks: Indonesia’s Kurikulum Merdeka, the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP), and New York State Next Generation standards. Each framework has its own scope and sequence, its own pedagogical philosophy, and its own pacing. Planning a single week of lessons means weaving all three together while keeping each child appropriately challenged.

Doing this manually in Notion was taking hours per week. The structure was consistent enough to automate, but the content required real pedagogical judgment — not just filling in templates.

What the Skill Does

The homeschool-lesson-planner is a Claude Code skill that drafts complete weekly lesson plans directly into our Notion workspace. When I say "plan Week 3" or "draft the next unit," Claude:

1. Validates the unit context and checks prerequisites from prior weeks
2. Creates structured Notion pages using our standardized skeleton: five days of activities with materials checklists, anchor questions, and differentiated paths
3. Wires up related database entries — Books, Materials, Sensory Activities — with proper Notion relations
4. Respects our pedagogical constraints automatically

Pedagogical Design Decisions

The skill encodes several non-negotiable teaching principles that emerged from months of iteration:

• Day 4 is the conceptual high point; Day 5 is synthesis. The week builds toward a peak challenge on Thursday, then Friday consolidates with a family read-aloud closer.
• Indonesian context is a feature. Currency (Rupiah), landmarks (Borobudur), population data — these aren’t decorations. They’re the default context for math and social studies problems.
• Per-day materials checklists only. Never dump a full week’s materials list at the top — parents prep day by day.
• Body & Brain Ready warm-ups open every session: a 3-minute sensory regulation activity before academic work begins.

Database Schema

The skill operates across 11 interconnected Notion databases. The diagram below shows how they relate — from semesters down through units and weekly lesson plans to individual teaching sessions:

erDiagram
    Semesters ||--o{ Units : contains
    Units ||--o{ Lesson_Plans : "has weeks"
    Units }o--|| Theme_Ideas : "themed by"
    Units ||--o{ Lines_of_Inquiry : explores
    Units }o--o{ Books : references
    Units }o--o{ Materials : "needs"
    Lesson_Plans }o--o{ Lines_of_Inquiry : covers
    Lesson_Plans }o--o{ Books : "read-aloud"
    Lesson_Plans }o--o{ Materials : requires
    Lesson_Plans }o--o{ Sensory_Activities : "warm-up"
    Lesson_Plans }o--o{ Daily_Time_Blocks : "scheduled in"
    Lesson_Plans ||--o{ Sessions : "taught as"
    Lesson_Plans }o--o{ Lesson_Plans : "blocks / blocked by"
    Daily_Time_Blocks }o--o{ Sensory_Activities : uses
    Sessions }o--o{ Sessions : "blocks / blocked by"

    Semesters {
        title Name
        date Date_Range
        formula Code
    }
    Units {
        title Unit_Title
        select Status
        date Date_Range
        rollup PYP_Theme
        rollup Sem_Code
    }
    Theme_Ideas {
        title Theme
        text Summary
        select Status
        select PYP_Theme
        multi_select Curriculum
    }
    Lines_of_Inquiry {
        title Title
        text Big_Question
    }
    Lesson_Plans {
        title Lesson_Title
        number Week
        text Big_Question
        select Status
        multi_select Subjects
        date Date_Range
        rollup Teacher
        rollup Semester
    }
    Daily_Time_Blocks {
        title Block
        text Time
        multi_select Day_of_Week
        multi_select For_Whom
        person Teacher
        select Block_Type
        multi_select Subjects
    }
    Sessions {
        title Session
        date Date_and_Time
        person Teacher
        select Status
        select How_it_Went
        rollup Subjects
        rollup Unit
    }
    Books {
        title Title
    }
    Materials {
        title Name
        select Status
    }
    Sensory_Activities {
        title Activity
    }
    Milestones {
        title Milestone
        select Subject
        select Grade
        checkbox Merdeka
        checkbox PYP
        checkbox NYS
        formula Overlap
    }

Architecture

The skill is a pure prompt — a SKILL.md file that teaches Claude how to interact with 10+ Notion databases. There’s no compiled code or backend service. The skill carries:

• A reference file mapping every Notion database ID, property name, and schema detail
• A page skeleton defining the day-by-day structure Claude should follow
• A canonical example (Week 1: "Place Value Power-Up") showing exactly what good output looks like

Claude uses the Notion MCP tools to create pages, set properties, and wire up relations. The skill handles the Mom-mornings / Dad-afternoons teaching split, with Dad’s afternoon blocks (two 90-minute academic sessions) as the primary planning scope.

What I Learned

The hardest part wasn’t the Notion integration — it was encoding pedagogical taste. Early versions produced technically correct but pedagogically flat plans. The breakthrough was adding the canonical example: showing Claude a single week done exactly right taught it more than pages of rules.

The three-framework constraint actually helps rather than hurts. When NYS, Merdeka, and PYP all point at the same concept from different angles, the resulting lesson is richer than any single framework would produce. The skill’s job is to find those convergence points.