So frustrated with trying to make/find a lesson planner for 4 kids!!!!!!!

[WaterLily]

I have spent countless hours working on it this week, but to no avail. I want to start plugging in our work for this coming year but I have no planner with which to do it! I don't want anything online - I prefer to hold the planner in my hands and sit down over the weekend and pencil in our work for the upcoming week. (I do have a quarterly/yearly plan that I follow to keep us on track.) Last year I used a big plan book that I purchased at the book store and it worked pretty well - it was over-sized and had a good amount of room for writing. I want something similar this year but now I need to write down info for 4 kids instead of 3. I do not know how I'm going to fit 4 kids in any kind of planner! Maybe I need to write less detail in each block? I don't feel like I write too much - usually just the text and pages, or lesson. I spent hours trying to make something in google docs (we don't have any good software on our computer) but I haven't yet been successful. If I make it myself I only have the space of an 8 1/2" x 11" page (of course I was making a 2 page spread) where the big plan book has larger pages than that. I've searched for previous posts about this and found some things that I thought might help - but I still haven't been able to make anything work.

 

Any thoughts on a plan book for 4 kids? I'm really spinning my wheels here.....

[thowell]

I only have to plan for 2 kids but i found a template on Microsoft Works. I will be using a 3 ring binder. I simply list one childs week leesons on one page split by subjects and then the other child on the next page. I am working on doing this now then i will print them out hole punch them and put in binder. I have left extra room for any notes if we dont finish something and need to move things around. I also am going to keep their grades manually. I have a grade log one for each student that i have in the back of the nine weeks lesson plans so i can keep track of grades on a daily or weekly basis. I plan to keep both students in one binder and clean out every nine weeks. It may work better for you to have a seperate binder for each child or do 2 in one. Hope this helps. Good Luck and God Bless!!!

[8filltheheart]

I write a separate planner for each child. That way they can take it with them and know what they need to be working on while I am working with someone else.

[WaterLily]

I do plan to make each of my kids their own "checklist" every week that will have their work for that week all typed in - so I thought about just printing an extra copy of each of those for my own records and making that my "lesson plan book". But of course that's 4 pages per week and we also do a couple subjects together. I guess I was hoping that I could have some kind of planner where I could see the plans for all 4 kids on a 2 page spread. I wanted to be able to open it up and see the day on those pages without having to look in multiple places to see what we need to get done. Maybe that's just not possible. My dh said that maybe I need 2 plan books - one for my 7th and 4th graders and one for my 1st grader and K-er. I suppose that's an option. Ugh. I don't know.

[ubermomto5]

i'm planning for 4 as well and the 2 younger are only 3 and K so not really ready for personal plan book. i am trying to design my own as well since nothing seems to fit. the best thing i can come up with is to write small. haha, i'm actually making a word doc with a table, its most comfortable to me. i make the page landscape and will have it go across 2 pages. kids name to the left column, subject across the top. i'm putting in as much as i can with typing so i can just add page # or book title for reading. i am a messy writer so i would rather sit down at the computer once a week or 2 and fill in a new page than make it less specific and have to write by hand. sorry i don't have some magic resource for you...it would be nice to have something already made, but i'm just too picky.

[momtolgd]

Have you looked at the new Well-Planned Day planner? It says it can accomodate planning for up to 4 children.

 

http://www.wellplannedday.com/910Planner.aspx

 

I pre-ordered it but haven't received it yet, so I can't comment on how it would work for 4 kids, but it does state that on the website. HTH. :001_smile:

[8filltheheart]

I just saw the ages of your kids. I don't write out planners for my kids under 3rd grade b/c they are too unpredictable about how quickly/slowly we can progress. I deal with them basically on a day by day scenerio.

 

I don't worry too much about being able to see on any given day what we need to do b/c since I wrote the plans, I pretty much have a general idea in my mind already about how much we need to cover.

 

If you can't find what you are looking for, the best solution will probably be to simply create your own spreadsheet and print it out in the format you like.

[Colleen in SEVA]

I adapted a teacher planner I bought at Lakeshore Learning, but you could easily re-create it in excel. If you print the two different pages front/back you could have it bound at Office Max for $2 I think.

 

On the left page, create boxes 5 across and 5 down, with optional light lines within each box. In the first box of each row, type the day of the week on the top line, and use the lines beneath it to write in any materials you will need to gather for that day (ie for art or science experiments). Write each child's name above the other 4 columns. This page is used for their individual work, books to read, etc.

 

On the right page, create boxes that will work for things you do together. I used 5 large boxes that were the width of the paper with light lines within each box so I had lots of room to write, with checkboxes at the beginning of each line. I used one large box for history, science, art/music, family time, and list of "to do for next week". These were things we tended to work on gradually throughout the week, so they weren't tied to a certain day.

 

I also thought about having one spreadsheet just for reading schedules. I could create the reading schedules ahead of time (from Sonlight IG info), then when we get to that week I could print 2 copies, using one for my reference and cutting one into strips for each child to use as their bookmark with their weekly reading listed on it.

 

And there is always Homeschool Tracker.... if only I coudl figure out how to wade through the 90% of it I WON'T use to get to the 10% that will actually help me. :(

Edited July 16, 2009 by Colleen in SEVA

[Ellie]

There's FergNus's Home Schooler's Journal. Regretably, the Web site doesn't have a sample page, but IIRC, there is plenty of room to write everything you're needing. You'd have one for each child, I believe.

[nukeswife]

You can see samples of the FergNus Homeschoolers Journal on CBD.

 

If you wanted you could use the "Subjects" at the top to put the childrens names and then write each childs items for the day in the box and have a week at a glance,

 

Of you could use the "days" on the side to put the names and leave the subjects on the top and then use the spread for a day. You'll probably need more than one if you do this. I haven't used one in a while so I'm not sure how many pages it has anymore.

[yvonne]

I only have two levels to plan for, but I do a separate weekly plan for each. I put anything we do together on the boys' plan.

 

Last year, I printed the boys (3rd grade) plan on the front side of a piece of paper and my 1st grader's plan upside down on the back side of the paper. I keep the plans on a clipboard I can carry around with me. The boys' plan faces up and, when I want to see what's next for my daughter, all I have to do is flip up the sheet to see her side. Worked well last year.

 

This coming year my daughter's plan will be more substantial, so I'm going to keep hers on a second clipboard.

[AudreyTN]

This is how I used the Homeschooler's Journal for 3 kids: http://iamaud.blogspot.com/2008/10/putting-my-loop-together.html

 

This is what I use now: http://www.scribd.com/full/17410102?access_key=key-2dt875vuis5p9en4gcmh

 

I copy the weekly grid from MFW and print this on the back with all of the assignments. The O is to check when the item is completed.

[Brenda in FL]

I write a separate planner for each child. That way they can take it with them and know what they need to be working on while I am working with someone else.

 

I do a seperate planner for each as well. Each child has their own planner/assignment sheet (one week over a two page spread). It stays in the front of their binder and they use a highlighter to check mark over the spaces as they complete their work.

 

I fill it out on a weekly basis so that it remains a record of what is actually done. If I need to plan out lessons over a greater time period - I do that in my notebook and just recopy to the planners when needed.

[kjdkek]

We use homeschool tracker, the free version. The kids all have their daily checklists and I have a master one. I love this program.

 

Erin

[Ruby]

Did donnayoung.org not have anything useful? You can print out a number of calendars etc. I have to admit to not being much of a planner. My older kids are involved in a co-op which keeps us on track. My kids are old enough to know that they need to pace out their work throughout the week. For my daughters I have a list of each subject that needs to be covered. They are slipped inside a page protector (The clear heavy duty ones) My kiddos check off each subject as they work on it each day. Good Luck. Ruby

[LivingUnderGrace]

I hear you! I have 5 school aged children this year. :)

 

I ended up just making my own weekly planning sheet.

[mom2jjka]

I bought each of my older kids the student planner from CLE.

 

(You can see samples of it on their website)

http://www.clp.org/product/student_planner_1786

 

I like that there is a place to write chores, to-do lists, and a journal - besides just the regular lesson planning boxes.

[Mrs.W]

The planner I made is for 3 kids, but I adapted it from a friend's excel spreadsheet and she has 4 kids. You can read about our planner and download it here:

 

http://bluehouseacademy.blogspot.com/2008/12/bha-weekly-planner.html

[WaterLily]

This is good - I'm getting some ideas. The Well Planned Day looks nice (beautiful planner!) but I'm not convinced there would be room for all 4 or my kids' info - and it looks like there is only room for 6 subjects and you can't personalize the subject boxes I think.

 

The Homechooler's Journal looks interesting. It looks like I might be able to fit all 4 kids in there. My only concern would be fitting all my 7th grader's info in that one little box (putting names across the top). I could do a journal for each of them - I like that idea even though it means I won't have my "master spreadsheet" to look at. BUT, do my 1st grader and K-er really need their own plan book/journal? This question goes for either a plan book I buy or for one that I'd make. For my youngers, as someone mentioned, it's not so much planning ahead as it is keeping track of what they did each day. It does seem like the older they get, the better it is for them to have their own record book - which is pretty much what this would be when completed, right? So for my oldest this might be good...but as I said, I don't think my younger 2 need their own...

 

Sorry, I guess I'm thinking outloud. Oh, and I do like the layout that was described (Colleen I think?). I might give something like that a try. I'm determined to get this figured out today b/c I feel like I've "wasted" most of my week on it already. :banghead:

 

 

(ETA: I just saw the 2 new posts from mom2jjka and argsmommy so I'll check those links, too. Thanks!)

Edited July 16, 2009 by beccasboys

[MistyJ]

Have you tried Homeschool Tracker? It takes patience to learn, but I LOVE it!

[Jane]

Any thoughts on a plan book for 4 kids? I'm really spinning my wheels here.....

 

If you have a system and a planner that works for you, why not purchase two planners for four children?

 

Just a thought...

[Wildiris]

The planner I made is for 3 kids, but I adapted it from a friend's excel spreadsheet and she has 4 kids. You can read about our planner and download it here:

 

http://bluehouseacademy.blogspot.com/2008/12/bha-weekly-planner.html

 

 

I think this is one of the most useful planners I've seen for more than two children. Thank You for sharing!:001_smile:

[Capt_Uhura]

I just finished editing the Bluehouse planner for my 2kids. I think it might just be exactly what I need!

 

Capt_Uhura

[WaterLily]

The Blue House Academy pages look really neat. The spaces are so small, though. How do you fit the info in there? Do you pretty much just put page or lesson numbers?

[Mrs.W]

The Blue House Academy pages look really neat. The spaces are so small, though. How do you fit the info in there? Do you pretty much just put page or lesson numbers?

 

Yes, for the individual subjects that's pretty much all I need. But for the group subjects on the back I can write more detailed stuff like what books we will read or projects we will do.

[Supertechmom]

You could make detailed checklist for each child but only put the abbreviated info in the planner. Or just have detailed info for the youngers and just give the olders a checklist with all the info.

[HFClassicalAcademy]

I'm keeping it to 2 kids per planner this year. Maybe I'll come across something wonderful this year that I can use for next year!!

 

But for now, I have no complaints with having 2 planners.

 

Liz in NC

[Capt_Uhura]

I modified the BlueHouse planner. Well, I should say I only have 2 kids to plan for so I was able to add a line for every subject so I now have 2 lines/subject. I wrote in them and it worked just fine.

[phathui5]

There's FergNus's Home Schooler's Journal. Regretably, the Web site doesn't have a sample page, but IIRC, there is plenty of room to write everything you're needing. You'd have one for each child, I believe.

 

That's what we use. One for ds1 and one for dd. They're cheaper from Rainbow Resource.

[WaterLily]

I was looking at The Homeschooler's Journal and I found some sample pages at cbd. I mainly need to see what the lesson plan pages look like but the sample page on cbd is kind of confusing as it shows 2 different ways to fill it out and not just what a whole page looks like. Is this journal a 2 page spread - I mean is it 2 pages per week? And how many subject boxes do they give you per week? Thanks!

 

ETA: I think I found the info I was looking for - It seems like the journal is a 2 page spread and there are 6 subject boxes. I was hoping for more than 6 subjects so I'll have to think about this....

Edited July 17, 2009 by beccasboys

[Heather in OK]

I'm happy to email you mine if you'd like to see.

 

I have one that has subjects we do together that I hang up in our school area. In my "brain" (my 3-ring binder/planner) I have pages where I have those subjects planned out to make it easier to see what's coming in the following weeks. Just looked at the Blue House Academy link...the second one there (not the one with the house on it) is very very similar to what I came up with and use.

 

Then each child (with the exception of the 3yo) has her own individual assignment page. This is what I use weekly to write out their lessons and for them to mark of work they have completed. It is similar to BHA's but since it is individual, the boxes are bigger.

[skaterbabs]

I write a separate planner for each child. That way they can take it with them and know what they need to be working on while I am working with someone else.

 

 

We do this, except the boys share a planner because they're working together on so many things.

[eight_gregorys]

I'm happy to email you mine if you'd like to see.

 

I have one that has subjects we do together that I hang up in our school area. In my "brain" (my 3-ring binder/planner) I have pages where I have those subjects planned out to make it easier to see what's coming in the following weeks. Just looked at the Blue House Academy link...the second one there (not the one with the house on it) is very very similar to what I came up with and use.

 

Then each child (with the exception of the 3yo) has her own individual assignment page. This is what I use weekly to write out their lessons and for them to mark of work they have completed. It is similar to BHA's but since it is individual, the boxes are bigger.

 

I would be really interested in see your planner, if you don't mind. My email is gregorypartyofeight@gmail.com

[Gretchen in NJ]

I use an Excel spread sheet to create my own planners. I have a separate spread sheet for each subject/notebook my girls have.

[WaterLily]

Sure, Heather! I'd love to see your pages. Please e-mail them to me if you can.

 

So I'm thinking I probably won't be able to purchase a planner where I can comfortably fit all my kids info. So I've narrowed it down to a couple options.

 

*One is that I will buy a planner for each kid (even though I'm still not sure I want/need individual planners for my 6 yo and 5 yo).

 

*Another idea is to get one planner for my younger 3 and then one for my 7th grader. I thought maybe I could make 7th grade/middle school the time when they start getting their own planner?

 

*Or lastly, I could make a weekly lesson plan page for each child and keep them together in my binder. I want "checklists" for my older 2 so I wonder if I could slip their weekly plan page into a sheet protector and have them check it off that way instead of printing 2 copies (one for them and one for me). Maybe someone mentioned that? I'm not sure - it's all running together lol! Anyway, if I make the planner pages myself this way, I might have to actually type in their lessons b/c I'm still not sure if I'll have enough room to write it out. But that might be ok.

 

I can't even tell you how much I appreciate all the feedback. I'll get this figured out if it kills me!:tongue_smilie:

[skaterbabs]

There is another option: a planner ( or planner pages) per SUBJECT. I'll see if I can get what I have to save as a PDF....

[Mama Lynx]

This year I'm using Donna Young's quarter planner system, because:

 

For my older children, I do not like to schedule out their assignments by day. I want them to be able to see a week's worth, or more, of assignments, and schedule them themselves.

 

And for my younger children, I don't really need a planner. We do the next thing. I just need an overall goal in each subject.

[jetzmama]

I realize I'm late in entering the conversation, but FWIW at this point...

 

I purchased The Homeschool Family Planbook by Sarah Crain last fall and found it to be effective for planning without having to write repetitively for multiple students working on the same thing (since I store all their records together right now, this still works).

 

It may be worth a gander for multiple students for this reason:

The 2 page spread accomodates 4 children, each with their own 1/2 page block of space. I currently only need it for two kids, but it saves so much time to be able to fill in the 'together' work once, then in the other child's block, write in 'w/J' (other child's initial). For read alouds, I simply scrawl the name of the book and author along the side margin the 1st week. Then, in the same place, I write 'RA wk 18' in the ensuing weeks until we complete the book. There is plenty of room in each each kids 'block' for individual assignments.

 

my ds' are 10,8, & 5, and we live in a fairly 'easy' state, so recordkeeping is not a huge deal right now, but this book has definitely simplified the record keeping I've done in previous yrs.

 

Also, for dailies for the kids, I have a 3 hole punched laminated sheet with all their subjects, worktexts, textbooks, etc. listed. I use a 'vis-a-vis' wet erase marker once a week to just write 'lesson 3' or 'p.30-40' or 'quiz Thurs.' or whatever next to each item they need to use. One child does well with a weekly plan like this, the other has a list of daily assignments so they don't all get done on Fri. afternoon (takes a bit longer to plan, but the peace is so worth it). I also write any special project notes or deadlines on the bottom. One child licks his finger and smears the assignment off when he's done, the other prefers checkmarks. Hey, whatever works! One year, I put their chore charts on the back side of this laminated page. Worked well for awhile, then mom started forgetting to inspect work, and you know how that ended up:mellow:.

[scrapbookbuzz]

A couple of suggestions that might help you:

 

The Home School Organizer by Gregg and Sono Harris. They've thought of everything for this binder! And it has refills/reproducibles.

 

Also, a friend of mine bought a lesson plan book **for each of her 3 children** from the Dollar Tree and says that works for her.

 

Hopefully that will help you!

[Heather in OK]

Just now getting back to see this.

 

Rebecca, what is your email address?

[mdmurray]

I'm late on this, but I LOVE Homeschool Sked Tracker

 

https://www.homeschoolskedtrack.com

 

 

It is online, you can access anywhere, can print it out if you want paper plans and each child can be set up with own user, they record progress, you approve. Oh, yes, and it is free!!!