TulaneMama Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 I have winged it year after year with our goals stored in my brain :lol: but with everything I want to do this year as well as having 2 childrenschooling I am feeling the need to be more organized. I am scared! :D I have no clue where to begin or how to do it. I read a thread recently where someone mentioned using a spiral notebook to do the planning. Would someone please hold my hand ;) I am a visual learner and just reading about planning is blowing my mind. To make matters worse, I am overwhelmed with thoughts of our move in April after we just arrived at our current duty station. I have dreams of finishing by the end of march :lol: yeah have a chuckle at that one...but realistically we will end up taking about 4wks of I am guessing to move and get settled. HELP!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 I do not write detailed plans out, but I do plan the year. I start by doing a couple of things. If I want to finish our books then I need to know how many lessons are in it. For instance math has 170 lessons in it. I know that I want to do school from Aug. until May, with roughly 4 day weeks. So that divides out to about 16 lessons a month in math. I do that with each subject. Some we do daily, some weekly (like History and Music are one chapter a week.) The things I do not have a curric for I jot ideas of what we will be covering. Then I have a list of each mo. So Aug. looks like this: math lessons 1-16 English lessons 1-16 Phonics lessons 1-16 Handwriting (twice a week) lessons 1-8 Music lessons 1-4 History lessons 1-4 Science: Begin Earth Science once a week Art: once a week. I do that for each mo. Then I write myself a daily calendar of how to accomplish this. This is like a sample week that tells me what I need to cover each day. Mon: 2nd grader: Handwriting English Phonics Math Reading (silent and oral) Ker: math 2 workbook pages reading: me to her, her to me Both: Art Then I have the rest of the days. Tues. there is no handwriting. And we do History instead of Art, and we do music instead of handwriting, etc. I have this sample week to look at daily to remember what subjects we should be covering daily. Then I log in my planner what we accomplished each day after the fact, so I know which lesson to start w/the next day that we do each subject and I have a log for the year. It really isn't a lot of planning to be honest, but it keeps me on track for the year. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna A. Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 Well, if you follow through with MFW, the lesson plans are written for you. All the hard work is done... all you'd have to do is look at the supply list and booklist about a week ahead, make sure you have everything you need on hand, and then it's open-and-go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phathui5 Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 I use a regular teacher's planbook for dd and a student assignment book for ds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudreyTN Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 I bought the ebook Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education. The best investment I've ever made!! We're not 100% CM, but it definitely helps no matter which philosophy you subscribe to. It really helped a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyndie Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamato4girls Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osaubi Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 I look at other people's lesson plans when they are kind enough to post. I also look at Donnayoung.org . She has examples of lesson plans. I am currently using her excel spreadsheet 6 week planner. I like it because i can plan out 6 weeks in advance, but I only have to print out one week at a time. It is easy for me to adjust without a lot of arrows and eraser marks. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 LOL. Well, I've been looking at my very organzied friends & how they plan so I can put more on paper this year instead of storing it in my head (like you). So, here's what I have done/am doing. (I'm part-way through our planning at this point.) 1. I downloaded this quarterly planner from Donna Young's website. It is 4 pages long w/ 9 weeks listed on one page. 2. I am using one of these planners per subject. So, I have one for math, one for composition, one for science, etc.... 3. I look at each subject, determine how many times a week we will do the subject & how many lessons total I want to complete. I then divide it out by the number of weeks we have. I also look at the overall plan to see if there is a natural break that would coincide w/ each quarter. (For example, my dd is using IEW's writing program. We started it last year. For the first nine weeks, we are reviewing Units I & II -- which we did last year -- and completing Unit III. Our second quarter will be just Unit IV. And so on.) 4. I then divide the work-load accordingly. Depending on how many times we do the subject per week will determine how many of the boxes I fill for each week. (For math, I fill 5 boxes a week; for science, I fill the first 3 boxes of the week. Etc...) I fill the rows in from left to right, not skipping spaces, even if we do a subject only a few times a week. That way, whatever day we end up doing the particular subject, we just do the next thing on our list. I list the book/assignment/page number/dvd lesson/or whatever info I need. I also made a note of any time limits where applicable. (I do this esp. for my dd's composition plans -- give her 20 minutes or 30 minutes for an assignment & the rest becomes homework if she can't finish it in time.) 5. I then print the first quarter page for each subject & use that as a guide for our weekly lessons. After we do it, I just mark through it to indicate it is done. I've roughed out lesson plans for the four quarters, but filled in details for just the first quarter of each subject. I want to see how the first quarter goes for us & make any adjustments necessary before planning all the details for the rest of the year. We started today & I have to say it's pretty nice to have it all in writing in front of me, lol. Hope some of that made sense. It does take time to get all the plans down on paper, but I think (& hope) it will all be worth it. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewel7123 Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 I purchased Homeschool Tracker....it's awesome and I highly recommend it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TulaneMama Posted August 17, 2009 Author Share Posted August 17, 2009 i am a HST+ drop-out. i couldn't figure it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 HST didn't work for me either. Keeping up w/ it all online became a majorly dreaded chore on my part. And, later, we had computer problems & everything got messed up anyway. Egads. What a pain. I like the tables in Word, print them out, & mark-up as necessary. Simple & do-able, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TulaneMama Posted August 17, 2009 Author Share Posted August 17, 2009 how do I attach a copy of my table? I would like to show you all what I have so far for a weekly lesson plan and then help me to figure out how to make a yearly plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 I do "lesson maps" for my kids. I start with the top left page here ~ http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/planner.htm ~ Down the lefthand side I list their subjects (For my older ds I've divided each subject row into half so I can get twice as many subjects on there). Across the top I write Day 1, Day 2, etc. instead of the days of the week. Then I decide how many days per week each subject should be done and write that under it's name. Then I work out the logic puzzle it can be to fit it all together evenly. :p I just put circles in the box if it's intended to be done on that day, and doesn't need further explanation. I try staggering the lessons out so it will take about the same amount of time to complete all the lessons. For example, I'll put a lighter subject like English From the Roots Up on the first day of a new lesson in Classical Writing (longest day in CW), and make sure I don't put the first day of a new spelling lesson on that same day. This is all done in pencil so it's easy to change it up as it suits us. Once THAT has been done, we just rotate through those five days worth of plans. So if we take Monday off as a holiday, we'll do Day 1 on Tuesday. If something happens and only half of Day 1 gets done, we'll start with the remainders of Day 1 the next day. Day 2 won't get started until Day 1 is complete. Since each kid has their own personal lesson map, it's easy to keep who's where separate. I've kept the lesson maps posted on the "school wall" so they're easy access, but a second copy lives in my master binder should something happen to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELaurie Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 scroll waaay down to the bottom of the page where it says "Laurie's Planner Pages". Feel free to let me know if you have questions I can help with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna A. Posted August 18, 2009 Share Posted August 18, 2009 Once THAT has been done, we just rotate through those five days worth of plans. So if we take Monday off as a holiday, we'll do Day 1 on Tuesday. If something happens and only half of Day 1 gets done, we'll start with the remainders of Day 1 the next day. Day 2 won't get started until Day 1 is complete. Since each kid has their own personal lesson map, it's easy to keep who's where separate. I've kept the lesson maps posted on the "school wall" so they're easy access, but a second copy lives in my master binder should something happen to them. Oohh, I just thought of something. What if, instead of starting over each week as Day 1, you just carried the day #'s all the way through. So say you did 5 days' worth of work on week 1. Then on the first day of the next week, instead of calling it Day 1, you call it Day 6. And let's say you're in a state that requires 180 days a year. You could label your days as "Day 1 of 180" or "Day 1/180". Monday of week 2 would be "Day 6/180". For those of us who need the visual encouragement that we're actually getting somewhere.... ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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