Planners VS Non-Planners Poll

[JudoMom]

The thread on why/what people plan made me wonder if planners tend to have more children. By plan, I mean those who take time to write out (either by hand or on the computer) plans for a term, semester, or year.

Edited July 13, 2010 by JudoMom

[Satori]

I just have one 5 year old daughter, but I definitely plan. It is such a rewarding task for me and I plan out an entire half year out at a time. I can see exactly what we'll be doing in a certain week in a certain month, I love that. I use an online scheduling website so I can access our lessons anywhere on any computer at any time. I also love the flexibility in case we don't get to certain lessons as planned, they just roll over to the next date.

 

Now, I wish I had as much fun doing laundry as planning out lessons.

[JudoMom]

I just have one 5 year old daughter, but I definitely plan. It is such a rewarding task for me and I plan out an entire half year out at a time. I can see exactly what we'll be doing in a certain week in a certain month, I love that. Now, I wish I had as much fun doing laundry as planning out lessons.

 

Isn't that the truth :lol:!

[catz]

The thread on why/what people plan made me wonder if planners tend to have more children. By plan, I mean those who take time to write out (either by hand or on the computer) plans for a term, semester, or year.

 

I have 2 kids and generally don't plan. I have curriculum around that I intend to get through. My kids are gifted and accelerated though so I don't feel much pressure to get through anything in particular. We did get through 1 level of MCT last year and that worked well without me having to think about it too hard. My son zooms through math, so I'm thinking of ways to actually try to slow him down with harder curriculum. I suspect my daughter will start that this year too. History we crawl through. I keep a spreadsheet that just has general categories - writing, reading, history, science, MCT/composition, etc. I just check them off. Sometimes checking them off looks like working in a curriculum. Sometimes checking the categories off means we went on a field trip or read a relevant library book. As long as we read, write, and do math 5 days a week and have 1-2X weekly exposure to history and science, I think we're doing ok. And somehow we still come out way ahead.

 

I love have the flexibility to stop and change direction, or immerse ourselves in outings if the timing is good for that. We mostly take the summer off, but do our share of reading, games, puzzles, outdoor activities, etc.

 

For the record, I've tried to plan but it doesn't work at all for my oldest and I suspect it wouldn't work well for my youngest either. I just end up frustrated and feeling like we're not doing it right. When in reality, my kids are ahead of grade level in every area. I've found I'm much happier not getting to attached to any particular plan. :)

[sahmoffour]

This is our first year, but I'm not planning. I have an 8 yr old, 6 yr old, 3 yr old and almost 2 yr old. We're using MM, McRuffy LA, SOTW and Canada, My Country for Geography, and REAL Science Odyssey Earth & Space. So it might make it easier for us to not plan since we have fairly easy curriculum to follow. We're doing year round, so I don't feel a lot of stress to rush to get done by the end of the year. I just plan on doing Math & LA 4 days a week, Science 2 days a week, and we're alternating History and Geography. I figure as long as we can do a lesson each day for our assigned subjects, then we should be fine. I feel much less stressed!!!

 

I'm also keeping a journal though to write down what we've done everyday so I can check in periodically just to double-check that we're on track in all subjects to finish around the same time.

[Geek]

I know my planning has increased over time, and it has been a direct result of having to juggle more children who need "real" school work. I have three.

[flobee76]

I have 3 kids and we are on our 2nd official year of homeschooling. Granted, we only have a 1st grader, preschooler, and baby, but I still have to plan out everything. I am a disorganized person by nature, easily distracted, so I have to have lists, schedules, and plans. Of course, there are days that things don't go according to the schedule and we have to go with it! :D

[jubulibee]

I do use a planner, and write down my plans generally a month at a time. But I'm also following curricula which are pretty much scheduled for me for a 36 week period. I'm pretty sure I couldn't handle not having somewhat of a schedule planned for me. I can tweak and change as I see fit, but I have a framework within which to work. So--I am not a planner, but I force myself to plan.

 

(Kind of like when I was in college: I smoked, but I was NOT a smoker! Denial, I know!)

[prairiegirl]

I never used to make written plans. All of my plans were mental ones. But now that I am schooling 3 children plus one is stepping into middle school, the mental plans are just not cutting it so I am not making written plans. I just have to say that I do not like it. I miss the old days. :D

[Miss Marple]

I think another aspect besides number of children plays an important role here. The grade level the students are in makes a huge difference. When my boys (4 students) were young, I planned a few subjects. As each got older and closer to high school, my planning increased. Now, with all in high school (and one in college, and yes I still help with planning), *everything* is planned, documented, recorded, transcribed, etc. etc.Blah!

 

Right now I'm working on schedules through homeschoolskedtracker which is an awesome free resource. But, to me, data entry is mind-numbingly b.o.r.i.n.g!!!! I keep getting side tracked - looking at all the new WTM posts LOL. My doggy likes it because she can lay by my legs on the couch, but that means I have to use her back for a mouse-pad (laptop) - funny, she doesn't seem to mind...

[Mommyfaithe]

I have 5 kids at home and I plan. Now keeping those plans is another story altogether. Lately, I have been planning courses rather than days....and this way I can swap out a book and still not lose the course. It works quite nicely.

 

Faithe

[coffeegal]

I think another aspect besides number of children plays an important role here. The grade level the students are in makes a huge difference.

 

:iagree: I have very little organizing or planning to do for my 2nd grader. Now, my 7th and 8th graders.... oh my goodness, I'm spending days ensuring everything is ready to go and I have all the info I need close at hand. :svengo: Dd is somewhere in the middle.

[mom31257]

I'm curious to see how this turns out. Personally, I think people who plan are people who like to do it, regardless of the number of kids. I only have 2 kids and I LOVE to plan. I have a friend with 3 kids who doesn't like to plan and she doesn't much.

[Jilly]

I don't plan at all, but I don't think it has anything to do with how many kids I have or their ages. I simply do not like to plan, or I should say, I do not like to write down plans. I do go over things in my mind, and I feel that we get everything done that we need to. I just do not feel the need to write it down.

[Mom in High Heels]

I only have 1 child and the first year, I didn't use a plan and I was a mess. I was so stressed out trying to figure out what we would be doing the next day. After that, I became a planner. I have our entire next year planned out. It's such a relief to know that I know what we'll be doing every day.

[melissel]

I'm curious to see how this turns out. Personally, I think people who plan are people who like to do it, regardless of the number of kids. I only have 2 kids and I LOVE to plan. I have a friend with 3 kids who doesn't like to plan and she doesn't much.

 

I agree. I have two and I plan. I also love to plan; I'm a planner and researcher by nature. It makes me feel in control. I still can (and do!) choose to deviate from my plans often, but I still feel in control of it--should I choose to push to get us back on track, I can do that and I'll know where we should be.

 

I should also say that we school year-round, so when I come to the end of a 36-week curriculum, I might not be any where near June, and when it comes time to start the next level, I might not be anywhere near September. Planning helps me keep track of that too.

[robsiew]

I marked 4 kids and no plan, but that really isn't entirely true. I don't write out year/quarter plans. I do write out weekly plans (the week before) as well as have their work copied off/organized 6 weeks in advance and ready to go. I also look ahead and get any library books needed for the month coming up/plan any supplies for projects for the next 2 weeks or so. Maybe I'm in the middle? Not entire planned out to the detail, but I don't go totally unplanned either....

[chiguirre]

I'm not a planner, but for the most part I pick "do the next thing" curriculum, so there's no need to make a spreadsheet. I do reserve videos and extra books about a week or two in advance from the library.

[fhjmom]

I also do not think that planning is dependent on number of children (for most) but more on the pesonality of the teacher and student. I have 3, but only plan for 2; the youngest is 2 1/2 so no planning for her yet, but I do have some Pre-school activities for her. It will be less structured though.

 

I know that I can do okay with minimal planning, but still need at least a rough outline/schedule to keep me moving along or I will chase rabbits all school year. :) I just like to learn and so do my kids so we could "expand" ad nauseum. We still do expand when appropriate, but a plan helps.

 

DD is fine with out a plan and she tends to do even more that what I have expected, but DS *needs* to know where we are going and how we are going to get there. Even if he was my only child, I would need to plan because of his personality.

[MamaMamaMama!!]

I have 5 kids with one one the way.. 3 are in school and I plan. But I dont write anything o ut. LOL. I ripe up workbooks and file everything and buy preplanned for everything else. For me my "planning" is directly related to the number of children because I can no longer just open and go do the next thing for 3 kdis and change diapers, make dinner and do laundry.. :) My plan helps.

[Food4Thought]

I voted as a non-planner, but I think I'm somewhere in the middle. I have next year's history and science planned out, but the schedule is loose. I do set goals for the year, but don't schedule down to the nitty-gritty.

 

I'm sure schedules will become much more important in the coming years, but I'm happy to keep things open right now.

[BatmansWife]

I don't have time to read what others have said. I chose 3 children and I do not plan. But, I do plan on what curriculum for each subject we are going to use that year. But, I do not write out lesson plans/schedules (except for a general daily schedule of what subjects are covered that day). The closest I have gotten to anything like that is planning what goes into a workbox. :001_smile:

[patchfire]

The amount of planning I do has definitely increased as I've added children and as my middle guy has gone from "underfoot" to "student." I hate to imagine myself in the summer of 2014 - the oldest will be starting HIGH SCHOOL, my middle guy will be doing fourth grade, and the little one will be starting K. :001_huh:

[HeidiKC]

I have 3 children, but am only homeschooling one so wasn't sure which category to choose. I chose 3 children (and I'm a planner!). I think I'd be a planner whether I had 1 child or 10. I'm just a planner in general and love to get it all written down (so I can check it off, right?!).

[melmichigan]

I voted planner. Over the summer I write out my general tenative plan and the majority of my book lists, and I put together my schedules from all my various curriculum. Because my DC will wax and wane on pace and interest I do not write out each individual week in detail until the Sunday before. That way if we get through 3 weeks of history and only 3 days of science one week I am not rewriting everything, especially since I still do it all by hand. ;)

[Spock]

The thread on why/what people plan made me wonder if planners tend to have more children. By plan, I mean those who take time to write out (either by hand or on the computer) plans for a term, semester, or year.

 

I have 4 children. I plan out content subjects (science, history/geography, literature for high school), but not skill subjects (grammar, writing, math, elementary reading/literature).

 

For skill subjects, we just do the next thing. Some days we might do more than one lesson, some days one lesson, and some days we might do only part of a lesson. We cover the amount they can absorb/practice at one time.

 

I schedule content lessons to give me a more realistic idea of how many books we can read in a year. Otherwise I would likely be planning 50-100 books per year, possibly in each subject, just because they look good and we have access to them.

 

However, while I plan out/schedule our literature/history/science for the whole year at the beginning of the year, I do make adjustments as the year goes on. Some books end up going faster or slower than I planned. Some turn out to be poor choices, and are replaced by other books. Sometimes I discover that even with the scheduling, I have planned more reading material than we can actually complete (or sometimes that I have not planned enough).

Edited July 13, 2010 by Spock

[Jugglin'5]

I have five, and I don't plan. I tend to choose do the next thing curriculum, and my older children have a daily checklist. I tried planning for a few years but I always got frustrated.

[Peela]

Planning is the fun part! It all looks so good on paper!

[nukeswife]

I voted "3 children and plan"

I don't plan things like many I usually just know how many lessons in each thing we need to do in a week in order to finish on time.

This year I'm using the 36 weeks of hanging folders system, but have decided that I'm not going to write out plans. I put the pages needed in the file folders and made a spread sheet that lists the lessons for each given curriculum. As we do things I'll just mark off the spread sheet.

 

In other years I tried to plan a week or two ahead and it just ended up being so much better on paper than what really happened. That's why I changing to more of a write it down as it happens plan instead.

[Carrie12345]

I don't know what to vote for.

I have 4 children, am pregnant with #5, actively homeschool 3 (state regulated with 2), write out a general plan, and then wind up doing whatever works best at the time. :lol:

[Annabel Lee]

Planning is the fun part! It all looks so good on paper!

 

Isn't that the truth! I'm a super-planner, but not-so-super implementor. I've only got 2 hsing, and my dd will be hsing 1 class for 9th grade in the fall. I put 2 since I'm currently teaching 2.

 

If you would have asked me this question pre-WTM, I would have said "Isn't the plan the TM?". LOL Oh, ignorance is bliss.

 

Some things that I use don't have any plans unless I make them. Writing assignments for instance - those are either from my head or pulled together from a mix of: a) L.A. curricula we're not using for anything else that was handed down from a friend, b) 8FilltheHeart's methods, c) ColleenNS' methods, and d) WTM methods.

 

I have to at least have an idea of what I'm going to ask of my dc, preferably typed out so that they don't detect that it's a "mommy-made" assignment (which somehow translates to "optional" in their heads).

[Caitilin]

I am not sure what category my planning falls into. I plan the year, in the sense that I divide the work into quarters; but I plan specifics only a week at a time. So, I clicked "I have 5+ children and I don't plan," even though I don't think that's terribly accurate.:tongue_smilie:

[ubermomto5]

it may also be ages of children instead of only number of children. i'm a planner at heart but it takes more with jrhigh on up.

 

of course, personality is really at the center of it. i like to make lists, and checking them off gives me a wonderful feeling.

[KarenNC]

I have one and plan. I didn't really do much planning, more "do the next thing," until she hit 4th grade and I realized how often I had missed that great book I wanted to read with her at a certain point, or the video I wanted to include, or the kit I had found at a great price and stuck back for "later" and now "later" was "past." So last year I laid everything out, including all the extras I wanted to add in at the appropriate times. It was fabulous! I'm currently planning for 5th grade (but have already started some things as we school year round).

 

I don't, however, plan by date. I lay out each course individually to be a "do the next thing" sort of schedule and keep those in a binder. Then I transfer by the week or so to my lesson book so that I can make any needed adjustments. It also gives me a great record of what we've done over the year.

[Amber in AUS]

I have 3 kids 2 of which i currently school and a 4th of the way. I plan using Planbook. I LOVE that i can look ahead and make sure that we are still on track to complete certain things by the end of the year. I LOVE that i am not tied to Planbook the way i felt tied to a paper and pen plan. I look at what i planned for the day and choose what we will complete, if anything at all. Then i just bump what we don't get to. If we get behind in something then we focus on that for a few days and catch up. I LOVE the flexibility and freedom having a plan has given me. I have found it liberating. Next year i am planning 40 weeks of schooling to be completed over a 45 week period. I know we will get it all done even with a baby on board because i can see it. DH is also helpful with catching up content subjects on the weekend ;)

[Homeschooling6]

I have 6 children and sort of plan. Meaning I do break everything down but I don't write a whole years worth. I write 1 to 2 weeks down at a time.

 

I use SCM Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education (I don't use CM but it still works for me) so I pretty much know what's ahead.

[Diana B]

I've got just one - going into 2nd grade. The most I plan is a general idea as to what topic we are going to cover a couple weeks in advance (so I can reserve books at the library). At the beginning of the week, I plan a bit more, although even that is very minor and mostly in general topic terms. All the math and LA stuff, we just go on to the next lesson. I have found that I stress way too much if I try to put anything down on paper. We never complete what I have written, which makes me feel behind. But when it's more loose, both my son and I have a lot more fun!

[MerryAtHope]

I think another aspect besides number of children plays an important role here. The grade level the students are in makes a huge difference. When my boys (4 students) were young, I planned a few subjects. As each got older and closer to high school, my planning increased.

 

Exactly! :iagree:

[Parrothead]

I've got one and plan out the entire year during the summer break.

[Joyofsixreboot]

I don't plan. I'm just a 'do the next thing' sort of person. I have rough mental plans but even if I put things on paper I wouldn't stick to them. I've tried. It's just not in my make up. We school year round so we just keep going until it's time for a new 'year'.

[Renee in NC]

I'm curious to see how this turns out. Personally, I think people who plan are people who like to do it, regardless of the number of kids. I only have 2 kids and I LOVE to plan. I have a friend with 3 kids who doesn't like to plan and she doesn't much.

 

I don't like to plan, but if I don't, someone gets left out. I think I would plan less if my 3 boys didn't have learning issues.

[Kathie in VA]

I voted as non-planner but I first had to skim thru the responses to see what everyone was calling a "planner"

 

My dh thinks I spend too much time planning for school! I love to pick out curriculum. I like finding the right one for each kid for each year, yet trying to keep with many that we use (like math). I compare topics covered and time requirements, skills needed and skills gained, costs, etc. Once this narrows down I jump to 'planning' a rough schedule mainly to make sure it all will fit into a reasonable day. Otherwise I'll require way more than can be done just because it all sounds great. Then I look at how I might be able to bounce between the 4 kids ... making sure I didn't gather too many different curriculum that requires lots of my time. Once all this works then it's online time to determine who has the best prices for everything we need.

 

Then I'll consider lesson planning, however I'm pretty much a 'do the next thing' type of person. So either I've picked stuff that where we just do the next page or lesson, or I've found stuff that has daily lesson plans. Another favorite of mine are when there is simply a routine to follow. SOTW fits this idea where we just read the next story, discuss and narrate, read encyclopedias, maybe outline something, map work, timeline, library books for more history and/or lit, and maybe a project. Now I may plan out which days get which parts of this routine but I don't write out specifics for each week. Same for math where I'd like them to do a quick warm up fact sheet, workbook lesson/problems, and maybe games now and then.

 

I like the idea of lesson planning. I've tried it and found it fun. However we have way too many interruptions in life and having the plans laid out becomes stressful because then things need to get dropped. I hate planning and then dropping, it feels like failure ... no wait ... like trashing hard earned valuables... or missing out on wonderful opportunities. uck.

[angela in ohio]

So far, it's the opposite. The fewer children, the higher the proportion of planners to non-planners, except for those with one child.

 

I agree with pp that it has more to do with age too. Friends who had never planned anything are starting to as our dc get older.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

I have one child. This is how I plan.

 

I don't used a boxed curriculum so a major part of my planning is evaluating our existing curriculum, needs, et c., and then reviewing curriculum choices for any changes we need to make. For example, Math and Latin are set and won't be changed. Easy. Logic is brand new for us and took a ton of time. History is the same text series but literature selections have to be made.

 

I plan for the year by printing a two page form that has a dozen or so collumns and 36 rows. I label each collumn by resource or subject and then distribute the chapters along the collumns. Each box down the collumn is a week.

 

..........Subject.................subject .............subject . . .

wk1.....ch 1 unit 1/ch3

....................................

wk2 ch 2

wk3 ch3

etc

on and on like that

 

I find/make reading lists to go along with curriculum but I don't really distribute them in the grid above. I usually just keep the lists and then glean from them as we go through the year. Major projects get figured in just b/f Christmas break and end of school. Smaller projects just get figured in.

 

As we go through the school year I don't plan day by day on paper. It's in my head, I guess. This probaly won't make sense to many people but this is how I do it. I have a lesson plan book *and* copies of my lesson plan book. I clip a copy to the current pages in the plan book and each day make a list of things to accomplish/complete/do/read/go to/et c. (trying to keep up with our grid above). At the end of the wk I make a fair copy into the book. You may think this sounds so redundant and a lot of work but let me tell you, last year was my first year to try this (on the advice of a long time hmschlr) and feel I finally found the way for me. Previously, making even just a daily plan was such a frustration to me b/c inevitably, something would not get done, get done differently, be added, et c. I tried a million different ways to plan from the free to the expensive and never found anything to work with me. Now I make our daily list of things to do per subject/activities/et c. and add/subtract as we go. I make the fair copy into the book at the end of the week (usually at violin lesson ;)). This has saved my sanity b/c I really felt that it was important to have this artifact of learning at the end of the year (in addition to the student-created artifacts) but it just wasn't happening.

 

So, my daily plan is really almost more of a jounal of the week than a plan of the week.

 

that's me.