Soror Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Last year I started with a homemade Sonlight inspired schedule. I had each subject broke down to what to teach daily, down to what to read then. That lasted about 6 weeks looking back at my records, it drove me batty. Some days we had plans, other we had more time. I would hate seeing anything on the wrong spot and then moving it. Then I tried the file system but I hated getting everything out of the file box- in and out- in and out. So, I have found I really like the binder in that regards. This year for Science I am doing monthly unit studies(from BCP) and I am thinking about just filing it by the month(in the binder). Perhaps making a generic schedule and doing things as they come. I thought the accountability with the daily schedule would keep me going but I found more that it paralyzed me as I then felt I had to do it just right. I am thinking of small binders for each subject with everything printed out before hand. For Math I just want to have all the worksheets and anything else ready but I don't want to make a strict plan as I never know if we might need to stop and do review. I do want monthly lists for my recommended books. I found weekly to be too much to keep up with, then I have plenty of time as well to request and not have to be constantly going to the library(which is not close). I think perhaps I tried to make it more complicated than it had to be and instead of focusing so much on the schedule I should focus on just sitting down to do school and the rest will line out I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oraetstudia Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 I haven't planned things out that way, but it seems like a reasonable method to try. Go for it! And report back. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RahRah Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Welcome to tweaking until you find what works for you! I've gone the gammut from uber-planning to taking it as it comes, to recently finding my nice middle-ground. I've found that for some subjects it's really impossible for me to plan the whole year out, to the day, or even the week - like math - because DS will go in fits and spurts and totally throw whatever I planned out the window, especially when he's on a math tear and just moving ahead at the speed of lightening! So for next year (well, now it's this year) I spent a good month figuring out just what will work for me and for us and what I came up with is... First I did plan the goals for the year - for each subject, what do we need to cover and a best guestimate around when in the year we'll hit our "milestones" as we go. I did that because for some things, I want to plan a field trip, or we'll actually be on a vacation somewhere that I can tie in something that's there and not here. For each major area of subject lessons, I also have listed the books I'd like us reading along with the curriculum (ie. what living books go with what chapters of SOTW, what math stories go with what he'll be doing in math, same with science, etc.). From the list I have checkmarks next to what we own, an "L" next to what I need to reserve from the library, and a "B" next to what I'd like to buy so I can remember in the weeks leading up to the subject matter to make the purchase if I haven't already found it for a good price. In addition, on each subject list, I include the projects and activities, as well as field trips or programs I want DS to do when we get to various lessons. They're fairly long documents - but I think I've gotten everything in each subject for the year in there, it's just not by day, week or month - just the order we'll do things and what I'll need to round out the curriculum as we go. Rather than set them into a daily schedule, weekly schedule, or even a monthly schedule, I'm keeping each subject as its own "list" of what we'll go through in the year, that I can cut & paste into the monthly schedule as I go through the year. With that 'monthly' list as the goal for the month, I then do try to break it up into the next four weeks - each week onto a page, with check boxes next to each line item to check off as we go along. I keep all four sheets together, that way if we're running ahead on something, I don't have to make adjustments and re-print, I just keep checking as we go. Once I have my four weeks laid out, I print them and set up the subjects materials into folders so I don't have to go searching for things as we go. All living books for the month are moved into the reading basket we have and any books we're done with are moved back to the bookshelf so we can still read it again, but it's not a priority book. I'm only on our second week doing it this way, and so far, it's working out nicely - I don't feel pressured to get everything done in a day because it's on the day's plan.....if we're getting ahead in something, like history, that's okay, I can fill the gap with other things later in the week and just skip history or plug ahead if we want to into the materials for the next week, which is in its own folder to grab and go with. Since I have to record hours, I maintain a separate datebook that I just list the subjects and time in each day as we end the day - at the end of the month, I'll tuck our lists for the month into the planner so I have that as what we did each week for actual lessons since I just record in the datebook the subject and the time, nothing more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 I'm thinking of turning each month into a very distinct learning unit. I suffer from severe memory loss problems. Context is a real problem for me. To keep things in context you need to know it ALL, and lots of random flashes of memories do not make context :-0 The lack of context makes me very disorganized and I guess I say some startling things :-0 So I'm think on the 1st, I should have a whole new set of materials to open and start. A new calendar should be hung on the wall. New books should be propped up and displayed on the tops of the bookcases. All of the senses should be involved in the switch to the new monthly themes. I should see, hear, taste, touch, smell the new topics and deeply FEEL the transition to the new month. I love poster putty. I often stick things to the wall for just a little while when I don't know what to do with them or am afraid I will misplace them or forget them. I think I'm going to use putty to stick a few monthly recipes on the kitchen wall. I want to plan more "dinner and a movie nights" based on what I am learning. I'm hoping this will all help me a bit with my disorganization and confusion. I'm learning that checklists are not as good for me as ripping up books and placing the materials I want to learn in a cheap folder. It's an added plus that spreading out the pages of a book makes it easier to see the whole chapter in context. I'm buying more and more printable books so I'm not using double sided pages. I love being able to spread out a whole chapter on the floor. I have a lot of plans, but we'll see if I can get organized enough to help myself be more organized :-0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy Jo Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Daily planning drove me nuts too. I plan / file by the week, and divide into days from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Mine aren't monthly but I do plan by the unit/topic. So I've got a science unit on habitats coming up and we just finished a unit on the Revolutionary War. I've got all my materials organized by unit essentially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacefully Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Well, this is only my second year homeschooling, but this year, I am also planning by month. I've got my first spreadsheet that gives me a yearly overview on one page, organized by month. Each month lists birthdays, holidays, trips, and seasonal reminders in the first section, then the general topics that we will hit for each subject area. This is the document that I use to help me make a reasonable plan for the next step. Hunter, I think I got this idea from the youtube link that you posted a while back—the one about folding a sheet of paper into 12 sections. I love it! Then I've got my second spreadsheet that lists the learning outcomes for each topic and resources that I will need each month. Then I plan out the lessons or activities that we need to cover each week within that month. This is going to be my main planning document. We typically have a four-day academic week, with a fifth day reserved for field trips and such. That fifth day is also our catch-up day. I'm trying to figure out how to much we can reasonably do within that week. Typically, I over-plan, and it hasn't been pretty. We'll see if I do a better job this year. Then there are my binders. I have taken apart my Core Knowledge Teacher Handbook so I could rearrange each section that I need by month. All of my other resources are stuck in these binders. I plan on pulling out just what I need for each month and organizing all that stuff into a working binder. So while my system doesn't really require that we start everything completely new each month, I do plan to put out new books, new visuals, and new materials each month to go along with the new topics. That's the plan now anyway. "The best-laid schemes of mice and men..." :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 I like the idea of planning by the month, but I know for me there will come a time when it won't happen. Either a few months into it or January. Then a month will pass, with me flying by the seat of my pants. Then I'll be so lost, another month or two will pass. Then I'll just say the heck with it and try to come up with some interim emergency plan to get through the rest of the year. Yup, this has happened here before. I also know I can't work with too specific a schedule. So....I'm trying to find the balance. I have the year pretty much fully planned out. However, I will not plan out to the page and day. I am planning what subjects to do which days and then having a list of what we need to do over the week. So, if it's read pp. 1-50 for the week, we may read that all in one day or decide to break it down over several days. I think this will work for us. I'm not sure if I explained it well, though. Not enough coffee yet and too much noise in the other room.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted July 9, 2011 Author Share Posted July 9, 2011 Aha, the best laid schemes, :) Well, surely if you keep throwing out what doesn't work and keeping what does it ends up as workable, right? Mine might end up being by the unit for Science as well, as I didn't follow all of BCPs topics exactly and did longer units for some I am not sure how to make it the most workable yet. I want to do some overview sheets as well, by the year for everything and by the month for everything. We haven't go our Co-op planning sheet yet though. I don't know if I want checklists or not, that would be the simplest I think. I need some planning but not too much I guess. I still need to make material lists as well but I havent' even started organizing dd1's preschool items and printing them, hopefully that will go smoothly. However, since I am combining 3 programs it could get hairy. Of course then there is the problem to decide if I put them together or not. I think I will have them separate binders. Perhaps, put the current month in the binder and file the other months and then rotate them. That could work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted July 9, 2011 Author Share Posted July 9, 2011 I like the idea of planning by the month, but I know for me there will come a time when it won't happen. Either a few months into it or January. Then a month will pass, with me flying by the seat of my pants. Then I'll be so lost, another month or two will pass. Then I'll just say the heck with it and try to come up with some interim emergency plan to get through the rest of the year. Yup, this has happened here before. I also know I can't work with too specific a schedule. So....I'm trying to find the balance. I have the year pretty much fully planned out. However, I will not plan out to the page and day. I am planning what subjects to do which days and then having a list of what we need to do over the week. So, if it's read pp. 1-50 for the week, we may read that all in one day or decide to break it down over several days. I think this will work for us. I'm not sure if I explained it well, though. Not enough coffee yet and too much noise in the other room.:001_smile: Oh, I didn't mean just planning as the months come up. I am doing the full year now but laying it out by the month. Yes, last year I did the first term intending to see how it worked and then plan out the next 2. Well, it didn't work well as I said when things got out of order it frustrated me. Also, I never did end up planning the others very well as it was too hard to get it done in a week break, then I felt bad for breaking at all. I need more breaks put into the schedule I know and I want everything laid out before the year starts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Well, this is only my second year homeschooling, but this year, I am also planning by month. I've got my first spreadsheet that gives me a yearly overview on one page, organized by month. Each month lists birthdays, holidays, trips, and seasonal reminders in the first section, then the general topics that we will hit for each subject area. This is the document that I use to help me make a reasonable plan for the next step. Hunter, I think I got this idea from the youtube link that you posted a while back—the one about folding a sheet of paper into 12 sections. I love it! Then I've got my second spreadsheet that lists the learning outcomes for each topic and resources that I will need each month. Then I plan out the lessons or activities that we need to cover each week within that month. This is going to be my main planning document. We typically have a four-day academic week, with a fifth day reserved for field trips and such. That fifth day is also our catch-up day. I'm trying to figure out how to much we can reasonably do within that week. Typically, I over-plan, and it hasn't been pretty. We'll see if I do a better job this year. Then there are my binders. I have taken apart my Core Knowledge Teacher Handbook so I could rearrange each section that I need by month. All of my other resources are stuck in these binders. I plan on pulling out just what I need for each month and organizing all that stuff into a working binder. So while my system doesn't really require that we start everything completely new each month, I do plan to put out new books, new visuals, and new materials each month to go along with the new topics. That's the plan now anyway. "The best-laid schemes of mice and men..." :tongue_smilie: This is the link I was just reading the thread about adding a Waldorf touch to 4th grade and I remembered that Waldorf lessons are planned by the month. See! proof of memory loss clicking in. I forgot where I latched onto the monthly planning idea :-0 It was Melissa that introduced me to the idea of starting each month fresh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papillon Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 I have come to enjoy planning week-to-week, don't want to get too far ahead of myself and mess things up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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